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New Install: impressions
https://powerdeveloper.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=452
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Author:  RockmanX [ Sat Dec 17, 2005 4:03 pm ]
Post subject:  New Install: impressions

I've finally completed my new gentoo system install.

These are the main improvements over the first one:

:arrow: linux-2.6.14-gentoo-r4 kernel with preemption enabled (smp too)
:arrow: nptlonly glibc
:arrow: modular xorg-7
:arrow: /boot separated from / (root is reiserfs, boot is ext3)

My first impressions aren't bad: with exa acceleration method I can have the composite extension (mostly shadows) running smoothly!
BUT, I still have to understand why glxgears gives me at least 60fps less than the last time. Maybe I've got one clue: it seems the chipset being recognized is R200 instead of R350 (Radeon 9200). I also don't know if it's better to set driver to "ati" or "radeon".

In general, it seems the whole system is a little slowed down (xorg takes a lot to start, for example), but this occured upgrading from 2.6.10 to 2.6.13 already and nobody explained the behaviour.
I wonder if preemption or some other feature is behind this...

Another strange thing is that both "bmp" and "xfmedia" music players (both based on libxine) crash when I try to play mp3 files. Though, xmms plays them without problems
All in all I'm still very happy to have an updated system.

All in all I'm happy to have an up to date system and I look forward to have it doing everything like before.

Author:  Aaron [ Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:40 pm ]
Post subject: 

Quote:
BUT, I still have to understand why glxgears gives me at least 60fps less than the last time.
I'm pretty sure it is price you pay for enabling composite. I experienced the same thing. The composite stuff sure is beautiful to look at though...
Quote:
it seems the chipset being recognized is R200 instead of R350 (Radeon 9200).
There is an experimental R300 driver, but it takes some work to get it. Here is the thread on gentoo.org that explains how to get it. The trade-off is that you can't use exa with it.
Quote:
I wonder if preemption or some other feature is behind this
It's possible. JoseX on gentoo.org said that the overhead of SMP might negate the benefit of pre-emption.

Let us know how nptlonly works for you.

Author:  RockmanX [ Sat Dec 17, 2005 7:13 pm ]
Post subject: 

Thanks for the info! Just to compare... What fps are you getting with glxgears?

And what about:
Code:
Load "fbdevhw"
I noticed that nothing changes with it.

Oh yes, another "piece of news" from the kernel front: vanilla-sources turned to be not compatible with my machine, and I guess every Pegasos.
I don't have a log of it (I think), but I remember it was a matter of chrp platform: it was searching for something "pmac" so I guess it assumes you have an oldworld machine.
I'll search for a good kernel patchset.

Author:  Aaron [ Sat Dec 17, 2005 7:31 pm ]
Post subject: 

Quote:
What fps are you getting with glxgears?
About 447 in the standard window and about 56 in a fullscreen window on a Radeon 9000 card.
Code:
Load "fbdevhw"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
Keeps X from trashing the virtual terminals.
Quote:
Oh yes, another "piece of news" from the kernel front: vanilla-sources turned to be not compatible with my machine, and I guess every Pegasos.
I used vanilla kernels on my machine without any problems.

Author:  RockmanX [ Sat Dec 17, 2005 7:56 pm ]
Post subject: 

I guess I need to tune something to get more fps: I'm at around 418 fps with my Radeon9200...

What I find strange is that you managed to use vanilla-sources. Did you enable power managment? Could you please tell me your 'Platform' options?

Author:  Aaron [ Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:08 pm ]
Post subject: 

Here they are:
Code:
#
# Platform options
#
CONFIG_PPC_MULTIPLATFORM=y
# CONFIG_APUS is not set
# CONFIG_KATANA is not set
# CONFIG_WILLOW is not set
# CONFIG_CPCI690 is not set
# CONFIG_POWERPMC250 is not set
# CONFIG_CHESTNUT is not set
# CONFIG_SPRUCE is not set
# CONFIG_HDPU is not set
# CONFIG_EV64260 is not set
# CONFIG_LOPEC is not set
# CONFIG_MVME5100 is not set
# CONFIG_PPLUS is not set
# CONFIG_PRPMC750 is not set
# CONFIG_PRPMC800 is not set
# CONFIG_SANDPOINT is not set
# CONFIG_RADSTONE_PPC7D is not set
# CONFIG_PAL4 is not set
# CONFIG_GEMINI is not set
# CONFIG_EST8260 is not set
# CONFIG_SBC82xx is not set
# CONFIG_SBS8260 is not set
# CONFIG_RPX8260 is not set
# CONFIG_TQM8260 is not set
# CONFIG_ADS8272 is not set
# CONFIG_PQ2FADS is not set
# CONFIG_LITE5200 is not set
# CONFIG_MPC834x_SYS is not set
# CONFIG_EV64360 is not set
CONFIG_PPC_CHRP=y
CONFIG_PPC_PMAC=y
CONFIG_PPC_PREP=y
CONFIG_PPC_OF=y
CONFIG_PPCBUG_NVRAM=y
CONFIG_SMP=y
CONFIG_HIGHMEM=y
# CONFIG_HZ_100 is not set
# CONFIG_HZ_250 is not set
CONFIG_HZ_1000=y
CONFIG_HZ=1000
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE is not set
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY is not set
CONFIG_PREEMPT=y
CONFIG_PREEMPT_BKL=y
CONFIG_SELECT_MEMORY_MODEL=y
CONFIG_FLATMEM_MANUAL=y
# CONFIG_DISCONTIGMEM_MANUAL is not set
# CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_MANUAL is not set
CONFIG_FLATMEM=y
CONFIG_FLAT_NODE_MEM_MAP=y
# CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_STATIC is not set
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=m
CONFIG_PROC_DEVICETREE=y
CONFIG_PREP_RESIDUAL=y
CONFIG_PROC_PREPRESIDUAL=y
# CONFIG_CMDLINE_BOOL is not set
# CONFIG_PM is not set
# CONFIG_SOFTWARE_SUSPEND is not set
# CONFIG_SECCOMP is not set
CONFIG_ISA_DMA_API=y

Author:  Aaron [ Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:20 pm ]
Post subject: 

RockmanX,

How is Xorg-7.0 working for you?

Author:  RockmanX [ Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:33 am ]
Post subject: 

Well, it's not working bad! I only had one problem, probably due to the loss of my original xorg.conf file: when I tutn on the computer and startx, it makes my monitor go "out of scan". When this happens, I can't manage to kill X and I have to hard-reboot. This for two or three times. Then it magically works.
Very Strange!
I can't find a hint analyzing the logs, but I didn't have time to do it seriously.
Another change, maybe related to my "slow" kernel, is the time required for Xorg to sart: nearly doubled.
And last but not least, some good news: under normal user login (not as root), moving windows are ~50% transparent! Cool! And fast!

Author:  bbrv [ Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:02 pm ]
Post subject: 

How many altivec optimizations are in this latest version?

R&B :)

Author:  Aaron [ Sat Dec 31, 2005 3:58 pm ]
Post subject: 

I'm not sure, I didn't watch it compile when I upgraded last night.

I'm still testing it, but on first obversation it loads faster than 6.9 or 6.8.99. However, I lost 10FPS in glxgears and while transparency still works, it is slower than 6.9. This is probably because 7.0 does not ship with the compoite cache and the 6.9 I was using came with the patch for composite cache.

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