[aclug-L] Re: OpenGL, 3D Graphics, & Linux

[Nate Bargmann <n0nb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

* David Carmichael <dec2955@xxxxxxxxxx> [2002 Jan 06 19:19 -0600]:
> 
> Nate -
> 
> Thanks for the reply..
> 
> I am trying to use Mandrake 8.1 (mainly for their disk portion utilities)
> and it has xfree 4.1, but it keeps installing the Banshee drivers which do
> not work with the Voodoo2 card.

Here's what I found at: http://www.xfree86.org/4.1.0/Status2.html#2

-----------------------------------------------------------------

2. 3Dfx

3.3.6:

    Support (including acceleration) for Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo3
    cards is provided by the XF86_SVGA server with the tdfx driver.
    
4.1.0:

    Support for Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo2 chips is provided by the
    "glide" driver (requires version 2.x of the Glide library, which is
    not part of the XFree86 distribution).

    Support (including acceleration) for Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3,
    Voodoo4, and Voodoo5 is provided by the "tdfx" driver.
    Summary:
    
    All hardware supported in 3.3.6 is also supported in 4.1.0.
    The Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo2, Voodoo4, and Voodoo5 are
    supported only in 4.1.0.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

So it appears the voodoo2 can only be supported by XFree 4.1.0, which
you are installing.  Voodoo2 requires Glide version 2.x which should be
installed by your distro to enable Voodoo2.  My guess is that Mandrake
is trying to install the "tdfx" driver for the Xfree server rather than
the "glide" one.  A quick check of:

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3

and selecting Video Card and 3Dfx reveals that Mandrake shows no support
for the Voodoo2.

If you can't find Glide, a quick check of http://freshmeat.net reveals
that the Glide library's home page is: http://linux.3dfx.com  Alas, that
site cannot be found and a check of http://www.3dfx.com shows that PNY
is no longer supporting the Voodoo cards.  Check the URI for all the
gory details.

So, where does that leave us?  Several checks of Google showed no
development page available for Glide. 

Debian does include a libglide2 package in its Testing archive and it
depends on having device driver support for 3Dfx cards compiled into
your kernel.

> I have done Google search and it mainly keeps sending to a web site titled
> 'VoodooLinux.com' which is a distro for 3Dfx video cards.. but it is still
> in beta, and the help files there kind of confuse me as to what I should do,
> because I thought that I followed the FAQ and yet Mandrake keeps loading
> their Banshee drivers under 'X'/KDE?!?!?

As I described above, it appears Mandrake doesn't support the Voodoo2
directly. 

However, a possible work-around might be:

Rebuild your kernel for 3Dfx device support.
Find Glide and install it.
Setup XFree to use the "glide" driver (if Mandrake includes it).
Punt and go with another video card or distro.

It seems support for this card is quite convoluted due to several
factors, not the least of which seemed to be 3Dfx's late support of its
products for Linux.  This doesn't get you any closer to a working 3D
setup, but I hope it gives you some information so you can decide which
way to go.

- Nate >>

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