[Dri-devel] Re:ATI Rage Mobility support for Linux (XFree86)

[Dominic G. <dom...@ho...>]

I strongly agree with everything in this mail. I know a lot of people with a 
Rage that would be really happy about this.

I know 8MB is not much, but what does it limit to for 3D ? Can we do 
640x480x8bpp with smooth 3D ?

Thank you

Dominic Genest


>Dear Marc,
>
>Thank you very much for your mail with answers!
>I hope ATI chipset support on Linux (and FreeBSD) platform will improve
>dramaticaly during next 6 months.
>For the next purchase (of notebook or ultra-portable computer), I will
>consider Radeon Mobile as possible option. As far as I know, Radeon drivers
>are now under development (VA Linux?), and I hope these drivers will 
>support
>TV-out and Video-In (and TV-in on All-in-Wonder Radeon).
>From information what I have seen on ATI site, Radeon VIVO
>(Video-In/Video-Out) is the best corresponding to my needs. Unfortunately,
>there is no info available about this solution for notebooks.
>
>On 21 ?????? 2000 03:35, Marc Aurele La France wrote:
>|   On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, Vadim Plessky wrote:
>|   > I would like to request several features/possibilities for ATI Rage
>|   > Mobility video driver. I have Compaq Presario 1800-XL186 notebook 
>with
>|   > ATI Rage Mobility/8MB.
>|   >
>|   > 1) native hardware 3D-acceleration
>|
>|   This is being developed by someone at VA Linux, on a "free-time" basis.
>
>Ok, I just want to add that, in my honest opinion, ATI should support this
>effort. There are 10 million ATI Rage Mobile chips sold, according to
>November 2000 ATI press release.
>Without 3D acceleration in Xfree86, these ATI customers can't use all
>advantages of chip, what they already paid for.
>What I have seen on several lists (Xfree86, Mandrake, DRI, Livid) and on
>private mails, there are many laptop owners which struggle with different
>problems, even initial XFree86 installation. (as XF 3.3.6 had limited Rage
>Mobility support, and some distributions, like RedHat 7, install it even 
>now,
>in Nov. 2000). Major brands to mention: DELL, Compaq, HP , IBM.
>If we take minimal Lunux User Base approximation (5%), there are about 500
>000 (five hundred thousands) of ATI Rage Mobile users with Linux :-)
>   I know statistics is a tricky thing, but there are much , much more 
>users
>of Rage Mobile then of Trident/Silicon Motion/S3 together. Neomagic,
>probably,
>holds the second place, but there are no issues about DRI support for it, 
>as
>it doesn't have 3D. I was using it on IBM Thinkpad 390 laptop, and TP 390
>didn't have TV-out at all :-). So, nothing to discuss/complain about
>Neomagic.
>But, ATI is strong name in notebook accelerators now, Fujitsu-Siemens 
>picked
>it up for latest models. What we can do to ensure that it works with Linux?
>(I can note, that I received no official answer from ATI, only 
>auto-response)
>  We need to inform ATI Technologies about our needs, do not keep silience.
>
>|   > 2) TV -out
>|   > Following link:
>|   > "Is TV Out support available for ATI products under Linux?
>|   > ATI is investigating the possibility of supporting TV Out under 
>Linux.
>|   > Please refer back to this web page to keep up to date on developments
>|   > regarding TV Out support."
>|   > is not updated already for 3 months, I checked it before at the
>|   > beginning of August 2000.
>|   > This feature is critical for me, as I can't make out-of door
>|   > presentations with my laptop without it.
>|   > Situation with RGB-out external video connector is also not clear for
>|   > me.
>|
>|   TVOut on Mach64 variants is already available through the GATOS project
>|   (search the Web for it).  This code hasn't been integrated because it 
>has
>|   yet to satisfy certain completeness criteria (works with noaccel,
>|   nolinear, frees allocated structures, etc).
>
>Ok, thank you. I am trying now to compile/install several parts of Livid
>project.
>Openly speaking, it will be much better to have such functionality 
>operating
>out-of-the-box.  About out-of-the-box I understand - "after installation of
>latest distribution". I just installed Linux Mandrake 7.2, it works (2D)
>great, but of course I'd like to see TV-out control and 3D acceleration.
>TV-out control should be the same look'n'feel like ATI developed for 
>Windows
>98. Please pass this message to ATI - I am on different continent, over the
>ocean, and can't meet them personally.
>
>|   > 3) full-screen video operations,
>|   > like full-screen Video Playback in KDE2's Media Player, KAIMAN.
>|   > While MPEG playback undef XFree is operational with KAIMAN, due to 
>ATI
>|   > driver's limitation it is not possible to have full-screen playback .
>|   > According to developers, XV support is needed for this and currently 
>it
>|   > is present for Matrox and NVidia cards, but not for ATI.
>|
>|   See 3) above
>
>Ok, I really want to check it now. Just bought MPEG4 video disk on weekend,
>playback under Windows is very smooth. And whole title (Star Wars Ep.1) in
>MPEG4 is on one CD, not DVD. Of course, it is Video-CD quality, but worth 
>to
>consider.
>
>|   > 4) dual-monitor (second-monitor) feature
>|
>|   This is already supported, but both outputs see the same timings.  To 
>do
>|   otherwise requires a kernel-level mechanism that can be used to notify
>|   XFree86 drivers when hotkeys are pressed or when equipment is 
>hot-plugged
>|   in or out.  Standardising this is being thought about but no firm plans
>|   yet.
>
>ok, I see... Thanks.
>|   > I am also wondring if Motion Compensation is supported in XF 4.0.1
>|   > driver, as it is a must for DVD playback. Compaq Presario 1800 comes
>|   > with DVD drive as standard.
>|
>|   See 3) above.
>|
>|   Marc.
>|   |  Marc Aurele La France           |  work:   1-780-492-9310           
>|
>|   |  Computing and Network Services  |  fax:    1-780-492-1729           
>|
>|   |  352 General Services Building   |  email:  ts...@ua...          
>|
>|   XFree86 Core Team member.  ATI driver and X server internals.
>
>--
>Vadim Plessky
>http://kde2.newmail.ru  (English)
>http://kde2.newmail.ru/index_rus.html  (Russian)
>Do you have Arial font installed? Just test it!
>http://kde2.newmail.ru/font_test_arial.html
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