Please, some R200 love!

[bridgman]

Is there any chance that your problem is actually "running really slow" rather than "software only" rendering ?

That makes a big difference for whoever is trying to help you debug.

Put differently, are you saying "software only" just because it's really slow, or because glxinfo and other tools are telling you that you have the software renderer ?

[kbios]

Well, since it is running about 20 times slower than with KMS (which is slow) and eating all my CPU I would say it is definitely software rendering. Of course I'm not a driver programmer so if someone says "no, it's actually hardware rendering but it's slow for reasons X and Y" I'll accept it

[bridgman]

So, what you're actually saying is I'm penalized for using/buying an older laptop WITH an OLDER ATI CARD? To the rest, no comment...

I think people are saying that you're penalized for using/buying an older laptop with an older card, period.

That said, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to get it running, but you do need to be a bit nicer to the people who are trying to help.

[bridgman]

Well, since it is running about 20 times slower than with KMS (which is slow) and eating all my CPU I would say it is definitely software rendering. Of course I'm not a driver programmer so if someone says "no, it's actually hardware rendering but it's slow for reasons X and Y" I'll accept it

What does glxinfo tell you ? If you don't want to wade through the output I think "glxinfo | grep renderer" should be enough.

[kbios]

What does glxinfo tell you ? If you don't want to wade through the output I think "glxinfo | grep renderer" should be enough.

OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R200 (RV250 4966) 20090101 AGP 2x x86/MMX/SSE TCL
As I stated in the FDO bug, I think the system is actually convinced it's running on hardware, and the simplest OpenGL apps are actually accelerated, so maybe there is a particular extension which slows down everything?
Up to now I've tested Scorched3d, Extreme TuxRacer and Kwin effects and they really seem software-rendered. Sorry if I seem stubborn

[bridgman]

The catch is that "software rendered" is a *different* problem from "hardware rendered but really slow" to a developer, with different troubleshooting steps and different potential solutions. I realize it doesn't seem any different from a user perspective, of course, just trying to save you time & frustration

Can you update your bug ticket with the renderer string info ?

[kbios]

The catch is that "software rendered" is a *different* problem from "hardware rendered but really slow" to a developer, with different troubleshooting steps and different potential solutions. I realize it doesn't seem any different from a user perspective, of course, just trying to save you time & frustration

Can you update your bug ticket with the renderer string info ?

Ok, you have convinced me . I think I'll return to KMS for now (I would have never thought I would say that), but my poor computer's usability will suffer a lot.

[LinuxID10T]

Well... a radeon 9000 is quite ancient. It was obsolete long before AMD acquired ati, and the current open source push was initiated by AMD, particularly in preparation for FUSION products (which was one of the big objectives of acquiring ati to begin with). Though obviously a few people still have R200's, the fact that they are pushing a DECADE OLD and have mostly (by far) been retired, really makes it a weird idea to put tons of dev resources into their support.

Particularly, the reason why R300's are being supported still, despite being pretty old themselves, is probably because they just came along for the ride with the R500's, which are only 4-5 years old.

You know, at what point do you drop support for 8088 CPU from the linux kernel altogether? And sure, despite how ancient these things are, there are still a few kicking around -- I think I've still got a couple of them myself. Wouldn't even dream of powering them on though

Actually mainline Linux needs a 386 with math coprocessor minimum. However, with ELKS it can run on an 8088. The sad part is that that project seems to be abandoned.

[curaga]

Actually mainline Linux needs a 386 with math coprocessor minimum. However, with ELKS it can run on an 8088. The sad part is that that project seems to be abandoned.

The math emulator has been dropped?

[LinuxID10T]

The math emulator has been dropped?

Sorry, no math coprocessor required. My mistake.