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  10 <h1>VMware guest GL driver</h1>
  11
  12 <p>
  13 This page describes how to build, install and use the
  14 <a href="http://www.vmware.com/" target="_parent">VMware</a> guest GL driver
  15 (aka the SVGA or SVGA3D driver) for Linux using the latest source code.
  16 This driver gives a Linux virtual machine access to the host's GPU for
  17 hardware-accelerated 3D.
  18 VMware Workstation running on Linux or Windows and VMware Fusion running on
  19 MacOS are all supported.
  20 </p>
  21
  22 <p>
  23 End users shouldn't have to go through all these steps once the driver is
  24 included in newer Linux distributions.
  25 </p>
  26
  27 <p>
  28 For more information about the X components see these wiki pages at x.org:
  29 </p>
  30 <ul>
  31 <li><a href="http://wiki.x.org/wiki/vmware" target="_parent">
  32 Driver Overview</a>
  33 <li><a href="http://wiki.x.org/wiki/vmware/vmware3D" target="_parent">
  34 xf86-video-vmware Details</a>
  35 </ul>
  36
  37
  38 <h2>Components</h2>
  39
  40 The components involved in this include:
  41 <ul>
  42 <li>Linux kernel module: vmwgfx
  43 <li>X server 2D driver: xf86-video-vmware
  44 <li>User-space libdrm library
  45 <li>Mesa/gallium OpenGL driver: "svga"
  46 </ul>
  47
  48
  49 <h2>Prerequisites</h2>
  50
  51 <ul>
  52 <li>Kernel version at least 2.6.25
  53 <li>Xserver version at least 1.7
  54 <li>Ubuntu: For ubuntu you need to install a number of build dependencies.
  55   <pre>
  56   sudo apt-get install git-core
  57   sudo apt-get install automake libtool libpthread-stubs0-dev
  58   sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev x11proto-xinerama-dev libx11-xcb-dev
  59   sudo apt-get install libxcb-glx0-dev libxrender-dev
  60   sudo apt-get build-dep libgl1-mesa-dri libxcb-glx0-dev
  61   </pre>
  62 <li>Fedora: For Fedora you also need to install a number of build dependencies.
  63   <pre>
  64   sudo yum install mesa-libGL-devel xorg-x11-server-devel xorg-x11-util-macros
  65   sudo yum install libXrender-devel.i686
  66   sudo yum install automake gcc libtool expat-devel kernel-devel git-core
  67   sudo yum install makedepend flex bison
  68   </pre>
  69 </ul>
  70
  71 <p>
  72 Depending on your Linux distro, other packages may be needed.
  73 The configure scripts should tell you what's missing.
  74 </p>
  75
  76
  77
  78 <h2>Getting the Latest Source Code</h2>
  79
  80 Begin by saving your current directory location:
  81   <pre>
  82   export TOP=$PWD
  83   </pre>
  84
  85 <ul>
  86 <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.
  87   <pre>
  88   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/mesa
  89   </pre>
  90 <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.
  91   <pre>
  92   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/vmwgfx
  93   </pre>
  94
  95 <li>libdrm, A user-space library that interfaces with drm. Most distros ship with this driver. Safest bet is really to replace the system one. Optionally you can point LIBDRM_CFLAGS and LIBDRM_LIBS to the libdrm-2.4.22 package in toolchain. But here, we replace:
  96   <pre>
  97   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/drm
  98   </pre>
  99 <li>xf86-video-vmware. The chainloading driver, vmware_drv.so, the legacy driver vmwlegacy_drv.so, and the vmwgfx driver vmwgfx_drv.so.
 100   <pre>
 101   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-vmware
 102   </pre>
 103 </ul>
 104
 105
 106 <h2>Building the Code</h2>
 107
 108 <ul>
 109 <li>Build libdrm: If you're on a 32-bit system, you should skip the --libdir configure option. Note also the comment about toolchain libdrm above.
 110   <pre>
 111   cd $TOP/drm
 112   ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --enable-vmwgfx-experimental-api --libdir=/usr/lib64
 113   make
 114   sudo make install
 115   </pre>
 116 <li>Build Mesa and the vmwgfx_dri.so driver, the vmwgfx_drv.so xorg driver, the X acceleration library libxatracker.
 117 The vmwgfx_dri.so is used by the OpenGL libraries during direct rendering,
 118 and by the Xorg server during accelerated indirect GL rendering.
 119 The libxatracker library is used exclusively by the X server to do render,
 120 copy and video acceleration:
 121 <br>
 122 The following configure options doesn't build the EGL system.
 123 <br>
 124 As before, if you're on a 32-bit system, you should skip the --libdir
 125 configure option.
 126   <pre>
 127   cd $TOP/mesa
 128   ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64 --with-gallium-drivers=svga --with-dri-drivers= --enable-xa
 129   make
 130   sudo make install
 131   </pre>
 132
 133 Note that you may have to install other packages that Mesa depends upon
 134 if they're not installed in your system.  You should be told what's missing.
 135 <br>
 136 <br>
 137
 138 <li>xf86-video-vmware: Now, once libxatracker is installed, we proceed with building and replacing the current Xorg driver. First check if your system is 32- or 64-bit. If you're building for a 32-bit system, you will not be needing the --libdir=/usr/lib64 option to autogen.
 139   <pre>
 140   cd $TOP/xf86-video-vmware
 141   ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64
 142   make
 143   sudo make install
 144   </pre>
 145 <li>vmwgfx kernel module. First make sure that any old version of this kernel module is removed from the system by issuing
 146   <pre>
 147   sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx.ko*
 148   </pre>
 149 Then
 150   <pre>
 151   cd $TOP/vmwgfx
 152   make
 153   sudo make install
 154   sudo cp 00-vmwgfx.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
 155   sudo depmod -ae
 156   </pre>
 157 </ul>
 158
 159
 160 Now try to load the kernel module by issuing
 161   <pre>
 162   sudo modprobe vmwgfx</pre>
 163 Then type
 164   <pre>
 165   dmesg</pre>
 166 to watch the debug output. It should contain a number of lines prefixed with "[vmwgfx]".
 167
 168 <p>
 169 Then restart the Xserver (or reboot).
 170 The lines starting with "vmwlegacy" or "VMWARE" in the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log
 171 should now have been replaced with lines starting with "vmwgfx", indicating that
 172 the new Xorg driver is in use.
 173 </p>
 174
 175
 176 <h2>Running OpenGL Programs</h2>
 177
 178 <p>
 179 In a shell, run 'glxinfo' and look for the following to verify that the
 180 driver is working:
 181 </p>
 182
 183 <pre>
 184 OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
 185 OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on SVGA3D; build: RELEASE;
 186 OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0
 187 </pre>
 188
 189 <p>
 190 If you don't see this, try setting this environment variable:
 191   <pre>
 192   export LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose</pre>
 193 <p>
 194 then rerun glxinfo and examine the output for error messages.
 195 </p>
 196
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