xf86-video-intel upgrade, anyone?

[Mehmet Erol Sanliturk]

On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Joerg Wunsch <j at uriah.heep.sax.de> wrote:

> As Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:
>
> > If you write exact name of your CPU such as ones specified on pages
> >
> > http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei7ee/mobile/index.htm
> > http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei7/mobile/index.htm
> > http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei5/mobile/index.htm
> > http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei3/mobile/index.htm
>
> The laptop is labelled "Core i5", and the boot messages say:
>
> CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 460  @ 2.53GHz (2537.13-MHz 686-class
> CPU)
>  Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x20655  Stepping = 5
>
>  Features=0xbfebfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,PBE>
>
>  Features2=0x9ae3bd<SSE3,DTES64,MON,DS_CPL,VMX,EST,TM2,SSSE3,CX16,xTPR,PDCM,<b17>,SSE4.1,SSE4.2,POPCNT>
>  AMD Features=0x28100000<NX,RDTSCP,LM>
>  AMD Features2=0x1<LAHF>
>  TSC: P-state invariant
>
> The link you gave mentions "2nd generation", and availability as of
> 02-2011, so I looked around a bit, and found:
>
>
> http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=43483&MarketSegment=MBL
>
> So I think it's an i5-460M.
>
> (If anyone wants the full boot messages, I can of course sent those.)
>
> > Also exact model name of laptop will be useful .
>
> When I wrote the first message, I haven't been at home so I could not
> lookup the exact model.  Now, back home, I can.  It's a DELL Vostro
> 3700.  Googling for it reveals that apparently, some of those are sold
> with a "hybrid graphics" where the CPU-internal graphics is
> accompanied by another nVidia graphics board, but our model doesn't
> appear to feature this.
>
> The pciconf -lv entry of the VGA is:
>
> vgapci0 at pci0:0:2:0:     class=0x030000 card=0x04421028 chip=0x00468086
> rev=0x18 hdr=0x00
>    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
>    class      = display
>    subclass   = VGA
>
> I see a mention of this PCI ID in the X.org driver code starting with
> the Intel video driver version 2.8:
>
> (src/common.h)
>
> #ifndef PCI_CHIP_IGDNG_M_G
> #define PCI_CHIP_IGDNG_M_G              0x0046
> #define PCI_CHIP_IGDNG_M_G_BRIDGE       0x0044
> #endif
>
> (And it's not only these #defines, they are actually used in the code
> then.)
>
> That's why I assumed it would perhaps be possible to tweak that 2.8
> driver (even though I know it's still far behind the current X.org
> version) to compile.
>
> The VESA driver doesn't start up because it cannot find any usable
> mode.  That's probably due to the widescreen mode this display has
> (1600 x 900 pixels).  Maybe I could generate a modeline for that to
> make it work as a start, to bridge the time until the more recent
> X.org support is available in FreeBSD.  However, for obvious reasons,
> I'd only do that as a stop-gap measure, if it's clear that it will
> eventually be supported in the forseeable future.  (3D acceleration
> support is not crucial for us, it's basically an office machine, but
> 2D is.)
>
> Thanks for all the help and ideas so far!
> --
> cheers, J"org
>



Asus in the following page is listing main board names which they are usable
by some ( Fedora , OpenSuse , RedHat , Ubuntu ) Linux distributions :

http://www.asus.com/websites/global/aboutasus/OS/Linux.pdf

Boards , for example ,

P7H55D-M EVO
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=LZtx6p7WKTP77rsk&templete=2

P7H55D-M PRO
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=qWmZUAdNKeozTOXb&templete=2

P7H55-Mhttp://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=LMLbQEr6R3s5yCLg&templete=2

are using graphics integrated CPUs .


This means that , if you install a suitable Linux , its name selected from
the above Linux.pdf , you may be able to use a graphical environment for a
while .

Later on , when you verify that FreeBSD may use your current hardware , you
may switch to it . KDE or GNOME environments are similar in FreeBSD and
Linux .

If it is suitable for you , you may create a partition about FreeBSD ( up to
now never I did it , I do not know how can it be done ) and , by using
information from Linux drivers , you may develop a working FreeBSD driver
set .


Thank you very much .


Mehmet Erol Sanliturk