# Mesa fbdev/DRI Drivers

# 1. Introduction

The fbdev/DRI sub-project within Mesa brings hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering to the Linux fbdev environment. The X Window System / XFree86 is not needed.

Basically, the DRI drivers for hardware accelerated OpenGL for XFree86 have been ported to fbdev so that X is not needed. This means fbdev/DRI works in full-screen mode only.

DRI driver writers may find this simplified environment easier to work in, compared to the full XFree86/DRI environment.

Much of the work for this project has been done by Jon Smirl and Keith Whitwell.

To use fbdev/DRI, you'll need a Linux 2.4 or 2.6 kernel.

The fbdev/DRI Mesa code is in the Mesa CVS trunk (to be released as Mesa 5.1 in the future).

# 2. Compilation

Assuming you're starting with a fresh Mesa CVS checkout, do the following:

       make linux-solo

If you previously built the source tree, run `make realclean` first to remove the old object files.

When this is finished, check the `Mesa/lib` directory to verify that the following files were made:

- `libGL.so.1.2` - the client-side OpenGL library (and a few symlinks to it).
- `libGLU.so.1.1` - the GLU library (and a few symlinks to it).
- `libglut.so.3.7` - the GLUT library (and a few symlinks to it).
- `mga_dri.so` - DRI driver for Matrox G200/G400 cards.
- `r128_dri.so` - DRI driver for ATI Rage 128 cards.
- `r200_dri.so` - DRI driver for ATI R200 Radeon cards.
- `radeon_dri.so` - DRI driver for original ATI Radeon cards.
- `i810_dri.so` - DRI driver for Intel i810/i815 chips.
- `i830_dri.so` - DRI driver for Intel i830/i845 chips.
- `mga_dri.so` - DRI driver for Matrox G200/G400 cards.
- `sis_dri.so` - DRI driver for SIS cards.
- `tdfx_dri.so` - DRI driver for 3dfx Voodoo 3/4/5 cards.
- `gamma_dri.so` - DRI driver for 3Dlabs gamma cards.
- `fb_dri.so` - software-only fbdev driver.
- `miniglx.conf` - configuration file for the MiniGLX interface

# 3. Using fbdev/DRI

If XFree86 is currently running, exit/stop the X server so you're working from the console.

## 3.1 Kernel Modules

You'll need to load kernel modules specific to your graphics hardware. The following kernel modules should be included with your kernel.

If you have ATI Radeon/R200 hardware, run as root:

       modprobe agpgart            # the AGP GART module
       modprobe radeonfb           # the Radeon fbdev driver
       modprobe radeon             # the Radeon DRI kernel module

If you have ATI Rage 128 hardware, run as root:

       modprobe agpgart            # the AGP GART module
       modprobe aty128fb           # the Rage 128 fbdev driver
       modprobe r128               # the Rage 128 DRI kernel module

If you have Matrox G200/G400 hardware, run as root:

       modprobe agpgart            # the AGP GART module
       modprobe mgafb              # the Matrox fbdev driver
       modprobe mga                # the Matrox DRI kernel module

Then run `lsmod` to be sure the modules are loaded. For a Radeon card, you should see something like this:

    Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
    radeon                110308   0  (unused)
    radeonfb               21900   0  (unused)
    agpgart                43072   1

If the driver complains that the radeon/mga/etc/ kernel module is too old, you'll have to compile/install a newer one from the DRI project.

## 3.2 Configuration File

The `Mesa/lib/miniglx.conf` file should be installed in `/etc/`.

Edit `/etc/miniglx.conf` to be sure it's set up correctly for your hardware. Comments in the file explain the options.

## 3.3 Running fbdev/DRI Programs

Make sure your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable is set to the `Mesa/lib/` directory.

Change to the `Mesa/progs/miniglx/` directory and start the sample_server program in the background:

       ./sample_server &

Then try running the `miniglxtest` program:

       ./miniglxtest

You should see a rotating quadrilateral which changes color as it rotates. It will exit automatically after a bit.

If you run other tests in the miniglx/ directory, you may want to run them from a remote shell so that you can stop them with ctrl-C.

# 4.0 Troubleshooting

If you try to run miniglxtest and get the following:

       [miniglx] failed to probe chipset
       connect: Connection refused
       server connection lost

It means that the sample_server process is not running.

# 5.0 Programming Information

The full OpenGL API is available with fbdev/DRI.

OpenGL/Mesa is interfaced to fbdev via the MiniGLX interface. MiniGLX is a subset of Xlib and GLX API functions which provides just enough functionality to setup OpenGL rendering and respond to simple input events.

Since MiniGLX is a subset of the usual Xlib and GLX APIs, programs written to the MiniGLX API can also be run on full Xlib/GLX implementations. This allows some degree of flexibility for software development and testing.

However, the MiniGLX API is not binary-compatible with full Xlib/GLX. Some of the structures are different and some macros/functions work differently. See the `GL/miniglx.h` header file for details.