Solved selecting appropriate driver for videocard

[Ishayahu]

According to handbook if I have intel graphics I should use drm-kmod
But it installs bunch of drivers which I don't need, such as radeon
What is the algorithm to determine a specific driver for my video card and install it?

Primary goal of my question is deeper understanding of a system

 

[Alexander88207]

The drm-kmod port bundles amdgpu, radeonkms and intel driver, there have been an attempt to split those.

The port graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod got split or have flavors to be precise, where you can install the only firmware that you need.

You can determine the firmware that you need by looking up how your GPU architecture is called or when you install the port with everything and then look into /var/log/messages which firmware do get loaded.

 

[Ishayahu]

One more question
I have intel graphics hd 3000 (as I understand - I use Dell Lantitude E6240)
As I understand, I shoud use x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel
but it doesn't work (kldload i915kms - file not found) untill I installed graphics/drm-kmod
Why it's so?
And which flavor I should use from graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod

I have Intel Core i5-2520M - Sandy bridge, but I don't see any sandy bridge in graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod

so I guess I'm confused

 

[SirDice]

As I understand, I shoud use x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel

No, that's the old Xorg intel(4) driver.

 

[Alexander88207]

drm-kmod is the driver in general for your card, xf86-video-intel is the driver for Xorg.

But you should not use xf86-video-intel because that one is legacy.

When drm-kmod is installed and no xorg configuration is done then the builtin modesetting driver will be used.

 

[Ishayahu]

but my original question was: can I install not drm-kmod, but exactly driver for my card and how to detect it
so I'm still don't understand how to do it
once more:
I have Intel Core i5-2520M with integrated hd 3000 graphics
how can I detect which driver/flavor should I use? Or I have no option but install drm-kmod?

And related question
for every intel card I should use
# sysrc kld_list+=i915kms

does this mean that the same module is responsible for all Intel cards? And the module already decides which driver to use? Or the module is the driver and it turns out that there is one driver for all Intel cards?

 

[Charlie_]

If you are using 14.0-Release, install graphics/drm-515-kmod and use modesetting.
It is not necessary to install graphics/drm-kmod, graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod, graphics/x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel.
Sandybridge works with x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel.
But modesetting will perform better.

 

[Ishayahu]

1. I found post about old and new intel drivers and it makes more sense for me now
2. searhing at freshports by pkg-message with processor architecture name is also helpful

 

[Ishayahu]

drm-kmod is the driver in general for your card, xf86-video-intel is the driver for Xorg.

Could you pleas explain what is a different between "driver in general" and "driver for Xorg"?

When drm-kmod is installed and no xorg configuration is done then the builtin modesetting driver will be used.

That is a little confusing for me. drm-kmod is a driver, why I need one more driver - modesetting? Or do you mean that "no xorg configuration is done" Xorg use modesetting driver, even drm-kmod is installed adn I should configure Xorg to use drm-kmod manually?

 

[Alexander88207]

Could you pleas explain what is a different between "driver in general" and "driver for Xorg"?

Driver in general is that your card works with the system in general, the card gets detected and stuff sets it up as device /dev/dri/card0.

Now Xorg comes along and uses /dev/dri/card0 aka your GPU with the help of additional Xorg drivers.

The modesetting driver is built into the Xorg server, so if you only setup drm-kmod and then start an X session then it should be modesetting.

Now sometimes there can be options or features that are not in the builtin one. (yet)

Example: When VariableRefresh (FreeSync) support came along, it was only available in xf86-video-amdgpu and got later added to the modesetting one.

 

[Alexander88207]

Dont also forget that manpages exist.

modesetting()

drm()