1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
4 <meta http-equiv=
"content-type" content=
"text/html; charset=utf-8">
5 <title>VMware guest GL driver
</title>
6 <link rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" href=
"mesa.css">
11 <h1>The Mesa
3D Graphics Library
</h1>
14 <iframe src=
"contents.html"></iframe>
17 <h1>VMware guest GL driver
</h1>
20 This page describes how to build, install and use the
21 <a href=
"https://www.vmware.com/">VMware
</a> guest GL driver
22 (aka the SVGA or SVGA3D driver) for Linux using the latest source code.
23 This driver gives a Linux virtual machine access to the host's GPU for
24 hardware-accelerated
3D.
25 VMware Workstation running on Linux or Windows and VMware Fusion running on
26 MacOS are all supported.
30 With the August
2015 Workstation
12 / Fusion
8 releases, OpenGL
3.3
31 is supported in the guest.
34 <li>The VM is configured for virtual hardware version
12.
35 <li>The host OS, GPU and graphics driver supports DX11 (Windows) or
36 OpenGL
4.0 (Linux, Mac)
37 <li>On Linux, the vmwgfx kernel module must be version
2.9.0 or later.
38 <li>A recent version of Mesa with the updated svga gallium driver.
43 Otherwise, OpenGL
2.1 is supported.
47 With the Fall
2018 Workstation
15 / Fusion
11 releases, additional
48 features are supported in the driver:
50 <li>Multisample antialiasing (
2x,
4x)
51 <li>GL_ARB/AMD_draw_buffers_blend
52 <li>GL_ARB_sample_shading
53 <li>GL_ARB_texture_cube_map_array
54 <li>GL_ARB_texture_gather
55 <li>GL_ARB_texture_query_lod
56 <li>GL_EXT/OES_draw_buffers_indexed
59 This requires version
2.15.0 or later of the vmwgfx kernel module and
60 the VM must be configured for hardware version
16 or later.
64 OpenGL
3.3 support can be disabled by setting the environment variable
66 You will then have OpenGL
2.1 support.
67 This may be useful to work around application bugs (such as incorrect use
68 of the OpenGL
3.x core profile).
72 Most modern Linux distros include the SVGA3D driver so end users shouldn't
73 be concerned with this information.
74 But if your distro lacks the driver or you want to update to the latest code
75 these instructions explain what to do.
79 For more information about the X components see these wiki pages at x.org:
82 <li><a href=
"https://wiki.x.org/wiki/vmware">
84 <li><a href=
"https://wiki.x.org/wiki/vmware/vmware3D">
85 xf86-video-vmware Details
</a>
91 The components involved in this include:
93 <li>Linux kernel module: vmwgfx
94 <li>X server
2D driver: xf86-video-vmware
95 <li>User-space libdrm library
96 <li>Mesa/gallium OpenGL driver:
"svga"
100 All of these components reside in the guest Linux virtual machine.
101 On the host, all you're doing is running VMware
102 <a href=
"https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/">Workstation
</a> or
103 <a href=
"https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/">Fusion
</a>.
107 <h2>Prerequisites
</h2>
110 <li>Kernel version at least
2.6.25
111 <li>Xserver version at least
1.7
112 <li>Ubuntu: For ubuntu you need to install a number of build dependencies.
114 sudo apt-get install git-core
115 sudo apt-get install automake libtool libpthread-stubs0-dev
116 sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev x11proto-xinerama-dev libx11-xcb-dev
117 sudo apt-get install libxcb-glx0-dev libxrender-dev
118 sudo apt-get build-dep libgl1-mesa-dri libxcb-glx0-dev
120 <li>Fedora: For Fedora you also need to install a number of build dependencies.
122 sudo yum install mesa-libGL-devel xorg-x11-server-devel xorg-x11-util-macros
123 sudo yum install libXrender-devel.i686
124 sudo yum install automake gcc libtool expat-devel kernel-devel git-core
125 sudo yum install makedepend flex bison
130 Depending on your Linux distro, other packages may be needed.
131 The configure scripts should tell you what's missing.
136 <h2>Getting the Latest Source Code
</h2>
138 Begin by saving your current directory location:
144 <li>Mesa/Gallium master branch. This code is used to build libGL, and the direct rendering svga driver for libGL, vmwgfx_dri.so, and the X acceleration library libxatracker.so.x.x.x.
146 git clone https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa.git
148 <li>VMware Linux guest kernel module. Note that this repo contains the complete DRM and TTM code. The vmware-specific driver is really only the files prefixed with vmwgfx.
150 git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/vmwgfx
152 <li>libdrm, a user-space library that interfaces with drm.
153 Most distros ship with this but it's safest to install a newer version.
154 To get the latest code from git:
156 git clone https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/drm.git
158 <li>xf86-video-vmware. The chainloading driver, vmware_drv.so, the legacy driver vmwlegacy_drv.so, and the vmwgfx driver vmwgfx_drv.so.
160 git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-vmware
165 <h2>Building the Code
</h2>
169 Determine where the GL-related libraries reside on your system and set
170 the LIBDIR environment variable accordingly.
172 For
32-bit Ubuntu systems:
174 export LIBDIR=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
176 For
64-bit Ubuntu systems:
178 export LIBDIR=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
180 For
32-bit Fedora systems:
182 export LIBDIR=/usr/lib
184 For
64-bit Fedora systems:
186 export LIBDIR=/usr/lib64
194 ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=${LIBDIR}
198 <li>Build Mesa and the vmwgfx_dri.so driver, the vmwgfx_drv.so xorg driver, the X acceleration library libxatracker.
199 The vmwgfx_dri.so is used by the OpenGL libraries during direct rendering,
200 and by the Xorg server during accelerated indirect GL rendering.
201 The libxatracker library is used exclusively by the X server to do render,
202 copy and video acceleration:
204 The following configure options doesn't build the EGL system.
207 ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=${LIBDIR} --with-gallium-drivers=svga --with-dri-drivers=swrast --enable-xa --disable-dri3 --enable-glx-tls
212 Note that you may have to install other packages that Mesa depends upon
213 if they're not installed in your system. You should be told what's missing.
217 <li>xf86-video-vmware: Now, once libxatracker is installed, we proceed with
218 building and replacing the current Xorg driver.
219 First check if your system is
32- or
64-bit.
221 cd $TOP/xf86-video-vmware
222 ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=${LIBDIR}
227 <li>vmwgfx kernel module. First make sure that any old version of this kernel module is removed from the system by issuing
229 sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx.ko*
238 If you're using a Ubuntu OS:
240 sudo update-initramfs -u
242 If you're using a Fedora OS:
246 Add 'vmwgfx' to the /etc/modules file:
248 echo vmwgfx | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
251 Note: some distros put DRM kernel drivers in different directories.
252 For example, sometimes vmwgfx.ko might be found in
253 <code>/lib/modules/{version}/extra/vmwgfx.ko
</code> or in
254 <code>/lib/modules/{version}/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx.ko
</code>.
256 After installing vmwgfx.ko you might want to run the following command to
257 check that the new kernel module is in the expected place:
259 find /lib/modules -name vmwgfx.ko -exec ls -l '{}' \;
261 If you see the kernel module listed in more than one place, you may need to
264 Finally, if you update your kernel you'll probably have to rebuild and
265 reinstall the vmwgfx.ko module again.
269 Now try to load the kernel module by issuing
271 sudo modprobe vmwgfx
</pre>
275 to watch the debug output. It should contain a number of lines prefixed with
"[vmwgfx]".
278 Then restart the Xserver (or reboot).
279 The lines starting with
"vmwlegacy" or
"VMWARE" in the file /var/log/Xorg
.0.log
280 should now have been replaced with lines starting with
"vmwgfx", indicating that
281 the new Xorg driver is in use.
285 <h2>Running OpenGL Programs
</h2>
288 In a shell, run 'glxinfo' and look for the following to verify that the
293 OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
294 OpenGL renderer string: Gallium
0.4 on SVGA3D; build: RELEASE;
295 OpenGL version string:
2.1 Mesa
8.0
299 If you don't see this, try setting this environment variable:
301 export LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose
</pre>
303 then rerun glxinfo and examine the output for error messages.
307 If OpenGL
3.3 is not working (you only get OpenGL
2.1):
310 <li>Make sure the VM uses hardware version
12.
311 <li>Make sure the vmwgfx kernel module is version
2.9.0 or later.
312 <li>Check the vmware.log file for errors.
313 <li>Run 'dmesg | grep vmwgfx' and look for
"DX: yes".