How to test for hardware acceleration?

[loukingjr]

How does one test to make sure hardware acceleration is functioning in a Linux guest? I have a few guests that things like Compiz run fine on. On the other hand, I have a few that lock up not only the guest but VirtualBox and my iMac as well.

[Sasquatch]

Would help if you actually mention those tools, else you'll get the same ones.

[loukingjr]

Would help if you actually mention those tools, else you'll get the same ones.

hmmm, sorry. I thought it was a general question. One I am having issues with is PCLinuxOS, another is Linux Mint Debian...there were a few others but it's been awhile and I forget. I thought there was a general command, something like "glxinfo" which if I remember tests for openGL capabilities.

[Sasquatch]

Using glxinfo (pipe it to 'grep direct' for a more direct answer without all the additional information) to see if you have direct acceleration. The important thing is that you have to make sure that the Host can provide hardware accelerated OpenGL. The output of the command does not give a conclusive answer, as I just tested it with a VM. My host is capable of providing 3D to the guest, the output said it has direct rendering, yet Compiz won't run and glxgears has poor performance.

[loukingjr]

Using glxinfo (pipe it to 'grep direct' for a more direct answer without all the additional information) to see if you have direct acceleration. The important thing is that you have to make sure that the Host can provide hardware accelerated OpenGL. The output of the command does not give a conclusive answer, as I just tested it with a VM. My host is capable of providing 3D to the guest, the output said it has direct rendering, yet Compiz won't run and glxgears has poor performance.

I'm running a iMac 5,1 host. Ubuntu guests run Compiz although a little slowly. I just wonder if it's possible to only be able to run Compiz on certain guests with certain set-ups. I really don't know enough about any of this. I certainly don't know what "pipe it to 'grep direct'" means. I only started using Linux at all because a friend was so enthused about it. Then I started making themes for others. I know little about the ins and outs of Linux.

[Sasquatch]

So you never used the command line on your Mac either? A lot of the commands are similar, and they work the same way in passing output from one to another. With 'pipe it to grep direct', I mean you enter the command, then add | grep direct. The '|' sign is called a pipe.

As for the 3D, if one guest can, then they all can. Or at least, should be able to use it. As I said above, one of my VMs isn't playing nice which is very likely an error in the installed packages or something else that needs some tweaking.

[loukingjr]

So you never used the command line on your Mac either? A lot of the commands are similar, and they work the same way in passing output from one to another. With 'pipe it to grep direct', I mean you enter the command, then add | grep direct. The '|' sign is called a pipe.

As for the 3D, if one guest can, then they all can. Or at least, should be able to use it. As I said above, one of my VMs isn't playing nice which is very likely an error in the installed packages or something else that needs some tweaking.

no, I never use the command line on the Mac other than to check md5 sums and set custom resolutions in VirtualBox. I suppose I could have, but really never had the need. I am a graphic artist not a programmer. . One of the reasons I buy Macs in the first place is to avoid "messing" with computers.

thanks for the info on the pipe and grep. I will try that.

As far as "if one guest can use 3D, they all can", that's what I thought, unfortunately I don't know enough about Linux to know what I may have to "tweak". I do know enough about computers to look certain issues up and follow instructions but, as you probably know, there is a lot of misinformation out there.

thanks for helping btw.

p.s. I do know enough about computers to have a triple booting Mac. Which is more than some I suppose.

[Sasquatch]

I have a VM now that doesn't want to play nice with 3D either. There are no settings changed, all I did was upgrade the Ubuntu OS from 10.04 to 10.10 (maybe it was running 9.10, maybe I made a fresh install, I forgot). Another VM has no problems with 3D (Kubuntu 10.10).
Still haven't figured out what is wrong and frankly, I don't want to bother either. I don't know the solution at this moment, so even though I'm somewhat a Linux veteran now, I still don't know everything either. I'm sure you will figure it out one way or another, if you follow some generic troubleshooting guides for 3D. You will have to work with a terminal often, for debug information.

[loukingjr]

I have a VM now that doesn't want to play nice with 3D either. There are no settings changed, all I did was upgrade the Ubuntu OS from 10.04 to 10.10 (maybe it was running 9.10, maybe I made a fresh install, I forgot). Another VM has no problems with 3D (Kubuntu 10.10).
Still haven't figured out what is wrong and frankly, I don't want to bother either. I don't know the solution at this moment, so even though I'm somewhat a Linux veteran now, I still don't know everything either. I'm sure you will figure it out one way or another, if you follow some generic troubleshooting guides for 3D. You will have to work with a terminal often, for debug information.

thanks, I kind of figured. One thing I can't seem to find a solution for anywhere is how to get rid of the flickering "busy cursor" in all guests. I found some info on an issue with certain nVidia cards running on hardware. Something about turning off "HWCursor"? something like that. But I don't remember seeing a setting like that in any xorg.conf file.

and so it goes.

[Sasquatch]

I don't have the busy cursor in my VMs all the time. Maybe something is loading in the background and never finishes?

[loukingjr]

I don't have the busy cursor in my VMs all the time. Maybe something is loading in the background and never finishes?

sorry, I didn't explain that too well. whenever there is a busy cursor, it "bounces", "flickers: etc... the busy cursor isn't on all the time, it just bounces when it shows. I know it has something to do with the guest additions because it never does it when running a Live CD in virtualbox. And, it doesn't do it until after you log into the guest, assuming one doesn't have autologin set of course.

[Sasquatch]

Don't have that either. Weird. Maybe it has something to do with Mac as host? I run Xubuntu 10.10 as Host.

[loukingjr]

Don't have that either. Weird. Maybe it has something to do with Mac as host? I run Xubuntu 10.10 as Host.

Possibly, I suspect there are a few things about the Mac version of VirtualBox that crop up, but not in others. And it might be because my Mac uses an ATI Radeon 1600 chipset as opposed to a real graphics card. I can live with certain things not working. What I have trouble with is when no one seems to know if there is an issue. Makes me think I did something wrong, as opposed to it will never work that way on my Mac.

I only run into this because I have installed more than 30 guests of various flavors, some of which run great, some not so great. And I will have to check but now that I think of it, I don't think the busy cursor "bounces" in my Windows XP guest. I would have to check.

[loukingjr]

Interesting, the "busy cursor" in my XP guest doesn't bounce at all. Just Linux guests.