Ubuntu

"glxinfo|grep -i direct" says Yes even if 3d is not enabled

Asked by marco.pallotta

I tested "glxinfo|grep -i direct" on a Jaunty system on a virtual machine (virtualbox) either with 3d enabled or not.
The results are that with 3d enabled I have
direct rendering: Yes

and this is ok. But when I disable 3d (from virtualbox settings) I have:
OpenGL Warning: Failed to connect to host: Make sure 3D acceleration is enabled for this VM
direct rendering: Yes

In this last situation I have the info that maybe 3d is not enabled but direct rendering always says Yes. I am quite sure to remember that I encountered situation (in real hardware) in which direct rendering says Yes but 3d was not enabled and I didn't receive any OpenGL warning.

That is, I always read that to test if 3d is enable or not I have to see if "glxinfo |grep -i direct" prints "direct rendering: Yes" but it seems that it says Yes even if 3d is not enabled.

Any ideas? Is this a bug for you or isn't the command a safe way to test if 3d is enabled or not?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

I dont personally trust that command. I have noticed it always showing its ok.

If the current driver provides some form of acceleration then it may report in glxinfo.

If you believe it is a bug, log a bug and it will be reviewed.

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marco.pallotta (marco-pallotta) said : 		#2

Well, I read many posts about people that cannot enable 3d and have "direct rendering: No". The suspect is that the ubuntu (9.04) version of glxinfo could be bugged.

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marco.pallotta (marco-pallotta) said : 		#3

I tried the issue on a real hardware and with no 3d driver "glxinfo|grep -i direct" replies "direct rendering: No". At this point I suspect something related to VirtualBox.

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marco.pallotta (marco-pallotta) said : 		#4

I make a clarification: the previous test was made with Hardy.
With Jaunty (same hardware) I have "direct rendering: yes" even if 3d is not enable (I can see this either with glxinfo or with the tools "Hardware Drivers" which tells to me that 3d nvidia driver is not installed).
At this point I think it's a real bug (Jaunty issue).

I will open a new bug report about this.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#5

If the system is a virtualbox, it does not see the nvidia card. It sees a virtualised video card that uses different drivers. You need to install guest additions to get full and proper display but it will NEVER see the virtualised video card as an nvidia

You can verify this with:

sudo lshw -C display

If your ubuntu system is not virtualised then you can easily install nvidia drivers to get full 3D accelleration as well as smooth the desktop experience.

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marco.pallotta (marco-pallotta) said : 		#6

actionparsnip, I know what you say, but here the problem is another: that is glxinfo, in Jaunty, says always that you have "direct rendering" enabled even if it isn't.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask marco.pallotta for more information if necessary.

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