iBook x config

Stephen Harker yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
Tue, 10 Aug 2004 10:06:14 +1000 

Hi Nicole,

On Mon, Aug 02, 2004 at 01:34:35AM -0400, nicole wrote:
> If he finds something that works, please post about it.  I had the 
> 2.6.6 kernel and have the "torn" affect you describe... compiling CVS 
> helped enough that my display is mostly useable. I have tried the 
> chipset id variable with no success.  Currently my display is useable 
> for about 5 - 10 minutes before headaches ensue from the "scrolling 
> line" effect.  I am trying to get this to work though at this point I 
> am ready to try another distribution.  I got my iBook in 11/03 so I 
> suspect I do not have the older Radeon chipset this works on.

This time I have good news.  Stewart's iBook G4 now has X working
using the Radeon driver and DRI (acceleration) at up to 24 bit
graphics.  The breakthrough was not due to new compilation, but to my
noticing an old post I have in a file.  This suggested (for a 7500
Mobility M7 as I have in my iBook G3) that booting with video=ofonly
in the yaboot.conf would result in the framebuffer device not been
found and that replacing it with video=radeonfb would work.  Since the
error messages with Xorg X11 and XF86Config radeon drivers were that
the framebuffer device could not be found this seemed worth a try.

I edited the yaboot.conf to include a stanza:

image=/boot/vmlinux-2.6.7
	label=2.6.7a
	root=/dev/hda12
	read-only
	initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.7.img
        append="video=radeonfb"

The only difference between this and the normal stanza was the
replacement of "video=ofonly" with "video=radeonfb" and the change in
label.  I ran ybin, then rebooted the machine and selected 2.6.7a.
Now using the fbdev driver gave good results.  Changing to the radeon
driver with option "UseFBDev" "true" gave excellent results and DRI
could be enabled.

The accelerated X11 worked with either XFree86 4.4 and with Xorg's X11
(6.7.0-5).  I append the XF86Config and xorg.conf used to this email.
I am sure both can be optimised as can the setup of the machine (we
don't need both installed).  Using DRI glxgears in the default small
window gave around 1400 fps for 16 bit and around 750 fps for 24bit.

Here is the XF86Config from /etc/X11

# XFree86 4 configuration created by redhat-config-xfree86

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "XFree86 Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
	RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
	FontPath     "unix/:7100"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "fbdevhw"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
	Load	"dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Change "XkbModel" to "macintosh_old" if you are using
# the deprecated adb keycodes.
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "keyboard"
	Option	    "XkbRules" "xfree86"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "macintosh"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
	Option	    "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

#	MonitorLayout	"LVDS,CRT"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	ModelName    "Apple PowerBook G4 12 (2003)"
	HorizSync    30.0 - 70.0
	VertRefresh  60.0 - 60.0
	Option	    "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"

	#Option	"ShadowFB"	"true"
	Identifier  "Card0"
	#Driver      "fbdev"
	Driver      "radeon"
	Option      "UseFBDev"  "true"
	BoardName   "** ATI Radeon (generic)               [radeon]"
	VideoRam    32768
	BusID       "PCI:0:16:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth    16 
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     8
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     16
		Modes    "1024x768"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1024x768"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group        0
	Mode         0666
EndSection

Here is the xorg.conf from /etc/X11

# File generated by Xautoconfig.
Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"XFree86 Configured"
	Screen		0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice	"Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice	"Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.

       RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
       FontPath     "unix/:7100"
       FontPath	    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
       #FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
       FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype"
       #FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/default/Truetype"
       FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load    "GLcore"
	Load	"dbe"
	Load	"extmod"
	Load	"fbdevhw"
	Load	"glx"
	Load	"record"
	Load    "bitmap"
	Load	"freetype"
	Load	"type1"
	Load    "speedo"
	#Load    "vbe"
	Load	"dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Keyboard0"
	Driver		"keyboard"
# Change "XkbModel" to "macintosh_old" if you are using
# the deprecated adb keycodes.

	Option		"XkbModel"	"macintosh"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Mouse0"
	Driver   	"mouse"
	Option   	"ZAxisMapping"	"4 5"
	Option   	"Protocol"	"IMPS/2"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Monitor0"
	UseModes	"Modes0"
	ModelName	"Monitor Model"
	Option		"DPMS"
	HorizSync	40-70
	VertRefresh	60

EndSection

Section "Modes"
	Identifier "Modes0"

	# Generated
	# D: 65.003 MHz, H:  48.365 kHz, V: 60.006 Hz
	Modeline "1024x768" 65.003 1024 1048 1184 1344   768 771 777 806  -HSync -VSync
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Card0"
	#Option	"ShadowFB"	"true"
	Option	"fbdev"	"/dev/fb0"
	#Driver	"fbdev"
	Driver  "radeon"
	Option  "UseFBDev"  "on"
	Option  "fbdev" "/dev/fb0"
	#BusID	"0:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Screen0"
	Device		"Card0"
	Monitor		"Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth	16
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		8
		Modes 		"1024x768"
		ViewPort 0 0
		Virtual 1024 768
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		16
		Modes 		"1024x768"
		ViewPort 0 0
		Virtual 1024 768
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		24
		Modes 		"1024x768"
		ViewPort 0 0
		Virtual 1024 768
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group 0
	Mode 0666
EndSection


-- 
Stephen Harker                           Stephen.Harker@spme.monash.edu.au
School of Physics & Materials Engineering
Monash University                       http://www.ph.adfa.edu.au/s-harker/
                                 Baloney Baffles brains: Eric Frank Russell