[plug] graphic driver Debian

[Craig Ringer]

smclevie wrote:

> Does anyone have a relatively simple and safe way to install a graphic 
> driver (from source I should imagine) for Debian??

If the driver is included in XFree86 4.3 you should be able to pull 
XFree86 4.3 from Sid.

Alternately, try grabbing XF864.4rc from XFree86.org - they provide 
binary builds that are very easy to install (though not 
package-management friendly).

The first thing to find out is if the driver is integrated into newer 
XFree86 releases, or if it _must_ be built separately. I presume the 
driver in question is for the Intel Extreme[ly slow] Graphics chips? 
Hmm... (checks Intel's site) yes, Extreme Graphics 2. I seem to remember 
there being issues with those chips and Xfree86.

It looks to me, having download the *.tar.gz driver package, that it's a 
binary-only release. If that's the case, you won't find it in XFree86 
and will have to install it yourself. It appears to contain precompiled 
kernel interfaces for several common distros:

$ ls dripkg/kernel-modules/
redhat-7.3-2.4.18-3     suse-8.0-2.4.18-4GB       suse-8.1-2.4.19-64GB-SMP
redhat-7.3-2.4.18-3smp  suse-8.0-2.4.18-64GB-SMP
redhat-8.0-2.4.18-14    suse-8.1-2.4.19-4GB

but not Debian, so you'll need to build your own kernel interfaces for 
the agpgart and drm. The rest is supplied as binary libraries and binary 
XFree86 driver modules. If you don't want to use their 'install.sh' you 
can probably just read the shell script and follow what it does manually.

BTW, Intel suggest that you can also just use it in VESA mode while 
you're getting started:
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/linux/graphics.htm#8

Craig Ringer