ATI, XFree86, and NetBSD

[Onyx]

Is there a way to get ATI graphics cards to work with the version of XFree86 included with NetBSD 4.0/amd64? The chip in question is a Radeon X1200 integrated graphics processor, and the screen is a generic 1280x800 notebook LCD. Thusfar, I have tried XFree86 -configure (Fatal server error: no screens found) and running startx without any configuration file which gets the display running, but in extremely low resolution and color.

[adamk]

I'm not sure about XFree86, but the Xorg 'radeon' driver only recently received 2D acceleration for that GPU. My guess is that XFree86 still does not provide 2D acceleration since all major development seems to be in Xorg these days. It's possible that the Xorg available in pkgsrc will provide 2D acceleration (though Xorg via pkgsrc may not actually be up-to-date, too).

Adam

[BSDfan666]

As mentioned by adamk, XFree86 is really an old... unworkable beast, all new X related development is over at the Xorg project.

Still, the "vesa" driver might help you... you won't get 2D/3D acceleration, but with any luck you might be able to get 1280x800, assuming your BIOS has the correct modeline.

[Onyx]

Is X.Org available as a package? I couldn't find it in the list of packages at NetBSD.org.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by Onyx

Is X.Org available as a package?

http://wiki.netbsd.se/How_to_install_modular_Xorg

[Meta_Ridley]

It's split into several meta-packages, which in turn pull in a whole lot of packages which make up X.org. If you're building from pkgsrc you can get by with the modular-xorg-libs and modular-xorg-fonts packages, then install the xf86-input-keyboard, xf86-input-mouse, and whatever xf86-video-[video driver] package you need. If you don't know, then xf86-video-vesa will give you the generic VESA driver, and if that doesn't work, there's always xf86-video-vga.

You may want to install some of the X.org apps, but they're not required to get X working. Note that in order to switch to Xorg you will need to put X11_TYPE=modular in your mk.conf file. You will also need to recompile and reinstall any packages you currently have installed that use X since they need to be linked to the X.org libraries instead of the XFree86 ones.

[ninjatux]

The Git version of the radeon driver supports 2d and 3d for all ATi cards throughout the X1000 series. The stable version only supports 2d through the HD2000 series and 3d through the X800 series.