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Setting up and troubleshooting OpenGL on XFree86 3.3.x FAQ
Last Updated on: 2000-09-26 10:15:43
This is a basic guideline on how to install and configure GL drivers for various video cards. Please note that these are intended as a supplement to the card manufacturer's own instructions. GL driver installation is not supported by Loki Technical Support, and further questions should be directed to your distribution's tech support.
This FAQ is modelled on the Linux HOWTO documents for consistency and ease of navigation.
There are some troubleshooting tips to be added.
We also provide a step-by-step guide, which is located at http://www.lokigames.com/support/gldrivers/howto-3d-3dfx.html.
The general outline is to:
Device3Dfx and Glide packages (and Glide_SDK if you are going to compile Mesa yourself)/usr/local/glide/bin/test3Dfx
Note that test3Dfx requires that your X server has the 640x480 mode as a valid resolution.
Please refer to your distribution's documentation (or perhaps the Linux Documentation Project (http://www.linuxdoc.org/)) for information on configuring the correct timings for your monitor.
Note: With the recent purchase of 3Dfx by nVidia, this may no longer be completely accurate. You can visit http://www.linuxvoodoo.com/ for a mirror of the drivers once hosted at http://linux.3dfx.com
/usr/local/glide/bin/test3Dfx.
If this program does not run, it is unlikely that any game will be able to take advantage of 3D acceleration.
Once Glide is configured correctly, if the problem persists, make certain that there are no rogue Mesa libraries.
If there is another libGL.so.* on your system, and it doesn't have glide support, it might be loaded first by accident.
This will cause the 3D portions to render using software mode only, which will typically result in 1 to 5 seconds per frame.
If the problem continues, please try specifying a known 3D-accelerated libGL.so.
Our earlier games (Heretic 2, Quake 3, Heavy Gear 2) include versions which are known to work with those games.
The library is usually called something like libMesaVoodooGL.so.3.2.
You can force the game to load a specific GL library.
Please see the FAQ for the game for instructions.
If the problem occurs with a newer version of Mesa (3.2 or later), you may need to export some variables first:
export MESA_FX_INFO=1
export MESA_GLX_FX=f
This should cause the game to go fullscreen, with hardware acceleration.
Note that our games typically export MESA_GLX_FX=f by default, but the MESA_FX_INFO variable was added (or supported) post-release.
export SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0
Note that for Quake 3, you need to add '+set in_dgamouse 0' to the command line, or add 'seta in_dgamouse 0' to your ~/.q3a/baseq3/q3config.cfg file.
The 3.3.5 X server available at the 3Dfx site (http://linux.3dfx.com/) has worked for many users with DGA mouse enabled.
export SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0
Note that for Quake 3, you need to add '+set in_dgamouse 0' to the command line, or add 'seta in_dgamouse 0' to your ~/.q3a/baseq3/q3config.cfg file.
The 3.3.5 X server available at the 3Dfx site (http://linux.3dfx.com/) has worked for many users with DGA mouse enabled.
Note: With the recent purchase of 3Dfx by nVidia, this may no longer be true. You can visit http://www.linuxvoodoo.com/ for user forums.
The general outline is to:
XF86Config to include the new section:
Section "Module"
Load "glx.so"
EndSection
hw_boxes in /etc/X11/glx.conf by setting the value to 1GLX is listed as an extension with xdpyinfoMost of our games require that your X server has the 640x480 mode as a valid resolution (and defining 800x600 and 1024x768 if you haven't already is probably a good idea). Please refer to your distribution's documentation (or perhaps the Linux Documentation Project (http://www.linuxdoc.org/)) for information on configuring the correct timings for your monitor.
mach64_drawtest in your glx.conf.
The section should then look something like:
mach64_drawtest = 1 # # If set the driver will do some initial rendering tests upon startup. # Useful to see if the driver is being loaded correctly.You will need to re-start your X server for the change to take effect.
XF86Config file "Device" section includes these lines:
Option "no_font_cache"
Option "no_pixmap_cache"
so the full one would look something like:
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI|3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X"
[ other options ]
Option "no_font_cache"
Option "no_pixmap_cache"
EndSection
You will not be able to get the hardware acceleration features working without those lines.Similarly, Slackware packages are available at http://utah-glx.on.openave.net/. Again, neither we nor the host of the archive offer support for these snapshots.
glx.so and libGL.so for download.
You can find the files at http://www.lokigames.com/~heimdall/glx/.
These files are provided "as is" and are not supported in any way.The general outline is to:
XF86Config to include the new section:
Section "Module"
Load "glx.so"
EndSection
hw_boxes in /etc/X11/glx.conf by setting the value to 1GLX is listed as an extension with xdpyinfoMost of our games require that your X server has the 640x480 mode as a valid resolution (and defining 800x600 and 1024x768 if you haven't already is probably a good idea). Please refer to your distribution's documentation (or perhaps the Linux Documentation Project (http://www.linuxdoc.org/)) for information on configuring the correct timings for your monitor.
agpgart, and altering your glx.conf file to take advantage of the new configuration.
Full instructions are available from the Utah-GLX (http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/) home page.
Similarly, Slackware packages are available at http://utah-glx.on.openave.net/. Again, neither we nor the host of the archive offer support for these snapshots.
glx.so and libGL.so for download.
You can find the files at http://www.lokigames.com/~heimdall/glx/.
These files are provided "as is" and are not supported in any way.You may also want to investigate the 3D accelerated X server offered by Xi Graphics (http://www.xig.com/). They offer a demo, and support for a number of 3D cards that are not handled by any of the free drivers.
There are also some additional drivers in the DRI development effort (such as the Voodoo 4, Voodoo 5, and ATI Rage 128 family), which can be found at http://dri.sourceforge.net/.
Finally, if you are using an nVidia card (TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce, GeForce 2, GeForce MX), you should investigate the binary drivers that work in conjunction with XFree86 4.0.x. We have a guide to installation in our XFree86 4.0.x and OpenGL FAQ.
For 3Dfx, see http://linux.3dfx.com/.
For the Utah-GLX cards (Matrox, ATI, S3, TNT, i810), see http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net.
Technical support for 3D drivers is not available from that e-mail address.
If you are using a commercial X server, you will need to contact the company that is developing your X server.