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XAA In X.Org Has Finally Met Its Executioner

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  • #61
    Thanks I will try it with a few distros...

    Live cd session in fedora doesn't allow you sudo privileges I will check ubuntu, knoppix and opensuse

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    • #62
      It doesn't allow me to edit the above thread sorry here's a double post:


      ubuntu/fedora/opensuse/etc... don't give you root access from a live cd session, there are a few which do: knoppix, porteus, pup dog linux, etc...


      I picked knoppix 7.04 as it is the one with the most recent kernel (3.4.X)

      The old HP laptops are in storage and I didn't have internet access there so I just wrote down the terminal codes in a piece of paper and unfortunately I forgot the ".d" at the end of this code

      mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

      so it said it already had a xorg.conf and to speed things up I decided to nano it and it worked.

      There are a bunch of "Options" that are - # in the display section, mostly to do with hw_cursor and pageflips etc... but I saw what interested me was the

      # Option "ShadowFB"

      # Option "NoAccel"

      I first tried to create a

      Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

      but I restarted and everything was the same.

      so I tried to unquote shadow FB and restart, again everything was the same.

      I unquoted "NoAccel" and lo and behold scrolling windows of text no longer dragged or lagged, glxgears in the little window was 90fps and lxde was finally a little snappy. I haven't tried watching videos or going online, I noticed they had a CUPs bookmark in the iceweasels and that page no longer dragged or lagged like it did.


      Only downside is that the CPU graph seemed to be showing much more activity simply by opening the file manager and scrolling around etc...



      So yeah I was right, this is definitely a acceleration issue and the performance you get now is nothing compared with opensuse 11/ubuntu 8 where you pretty much could have a million windows open etc etc and never lag or drag.

      Still at least lxde and openbox should prove usable, I'm going to keep windows for offline and run the knoppix live cd to go online, I figure it is a compromise but it's better than installing ubuntu 8
      Last edited by Pallidus; 28 August 2012, 05:44 AM.

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      • #63
        Originally posted by Pallidus View Post
        I first tried to create a Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

        ...

        I unquoted "NoAccel" and lo and behold scrolling windows of text no longer dragged or lagged, glxgears in the little window was 90fps and lxde was finally a little snappy. I haven't tried watching videos or going online, I noticed they had a CUPs bookmark in the iceweasels and that page no longer dragged or lagged like it did.

        ...

        So yeah I was right, this is definitely a acceleration issue and the performance you get now is nothing compared with opensuse 11/ubuntu 8 where you pretty much could have a million windows open etc etc and never lag or drag.
        I don't follow the logic here. You know XAA hasn't actually been dropped in any distro yet, right ?

        If XAA isn't helping then what do you think the acceleration issue is ?
        Test signature

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        • #64
          XAA does not work with KMS. You need to disable KMS if you want to use XAA. That said, as was mentioned here previously, since XAA offscreen pixmap support was disabled years ago, it ends up being roughly the same as shadowfb (NoAccel option in the driver).

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          • #65
            brigdman I don't really think you need to be that versed in linux in order to see that it's impossible to revert back to XAA in a 3.X kernel distro...

            Now, I finally see that given things as they are, you might as well delete XAA altogether as it serves no purpose.

            I doubt anyone will bother turning off KMS and XAApixmapsblabla etc etc and all that work that it entails...


            As it stands with the RS200 and I gather the previous and next generations of radeons you can run a lightweight DE like lxde and openbox if you turn the NoAccel option on, you can forget about compiz, unity, 3dgames, etc etc etc... at least you won't get lagged and dragged while scrolling down a simple menu or website as you do with Exa on.


            Still I wish people would have kept that XAA enabled driver from back in 2008 and rebranded it as 'legacy_radeon' or some such.

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            • #66
              Originally posted by Pallidus View Post
              Still I wish people would have kept that XAA enabled driver from back in 2008 and rebranded it as 'legacy_radeon' or some such.
              The old XAA code in still in the current release of the driver. It hasn't changed since 2008. You just have to disable KMS to use it.

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              • #67
                radeon.modeset=0 before booting and then adding that accel line "xaa" on xorg.conf

                will try it tonight and see if it works

                also will delete that infamous xxanooffscreenpicies etc etc
                Last edited by Pallidus; 28 August 2012, 06:03 PM.

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                • #68
                  This forum should really allow edits up to 24 hours.


                  Anyway I booted knoppix using both ' knoppix nomodeset ' and ' knoppix radeon.modeset=0 ' and the results were the same

                  You are given a non accelerated driver BUT with compiz and composite enabled... this means everytime the window goes into cubes or fire it lags like all hell and it crashed a couple of times just by using the root shell.

                  I managed to edit

                  Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

                  and # "XAAnooffscreenpixmapsetc"

                  restarted it and nothing changed, same lag etc...

                  I did several attempts by # and un# pageflip

                  I tried Option "XAA" in case they had changed the syntax like the others

                  starting getting desperate so I renamed xorg.conf to see if it would auto generate a better one, it did generate a new one but it was the exact same as the old one

                  I then un# autodetect and it would detect my driver as some "FBdev" I then manually edited it to

                  Driver "radeon"
                  Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

                  but it wouldn't even start X


                  Don't want to give up but it's pointless, I'm sure there are lots more people with these radeon cards out there someone surely has found a way to enable XAA if it is at all possible

                  I believe that XAA no longer functions and there is no way to turn it on ... you might as well delete it.


                  I leave a tip for people with these cards:

                  I made a glitch in one of my attempts to boot knoppix and used

                  knoppix radeon.modeset=o instead of =0

                  by using the letter instead of the number it actually boots you into a X without acceleration AND without compiz and composite, meaning the best option to use X... trouble is while booting the screen gets all fuzzed up and strange like a broken TV (never seen that in a computer screen) but the desktop works fine and saves you the trouble of setting rootpasswords and nanoing xorg.conf
                  Last edited by Pallidus; 29 August 2012, 05:07 AM.

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                  • #69
                    Originally posted by Pallidus View Post
                    I believe that XAA no longer functions and there is no way to turn it on ... you might as well delete it.
                    They *did* delete it! xorg-server-1.13 no longer has it. Why are you so obsessed with it when it hasn't been accelerating anything since 2008? Use shadowfb.

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                    • #70
                      Originally posted by agd5f View Post
                      The old XAA code in still in the current release of the driver. It hasn't changed since 2008. You just have to disable KMS to use it.
                      agd5f
                      X.Org ATI Driver Developer


                      X.Org ATI Driver Developer


                      Gusar
                      random troll


                      who am I going to believe?

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