Building NV driver from git

[Harry Putnam]

Corbin Simpson <mostawesomedude at gmail.com> writes:

> On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 3:07 PM, Harry Putnam <reader at newsguy.com> wrote:
>> Running Debian wheezy
>>
>> After cloning the git repo for:
>>
>>   git://anongit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-nv
>>
>> I got a slug of errors when running ./autogen.sh
>>
>> autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
>> autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
>> autoreconf: running: aclocal
>> configure.ac:33: error: must install xorg-macros 1.8 or later before running autoconf/autogen
>> configure.ac:33: the top level
>> autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1
>> aclocal: /usr/bin/autom4te failed with exit status: 1
>> autoreconf: aclocal failed with exit status: 1
>>
>>
>> So is it just the macros I must have? And where are they obtained
>
> If you don't mind me asking, why are you using nv? Debian offers
> nouveau. Also, is there a problem with Debian's nv or nouveau?

Don't mind at all.

For recent installs (wheezy) nv is no longer available on debian.

I'm using Nouveau but have had some problems... they may very well NOT
be related to Nouveau.

I've had trouble getting a large pannable desktop on debian.  But I am
a recent convert.  I've been running Gentoo up until a couple of weeks
ago.  On Gentoo I used the nv drivers because the nvidia drivers were
not working smoothly at that time (thats a few yrs ago) and I just
continued using nv and enjoyng a 2048 x 1536 oversized desktop that
was pannable.

   (I was getting the size in xorg.conf with a line:
     Virtual 2048 1536
   In one of the screen sections)

There are probably many much better people to ask about any problems
on debian.  I'm a green horn and seem to be having a good bit of
trouble that others do not appear to be having.

I'm currently using the Nouveau driver... it was not by intent so much
as that is what the install left me with.

I've since attempted to use XrandR to try to get that big spacious
desktop but although it appears to resize the desktop, the mouse is
unable to pan out into it.

I was trying to determine if Nouveau might be why I'm not able to get
a panning desktop.  So I have no good reason or evidence to think
that.  But thought I might try to recreate the conditions I had on
Gentoo and see if the problem went away.

I will describe what I see following this xrandr cmd:

xrandr --output DVI-I-1  --mode 1440x900 --panning 1680x1050

I see an image I have been using for background grow quite a lot.
The panel that fluxbox has put on the bottom of my display has moved
out of site.  Apps that I had running have moved to the right several
inches. 

Only problem is the mouse will not pan out to the new size.

I've seen mention of several different bugs on various linux OSs that
sound like they might be related and that my description above is
similar too.