Ubuntu 9.04: Radeon driver and GoogleEarth

[edantes]

I recently upgraded from Ubuntu 8.10 where I used ATI's binary fglrx driver for an XPress 1200 onboard GPU. Needless to say this hardware was orphaned in Catalyst 9.4 release.

I am now running the radeon driver. Of the apps I used before, Google
Earth became slow to the point of being unusable.

Is this something that can be fixed with configuration parameters?

Does GoogleEarth depend on acceleration features not implemented in radeon driver?

[Perry3D]

Pls show us your xorg.conf and the /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
Are you running compiz (desktop effects)?

I'm using a X300 Card with the radeon driver and GE runs smoothly.

[edantes]

In Jaunty the standard xorg.conf is mostly empty. This is what I have:

---
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DontZap" "false"
EndSection
-----

I guess /var/log/Xorg.0.log won't fit here. I stored it here:

http://www.fileden.com/getfile.php?file_path=http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/7/2433291/Xorg.0.log

Here is a little taste:
-----
X.Org X Server 1.6.0
Release Date: 2009-2-25
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-15-server x86_64 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux ggv-desktop 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64
Build Date: 09 April 2009 02:11:54AM
xorg-server 2:1.6.0-0ubuntu14 (buildd@crested.buildd)
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Thu May 7 08:17:11 2009
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
(**) |-->Screen "Default Screen" (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor "Configured Monitor"
(**) | |-->Device "Configured Video Device"
(**) Option "DontZap" "false"
(==) Automatically adding devices
(==) Automatically enabling devices
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(==) FontPath set to:
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,
built-ins
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
(**) Extension "Composite" is disabled
(II) Cannot locate a core pointer device.
(II) Cannot locate a core keyboard device.
(II) The server relies on HAL to provide the list of input devices.
If no devices become available, reconfigure HAL or disable AllowEmptyInput.
(II) Loader magic: 0xb40
(II) Module ABI versions:
X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
X.Org Video Driver: 5.0
X.Org XInput driver : 4.0
X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(II) Loader running on linux
(++) using VT number 7

(--) PCI:*(0@1:5:0) ATI Technologies Inc RS690 [Radeon X1200 Series] rev 0, Mem @ 0xd8000000/134217728, 0xfdff0000/65536, 0xfde00000/1048576, I/O @ 0x0000ee00/256
(II) Open ACPI successful (/var/run/acpid.socket)

...

[edantes]

Pls show us your xorg.conf and the /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
Are you running compiz (desktop effects)?

I'm using a X300 Card with the radeon driver and GE runs smoothly.

In Jaunty the standard xorg.conf is mostly empty. This is what I have:

---
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DontZap" "false"
EndSection
-----

I guess /var/log/Xorg.0.log won't fit here. I stored it here:

http://www.fileden.com/getfile.php?file_path=http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/7/2433291/Xorg.0.log

Here is a little taste:
-----
X.Org X Server 1.6.0
Release Date: 2009-2-25
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-15-server x86_64 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux ggv-desktop 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64
Build Date: 09 April 2009 02:11:54AM
xorg-server 2:1.6.0-0ubuntu14 (buildd@crested.buildd)
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Thu May 7 08:17:11 2009
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
(**) |-->Screen "Default Screen" (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor "Configured Monitor"
(**) | |-->Device "Configured Video Device"
(**) Option "DontZap" "false"
(==) Automatically adding devices
(==) Automatically enabling devices
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(==) FontPath set to:
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,
built-ins
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
(**) Extension "Composite" is disabled
(II) Cannot locate a core pointer device.
(II) Cannot locate a core keyboard device.
(II) The server relies on HAL to provide the list of input devices.
If no devices become available, reconfigure HAL or disable AllowEmptyInput.
(II) Loader magic: 0xb40
(II) Module ABI versions:
X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
X.Org Video Driver: 5.0
X.Org XInput driver : 4.0
X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(II) Loader running on linux
(++) using VT number 7

(--) PCI:*(0@1:5:0) ATI Technologies Inc RS690 [Radeon X1200 Series] rev 0, Mem @ 0xd8000000/134217728, 0xfdff0000/65536, 0xfde00000/1048576, I/O @ 0x0000ee00/256
(II) Open ACPI successful (/var/run/acpid.socket)

...

[agd5f]

Does GoogleEarth depend on acceleration features not implemented in radeon driver?

There was a regression in performance for your chip between mesa 7.2 and mesa 7.3. It's fixed in the radeon-rewrite branch of mesa. You can either downgrade to mesa 7.2 or try the radeon-rewrite branch. I believe tormod is providing packages for ubuntu. See this thread:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16859

[edantes]

There was a regression in performance for your chip between mesa 7.2 and mesa 7.3. It's fixed in the radeon-rewrite branch of mesa. You can either downgrade to mesa 7.2 or try the radeon-rewrite branch. I believe tormod is providing packages for ubuntu. See this thread:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16859

My apologies for the double post earlier. Got confused after the first try didn't show immediately.

I tried the radeon-rewrite patch. It didn't help much. After invoking GoogleEarth was still crawling and it freezes my display soon after