This is Gentoo's testing wiki. It is a non-operational environment and its textual content is outdated.
Please visit our production wiki at https://wiki.gentoo.org
trident
trident is the open source graphics drivers for Trident graphics cards.
Installation
Kernel
You need to activate the following kernel options:
Processor type and features ---> [*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support Device Drivers ---> Graphics support ---> If your card sits in an AGP slot, choose your AGP driver: (Note: ALI chipsets are typically bundled with Trident graphics cards in laptops) <*> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support) ---> <*> ALI chipset support <*> Support for frame buffer devices ---> [*] Enable firmware EDID [*] VESA VGA graphics support <*> Trident/CyberXXX/CyberBlade support
Firmware
Unknown IRQ microcode needed for Trident graphics support at this time, since the Kernel driver (tridentfb) should support most functions for Trident cards.
x11-drivers/xf86-video-trident is an old video card and old driver. It has no corresponding KMS (Kernel ModeSetting), at least in recent (3.12.21) kernels. Although in some distros (AFAIK Fedora 21) such drivers were removed, to my experience it works without KMS. At least with =x11-base/xorg-server-1.15.0.
Make sure firmware for your model (check available ones in /lib/firmware/trident) is included in kernel:
Device Drivers ---> -*- Userspace firmware loading support [*] Include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary (trident/<YOUR-MODEL>.bin) (/lib/firmware) Firmware blobs root directory
Below is a list of the firmware files needed for each family of cards:
No known firmware files are needed for any particular Trident card at this time.
Driver
Portage uses the USE_EXPAND variable called VIDEO_CARDS to enable support for various graphics cards in packages. Setting VIDEO_CARDS to appropriate value(s) will pull in the correct driver(s):
/etc/portage/make.conf
Set VIDEO_CARDS to tridentVIDEO_CARDS="trident"
Substitute the name of the driver(s) to be used. Common choices include nouveau
, nvidia
, radeon
, and intel
.
After setting or altering VIDEO_CARDS values remember to update the system using the following command so the changes take effect:
root #
emerge --ask --changed-use --deep @world
Configuration
Permissions
If the acl
USE flag is enabled globally and ConsoleKit is being used (default for desktop profiles) permissions to video cards will be handled automatically. It is possible to check the permissions using getfacl:
user $
getfacl /dev/dri/card0 | grep larry
A broader solution is to add the user(s) needing access the video card to the video group:
root #
gpasswd -a larry video
Note that users will be able to run X without permission to the DRI subsystem, but acceleration will be disabled.
xorg.conf
The X server is designed to work out-of-the-box, with no need to manually edit X.Org's configuration files. It should detect and configure devices such as displays, keyboards, and mice.
However, the main configuration file of the X server is the xorg.conf.
You can force the X server to use desired driver with:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/trident.conf
Explicit trident driver sectionSection "Device" Identifier "trident" Driver "trident" EndSection
To my experience quoted config don't works. Last error message in Xorg.log is:
[ 218.176] (II) Loading sub module "xaa" [ 218.176] (II) LoadModule: "xaa" [ 218.177] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module xaa [ 218.178] (II) UnloadModule: "xaa" [ 218.178] (II) Unloading xaa [ 218.178] (EE) TRIDENT: Failed to load module "xaa" (module does not exist, 0)
Adding to trident.conf the option:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/trident.conf
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
makes xorg server operable.
Framebuffer (GRUB or LILO)
video=tridentfb:1024x768-16@60
Documentation
Full Documentation can be found under /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/tridentfb.txt.