Hi!
There are several problems on using applications based on GL engines and
latest Cooker builds. First let me note that these problems are
experienced with a wide array of applications and two types of 3Dfx
boards: Voodoo Graphics & Voodoo 3 3000.
First problem Voodoo Graphics. The Glide sources for this card do
present some problems, specially on some asm directives. However
personally I managed to "give food" to my old Voodoo card until 7.1. On
the recent Cooker builds and sources, Glide 2.46 can't find the card in
any way. I tried everything I could but no success (used old 2.2, used
2.4 with & without devfs). Until now it is darkness on the forest.
test3Dfx kills badly the comp.
Second problem Mesa, GLX & Voodoo3. This card has given some serious
troubles in performance. However it worked acceptably until one of the
latest builds of XFree 4.0.1. Since the moment when Mesa package was set
as an X "outsider" (Mesa installation declares conflicts with X build)
everything went into Tortuga Island. GLX works without DRI. Besides GLX
lives the same life with or without DRI on the kernel. X docs specify
the existence of a tdfx_dri but I couldn't find anywhere in the source
how to build it. Only a reference to dri.sourceforge.net and their DRI
CVS tree.
In the meantime I tried to use Quake2 in gl (do not confuse with glx)
mode. libGL.so does not work with it. This didn't happen before.
Trying to install Mesa "from the board" turns things even worse. It is
impossible to run Quake2 on X. On "old good Quake gl mode" nothing
works. I tried Voodoo Graphics & Voodoo3 but both fly away with a signal
11 and leaving console dead. (I also tried to use old Mesa libs I had
once specially built but the result is Quake2 jumping automatically to
svgalib drivers). On X Quake2 works miserably slow. Gears demo prog
shows the same level of fps as an S3Virge card.
I checked the Mesa spec and noted that glide has been "killed"
(configure --without-glide). Besides glx module is compiled as glx-3.
However X does not understand its name and declares it has not found
"module info". By correcting these two points (adding glide and removing
glx-3 patch) and by adding Glide3-DRI I get a slghtly better preformance
on X rather than the original Mandrake package. But not much. In the
meantime it seems that still no DRI walks even in the neighborhood.
In the meantime I would like to note the weird confusion of links &
library locations I have noted in latest cooker packages. libGlwrapper
seems to compile as libGLW on original Mesa sources. Mesa and Mesa-devel
have several "dead links" and a confusion between "who's first who's
last". Most package show links of the kind lib.so->lib.so.1->lib.so.1.1.
But here we have a link on Mesa as libMesaGl.so.1.0->libGL.so.1.0 then
we have a libMesaGL.so.1->libGL.so.1 (dead!). And in Mesa-devel we get a
libMesaGL.so->libGL.so that is located in this same pack. But
libGL.so->libGl.so.1 and such link is dead under both packages.
Some similar things happen with Glide packages. They are not so critical
as there are not dead links. However if ones commits the "stupidity" of
installing Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo3 DRI drivers then he gets some
unpleasant surprises. Links get divided between the "traditional" Glide
2.6/3.1 drivers and the new ones, in a way that links with the same main
version either point to "traditional" or "non-traditional" libs.
This might look "secondary" for some people here. Unfortunately I don't
only play Quake/Doom of different flavours. I also use GL systems for
testing/using a wide range of interfaces and 3D systems. While most of
my work does not forcefully require a "Voodoo in turbo speed", these
last problems are a grave headache. Frankly I don't like to play Buzz
Aldrin in Maverick (a system for virtual world modelling), see how a 3D
landscape turns around at Moon's rotation speed or when tries to go a
little inside the XXI century interfaces with 3Dwm and feels like
playing "Space Invaders" in a old Spectrum.
I think that some serious "reorganisation" is needed before GL systems
get really broken on Mandrake. And some others... Well I started so I'll
end the flame...
Mandrake has always shown some oddities when referring to 3D,
visualization and image processing. I don't remember any Mandrake dist
that didn't force me to recompile/rebuild several things from scratch.
And this does not happen only with Voodoo boards but also with Riva
ones. This refers not only to GL & Mesa but also to old good svgalib
(this time it works really bad!) and something like gimp (1.0 & 1.1).
Yet if before one could blame things on "early-beta" times, now I can
only point to bloatness climate...
Frankly, one of the BIG THINGS Linux possesses is a large field of image
processing & visualization. A field that is much more stable and
possesses a larger potential than some other platforms. Mandrake is
probably the best distribution in this field. It possesses tons of
graphics libraries and it puts some emphasis in the imaging fields. But
lately I have noted that Mandrake became a huge bloated
"pretty-multicolor-system-with-easy-to-use-interfaces" and has been
scrapping most of its graphical base (among some other things).
Mandrake's graphical bases are large and can give it the place of the
"Graphical Linux". I also know that emphasis is the general user. But,
if it can't hold no more 3Dwm, gimp, Mesa and alikes, then I think it
has a serious problem with its future. A place much like Mac has got by
overperfecting its interface and forgetting that people want computers
for something more than just clicking on icons/menus. I fear that
Mandrake has started sailing over those waters...
Pedro Rosa aka Ektanoor
