Re: [gentoo-user] vmware opengl

[Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 1:43 PM, Matt Harrison
<iwasinnamuknow@genestate.com> wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> I have to run windows most of the time on my main desktop for work reasons,
> but every now and then I install a gentoo guest on vmware to see how the
> latest DMs are coming along.
>
> The current KDE4 is vastly improved from last time, extremely responsive and
> everything is really nice...except that I cannot get opengl working for
> compositing.
>
> The virtual machine has acceleration enabled, everything relevant has opengl
> compiled. I'm not very experienced with X/opengl/etc so I'm not sure what
> else needs to be done.

AFAIK there is nothing working currently that allows you to use 3D
acceleration in linux guest in VMWare. There are several non-working,
half-working, used-to-work-but-don't-anymore projects trying to
achieve it, but they're generally unmaintained and more of
proof-of-concept than ready for users.

The 3D acceleration does work for Windows guests, using the vmware
helper drivers. Last time I tried it (a year or so ago), it "worked"
as far as 3D being detected by the guest OS, but was not actually
useable for anything real because it was so buggy and incomplete.

I think the "official" way to use 3D in linux vmware guest is to use
the vmwgfx kernel module, building some specific (patched?) libdrm,
mesa with certain gallium configuration options, and enabling some
magic switches in your xorg.conf, though I have read that this hasn't
worked in a year or two. If you're using old versions of kernel &
everything then maybe it could work...

But I'm no expert in this area, maybe I'm wrong. ;)