[ltp] new T40p X developments: ATI driver 4.3.0 and screen blanking

[Neil Weisenfeld]

Recent developments of possible interest:

With kernel 2.4.22-ac1 and a recent cvs dripkg (dri.sourceforge.net),
the screen now returns after being blanked.  Previously, this required
switching to a console, blanking the screen again (e.g. Fn-F3), and
switching back.  This is a major improvement, but I know that for some
reason not everyone saw this same issue (but many of us did).  SEE
CAVEAT AT THE END...

ATI seems to have recently released drivers for XFree86 4.3 and the
FireGL 9000 Mobility.  The web form is not terribly intelligent.  I
think that the key is to pretend that you're downloading for a desktop
original FireGL card, but the driver says that it supports the FireGL
mobility.

ONE CAVEAT: with both of the above solutions I now have to switch to a
console before going to standby or the system will hang when it
returns.  Unfortunately, the option in RedHat 9's apm script to switch
away and back does not do the trick.  Presumably the damage is already
done by the time this script runs.

ANOTHER CAVEAT: dripkg drivers give higher performance with glxgears
than ATI's, however there are operations in the software that I use
frequently that are unacceptably slow with the dripkg drivers and rather
quick with the ATI drivers.  Hopefully the release of the ATI drivers
will somehow help the DRI folks.


Have fun,
Neil