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I run Debian 8.1 on an iMac G3 500 from 2001. The computer has an ATI Rage 128 PRO graphics card. In order for X to start it needs to know the horizontal sync frequencies and the vertical refresh rates supported by the CRT monitor:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Driver "r128"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Configured Monitor"
        HorizSync 58-62
        VertRefresh 75-117
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

With the above configuration file, X runs but the 2d performance is very slow; moving windows, for instance, is really lagging. According to the manual page for the r128 driver it contains full support for hardware acceleration of drawing primitives. My question is, basically, what settings do I need to add to get hardware acceleration? How can I tell whether hardware acceleration is in use or not?

Update 2015-07-15:

Here is the content of /var/log/Xorg.0.log: http://textuploader.com/asl1o

Update 2015-07-25:

Here is the output of the command dmesg: http://textuploader.com/addvx

Update 2015-08-06:

The strange thing is that although Xorg.0.log says

[    84.669] (WW) R128(0): Direct rendering disabled

the glxinfo command thinks it's enabled:

$ glxinfo | head
name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, 
    GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, 
    GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_make_current_read
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26
  • Are you using open source or ATI's private drivers?
    – YoMismo
    Jul 14, 2015 at 14:09
  • 1
    @YoMismo I use the free software driver xserver-xorg-video-r128.
    – August Karlstrom
    Jul 14, 2015 at 14:21
  • Try with the private drivers, usually open source drivers don't have acceleration or full acceleration and lack from some benefits the private ones do. Debian has repositories for that, if my memmory serves me well they should be in the "non free" sources.
    – YoMismo
    Jul 14, 2015 at 14:23
  • 1
    @YoMismo there are no proprietary drivers for R128 on a G3...
    – Stephen Kitt
    Jul 14, 2015 at 14:45
  • 1
    The X log says R128(0): Direct rendering disabled which means that you don't have any acceleration; to figure out why DRI is disabled you'll need to look at the kernel logs. Could you post the contents of /var/log/dmesg?
    – Stephen Kitt
    Jul 17, 2015 at 18:37

1 Answer 1

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3

I'm sorry, but this moment, the r128 is no longer supported by ATi (it's supported in Debian Squeeze, which is still under maintenance but very outdated). However, you can enable some hardware acceleration by using the open source driver xserver-xorg-video-r128 plus the non-free firmware r100_cp.bin contained in firmware-linux-nonfree package.

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  • xserver-xorg-video-r128 is the driver I'm using and I have installed the package firmware-linux-nonfree. The firmware r100_cp.bin is only for ATI Radeon cards, maybe you mean r128_cce.bin (packages.debian.org/jessie/firmware-linux-nonfree).
    – August Karlstrom
    Jul 16, 2015 at 15:16
  • Sorry, my fault, I thought r128 cards are all the same (I have a Radeon 9200 and it uses the r100). But does the firmware work? Normally it would automatically get loaded in the kernel.
    – McSinyx
    Jul 18, 2015 at 3:10
  • 1
    see AtiHowTo section troubleshooting make sure your firmware is loaded correctly.
    – Alex
    Aug 6, 2015 at 20:36

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