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Setting up and troubleshooting OpenGL on XFree86 4.0.x and 4.1.x FAQ
Last Updated on: 2001-06-05 19:39:46
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.
The most recent version of this list can be found in the DRI User's Guide (http://dri.sourceforge.net/doc/DRIuserguide.html).
If your current 3D setup is performing well, you should only upgrade if there is a specific feature or bugfix that you need.
Note: If you are using a version of XFree86 prior to the current release (as of this writing, 4.0.2), you should upgrade to that before determining if you need to build DRI from the source. Versions of XFree86 prior to 4.0.2 do not provide support for the Rage 128 and Radeon cards.
You will need a working Glide3 installation (configured specifically for your video card) and an installation of XFree86 4.0.x or later, with a matching version of DRI. Newer is usually better.
Glide3 is typically available in distributions (if available at all) as glide3_V3 (Banshee and Voodoo 3) or glide3-V5 (Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5).
You will need to get it from http://glide.sourceforge.net if your distribution does not include it.
Some distributions are known to configure these cards correctly on initial installation, but you may still want to update to XFree86 4.1.0 for improvements in the 3D support.
descent3 --nomultitexture or heretic2 +set gl_extmultitexture 0), but you can completely disable the extension with an environment variable.
Set FX_DONT_FAKE_MULTITEX to 1, and then run the game.
For any game which uses multitexturing, this will likely have a noticable speed-up.
An example:
export FX_DONT_FAKE_MULTITEX=1
heretic2
preview/RPMS directory):
Glide3-20000823-1.i386.rpm
Glide3-devel-20000823-1.i386.rpm
tdfx_dri-4.0.1-1.i386.rpm
You will also need to edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and add the line Mode 0666 to the Section "DRI" segment at the end of the file, e.g.:
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
More details about this particular section, and what additional security options are available, can be found in the DRI User's Guide (http://dri.sourceforge.net/doc/DRIuserguide.html) on the DRI web page (http://dri.sourceforge.net/).
It is also possible to use XFree86 3.3.6 with RH 7.
To do this, configure the X server with XConfigurator --preferxf3 and edit the X symlink in /usr/X11R6/bin/ to point to the preferred server.
Some games (MindRover, Descent 3) have workarounds for this particular driver issue. See the individual product FAQs for details.
Some distributions are known to configure these cards correctly on initial installation, but you may still want to update to XFree86 4.1.0 for improvements in the 3D support (e.g. texturing issues).
We have not found any distributions which get this configured well and correctly on initial installation.
The general outline is:
Most 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.
You may also want to try the nv_check.sh script to verify that the driver was installed correctly.
See the answer to the next question for more information.
gcc, as it appears that the shipped kernel headers do not match the kernel version.
nVidia has a fix, which is available via DCC on Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
Visit the channel #nvidia on the IRC server irc.openprojects.net, and /msg ice-dcc xdcc list.
That will return download instructions and file names.
If you cannot or will not join IRC, there are two work-arounds:
kgcc, which is linked to the correct kernel headersnv_check.sh) which can be used to validate the installation and see where any errors may be lurking in the driver setup.
We have mirrored a copy of this handy script at http://www.lokigames.com/~heimdall/nvidia/nv_check.sh.
Prior to assuming that your 3D application or game is broken, we suggest that you check your nVidia driver install with this script.
glxinfo runs without crashing.
If it doesn't (and it probably will crash), this may be a permissions issue.
Some versions of xdm (and derivatives) incorrectly reset permissions on the various /dev/nv* device nodes, which prevent users from being able to access the card for 3D applications.
Similarly, some distributions use automatic permission-changers during login, which has the same effect.
The fix for this particular problem is to (as root) change the permissions with:
chmod 666 /dev/nv*
which will give read-write permissions to all users.
#nvidia on the IRC server irc.openprojects.net.
If you have found a definite bug, please use the bug-reporting mechanisms outlined on nVidia's web pages (http://www.nvidia.com).
For nVidia, see http://www.nvidia.com/.
For the DRI cards (Matrox, ATI, 3Dfx), see http://dri.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.