[Intel-gfx] i915GM 2D+3D intel driver regression

[SD]

Dear All.

I perfectly understand this situation. Of cause everything changes and new chipsets will appear every next year. I also like how kernel .33 works.

But, why not to split intel driver between old cards and new ones? Every one knows that it is impossible to provide full support for:
 810, i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM/855GM, 865G, 915G,
 E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM, Pineview G,
 965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33, GM45,
 4 Series, G45/G43, Q45/Q43, G41, B43, Clarkdale, Arrandale
in one driver.

Why it was difficult to compile two or may be three driver, and one of them especially with XAA module. Why it is necessary to ruin everything what left behind then move forward. Stupidest idea. And now we have nothing - awful 2D, and the same 3D.

So I have a question to everyone:
It it possible to compile old X.org with old intel driver with XAA for 6.33 kernel?



About my post, regarding Fedora 13: that problem was as well in Fedora 12, and Fedora it self is not a problem, problem UXA and new intel driver.
And I think new Ubuntu or OpenSuse (which I use right now) will have completely same behavior.


Thank you.




--- On Fri, 4/30/10, Alan W. Irwin <irwin at beluga.phys.uvic.ca> wrote:

> From: Alan W. Irwin <irwin at beluga.phys.uvic.ca>
> Subject: Re: [Intel-gfx] i915GM 2D+3D intel driver regression
> To: "SD" <sd.domrep at yahoo.com>
> Cc: intel-gfx at lists.freedesktop.org
> Date: Friday, April 30, 2010, 10:28 PM
> On 2010-04-30 08:45-0700 SD wrote:
> 
> > Dear all.
> >
> > I have been using linux for 2 years already. And I use
> it on intel 915 GM video card on Lenovo laptop. With:
> > (II) Loading
> /usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/intel_drv.so
> > (II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
> >     compiled for 1.5.2, module version
> = 2.5.0
> >     Module class: X.Org Video Driver
> >     ABI class: X.Org Video Driver,
> version 4.1
> > And acceleration module XAA when I watch Xvid movie on
> full screen, according to TOP:
> > X uses 4% of CPU
> > SMplayer 10-12% of CPU.
> >
> > GLXgear gives me:
> > 3216 frames in 5.0 seconds = 643.117 FPS
> >
> >
> >
> > Now I tried Fedora13 (test) with intel driver:
> > [    27.854] (II) Loading
> /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
> > [    27.855] (II) Module intel:
> vendor="X.Org Foundation"
> > [    27.855]  compiled for 1.8.0,
> module version = 2.11.0
> > [    27.855]  Module class: X.Org Video
> Driver
> > [    27.855]  ABI class: X.Org Video
> Driver, version 7.0
> >
> > And can you imagine GLXgear gives me:
> > 165 frames in 5.1 seconds = 32.612 FPS
> >
> > Watching Xvid movie:
> > X uses ~40% of CPU
> > SMplayer ~10-20% of CPU.
> > Even when I switch workspaces X11 uses ~20% of CPU -
> there is no any 2D acceleration at all
> >
> > After all of this I would like to ask:
> > Do you respect customer who use linux?
> > Does any one check your driver and UXA with i915?
> > Why, just why developers through away XAA from driver,
> your UXA works the same as EXA did - awful. Awful with 3D
> and more important, awful with 2D.
> >
> > Why dev. can't just leave what was done good for
> i915?
> > Why it was necessary to screw everything. Looks like
> you just put EXA to UXA.
> >
> > I do not know about other intel chipsets, but i915
> works really slow with new and previous driver on UXA.
> >
> > So, for i915GM new driver is BIG BIG REGRESSION and
> big step backward.
> 
> Personally, I think you were a little hard on the Intel
> developers.  I think
> we should all give them some slack so they have the freedom
> to get on with
> the job of the huge X stack changes that have been
> necessary over the last
> several years to deal with the capabilities of modern video
> chipsets
> (including Intel ones).
> 
> However, I think those developers are entirely on your side
> that
> _eventually_ these large X stack changes should be refined
> to the point that
> they will not severely impact older hardware
> performance.  For example,
> there have been reassurances in the past from the Intel
> developers on
> exactly this point.  Clearly, from your xvid and
> smplayer numbers (they will
> dismiss glxgears numbers for reasons that have been stated
> many times in the
> past) they are currently doing poorly at this job, and that
> is quite
> worrying.  For example, I am sticking to XAA for my
> older g33 Intel video
> chipset using the Debian stable X stack because of speed
> and stability
> concerns with the new X stack and new intel driver, and
> your post has
> reaffirmed that decision.  But both of us (and all the
> other users of older
> Intel hardware out there) cannot use old distributions
> forever so I hope
> that the Intel developers are reassuring once again in
> answer to your post
> that _soon_ (rather than "eventually") they will address
> the real-world (as
> opposed to glxgears) performance regressions compared to
> the old X stack and
> XAA.
> 
> Alan
> __________________________
> Alan W. Irwin
> 
> Astronomical research affiliation with Department of
> Physics and Astronomy,
> University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).
> 
> Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
> implementation
> for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific
> plotting software
> package (plplot.org); the libLASi project
> (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
> Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure
> Project
> (lbproject.sf.net).
> __________________________
> 
> Linux-powered Science
> __________________________
>