xref: /xsrc/external/mit/xf86-video-intel/dist/README

Information for Intel graphics driver users
Eric Anholt
2007-07-02

This document provides a brief summary of the Intel graphics support provided
by the xf86-video-intel driver.  More information can also be found in the
intel(4) manual page.

Supported Hardware:
	i810,
  	i810-dc100,
	i810e
	i815
	i830
	i845
	i852
	i855
	915G
	915GM
	945G
	945GM/GME
	946GZ
	G965
	GM/GME965
	G33/Q33/Q35

Features
- Full support for 8, 15, 16, and 24 bit pixel depths.
- Hardware accelerated 2D drawing engine support for 8, 15, 16 and 24 bit
  pixel depths.
- Hardware accelerated 3D drawing using OpenGL and the DRI.
- Hardware cursor support to reduce sprite flicker.
- Textured video XV implementation on i915 through i965.
- Hardware overlay XV implementation up through i945.
- Screen resize and rotation.

Technical Notes
- Interlace modes cannot be supported.
- This driver  requires kernel support for AGP, which is included in Linux
  kernels 2.3.42 and higher, and FreeBSD 4.1 and higher.
- This driver may be built against xserver 1.2.0 or newer.  If built
  from git source against an older server, a copy of xserver 1.3.0 source is
  needed to complete the build, which is chosen with the --with-xserver-source
  argument to ./configure.  The compatibility mode with xserver 1.2.0 will have
  limited functionality, in particular by not supporting RandR 1.2 or the
  new Damage 1.1 updated needed for 3D applications to work with display
  rotation.

Configuration

The driver auto-detects all device information necessary to
initialize the card.  The only lines you should need in the "Device"
section of your xorg.conf file are:

       Section "Device"
           Identifier "intel"
           Driver     "intel"
       EndSection

Please refer to the intel(4) manual page for information on configuration
options.


Known Limitations
- No support for "zaphod mode" dualhead.  This is the mode in which two
  Device sections are placed in the config file, and doesn't support DRI or
  many other features.  Instead, only "MergedFB-style" dualhead is supported.
- No support for X Screens larger than 2048 pixels in either direction
  before the 965.  This reflects hardware limitations in the x direction on
  those older chips, and limits dualhead functionality.  It may be possible to
  extend the limit vertically on these older chips.
- i855 XV may cause hangs.  This was present in the previous release, and no
  workaround is known.
- SDVO TV-out cards not supported.  This should be fixed in the next
  release.
- Gray output with integrated TV-out and PAL TVs.
- EXA support unstable on i845.
- Some GM965 systems, such as the Thinkpad T61, probe the TV as being connected
  even when no output connector is available.  This results in the gnome-panel
  issue noted below.

Common issues not caused by the driver
- Font sizes (DPI) are wrong.  Some displays incorrectly report their
  physical size, which is harmless on most OSes that always assume 96dpi
  displays.  This can be fixed through quirks for specific monitors in the X
  Server, and the output of xrandr --prop along with a physical measurement of
  the screen size in a bug report against the server can help get that fixed.
- gnome-panel is located in the middle of the screen.  gnome-panel places
  itself within head #0's boundaries, which doesn't work well with a second
  head covering the same area as head #0 but larger.
- Older resolution-changing applications have poor results in
  multihead systems.  Previous extensions such as RandR 1.1 exposed only a
  single output to client programs, and those requests map poorly to multi-head
  systems.  Currently, those requests map to just one of the outputs in the
  RandR 1.2 environment, and those applications need to be updated to RandR 1.2
  API when available for better results.

The X11R6 version of this driver originally came from XFree86 4.4 rc2.

The XFree86 version of this driver was donated to The XFree86 Project by:
    Precision Insight, Inc.
    Cedar Park, TX
    USA

The X.Org version of this driver is maintained by Intel Corporation.
<http://www.intellinuxgraphics.org>