ATI Linux driver 8.24.8 discussion

Kombatant · Apr 12, 2006, 01:54 PM

So another month, another Catalyst release from the friendly folk at ATI. This month's release has support for the X1000 series cards, so said owners can finally enjoy some Linux loving

Here are the release notes:

Quote:

[color=#000066]New Features [/color]

This section provides information on new features introduced in the latest release of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver. This include:

[color=#000066]New Product Support [/color]

This release of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver introduces support for the following ATI products:

Radeon® X1900 series
Radeon® X1800 series
Radeon® X1600 series
Radeon® X1300 series
Mobility™ Radeon® X1800
Mobility™ Radeon® X1600
Mobility™ Radeon® X1400
Mobility™ Radeon® X1300

[color=#000066]3D accelerated video playback on Avivo [/color]

Avivo based cards can now provide 3D Accelerated playback for applications that support XV video playback on XOrg 6.9 or higher. Video accelerated playback for Avivo cards is enabled by default.

[color=#000066]Resolved Issues [/color]

The following section provide a brief description of resolved issues with the latest version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver. These include:

Quake 3: Texture corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on systems containing an ATI Radeon® 8x00, Radeon® 9000, Radeon® 9100, Radeon® 9200, or Radeon® 9250 product
The ATI Installer no longer inconsistently backs up and recovers existing XF86 and Xorg config files.
The ATI Uninstaller /usr/share/fglrx/fglrx-uninstall.sh, can now be executed from any path

You can download them here. Discuss

RIV@NVX · Apr 12, 2006, 03:13 PM

Sounds good. Need to try this on FC5. Perhaps this installer will support generating package for it...

P.S.
It seems that they will soon be dropping support for XFree86 4.1 and 4.2.

Pottsy306 · Apr 13, 2006, 05:27 AM

so no Xgl fixes for the display 93 problem then?
0

RIV@NVX · Apr 13, 2006, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RIV@NVX

Sounds good. Need to try this on FC5. Perhaps this installer will support generating package for it...

Nope, no support for FC of any kind, let alone FC5. No support for X.org 7 either. In installer at least.
It seems that I will have to wait for livna packages after all... or does someone know how to use installer to generate proper package for FC4? Perhaps I should use RHEL4 profile? Or some version of SUSE?

Kombatant · Apr 16, 2006, 12:09 PM

Try installing the drivers using the normal script installer, then issue:

Code:

cp -rf /usr/X11R6/lib/modules /usr/lib/xorg/modules

The X server should automatically reboot after that, and then you should be good to go.

Iroth · Apr 21, 2006, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RIV@NVX

Nope, no support for FC of any kind, let alone FC5. No support for X.org 7 either. In installer at least.
It seems that I will have to wait for livna packages after all... or does someone know how to use installer to generate proper package for FC4? Perhaps I should use RHEL4 profile? Or some version of SUSE?

If you figure out how to get that working with FC5 and have the time to explain it in step by step instructions for a newbie like me I'd appreciate that very much.

RIV@NVX · Apr 21, 2006, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iroth

If you figure out how to get that working with FC5 and have the time to explain it in step by step instructions for a newbie like me I'd appreciate that very much.

I found the packages on http://rpm.livna.org/ ; you can easily install them if you know how to use yum. Everything else will be done automagically. Do you know how to use yum?

Iroth · Apr 21, 2006, 11:56 PM

No, I honestly don't know all that much other than the ls, cd, and su commands. I'm pretty sure I could find Yum if it's locatable from the start menu. If it makes any difference it's FC5 64bit.

Also, I've had problems with running the add/remove programs not updating things properly. It either kills my internet connection or it says it has some incompatabilities with other things already installed.

RIV@NVX · Apr 22, 2006, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iroth

No, I honestly don't know all that much other than the ls, cd, and su commands. I'm pretty sure I could find Yum if it's locatable from the start menu. If it makes any difference it's FC5 64bit.

Well, go to terminal, become root (su), and then read "man yum" a bit. If you don't feel like reading all that stuff:
1) yum install <package_name> - install a package
2) yum update - update the system
For FC5 fglrx (ATI binary driver), you need to use Livna repository. We need to tell yum to use it. As it says on http://rpm.livna.org/configuration.html , you can do it by simply typing

Code:

rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-5.rpm

Then you can do a:

Code:

yum update

to get new kernel and new stuff. New kernel is needed, since one shipped with FC doesn't support non-free modules.
After you install the kernel, reboot and when the system boots, go to terminal again and type:

Code:

yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx

It should do the trick, automatically reconfigure xorg.conf and stuff. Hope it works for you.

Quote:

Also, I've had problems with running the add/remove programs not updating things properly. It either kills my internet connection or it says it has some incompatabilities with other things already installed.

Dunno about this one, it worked ok for me. Maybe 64-bit FC issue? I have to try that version yet. I will tell you when I try it if I encounter the same issue.

Iroth · Apr 22, 2006, 04:48 PM

Quote:

After you install the kernel, reboot and when the system boots, go to terminal again and type:

Code:

yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx

It should do the trick, automatically reconfigure xorg.conf and stuff. Hope it works for you.

Got to this point and everything went by fine. Then when I rebooted and tried this I got this response:

Code:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
livna																[1/4]
core																 [2/4]
updates															  [3/4]
extras															   [4/4]
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: xorg-x11-drv-fglrx
Nothing to do

Not sure what I need to do from here.

RIV@NVX · Apr 23, 2006, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iroth

Not sure what I need to do from here.

I see. My mistake. Livna repositories indeed have fglrx driver for i386, but for x86_64 it's in "testing" repo. This should do the trick:

Code:

yum --enablerepo=livna-testing install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx

Hope it helps.

Iroth · Apr 23, 2006, 09:07 PM

I did that, installed everything ok and when I rebooted it said ATI fglrx failed to load. (basically something along those lines - definately a failure.)

I suppose I can hold out for a bit more support when it comes to the 64 bit OS. In the meantime I'll do a little bit of research and learning about linux in general. Thanks again for taking the time and not being a snob about it.

RIV@NVX · Apr 26, 2006, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iroth

I did that, installed everything ok and when I rebooted it said ATI fglrx failed to load. (basically something along those lines - definately a failure.)

I suppose I can hold out for a bit more support when it comes to the 64 bit OS. In the meantime I'll do a little bit of research and learning about linux in general. Thanks again for taking the time and not being a snob about it.

No problem, every time you ask

I love when people are willing to learn.

Cenobyte · May 3, 2006, 09:27 PM

I've tried FC4 x64, and FC5 i386. I've re-installed both OSes several times, I've tried the RPMs from their website, the .run install script, and the livna packages to no avail. All I get is a black screen and the system freezes hard (must be reset using reset button) when I start the X server. No major errors reported in Xorg.log file, and everything seems to be detected correctly (except video RAM which is detected as 256MB instead of 512). Also tried with and without kernel module. The only way it works for me is to use the NoAccel option which is totally unacceptable (NoDRI doesn't even work). Thing is, I don't really need DRI since I don't play games under linux, just the 2D acceleration would be acceptable for now.

Here's the relevant system specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz)
2 GB RAM
Sapphire Radeon x1800XT 512MB version
Kernel - 2.6.16
MB - Epox 9NPA+ SLI (nForce 4 chipset)

This system dual boots with Windows XP and the Windows drivers work just fine. Has anyone managed to get these drivers to work at all? If so, what the *&*^ am I doing wrong? I'm not a computer novice BTW!

*mtippett* · May 4, 2006, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cenobyte

...

Here's the relevant system specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz)
2 GB RAM
Sapphire Radeon x1800XT 512MB version
Kernel - 2.6.16
MB - Epox 9NPA+ SLI (nForce 4 chipset)

This system dual boots with Windows XP and the Windows drivers work just fine. Has anyone managed to get these drivers to work at all? If so, what the *&*^ am I doing wrong? I'm not a computer novice BTW!

Umm.. You read the release notes for the driver https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206....8.html#180296

X Server may fail to load when using an ATI Radeon® X1x00, 512MB product with certain motherboards. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22056

This issue is resolved in the upcoming CATALYST 6.5 release set with the 8.25 series driver.

Regards,

Matthew

Eman Resu · May 4, 2006, 05:25 AM

A 1900xt it's on the way to replace my crappy 6200 TC. Anyone know how do this drivers work in ubuntu dapper? Any problems?

rob2687 · May 11, 2006, 07:21 PM

I just get that black screen when starting Xorg 7 too on my x1900xtx....
What's the point of listing support for these cards if they don't even work >.<

Eman Resu · May 12, 2006, 04:34 AM

Same here

bug77 · May 12, 2006, 05:26 AM

6 months after the product release and no support for FC5? If I actually owned a X1x00 card I would take that as an insult, rather than support.

BulletFx · May 13, 2006, 07:58 AM

i wrote an email to ati about their "perfect" fglrx drivers. they answered saying that we should accept their drivers "as it is".
i think ati is getting fun of their customers.
they've already built a vista driver when the OS won't come out before 9 months at least........and they still don't do good drivers for linux. well i don't know if there is M$ in all this but i'm getting tired of this story especially after i saw how nvidia drivers work on linux. Ati should better change their policy 'cause I won't buy an ati card anymore.

*mtippett* · May 14, 2006, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bug77

6 months after the product release and no support for FC5? If I actually owned a X1x00 card I would take that as an insult, rather than support.

Fedora Core packages are provided by livna.org, please see this comment in *this* thread - ATI Linux driver 8.24.8 discussion

Discussing FC support.

Regards,

Matthew

*mtippett* · May 14, 2006, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BulletFx

i wrote an email to ati about their "perfect" fglrx drivers. they answered saying that we should accept their drivers "as it is".
i think ati is getting fun of their customers.
they've already built a vista driver when the OS won't come out before 9 months at least........and they still don't do good drivers for linux. well i don't know if there is M$ in all this but i'm getting tired of this story especially after i saw how nvidia drivers work on linux. Ati should better change their policy 'cause I won't buy an ati card anymore.

Out of interest, what is your problem with the drivers? For those with 512 MB X1k hardware, it is clearly noted in the 'known issues' section that it does not work. This month's release will fix this. ATI Linux driver 8.24.8 discussion discusses this issue (within this thread).

Also, please look at http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=14 before stating that NV's support is perfect and beyond reproach. For a large portion of users, the ATI drivers do work as expected.

Regards,

Matthew

BulletFx · May 14, 2006, 04:32 PM

Sorry Mtippett. My post wasn't surely against you as a single and I know you are doing hard work and this is out of discussion! if you have to build a house and there are only 3 workers....well then it's not their fault.... i'me sure you understand what i mean.
what i am trying to say is that there is still a lot of work to do. it's nice to see how ati after a long time decided to finally consider the linux comunity. But there is a reason why there are a lot of people that want to go the nvidia side, and i never heard of the opposite.... I'm an ati customer since time and allways recommended ati to my friends for different reasons.
Ati decided to release a driver every month. this is a real good solution, but there could also be other solutions(please be open minded!) . There could be for example a "slow" cycle of drivers every 3-4 months. during these 90 days you have alle the time to :
1: be sure all cards are supported well
2: include new "cool" stuff to the drivers
3: update the driver's compatibility with the new kernels

after 90 days do a random cycle of "fix" driver for small issues

in this way :
1: you have all the time to plan what to do in a rational method
2: there isn't no rush in releasing a driver every month looking allways at the calendar
avoiding that every month you release only fix drivers without new things

In conclusion in one entire year you avoid releasing 12 drivers. You "only" release 4 real drivers and randomly release small fix issue drivers

This is only my personal opinion but please get it in consideration....i really think it could help you guys catch up with nvidia.
GO ATI !

*mtippett* · May 15, 2006, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BulletFx

...

This is only my personal opinion but please get it in consideration....i really think it could help you guys catch up with nvidia.
GO AT