AMD 8.41.7 Display Driver Released -- The Holy Crap Edition!

[Snake]

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/64bit/ati-driver-installer-8.41.7-x86.x86_64.run

[Stormking]

It's out!

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.41.7-x86.x86_64.run

Download page still links to 8.40.x, but my link works. It's about 49MB in size.

[Michael]

Link: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.41.7-x86.x86_64.run

Release Notes: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.41.7.html

The ATI 8.41.7 driver is out, go download it!

[Michael]

September 12, 2007 -- After talking for the past week about AMD's new Linux efforts with announcing a new fglrx Linux driver overhaul and releasing ATI GPU specifications without a Non-Disclosure Agreement, the 8.41 fglrx driver is now released. You can now download this new Linux driver right now.This is the closed-source proprietary driver, however, much of the "engine" for this driver is rewritten and as we have been sharing in articles from the Radeon X800XL performance to the flagship Radeon HD 2900XT there are certainly some new accomplishments coming out of the AMD Linux camp. The new baseline open-source driver written by Novell should also be released shortly. In this article we have a few additional remarks on the AMD 8.41 Linux display driver for ATI Radeon graphics cards.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=11005

[mile]

record in Caution messages...

/edit and extra "Known Issues" :D:D or :(

[slacker]

uhm, it says:

Caution: The AMD Proprietary Linux driver version 8.41.7 is not recommended for the ATI Mobility and Integrated Products. Using this driver on any of the following products may result in stability issues. AMD recommends using the AMD Proprietary Linux software driver version 8.40.4.

I got an X1400 mobility, should I risk?

[gigabz666]

Really? I kind of installed it already without looking at the notes, hehe. I have an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 too. It seems ok at the moment though. Not really done much with it to be honest.

[Stormking]

Going back to 8.40.4!

XVideo on TV-Out is still not working. OpenGL on TV-Out doesn't work anymore. So I can't use xine's xv output driver nor it's opengl output driver.

I'm very very disappointed!!! This is what I waited for all day?

[Michael]

uhm, it says:

Caution: The AMD Proprietary Linux driver version 8.41.7 is not recommended for the ATI Mobility and Integrated Products. Using this driver on any of the following products may result in stability issues. AMD recommends using the AMD Proprietary Linux software driver version 8.40.4.

I got an X1400 mobility, should I risk?

I've been running an X1400 Mobility with 8.41 since July with no stability problems... only issues has been some mouse and watermark corruption, but the watermark corruption won't be a problem for you since you have no watermark :)

[enzobelmont]

downloading now... hehehe :)

[enzobelmont]

michael: can you clarify please if is safe to use the new driver with my xpress 200M laptop??

thanks in advance.

[SoftIce]

no success here, had to revert to 8.40.4 :(

kdm didn't want to start anymore:

Sep 12 17:01:26 dude kdm[6753]: X server for display :0 terminated unexpectedly
Sep 12 17:01:26 dude kdm[6753]: Display :0 cannot be opened
Sep 12 17:01:26 dude kdm[6753]: Unable to fire up local display :0; disabling.

with ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 (should be similar to X1400 and X1600).

[Kano]

Try running glxgears and close it ;)

[mile]

same crappy desktop performance as with 8.40 version

as we said..there "may" be some OpenGL performance improvements, but basic things are not fixed

[d2kx]

Please remember that this is the first driver with the new codebase. If you're having bugs, there is a good chance that they get fixed in 8.42 or later. Don't post "AMD sucks" when you have one new bug. Why I am posting this? Because I bet some people will be posting "AMD doesn't care for community support - I have a new bug!!1111".

I was talking about R200-R500.

[Michael]

no success here, had to revert to 8.40.4 :(

kdm didn't want to start anymore:

Sep 12 17:01:26 dude kdm[6753]: X server for display :0 terminated unexpectedly
Sep 12 17:01:26 dude kdm[6753]: Display :0 cannot be opened
Sep 12 17:01:26 dude kdm[6753]: Unable to fire up local display :0; disabling.

with ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 (should be similar to X1400 and X1600).

FireGLs are totally disabled in this release.

[Michael]

michael: can you clarify please if is safe to use the new driver with my xpress 200M laptop??

thanks in advance.

It should work. If you run into bugs just go back to 8.40.

[Kano]

For Debian/Ubuntu user who did not use lrm-manager:

http://kanotix.com/files/install-fglrx-debian.sh

Script has correct fallback for FireGL cards, but I would like to know if someone can run those with ChipID override too. I don't think that this driver is a valid replacement for 8.40.4 in general because of 37 now unsupported cards. 22 cards are newly supported. Here is a list of the removed ones:
ATI FireGL T2 (FireGL T2 4154)
ATI FireGL V3100 (RV370 GL V3100 5B64)
ATI FireGL V3200 (RV380 GL 3E54)
ATI FireGL V3300 (RV515 GL 7152)
ATI FireGL V3350 (RV515 GL (7153) 7153)
ATI FireGL V3400 (RV530 GL 128 MB 71D2)
ATI FireGL V5000 (RV410 GL - 8P 5E48)
ATI FireGL V5100 (R423 GL - PRO2 5551)
ATI FireGL V5200 (RV530 GL 256 MB 71DA)
ATI FireGL V5300 (R520 GL 12P 7105)
ATI FireGL V7100 (R423 GL XT 5550)
ATI FireGL V7200 (R480 GL 16P 5D50)
ATI FireGL V7200 (R520 GL 16P 7104)
ATI FireGL V7300 (R520 GL 16P 528 MB 710E)
ATI FireGL V7350 (R520 GL 16P 1 GB 710F)
ATI FireGL V7400 (RV570 GL 728C)
ATI FireGL X1 (FireGL X1 4E47)
ATI FireGL X2-256/X2-256t (FireGL X2 4E4B)
ATI FireGL X3-256 (R420 GL 4A4D)
ATI FireGL Z1 (FireGL Z1 4147)
ATI FireMV 2200 (RV370 FireMV 2200 5B65)
ATI FireMV 2250 (RV516 719B)
ATI FireMV 2400 (M24 3151)
ATI MOBILITY FIRE GL T2/T2e (M10-GL 4E54)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V3100 (M22 GL 5464)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V3200 (M24 GL 3154)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5000 (M26-CSP128GL 564A)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5000 (M26-GL 564B)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5100 (M28 GL 5D49)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5200 (M56 GL 71C4)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5250 (M66 GL 71D4)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V7100 (M58 GL 12P 7106)
ATI MOBILITY FireGL V7200 (M58 GL 16P 7103)
M54-GL (M54-GL 7144)
R430 GL PRO (R430 GL PRO 5555)
R430 GL XT (R430 GL XT 5554)
R480 GL 12P (R480 GL 12P 5D51)

[koolmanoncampus]

Wow. Cudos to ATI... I am glad of their recent move to open up their driver development process; maybe something will actually get fixed. I've been upgrading my fglrx driver version month after month; and the same errors have been there for over 4 months. Occasionally new errors pop up(like this annoying corruption error on my second screen). I don't even know or care if there are performance benefits to using this driver.

I think a more accurate title for this driver release is:

"HOLY CRAP! I can't believe I waited a week for this release"

[Stormking]

same crappy desktop performance as with 8.40 version

as we said..there "may" be some OpenGL performance improvements, but basic things are not fixed
I totally agree. I want to use my computer for two things. Work and watching movies on my TV. For the first, performance should be better. The second is not possible thanks to stupid bugs that happen to be there for 21 months, now.

It's a shame.

[carpman]

Some interesting stuff in my X log

NOTE: I'm prefacing this by saying I didn't look for this under 8.40

(==) AIGLX enabled

(II) fglrx(0): DRI initialization successfull!

(II) fglrx(0): Direct rendering enabled

However, at the end I get

(EE) AIGLX error: DRIAuthConnection failed
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering


So.... close....

[greg]

I'm running Ubuntu Feisty, fully updated, and just installed the ATI driver via the "automatic" installer. Everything went fine, but I cannot load the module and because of that not start Xorg with fglrx active:


[ 586.296000] [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 403 MBytes.
[ 586.296000] [fglrx] ASYNCIO init succeed!
[ 586.296000] [fglrx] PAT is enabled successfully!
[ 586.296000] [fglrx:firegl_init_module] *ERROR* firegl_stub_register failed


The card is an X200M...

[Z1Kenobi]

hi ,

the release note says it support ati hd 2400 series under the "ATI Desktop and Integrated Product Family Support" section.

What about my Ati Mobility Radeon HD 2400 ?? Nothing about it in this note ...

Do you think it can work or do i have to wait for a future release .....

[opera]

Great. People are having huge problems. No 2.6.23, no AIGLX.

I said it would suck, and it sucked. I might not even download it... ATI did it again. Michael did it again.
Could you just stop spreading so much never-to-be-fulfilled BS?

1 week from now, if the new driver is as bad as you say, we'll all hail you as the new Nostradamus predictor@home. Until then stfu, you have no real basis for your predictions.

I didn't STFU because I had a very strong feeling I would be right. And obviously I was.
Now you hail me, bitch ;)

One more month. One more bugfix? Cause from what I can see on the notes of .41, the "Known Issues"-list has basically not stopped growing.

Could you who haven't understood it yet, please get this straight: ATI SUCKS UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE.

And no proof yet. Next month? Don't count on it. But count on Michael, he da man!

EDIT:
By the way... Oktoberfest, Michael? "Down-right failure" seems more right... But but..

You da man Michael, you da man!

[Svartalf]

uhm, it says:

Caution: The AMD Proprietary Linux driver version 8.41.7 is not recommended for the ATI Mobility and Integrated Products. Using this driver on any of the following products may result in stability issues. AMD recommends using the AMD Proprietary Linux software driver version 8.40.4.

I got an X1400 mobility, should I risk?

I think it's more likely to be in regards to things like suspend/resume than much of anything else (as in it don't work- heh...)- and possibly Hypermemory support.

I'll brave it with my Xpress200M shortly and see if the RS480 support's moderately stable with Hypermemory- and what the suspend/hibernate/resume behaviors are. I'm gifting my mother with that laptop shortly so if I mess it up too badly it's not a big loss- just burn it down, start over.

[Michael]

Here is the warning AMD will make you agree with before downloading the driver once it officially appears at AMD.com:

The AMD Proprietary Linux driver version 8.41 is recommended for the ATI Radeon HD 2000 family only.

AMD recommends users of cards other than the ATI Radeon HD 2000 family continue to use the currently posted drivers for that product available for download on http://ati.amd.com/

Future releases will return to a unified driver supporting all product
families.

How this affects users:
Using this driver may result in stability issues on non-Workstation products. This driver will not work with any ATI FireGL or ATI FireMV products.

How this affects distribution maintainers and packagers:
This driver is not suitable for inclusion in distributions and is
recommended to not be packaged into any mainstream distribution update. Distribution vendors may repackage and provide experimental packages, but should include the above warning to users.

[phreadom]

I just installed the new driver, but now X won't start...


(II) LoadModule: "GLcore"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libGLcore.so
(II) Module GLcore: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 7.2.0, module version = 1.0.0
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 0.3
(II) GLX: Initialized MESA-PROXY GL provider for screen 0

Backtrace:
0: /usr/X11R6/bin/X(xf86SigHandler+0x81) [0x80c5d91]
1: [0xffffe420]
2: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5c6ea24]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5c6809c]
4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5bfb3fb]
5: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5c0d196]
6: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5bfa3d9]
7: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5c23c12]
8: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5c11ebd]
9: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5c13469]
10: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5b9a6e3]
11: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5b8ff88]
12: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5b90670]
13: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so(esutInit+0x74) [0xb5b8f484]
14: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so [0xb5b8b17b]
15: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//glesx.so(GlesxExtensionInit+0x9b) [0xb5b8a3fb]
16: /usr/X11R6/bin/X(InitExtensions+0xa2) [0x80f4412]
17: /usr/X11R6/bin/X(main+0x2af) [0x807459f]
18: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xdc) [0xb7d94ebc]
19: /usr/X11R6/bin/X(FontFileCompleteXLFD+0x1e1) [0x8073ab1]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting


I really hope this is something that can be fixed to get working... I've been stuck with a largely worthless AGP X1600 512mb card for weeks now. :( I was really looking foward to this driver release.

EDIT: I see from Michael's post above that basically this driver release is pretty much worthless for anyone other than the handful of people running an HD2000 series card?

:( :( :( :( :( !!!!

[Stormking]

One more month. One more bugfix? Cause from what I can see on the notes of .41, the "Known Issues"-list has basically not stopped growing.
It's not only that. The "Known Issues" list would be at least ten times the size it is, if they would acknowledge all the bugs on the unofficial bugzilla that have been confirmed by many, many users.

[d2kx]

Please try it for yourself before complaining.

I can confirm R500 bugs with Nexuiz and Xmoto. I can confirm performance improvements all over the place. I can confirm AA/AF not avaible in the AMDCCCLE for 8.41.

8.42 will not only have AIGLX, but also a lot of bugfixes for non-R600 cards (like AMD said).

[Michael]

hi ,

the release note says it support ati hd 2400 series under the "ATI Desktop and Integrated Product Family Support" section.

What about my Ati Mobility Radeon HD 2400 ?? Nothing about it in this note ...

Do you think it can work or do i have to wait for a future release .....

It should work.

[hobophobe]

For Debian/Ubuntu user who did not use lrm-manager:
Script

In a few places in your script there seems to be some Diff stuck in rather than applied. Not sure if that's intentional, but thought I'd mention it just in case it isn't.

[Stormking]

8.42 will not only have AIGLX, but also a lot of bugfixes for non-R600 cards (like AMD said).
Yeah! If all of what AMD said was true, I would not have any problems. But according to their release notes (for the last 21 months), the bugs I'm complaining about don't even exist.

[Z1Kenobi]

hi michael sorry to insist :confused::confused:but d ont you have a note saying yes it will work with an ATI mobility radeon hd 2400 :):)or not and wait :eek::(:mad:

[Svartalf]

Here is the warning AMD will make you agree with before downloading the driver once it officially appears at AMD.com:

I'll reserve my judgements until I see for myself, but it looks like this is the train wreck I envisioned back in June for this thing. If the desktop cards I have work decently enough, I'll be satisfied to continue using them- for now.

As it stands right now, if this shows to be the debacle that it is currently shaping up to be, I can't recommend anything different than I do right now, which is NVidia on anything except the G80 series chips, Intel if you don't have a heavy 3D load you need to support.

IF they get this straightened out or the specs we get prove out to be useful, this might change. But I'm not holding my breath- I like the color blue, just not on my skin. :mad:

[Michael]

hi michael sorry to insist :confused::confused:but d ont you have a note saying yes it will work with an ATI mobility radeon hd 2400 :):)or not and wait :eek::(:mad:

It is supported, yes. It is part of the Radeon HD 2000 series. I just haven't tried the Mobility version myself but it is supported.

[maggot_brain]

I tried out the new driver on a Mobility Radeon X1400 even though it's not recommended. Same old issues that I've had before:

Xv - completely corrupt and crashes the whole x-server
X-server crashes on logout or restart

and the video tearing on Opengl output that I managed to fix with the fglrxrc file has returned and is worse than ever even though the fglrxrc file is unchanged.

It's a new day, but still the same old issues with fglrx. I don't hold much hope for the new open source driver either which will probably crippled. Just goes to show that marketing speak and technical reality are often miles apart. All in all a great disappointment.

[Z1Kenobi]

t is supported, yes. It is part of the Radeon HD 2000 series. I just haven't tried the Mobility version myself but it is supported.

Is is strange cause on ati site , they make a difference between radeon hd 2400 series ans mobility radeon h 2400 series , so why not in the release note


So i m going to try it on my comp today and of course i will notice here my results , thanks

[gigabz666]

Try running glxgears and close it ;)

hehe. Yeah, I tried that first thing after installing the new driver. Well actually I lie. I did fglrxinfo first (it didn't mention the driver number). I then did glxgears. Weird when you close it.

X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).

[hoenny]

what is that?
doesn't build pkg in Fedora 7 x86_64.
8.40.4 is ok! but, 8.41.7 is fail.

Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing ATI Proprietary Linux Driver-8.41.7............................................ .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ...........................
==================================================
ATI Technologies Linux Driver Installer/Packager
==================================================
Generating package: Fedora/F7
Package build failed!
Package build utility output:
Building target platforms: x86_64
Building for target x86_64
bla~ bla~ ....

[mile]

ok few things

- some crapp is rendered in lower right corner (watermark problem again ? :D:D )
- suspend/hibernate disappeared from my KDE menu????
- video playback is same as it was->crappy
- K3B gradient randers for 2 seconds
- Dolphin/Konqueror flickers

haven't tried dualscreen

one step back in my case...

[Thetargos]

Great. People are having huge problems. No 2.6.23, no AIGLX.

I said it would suck, and it sucked. I might not even download it... ATI did it again. Michael did it again.
Could you just stop spreading so much never-to-be-fulfilled BS?



I didn't STFU because I had a very strong feeling I would be right. And obviously I was.
Now you hail me, bitch ;)

One more month. One more bugfix? Cause from what I can see on the notes of .41, the "Known Issues"-list has basically not stopped growing.

Could you who haven't understood it yet, please get this straight: ATI SUCKS UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE.

And no proof yet. Next month? Don't count on it. But count on Michael, he da man!

EDIT:
By the way... Oktoberfest, Michael? "Down-right failure" seems more right... But but..

You da man Michael, you da man!

I understand your bitterness, but why, then, if you know/knew of the situation, did you buy an ATI product? Why do you have to bash them?

I got tired and frustrated with ATI products back in 2004, I simply changed my video card, and all is "well" now, but I certainly don't have to bash ATI about it.

It's been a known fact for at least 4 years now (yes, since 2003) that ATI+Linux don't mix well together, so I ask again, why linger so long with a product you know may and/or will cause you trouble to begin with?

About the driver, I hope people will start posting performance figures in a bit, not only glxgears or fgl_glxgears, please, but other 3D stuff.

BTW, nowhere did we see in neither Michael's articles, nor other notes, that the 8.41 driver magically "fixed" issues (such as XV and others), even if it is based off a totally new code base. Hopefully, being this a NEW code, things will evolve faster and things will actually get fixed... In the mean time, though, I'll keep my eyes open and watch these new drivers evolution.

[enzobelmont]

running just fine

xpress 200M

13% boost compared to previous release (some garbage running glxgears)

one more month to go!

[Stormking]

I understand your bitterness, but why, then, if you know/knew of the situation, did you buy an ATI product? Why do you have to bash them?

I got tired and frustrated with ATI products back in 2004, I simply changed my video card, and all is "well" now, but I certainly don't have to bash ATI about it.
I own a laptop. If I could switch my graphic hardware so easily, I would.

[Michael]

As has been stated a number of times now, the fglrx 8.41 release is designed specifically for the R600 series. If you try this new driver with a R600 graphics cards, those common bugs shouldn't be there. In the coming releases AMD will fix these bugs for the previous generations. AMD is trying to make it very clear that this release is ONLY intended for R600 owners.

[Async]

just wish i could get these things to install... :/

[HighHo]

So far no major issues, Warsow which I thought i'd check does not load and now complains of not enough Video memory. Also if you use Cedega you may find you have to disable pixel shaders, at least I did or the image was upside down and going a little crazy!

Will try to find my UT2004 disk and try that out later.

[Stormking]

BTW, nowhere did we see in neither Michael's articles, nor other notes, that the 8.41 driver magically "fixed" issues (such as XV and others), even if it is based off a totally new code base.

If the codebase is new, how comes that there are exact the same bugs in it?

[Michael]

what is that?
doesn't build pkg in Fedora 7 x86_64.
8.40.4 is ok! but, 8.41.7 is fail.

Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing ATI Proprietary Linux Driver-8.41.7............................................ .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ...........................
==================================================
ATI Technologies Linux Driver Installer/Packager
==================================================
Generating package: Fedora/F7
Package build failed!
Package build utility output:
Building target platforms: x86_64
Building for target x86_64
bla~ bla~ ....

What happens when you try to install it? What does the end of the output say?

[maggot_brain]

As has been stated a number of times now, the fglrx 8.41 release is designed specifically for the R600 series. If you try this new driver with a R600 graphics cards, those common bugs shouldn't be there. In the coming releases AMD will fix these bugs for the previous generations. AMD is trying to make it very clear that this release is ONLY intended for R600 owners.

Aye, should have read the release notes more carefully, but you have to understand how frustrating it is for us, the users, who've waited so long for a decent stable driver. On the plus side though, the fgl_glxgears demo went from 60 fps to 620fps !

[Michael]

just wish i could get these things to install... :/

What install problem are you having?

[Async]

What install problem are you having?

No idea? ^.^ hehe still new to this stuff


-----------


[Message] Kernel Module : Trying to install a precompiled kernel module.
[Message] Kernel Module : Precompiled kernel module version mismatched.
[Message] Kernel Module : Found kernel module build environment, generating kernel module now.
ATI module generator V 2.0
==========================
initializing...
cleaning...
patching 'highmem.h'...
assuming new VMA API since we do have kernel 2.6.x...
Assuming default VMAP API
Assuming default munmap API
doing Makefile based build for kernel 2.6.x and higher
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.22.1/build SUBDIRS=/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.1/linux-2.6.22.1'

WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.22.1/linux-2.6.22.1/Module.symvers
is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.o
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function '__ke_pci_find_device':
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:1886: warning: 'pci_find_device' is deprecated (declared at include/linux/pci.h:477)
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function '__ke_request_irq':
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:2829: warning: 'deprecated_irq_flag' is deprecated (declared at include/linux/interrupt.h:66)
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:2829: warning: passing argument 2 of 'request_irq' from incompatible pointer type
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: At top level:
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:5306: warning: 'kmem_cache_t' is deprecated
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
CC /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.mod.o
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.1/linux-2.6.22.1'
build succeeded with return value 0
duplicating results into driver repository...
done.
==============================
- recreating module dependency list
- trying a sample load of the kernel modules
failed.
[Error] Kernel Module : Failed to install compiled kernel module - please consult readme.

[billybore]

New code, are they serious???

I install 8.41 on my Thinkpad T43 with Mobility Radeon X300 that (I repeat) works very very very well on Windows system.

Intalled on Fedora 7 correctly:

name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_OML_swap_method,
GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_hyperpipe,
GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6849 Release
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_fragment_program,
GL_ARB_fragment_shader, GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture,
GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_point_sprite,
GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shading_language_100, GL_ARB_shadow,
GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_texture_float, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat,
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_vertex_shader,
GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap,
GL_ATI_fragment_shader, GL_ATI_meminfo, GL_ATI_separate_stencil,
GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATI_texture_float, GL_EXT_bgra,
GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_blend_minmax,
GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_copy_texture,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_framebuffer_object,
GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil,
GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters, GL_EXT_rescale_normal,
GL_EXT_secondary_color, GL_EXT_separate_specular_color,
GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_subtexture,
GL_EXT_texgen_reflection, GL_EXT_texture3D,
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map,
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_add,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias,
GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object,
GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_KTX_buffer_region,
GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap,
GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_WIN_swap_hint,
WGL_EXT_swap_control


Results:

- no graphical boot, but I think it isn't so important (but I begin to doubt)
- glxgears little (very little 1500->1650) improvments
- performance improvment? where? when I try to play with TORCS, Nexiuz, Xmoto, etc,etc when I change the graphical option or try to play the game crash
- 2D Quality now is like Radeon driver (better than older fglrx)
- 2D Performance are bad like older fglrx driver
- Strange graphical errors in the bottom-right of my screen when I use firefox (line, point, strange things)

Another BIG delusion, now you will say me that this driver are not reccomended for mobility, etc, next month, bla, bla, bla, but I wait 2 years ATI (and one year AIGLX, remember when NVidia support it), it is ridiculous that I must wait another month.... and next month another delusion, I think now.

And obviously no HyperMem, no xv bug fix, etc etc etc, and some new bugs (i explained it previously).

I think this is only a commercial initiative by AMD (new cool driver, bla, bla, ???), not a real
will to improve Linux support, now I hope for open-source developers.

Conclusion: now and for the past year and I think for the next 3-4 months I see fast and cool cube and flames on notebook with Nvidia of my friends, and mine??? sigh!!!

Now I try to suspend, what do you think about?

[Michael]

What distribution are you using? Are you using the --buildpkg syntax or what steps?

[Async]

slackware 12 full install with kernel 2.6.22.1 useing the basic sh ./ati*** install command

[Michael]

slackware 12 full install with kernel 2.6.22.1 useing the basic sh ./ati*** install command

Not sure since I don't use Slackware but I know other Slackware 12 users use the fglrx driver. There is probably a guide somewhere..

[Kano]

It looks like ATI is aware of the problems and the warning of not including in standard distributions is somehow funny. I prefer to enable it for all possible PCIIDs, as the driver shows at least more speed than before. Did someone really expect that the long lasting bugs would have been fixed? I didn't... Lets see how long it will take to say that ATI is on the same level as NV. Should we give em 1 year or better 10 ;)

[Stormking]

[B]As has been stated a number of times now, the fglrx 8.41 release is designed specifically for the R600 series.
I'm sorry Michael, but in that case you are the one to blame. By continuesly writing about how great this new driver will be, how much performance increase there will be "esspecially on R300/R400", I was really looking forward for this release. The disappointment is much greater, this way. It's not only that nothing has become better, it got even worse.

In the coming releases AMD will fix these bugs for the previous generations.
"Releases" is the magic word here. It could mean next month, it could mean in July 2009. And as I said, according to AMD, these bugs don't even exist. So how can I expect that they will ever be fixed? Building trust works different!

[Michael]

I'm sorry Michael, but in that case you are the one to blame. By continuesly writing about how great this new driver will be, how much performance increase there will be "esspecially on R300/R400", I was really looking forward for this release. The disappointment is much greater, this way. It's not only that nothing has become better, it got even worse.

The performance is improved on the R300 and R400 series. I use the fglrx 8.41 driver since July on a Mobility X300 with no problems for what I use the system for. I don't play videos on there, but the performance is improved substantially.

[hoenny]

What happens when you try to install it? What does the end of the output say?

output! what's wrong?
RPM build errors:
File not found by glob: /tmp/ATI-fglrx-8.41.7-1-21724-hoenny/tmp/ATI-fglrx-8.41.7-1.f7-root-hoenny/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/*
Installed (but unpackaged) file(s) found:
/usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so
Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.v21651

[Stormking]

I use the fglrx 8.41 driver since July on a Mobility X300 with no problems for what I use the system for. I don't play videos on there, but the performance is improved substantially.
On my TV, performance has decreased by 100%, because 21 months after XVideo, now OpenGL doesn't work there, too.

[Thetargos]

If the codebase is new, how comes that there are exact the same bugs in it?

Not all is completely new, most likely the lowlevel bits (hence the performance boost) are new, but the X bits may very well be pretty much the same. Fact is, we don't and can't know for sure.

[billybore]

from root:
./ati..... --buildpkg Fedora/F7

then install all the rpms

then correctly change the xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Synaptics" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "off"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "it"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
Option "SHMConfig" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1024x768"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection


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


And then restart, and .... no graphical boot

And obviously suspend don't work, when I try to suspend the system hang for 20 sec and then return on my desktop.

Compliments to ATI, new code, AH!AH!AH!AH!AH! Are they joking with us.

And now I switch another time to radeon driver, that aren't super (no good 3D perf, compiz-fusion works but freeze sometimes due to graph card perf, but good and fast 2D perf, graph boot and suspend/resume works

[Michael]

output! what's wrong?
RPM build errors:
File not found by glob: /tmp/ATI-fglrx-8.41.7-1-21724-hoenny/tmp/ATI-fglrx-8.41.7-1.f7-root-hoenny/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/*
Installed (but unpackaged) file(s) found:
/usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so
Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.v21651

Shit, okay, that's a bug in the RPM SPEC file for x86_64 that I overlooked in the packaging script. You can correct it in the packages/Fedora/ SPEC file by adding the line for fglrx_dri.so or by deleting the fglrx_dri.so file after extracting it... I can release new packaging scripts here shortly. fglrx_dri.so was replaced in 8.41 as a dummy file late in the cycle.

[billybore]

and my games crash, and I can't see the performance improvments, but sorry.... I see a performance improvment my 3D screensaver works fast, yeah!!! a screensaver work, I repeat a screensaver not a stupid game

[Stormking]

Not all is completely new, most likely the lowlevel bits (hence the performance boost) are new, but the X bits may very well be pretty much the same. Fact is, we don't and can't know for sure.
I thought so. I even expected it. But I still had hope.

[billybore]

and my games crash, and I can't see the performance improvments, but sorry.... I see a performance improvment my 3D screensaver works fast, yeah!!! a screensaver work, I repeat a screensaver not a stupid game


obviously is a joke (I must specify it because you are Anglo-Saxon)

[greg]

Not all is completely new, most likely the lowlevel bits (hence the performance boost) are new,

I'm quite sure the only thing really new is the OpenGL part of the driver, the lowlevel bits (kernel module) and 2D Xorg don't appear to have changed much.

Well, it's a start! Maybe now after fixing the most urgent stuff they can finally work on the other parts of the driver.
What annoys me about it is that I cannot change the display brightness via fn-f9/f10. I have to switch to a text console, change it, and the switch back to X.

(BTW, I have fixed the problem I mentioned earlier, I had forgotten to unload the "drm" module...)

[Thetargos]

I thought so. I even expected it. But I still had hope.

Well, at least they've rolled out the new code-base, which is the important fact here... From what little I have been able to learn in the past week or so (ever since I got off the ATI loop) is that there are still limited resources for driver development, and they have been maintaining two code bases up until this release. It would have been nice if the team could be split into a low-level team and an X11 specific team, but if the [human] resources are scarce, they (I believe) focused on the most important parts (at the time): The core of the driver, the low-level code for better optimization. Now hopefully X11 issues will get fixed and I particularly hope that they don't get fixed one at a time!

[billybore]

Well, at least they've rolled out the new code-base, which is the important fact here... From what little I have been able to learn in the past week or so (ever since I got off the ATI loop) is that there are still limited resources for driver development, and they have been maintaining two code bases up until this release. It would have been nice if the team could be split into a low-level team and an X11 specific team, but if the [human] resources are scarce, they (I believe) focused on the most important parts (at the time): The core of the driver, the low-level code for better optimization. Now hopefully X11 issues will get fixed and I particularly hope that they don't get fixed one at a time!

the [human] resources are scarce?????


I have paid for this notebook and this card video ATI

[Thetargos]

I find it funny that I'm "defending" the developers of the ATI driver, when I in fact use nVidia :p, but I once was a very frustrated user and had my hopes squashed with every new driver release... Still I hope AMD-ATI will get the drivers right so that there would actually be competition in Linux (at last!)

[Thetargos]

the [human] resources are scarce?????


I have paid for this notebook and this card video ATI

Yes, the Linux team is rather small, from what I gather. Not much bigger than what it was back in 2004.

Edit

Not to mention that you paid for a Laptop that was preloaded with Windows

[Tillin9]

Well... My conclusion is that this is a total train wreck. Back to 8.40 for me.

Pros: fgl_glxgears now rotates the gears on the squares (was it supposed to do that before?)

Cons: FSAA is disabled! From the frontpage posts I thought this was a R600 issue, but it seems FSAA is disabled on ALL cards! This prevents me from doing any real comparison, and I think any speedup I'm getting is a result of FSAA being turned off. There is no 3D tab in the control panel either. There are still small beige artifacts with nearly all 3D applications though without FSAA I can't even test my major gripe of gaps between textures when FSAA is enabled.

Finally, certain ChipID overrides to get additional features out of some cards are now disabled.

I'll admit AMD does seem to be trying hard with those specs. and an open source driver. However, 8.41 is not what it was hyped to be. Let's hope AMD puts back everything that was disabled when 8.42 is released.

[billybore]

Yes, the Linux team is rather small, from what I gather. Not much bigger than what it was back in 2004.

Edit

Not to mention that you paid for a Laptop that was preloaded with Windows

Yes, but I specify to my dealer that I want to use it for Linux (isn't a game for me using lin, but a work), ok i paid for Win laptop but it isn't onest

[Thetargos]

Well... My conclusion is that this is a total train wreck. Back to 8.40 for me.

Pros: fgl_glxgears now rotates the gears on the squares (was it supposed to do that before?)
Yes, a feature of fragment programs for render to texture or otherwise called "render targets".


Cons: FSAA is disabled! From the frontpage posts I thought this was a R600 issue, but it seems FSAA is disabled on ALL cards! This prevents me from doing any real comparison, and I think any speedup I'm getting is a result of FSAA being turned off. There is no 3D tab in the control panel either. There are still small beige artifacts with nearly all 3D applications though without FSAA I can't even test my major gripe of gaps between textures when FSAA is enabled.

Finally, certain ChipID overrides to get additional features out of some cards are now disabled.

I'll admit AMD does seem to be trying hard with those specs. and an open source driver. However, 8.41 is not what it was hyped to be. Let's hope AMD puts back everything that was disabled when 8.42 is released.

IIRC, it didn't matter much when I had my 9500 if I had FSAA on or not, the performance was comparable. And if you want to do comparisons with Windows, for instance, you can disable AA there just to check. Texture tiling problems with FSAA enabled seems to be a common problem on some apps, and would be interesting to see if the new code base fixes them.

I certainly hold high hopes for these new drivers and hopefully 8.42 (which should be already in Beta if the Beta cycle still goes for 2 months for each release).

[Kano]

Finally, certain ChipID overrides to get additional features out of some cards are now disabled.

Could you be more specific? Fire* ids of course will not work as the PCIIDs are missing in fglrx_drv.so.

[Thetargos]

Yes, but I specify to my dealer that I want to use it for Linux (isn't a game for me using lin, but a work), ok i paid for Win laptop but it isn't onest

An honest answer from any dealer would be that for Linux (and I do not mean to bash ATI-AMD here) you are best off with either Intel or nVidia graphics. That may seem like bad publicity for AMD-ATI, but unless you are willing to fiddle with the limited support, and have a hard time getting things to work and you acknowledge that, by all means, go ahead. That was the reason I held so long for my ATI card, back when I still had one. For stability I recommend OSS supported hardware (S3, SiS and Intel), you may not have the greatest and latest 3D experience, but at least you'll be able to use the computer. Heck even older Mach64 based laptops with mobility Rages are a good option if you don't mind lack of 3D... If you need 3D, there are pretty much no other options than nVidia, for the time being.

[Xipeos]

So... I finally got to test this new driver with my X850 XT PE.

* it didn't fix my amdcccle (http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3119) problem (didn't expect it to..) or the TexturedVideo (http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4913) one
* I can now play Nexuiz with VBOs and Offset mapping
* google earth is working again
* DRI seems to work with composite, but I still get corrupted graphics in some programs (ex: xnview) (EDIT: meh, it's in the release notes)
* I gained ~200 fps in a simple SDL/OpenGL program I made that draws some GL_QUADS
* The installer doesn't work with xorg-server 1.4 (X.org 7.3), but I didn't test any further (it's in the release notes too)

I also wanted to do a benchmark with X2 - The Threat, but it doesn't work with the new driver (problems with libGL).

I'll do some more tests later (wine/cedega, some benchmarks with native games), but so far I'm disappointed with this new driver..

EDIT (again): I just read this thread from the beginning.
As has been stated a number of times now, the fglrx 8.41 release is designed specifically for the R600 series. If you try this new driver with a R600 graphics cards, those common bugs shouldn't be there. In the coming releases AMD will fix these bugs for the previous generations. AMD is trying to make it very clear that this release is ONLY intended for R600 owners.
I'll wait for the next release then. It's not like I have a choice anyway...

[pigah]

I had to link by hand /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 to /usr/lib/ligGL.so.1.2 but other than that, it works great on a mobility x1300.

I tried Sauerbraten which was unplayable before. Now it is smooth. Maybe I'll get Quake4 finally.

[Tillin9]

Could you be more specific? Fire* ids of course will not work as the PCIIDs are missing in fglrx_drv.so.

The Radeon 9500 to 9700 Pro softmod by adding ChipID 0x4E44 to xorg.conf. It was able to boost my fps considerably on my 9500s with this trick. Not that this is something I don't suspect AMD to support, but those extra 4 pipelines are there and in my cards work, I like using them. Plus nearly every version of the Windows driver has a copy with this hack.

[twistedself]

I am having issues installing as well. I have been using the buildpkg for at least the last 4 releases and they have worked fine.

I am using Mandriva 2007. I used the --buildpkg Mandriva/2007 command to create packages. It starts fine and then spits out lots of rpmbuild stuff and ends with:

RPM build errors:
File listed twice: /usr/lib/ati/libGL.so
File listed twice: /usr/lib/ati/libGL.so.1
File listed twice: /usr/lib/ati/libGL.so.1.2.8.41.7
File listed twice: /usr/lib/ati/libfglrx_dm.so.1.0
File listed twice: /usr/lib/ati/libfglrx_gamma.so.1.0
File listed twice: /usr/lib/ati/libfglrx_pp.so.1.0
File listed twice: /usr/lib/ati/libfglrx_tvout.so.1.0
File listed twice: /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so
File listed twice: /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so
File listed twice: /etc/ati/control
File listed twice: /etc/ati/signature
Installed (but unpackaged) file(s) found:
/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/fglrx_dri.so
Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.E13719

Any ideas?

I saw the previous comment about removing the dummy fglrx_dri.so... but it doesn't explain the other errors. I tried to poke at the ati.spec but I didn't get anywhere.

Thanks.

[Michael]

Any ideas?

I saw the previous comment about removing the dummy fglrx_dri.so... but it doesn't explain the other errors. I tried to poke at the ati.spec but I didn't get anywhere.

Thanks.

I am not sure for Mandriva other than contacting the Mandriva maintainer. I don't use Mandriva with fglrx.

[Kano]

The Radeon 9500 to 9700 Pro softmod by adding ChipID 0x4E44 to xorg.conf. It was able to boost my fps considerably on my 9500s with this trick. Not that this is something I don't suspect AMD to support, but those extra 4 pipelines are there and in my cards work, I like using them. Plus nearly every version of the Windows driver has a copy with this hack.

Funny, there have been times where even a real 9700 had a performance drop from one driver to the next. I can not verify this anymore. Of couse you can try modding the fglrx_drv.so directly - the PCIIDs are coded as ascii strings with 0x in front all uppercase.

[twistedself]

I am not sure for Mandriva other than contacting the Mandriva maintainer. I don't use Mandriva with fglrx.

Any thoughts on how to find this "magical" Mandriva package maintainer? :) I have looked through some of the files but can't find a name or email.

thanks

[Michael]

Any thoughts on how to find this "magical" Mandriva package maintainer? :) I have looked through some of the files but can't find a name or email.

thanks

Run --listpkg as an argument. It shows for Mandriva:

Package Maintainer(s): Arnaud Patard <apatard@mandriva.com>
Status: Verified
Mandriva Packages:
Mandriva/2006
Mandriva/2007
Mandriva/2008

[yoshi314]

Great. People are having huge problems. No 2.6.23, no AIGLX.no xorg-server-1.4.

damn. back to x300 + opensource drivers.

[twistedself]

Run --listpkg as an argument. It shows for Mandriva:

Thanks, Just found it too.

[fexx]

The screen stays black instead though...
Hail to the new codebase!!

(It's a Mobility X600, though, which is not what the new driver is recommended for.)

For a few days I have been considering to buy a ATI card for my desktop system, I don't anymore.

Thanks for the hype, Michael...

--fexx

[Tillin9]

Yes, a feature of fragment programs for render to texture or otherwise called "render targets".

I just reloaded 8.40 without FSAA and got the gears to rotate on the cube. Apparently, FSAA kills this feature and this isn't a new point for 8.41. As you can tell I almost never run my setup with FSAA.

IIRC, it didn't matter much when I had my 9500 if I had FSAA on or not, the performance was comparable. And if you want to do comparisons with Windows, for instance, you can disable AA there just to check. Texture tiling problems with FSAA enabled seems to be a common problem on some apps, and would be interesting to see if the new code base fixes them.

I know this is a rough test, but fgl_glxgears benchmarks:
Radeon 9500 8.40, no FSAA: 400 FPS
Radeon 9500 8.40, FSAA 4x: 165 FPS
Radeon 9700 Pro 8.38 FSAA 4x (either real or ChipID hack): 220 FPS.
Radeon 9500 8.41, no FSAA: 400 FPS

My favorite Linux game, Zelda64 in Mupen64 with the Rice plugin:
Radeon 9500 8.40, no FSAA: 50 FPS
Radeon 9500 8.40, FSAA 4x: 40 FPS
Radeon 9700 Pro 8.38 FSAA 4x: 55 FPS
Radeon 9500 8.41, no FSAA: 50 FPS

I haven't swapped in my real Radeon 9700 Pro to use 4.81, and the ChipID hack doesn't work, but I doubt I'll get any real performance increase.

[phreadom]

Upon digging a little more, I have to say I'm pretty pissed about this release.

We got so many promises about how great this release would be and that the only thing we had to wait for in 8.42 was the AIGLX support...

Then we get this driver and it's a virtual trainwreck and fails on many of the promises.

It only supports the HD2000 series and seems to even break or have less support for everything else.

My card is still seen incorrectly as a PCIE card having HALF the RAM it actually does... and now glesx crashes X so that now I have even less functionality than I had before.

After all the promises of the new driver being so great... and the last few days anxiously looking forward to being able to use 3D in Linux... I get this garbage today and we're told to wait another month (or MORE!) to MAYBE get a driver that actually works for the rest of us.

We never got a straight answer on the support for the AGP X1000 series cards... I've never once seen an answer as to why my 512MB card only reports 256MB mem...

And before anyone gives me grief about buying an ATI card, I was an nVidia guy for years and bought an ATI because of the incredible performance in the 9700pro when it came out. I made the switch and at the time was using the nVidia card in my linux box and the 9700pro in my windows box and was perfectly happy. I recently upgraded to an AGP X1600Pro 512MB card and was thrilled with the increase in performance in windows... and so I decided to try out Ubuntu on my main desktop machine with this video card a few weeks ago...

First I find out that basically I'll have no usable 3D. This was upsetting... then I find out a week ago that we'll be getting a dramatically updated driver that will fix essentially all of our problems (except for AIGLX) and have dramatically better performance etc. So I'm thrilled and anxious for the release so I can FINALLY use my Linux desktop with 3D applications...

Yeah... I'm a little pissed.

[mile]

I see what tactics ATI has

just add support for R600, so that they are officially supported
, for older cards they dont give a f**k...They already gave us money

[Thetargos]

@ phreadom

Again, nowhere did Michael or AMD said that the driver fixed any of the known bugs, the focus was the performance.

The issue about the card only reporting half its memory (AFAIK) is related to AGPGART use, are you using internal or kernel-side AGPGART?

[Thetargos]

I see what tactics ATI has

just add support for R600, so that they are officially supported
, for older cards they dont give a f**k...They already gave us money

Sadly, it is not as simple as that... but you're entitled to your own opinion.

[mile]

ok, I see no reports with r600 series

I hope somebody will test it and report back. Michael said, that this driver with r600 card does not have these problems

[carpman]

Insanity. This is the same crap I see when someone doesn't get their comic book faithfully converted to a blockbuster movie with every little detail intact. Yes there are problems in the new driver, and yes in some cases it's no better than the 8.40, but stop and ask yourselves this question. If there had been no announcement, if this new driver had come along with no fanfare, would you all still be complaining as much. What did you expect, every last bug in the tracker fixed? I'm sure some of the people here work in the IT industry. Does one release ever fix everything? You can sit here and blast AMD for not releasing Jesus in driver form, or you can submit bug reports early and often so they might get handled in the upcoming release. If this release has disgusted you so much that you are going to go to NVidia forever, thats great. The whole world does not need to hear it. If you have no information to share, then why not keep quiet. Stop going after Michael's throat personally for the quality of the release. I seriously doubt he tried to mislead anyone. If the driver isin't working for you, then troubleshoot. You are using one of the most advanced operating systems in the world, it stands to reason everything isin't going to work on the first run.

[spielc]

As i said I'll believe it when i see it, and from what i've read so far i was absolutely right with my thoughts. It was alot of hype about the new release and nothing more. I won't try the current release (i own a X 1600 Pro and i'm sick of playing beta tester for ati) and just wait for the next release in the hope that something will change (not that i actually expect this will happen anyway...)

[oaul]

Just installed 8.41. All lights are green but DRI doesn't work:

/var/log/Xorg.0.log:
...
(II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module Version Information:
(II) fglrx(0): Name: fglrx
(II) fglrx(0): Version: 8.41.7
(II) fglrx(0): Date: Sep 7 2007
(II) fglrx(0): Desc: ATI FireGL DRM kernel module
(II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module version matches driver.
...
(II) fglrx(0): DRI initialization successfull!
...
(II) fglrx(0): Direct rendering enabled
...(everything's happy)

$ glxinfo | grep -i render
direct rendering: No

I am using Mobility x700, so im pretty sure thats the reason for it. But the only post i saw with the same problem was a guy using AIGLX. Anybody else strangely getting Mesa indirect rendering???

[Thetargos]

Insanity. This is the same crap I see when someone doesn't get their comic book faithfully converted to a blockbuster movie with every little detail intact. Yes there are problems in the new driver, and yes in some cases it's no better than the 8.40, but stop and ask yourselves this question. If there had been no announcement, if this new driver had come along with no fanfare, would you all still be complaining as much. What did you expect, every last bug in the tracker fixed? I'm sure some of the people here work in the IT industry. Does one release ever fix everything? You can sit here and blast AMD for not releasing Jesus in driver form, or you can submit bug reports early and often so they might get handled in the upcoming release. If this release has disgusted you so much that you are going to go to NVidia forever, thats great. The whole world does not need to hear it. If you have no information to share, then why not keep quiet. Stop going after Michael's throat personally for the quality of the release. I seriously doubt he tried to mislead anyone. If the driver isin't working for you, then troubleshoot. You are using one of the most advanced operating systems in the world, it stands to reason everything isin't going to work on the first run.

*clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*

Well spoken. This driver is not the culmination, but rather the beginning for AMD to start focusing on other issues now that they've got at least two milestones in place:


R600 support.
Speed increment in their rendering libraries.


What is left is bug squashing and fine tweaking, a hard and long task that will take several releases to accomplish, but the seed has been sewn. The next milestone, AIGLX will arrive with 8.42 and most likely compatibility with previous generations of products will be there too, hopefully more than a couple bugfixes will also make their way into that release too.

[phreadom]

@ phreadom

Again, nowhere did Michael or AMD said that the driver fixed any of the known bugs, the focus was the performance.

The issue about the card only reporting half its memory (AFAIK) is related to AGPGART use, are you using internal or kernel-side AGPGART?

It's not just that it didn't fix the problems, it is actually worse. I didn't have this glesx problem before. (I'm only running now because I removed the glesx.so file until I can go back to 8.40)

As for the AGPGART, as far as I know it's not even getting that far because the drivers see the card as a PCIE card.

So essentially I'm stuck with a PCI card running at base PCI speed with half my vid mem and now with no 3D at all. At least in the previous driver I had 3D that ran abysmally slow due to the 0x AGP speed because the card was being seen as PCIE.

So yeah... this driver does worse than nothing for me.

Michael never once mentioned before now that this driver was just for the R600 releases. Nor was there any mention of possibly worse support for other cards etc. Only wonderful claims about how much better the new driver would be.

[Michael]

Michael never once mentioned before now that this driver was just for the R600 releases. Nor was there any mention of possibly worse support for other cards etc. Only wonderful claims about how much better the new driver would be.

Actually, in the first article published on the new driver it was mentioned:

The fglrx 8.41 driver is focused primarily for the R600 series and the 8.42 driver will contain additional fixes and optimizations for the older generation of ATI graphics processors. While the 8.41 release is designed for the R600 series, in our tests with the R300 through R500 series the driver has worked out quite well.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=821&num=2

It was also mentioned in other articles as well...

[Thetargos]

I would have to agree with you on that... However, and not meaning to defend Michael, he couldn't possibly test the driver in all possible combinations of hardware, still, AMD now officially states that this drivers are preliminary to support the R600.