Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:45:35 +0100 From: Mark Martinec <Mark.Martinec+freebsd@ijs.si> To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org, freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Subject: Removal of XAA acceleration in X.org, and older NVIDIA GeForce Message-ID: <9f15ce6462062541cbaf3919ec420315@mailbox.ijs.si>
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/usr/ports/UPDATING: > 20141219: > AFFECTS: users of x11/xorg and all xorg ports > AUTHOR: dumbbell@FreeBSD.org > The X.Org server (x11-servers/xorg-server) is updated to 1.14. http://blogs.freebsdish.org/graphics/2014/11/19/xserver-1-14-update-ready/ > Changes since xserver 1.12 > The most visible change is the removal of XAA. This is a 2D=20 > acceleration > method which was deprecated some time ago, in favor of EXA or=20 > Intel-specific=E2=80=99s > UXA or SNA. For the end user, this means that some drivers=20 > (xf86-video-*) > are not supported anymore, mostly for older GPUs according to Phoronix. > If you encounter this case, please let us know. Ouch!!! Upgrading X -related ports went with no problems (FreeBSD 10.1), but I didn't realize the outcome would be so terrible. Scrolling or refreshing a full-screen page in a web browser now feels like in the good old days of a 19200 bps line and a glass terminal. Even scrolling or paging through plain text with 'less' or editor on a KDE konsole or xterm feels sluggish. Certainly the size of the display does not help in this regards (2560x1600). The Xorg.0.log reports: NV: Found NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT at 02@00:00:0 Now I fear that upgrading ports on my other workstation (GeForce 7600 GS) would lead to similar results. I know these graphics boards are not the latest of breed (the CPU and mb are still fairly decent). They were chosen for being fan-less, and coping sufficiently well with 2D and text even on largish displays. So is my only choice now replacing graphics with heat- and noise- sources I don't really need, or being stuck with frozen ports? I wonder if I'm the only one in this situation. Mark
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