Interesting undocumented options

[ejs1920]

I think I have discovered something interesting about the 7.11 fglrx driver - it accepts the options "Textured2D" and "TexturedXrender" in xorg.conf. I haven't found anything about these options anywhere, but from what I can tell, it enables the GLESX module, and presumably is supposed to accelerate 2D and the XRENDER extension.

I have a Radeon 9550SE in an AGP 4X slot. Using both "Textured2D" and "TexturedXrender", performance of the "x11perf -aa10text" test increased from around 75,000/sec to 135,000/sec.

Here is the part of Xorg.log about 2D acceleration:

(II) Loading extension GLESX
(II) fglrx(0): GLESX enableFlags = 14
(II) fglrx(0): Using XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA)
	Screen to screen bit blits
	Solid filled rectangles
	Solid Horizontal and Vertical Lines
	Driver provided ScreenToScreenBitBlt replacement
	Driver provided FillSolidRects replacement
(II) fglrx(0): GLESX is enabled
(II) fglrx(0): [DRI] installation complete
(II) fglrx(0): Direct rendering enabled
(==) fglrx(0): Silken mouse enabled
(==) fglrx(0): Using hardware cursor

So, does anyone know anything about these undocumented options? I presume they're not mentioned anywhere because they're in some kind of alpha state?

[Michael]

There's a few other undocumented options in the driver as well... There's another one or two Textured options for your xorg.conf, but off hand they escape my mind. Though I don't think I've played with TextruedXrender yet... I shall begin exploring right now.

There's also hidden options in aticonfig too

[chefkoch]

/me fires up strings

[chefkoch]

--heads
--xinerama # ServerFlags Option "Xinerama"
--create-test-template # crashes
--disable-workstation # nothing

--mouse-id # these probably change input device settings. didn't try all them though
--mouse-driver
--mouse-device
--mouse-protocol
--mouse-zaxis
--kb-id
--kb-driver
--kb-autorepeat
--kb-xkbrules
--kb-xkbmodel
--kb-xkblayout

--virtual # virtual desktop size
--dri-permissions # nothing
--preferred-refresh # Device Option "PreferredVRefresh"

--mouse-corepointer
--mouse-emulate3buttons

--textured-video # Device Option "TexturedVideo" "on"
--wait-event # no clue
--pplib-cmd # can't figure out correct arguments, probably powerplay related

most of them aren't that exciting. although the last one sounds interesting.
if I say nothing it didn't change anything in the config file. could be that I missed a few.

[Michael]

--pplib-cmd # can't figure out correct arguments, probably powerplay related

most of them aren't that exciting. although the last one sounds interesting.
if I say nothing it didn't change anything in the config file. could be that I missed a few.

That's the interesting one

[ejs1920]

I'd just like to add that with Textured2D and TexturedXrender enabled, I had to also enable TexturedVideo to get an XVideo overlay present. To my surprise, my card is actually fast enough to watch 1280x720 xvid video using TexturedVideo.

[DarkFoss]

That's the interesting one

Hmm found these in /var/log/Xorg.0.log
POWERplay version 3. 4 power states available:
(II) fglrx(0): 1. 473/452MHz @ 0Hz [enable load balancing, overdrive]
(II) fglrx(0): 2. 371/452MHz @ 0Hz [enable load balancing, overdrive]
(II) fglrx(0): 3. 493/452MHz @ 0Hz [overclocked, enable load balancing, overdrive]
(II) fglrx(0): 4. 506/452MHz @ 0Hz [overclocked, enable load balancing, overdrive]

Wonder if they are going to be enabling the Overdrive
function in the CCC like in their windows drivers

[oliver]

I was just about to experiment with a few of these 'hidden' features, and ran a x11perf -aa10text and got really low values.

 160000 reps @   0.0322 msec ( 31100.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
 160000 reps @   0.0273 msec ( 36600.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
 160000 reps @   0.0273 msec ( 36700.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
 160000 reps @   0.0289 msec ( 34500.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
 160000 reps @   0.0289 msec ( 34600.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
 800000 trep @   0.0289 msec ( 34600.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)

my xorg.conf is bare enough to be using pretty much all defaults:

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
EndSection

This is on a 9500Pro btw. Going to restart with the new options now.

edit:

x11perf - X11 performance program, version 1.5
The X.Org Foundation server version 70200000 on :0.0
from valexia
Thu Dec  6 17:54:33 2007

Sync time adjustment is 0.0510 msecs.

1600000 reps @   0.0028 msec (354000.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
1600000 reps @   0.0032 msec (311000.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
1600000 reps @   0.0031 msec (325000.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
1600000 reps @   0.0027 msec (366000.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
1600000 reps @   0.0027 msec (365000.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)
8000000 trep @   0.0029 msec (343000.0/sec): Char in 80-char aa line (Charter 10)

Guess it makes the world of a differense, Though, to be honest, I'm not noticing any improvements in my windows though ...

How much of an effect do these options have however when using aiglx I wonder, i'm not using it yet, but one can wonder ...

[seeker010]

I get a black screen when I enabled Textured2D because my driver hangs during the first program call to glx. After killing the first program, then all future calls to the driver succeed. Well since X hangs my system before I can do anything with Textured2D enabled, there's no way for me to test it

[djdoo]

I got good and bad news guys...

Starting from the bad, I cannot also enable Textured2D option cause X hangs, TextureVideo is not supported by my IGP X1250 chip.
But! With TexturedXrender I get a much better scrolling situation when Compiz-Fusion is running!!

I will test more and I ll report.