# Matrox Parhelia driver support in Gentoo portage.

## KBAKEP

I don't know where to post my message, so I placed it here.

I ordered a Matrox Parhelia videocard PH-A128B. I know that Matrox has Linux drivers: http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm.

They only support 2D for the moment but anyway.

In directory media-video there are only NVidia drivers. Is it possible to include in portage Parhelia's Linux drivers as easy as NVidia's ones?

Does anybody need it?

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## heijs

You have to be a registered user to download the drivers, so I'm afraid that it can not be included in portage (as an automagic download)  :Sad: , but you yourself could make an ebuild like for example the realplayer ebuild that tells the user to download the driver first and put it in /usr/portage/distfiles and after the user can emerge the driver   :Smile: 

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## lez

i too have a matrox parhelia and thought that this would be a real pain to install, but with a little help from a mate of mine i managed it pretty easily

the drivers are compiled & set-up, etc, via the script supplied by matrox, between this and the example config files, you can set up the parhelia in a matter of mins

the only prob is you have to edit the install dir in the script to take account of the fact that it tries to install the mtx.o module in a non-existent videos subdirectory... here:

/lib/modules/"kernel-release"/kernel/drives/video

and in a place where gentoo does not seem to look in

(i added this to the script as the back up install dir, and made that directory in case the script needed it)

but directed it to 

/lib/modules/"kernel-release"/kernel/drives/char/drm

which is where  i found the normal graphics modules

also i could not do a modprobe agpgart, but found buy looking in dmesg that it was already there and loaded, so you dont need to as told in the matrox instructions, i assume this is for older kernels that dont have it biult in or something.

anyway it is in /lib/modules/"kernel-release"/kernel/drives/char/agp/

the install dir info is at the top of the script

i would paste it in here but due to a motherboard corruption prob i cant get to that machine

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## KBAKEP

A new version of drivers 0.3.0 is out.

Does anything changed in ebuilding driver installation?

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## Cuardin

Apparently there is a  PRO Beta 0.4.0 out somehow that supports 3D. It requires some manual installation and apparently you need to ask for permission to download the PRO drivers, and since I as of yet own no parhelia cards I will not work too hard on it just yet. However, they discuss the issue and give some good hints in 

http://forum.matrox.com/mgaforum/Forum2/HTML/002296.html

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## Cuardin

I found the email adress to use. Mail me if you want it.

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## jekyl

The support for the matrox pharelia driver sucks, they have been working on the driver for a year now. And all they have managed to create is a beta without xv support or powersaving support for my monitors.

I don't like to have a system hang everytime I risk a game test.

Well I guesse there are enough disscusions like this on the matrox forum..

but I am so damn angry and disappointed at matrox for the bad support  :Sad: 

When I bought my card I was pretty sure that it was a good buy now I whish i had bought a older matrox card and a new nvidia card. It would have been cheaper + I would have had real 3d support in linux and 3 monitor desktop..

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## sz.tomika

I found some drivers at http://tuxx-home.at/

Could someone please include these in portage?

Thanks

Thomas

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## Cuardin

Why do you even bother. I am chucking my Parhelia in the garbage before this summer ends, and so should you.

It simply isn't worth the hassle.

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## sz.tomika

1.Because under windows it performs briliantly

2.don't want to spend more money

3. 3 monitor setup

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## Cuardin

I know. That was the reason I bought mine, way back.

But I think there are about  Gentoo users who have the Parhelia and use it completey. I just use the driver from tuxx in raw format and it works as well as using an ebuild.

--DA

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