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Make.conf/VIDEO CARDS
The VIDEO_CARDS make.conf setting is used to define what graphics support is enabled on your system. It is generally used only by packages that directly implement graphics support, such as media-libs/mesa and a few others. To set VIDEO_CARDS, set it in /etc/make.conf, separating each value with a space, as follows:
/etc/make.conf (bash source code) VIDEO_CARDS="intel i965 i915"
Funtoo Differences
Starting with Funtoo Linux 1.4, VIDEO_CARDS settings work a bit differently than in Gentoo and are documented here. Also note that it is possible to have VIDEO_CARDS set for you via use of a Funtoo profile mix-in.
The Funtoo VIDEO_CARDS flags are designed to have a consistent format. If just a graphics driver is listed, such as i965, then it is an X-based DRI driver. Drivers that use the new Gallium driver architecture are in the format gallium-<driver> such as gallium-radeonsi. In addition, any optional framework is listed as a prefix, such as vulkan-i965 for optional DRI-based Vulkan support for i965+ Intel cards.
Use within Ebuilds
Inside ebuilds, the VIDEO_CARDS settings is USE_EXPANDed to a USE flag with a prefix of video_card_. For example, radeonsi will set the video_card_radeonsi USE flag, gallium-osmesa will set the video_card_gallium-osmesa USE flag, etc. Pay careful attention to the use of underscores and hyphens. Hyphens are used in the video card variable name itself, whereas underscores are used in video_card_ only.
Use within Make.conf
Typically, VIDEO_CARDS settings are "stacked", which means that multiple related flags are specified. Here are some common examples:
/etc/make.conf (bash source code) # This setting will support nearly all X/DRI-based Intel integrated graphics:
VIDEO_CARDS="intel dri3 i965 i915"
# This next setting is similar to the one above but will also enable Vulkan support:
VIDEO_CARDS="intel dri3 i965 vulkan-i965 i915"
# This next setting will enable Gallium for Intel integrated graphics -- The Intel drivers are currently more mature for X/DRI, though:
VIDEO_CARDS="intel gallium gallium-i915"
# This next setting could be useful if you have hybrid graphics on your laptop and you plan to use X:
VIDEO_CARDS="intel dri3 i965 i915 nvidia"
# This setting would be good for X-based graphics with Radeon cards using gallium:
VIDEO_CARDS="radeon gallium gallium-r300 gallium-r600 gallium-radeonsi"
VIDEO_CARDS Settings
The most-common VIDEO_CARDS settings are listed below. For a comprehensive list of settings, type emerge -av mesa and peruse the list of USE flags.
| name | description | platforms |
|---|---|---|
| name | description | platforms |
amdgpu | AMDGPU is an Open Source graphics driver developed by AMD that supports the latest AMD Radeon graphics cards (GCN 1.2, HD 7xxxx+). It is typically used in conjunction with Mesa's radeonsi driver which provides OpenGL support. There is a kernel-space part and a user-space part (in | DRI • Gallium • X |
gallium-i915 | This is a gallium-based driver for Intel integrated graphics chipsets, i915 or later. | Gallium |
gallium-nouveau | Open Source NVIDIA Gallium-based graphics driver. | Gallium |
gallium-osmesa | "Osmesa" stands for "off-screen MESA" and allows rendering of graphics into a framebuffer in memory. This supports Gallium-based rendering. | Gallium |
gallium-r300 | A Gallium-based driver for older Radeon cards: R300, R350, RV350, RV380, RS400, RS480, R420, R423, RV410, RS600, RS690, RS740, RV515, R520, RV530, RV560, RV570, R580 | Gallium |
gallium-r600 | A Gallium-based driver for Radeon graphics cards: R600, RV610, RV630, RV620, RV635, RV670, RS780, RS880, RV770, RV730, RV710, RV740, CEDAR, REDWOOD, JUNIPER, CYPRESS, PALM (Wrestler), SUMO, SUMO2, ARUBA, BARTS, TURKS, CAICOS, CAYMAN | Gallium |
gallium-radeonsi | Open Source Radeon driver providing support for modern Radeon graphics (HD5430-HD5970, HDxxx, HD7xxx, R7 cards, R5 230, R9 280 and other R9 cards.) Gallium-based driver. | Gallium |
gallium-swrast | Gallium-based software-only OpenGL driver, also known as "softpipe". This setting will also enable Intel's "swr" driver (taking advantage of some Intel processor instructions for acceleration) on supported CPU architectures. | Gallium • X |
gallium-tegra | Open Source NVIDIA driver for Tegra (ARM CPU + Integrated NVIDIA graphics). Gallium-based driver. | Gallium |
gallium-virgl | This driver provides accelerated OpenGL rendering within virtual machines via VirtualGL. Gallium-based driver. | Gallium |
i915 | Enables support for Intel integrated graphics, i915 and more recent chipset. Most modern laptops with Intel integrated graphics will want this enabled. | DRI • X |
i965 | Enables support for Intel integrated graphics, i965 and more recent chipset. Most modern laptops with Intel integrated graphics will want this enabled. | DRI • X |
intel | Enables general support for Intel integrated graphics. This setting is required when using any Intel-related settings | DRI • X |
nouveau | Open Source NVIDIA DRI-based X graphics driver. | DRI • X |
nvidia | NVIDIA proprietary accelerated driver support. This driver includes support for traditional X-based accelerated rendering and Vulkan. Although this driver supports X, it does not use the kernel's DRI. | Vulkan • X |
osmesa | "Osmesa" stands for "off-screen MESA" and allows rendering of graphics into a framebuffer in memory. This supports X/DRI-based rendering. | DRI • X |
r100 | An X/DRI-based driver for older Radeon cards: R100, RV100, RV200, RS100, RS200 | DRI • X |
r200 | An X/DRI-based driver for older Radeon cards: R200, RV250, RV280, RS300 | DRI • X |
radeon | General support for Radeon cards. This setting is required when using any Radeon-related setting. | DRI • X |
swrast | DRI-based driver that does OpenGL without any hardware support. Enabled by default regardless of profile settings, since Mesa needs at least one "real" output to generate libGL. | DRI • X |
virgl | This driver provides accelerated OpenGL rendering within virtual machines via VirtualGL. X/DRI-based driver. | DRI • X |
vulkan-amdgpu | Enable Vulkan support for AMDGPU. | Vulkan |
vulkan-intel | Enables Mesa's DRI-based Vulkan driver for Intel chipsets. | DRI • Vulkan |
Intel Graphics
intel- Enables general support for Intel integrated graphics.
i915- Enables support for Intel integrated graphics, i915 and more recent chipset. Most modern laptops with Intel integrated graphics will want this enabled.
i965- Enables support for Intel integrated graphics, i965 and more recent chipset. Most modern laptops with Intel integrated graphics will want this enabled.
vulkan-i965- Enables Mesa's Vulkan driver for i965 and more recent chipsets.
NVIDIA Graphics
nvidia- Enables support for Intel integrated graphics, i965 and more recent chipset. Most modern laptops with Intel integrated graphics will want this enabled. This driver includes support for traditional X-based accelerated rendering, Gallium and Vulkan.
Radeon/AMD Graphics
radeon- General support for Radeon-based cards. If you have one, enable this setting.
radeonsi- Support for nearly all Radeon HD 7xxx series as well as Radeon R9+ cards. If you have a relatively modern Radeon card, you'll want to enable this setting.
r600- Support for slightly older Radeon HD 7350, Radeon HD 6xxx series, HD 5xxx, HD 4xxxx, HD 2xxx (600 series thru 700 series, plus Evergreen and Northern Islands)
r300- Support for Radeon R500, R400 and R300 series cards.
r100- Support for Radeon R100 series cards.