> Unfortunately Xorg developers plan to completely remove XAA soon, so any optimization work should perhaps concentrate on EXA.

I don't have any plans at all to work on this.

> Also there is some optimizations for pixman here (with patches):
> http://www.anheng.com.cn/loongson2f/wheezy/pixman/
>If you haven't already, maybe you should take a look to gather some ideas.

I have seen it. Unfortunately the code is so messy that it wasn't a suitable starting point.

> - There may be some way to improve XAA performance that's regressed a lot in the last few years, but I don't know if this is doable

Unfortunately Xorg developers plan to completely remove XAA soon, so any optimization work should perhaps concentrate on EXA.

Bernie - Does it look like you'll be able to spend any time on this bug, and if so any estimate as to when?

<djbclark> graziano: mattst88 (mainly) leio bernie currently have some interest in Xorg on yeeloong.

mattst88 = Matt Turner (X.Org, Gentoo?)
leio = Mart Raudsepp (Gentoo)

If it's the older stuff being faster is expected - there are several older versions of Xorg hacked specifically for the yeeloong that do have some optimizations, but (according to others) are too ugly / version-specific to get in mainline Xorg or be easily forward-ported to current Xorg.

There also hasn't been anyone with both the interest and skill to do either another round of ugly yeeloong-specific patches or the work nicely so far yet, as far as I am aware.

I'm note sure what you mean by "Default Distro" - I've seen them come preloaded both with something called "Lemote Loonux" (really old linux, but somewhat optimized for the yeeloong), and a pretty stock Debian Squeeze install. It would be interested to try your SDL test with gNewSense, but running the version of Linux in the "Default Distro" - as I think SDL uses the framebuffer, which should mostly (or perhaps totally) be dependant on the Linux (Kernel) version.

bernie has made some progress on this, but says his changes aren't yet ready for anyone to look at yet. He may be able to work on this some from the 3-month OLPC XO / Sugar Labs deployment he's leaving for today in $third-world-country.

Here is a plan for people to comment on based on IRC conversations.

First, the problem statement:

(a) There are changes in the version of X in debian squeeze /  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion that fix a lot of problems / allow the accelerated graphics to work. People feel that this change is required for the yeeloong to be really usable.

(b) There are changes specific to lemote in the older version of xorg on the dev.lemote.com/debian repository that make xv work. xv is an X extention that makes video playback nicer by allowing a defined part of the screen to be used with a different color depth and type. This xv support should be forward ported to the X from debian squeeze using quilt, dpatch or simular to do the actual change in the source package). This change is nice to have, but lower priority than just having accelerated X graphics work.

Suggested steps towards a solution:

(a) Install Debian Squeeze on a yeeloong to verify that xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion does in fact work well. Torture test in various ways (xperf, changing between X and VTs a lot, etc.)

(b) If (a) goes well, backport the squeeze packages to gnewsense metad, using the gentoo patches at (1) http://qurl.com/ztrlk (2) http://qurl.com/q1v63 (3) http://qurl.com/lzfhd to make it work under mipsel.

(c) Forward port xv patches to squeeze version of xorg packages in the most expediant way possible / include in .debs with quild / dpatch / whatever.

(d) Forward port xv patches to squeeze version of xorg packages in a way that is likely to be included by upstream xorg developers, and then work to do that.

Status:

djbclark and bernie working on (a) at the moment. Please coordinate in #gnewsense-dev or via this ticket if you can help.