Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

[Nix <nix@esperi.org.uk>]

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005, Helge Hafting said:
> Nix wrote:
>>(FWIW, my AGP Radeon 9250 works flawlessly as of X.org 6.8.99.901.
>>6.8.2 and earlier were wobbly.)
>>
>>
> Time to try again then, I guess.  Nice to know that something
> is happening with the newer servers.

Yep :) modular X is on its way...

>>Whether performance is appalling I don't know because I don't have any
>>standards to measure it by, but I get 2000fps or thereabouts out of
>>glxgears. That's a hell of a lot better than the 64fps I got out of
>>my earlier mach64 :)

Hm, retrying I see 500fps. I wonder what I was doing differently
earlier... :/

> I have never seen glxgears go into the thousands.  The card is
> obviously not supposed to be like this - either card or driver is
> faulty.

FWIW when glxgears is running, X consumes about 2% more CPU time
than normal: it's almost impossible to detect.

It sounds to me almost like direct rendering is disabled, which will of
course have catastropic effects on performance. What does glxinfo say?

FWIW, on my box it says

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_hyperpipe, GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier,
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory,
    GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method,
    GLX_OML_sync_control, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
    GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
    GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory,
    GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method,
    GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R200 20041207 AGP 4x x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 6.4
OpenGL extensions:
    GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture,
    GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp, GL_ARB_texture_compression,
    GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add,
    GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
    GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_texture_rectangle,
    GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_window_pos,
    GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color,
    GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate,
    GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
    GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_convolution, GL_EXT_copy_texture,
    GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_histogram,
    GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_rescale_normal,
    GL_EXT_secondary_color, GL_EXT_separate_specular_color,
    GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_subtexture, GL_EXT_texture, GL_EXT_texture3D,
    GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_add,
    GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
    GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias,
    GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object,
    GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_APPLE_packed_pixels,
    GL_ATI_blend_equation_separate, GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3,
    GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip,
    GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_INGR_blend_func_separate,
    GL_MESA_pack_invert, GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture, GL_MESA_window_pos,
    GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_texture_rectangle,
    GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_OES_read_format, GL_SGI_color_matrix,
    GL_SGI_color_table, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp,
    GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
    GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 16 tc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x24 16 tc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 Slow
0x25 16 tc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow
0x26 16 tc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow
0x27 16 tc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x28 16 tc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 Slow
0x29 16 tc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow
0x2a 16 tc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow
0x2b 16 dc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x2c 16 dc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 Slow
0x2d 16 dc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow
0x2e 16 dc  0 16  0 r  .  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow
0x2f 16 dc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x30 16 dc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 Slow
0x31 16 dc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  0 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow
0x32 16 dc  0 16  0 r  y  .  5  6  5  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 Slow


>          Most people don't seem to have performance problems,
> with their radeons, so perhaps my card is a bit different and
> don't fit the driver.

The X startup log can also be useful here. I've noticed that if you
get the AGPMode wrong in either direction, the results can be
catastrophic: if it's too low the card is terribly slow and if it's
too high you soon get the X server hanging as it waits forever for
the card to respond to something it hasn't had time to receive (or
something like that, anyway).

-- 
`Don't confuse the shark with the remoras.' --- Rob Landley

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