New with xorg-x11-6.8.0-r1, the direct rendering module ffb_dri.so for use with libGL (mesa) and Sun Creator graphics cards actually loads and runs. However, it is incomplete at this point. This means that some applications can use it with no problems (and run much faster as a result), but others do not run correctly. (Example: glxgears runs very fast, but is black-on-black so doesn't show anything. The Mesa 'stars' demo runs fine and is much faster.) On sparc, it is always built, and if in your xorc.conf file, you load dri and glx, it is used for libGL applications. Quick check: glxinfo starts out like this: ================ferris@terciopelo:PROJECTS/SIMULATION/ALL-IN-ONE [246]% glxinfo|more name of display: :0.0 display: :0 screen: 0 direct rendering: Yes server glx vendor string: SGI server glx version string: 1.2 server glx extensions: GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig client glx vendor string: SGI client glx version string: 1.4 =================== (The key being that 'direct rendering: Yes') If your application happens to fail, you can disable direct rendering for ffb with the LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT environment variable; e.g., ================================== fmccor@terciopelo ferris $ LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT='yes' glxinfo name of display: terciopelo:0.0 display: terciopelo:0 screen: 0 direct rendering: No ================================== If you set this in your environment, libGL behaves the same way as it did with xorg-x11-6.7.0. This is a known problem addressing current limitations in a work in progress. If you run into the problem, please report it on this bug and try to show what fails for you. We need that information to work on making this feature more robust. (By the way, if you are kernel-2.6.7, this does not apply. You can't get at drm for ffb at all, and that is a kernel problem/feature.)
With current versions of xorg-x11 and with kernel 2.6.x (x > 6) DRI is not available on Creator (neither in the kernel nor in the xorg-x11 sunffb driver). Hence it makes no sense to play with ffb_dri.so because it can't be used anyway, and nothing further can be done here.