ATI fglrx 8.26.18 Discussion (June 2006)

[Michael]

They're finally here! Grab them over at ATI (https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.26.18.html).



Release Notes (New Features):

# Hotplug Support for Digital Flat Panels
# Thermal Event Power Management


Phoronix 8.26.18 Coverage:

After two delays this month ATI Technologies today released their CATALYST 6.6 and fglrx v8.26.18 drivers. Contained in the ATI Linux drivers are a fair amount of changes beyond what was found in last month's (also belated) 8.25.18 driver release. We have detailed these changes and looked after the display driver performance...
http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=6879

Few other tidbits to discuss.... atieventsd, dynamic display management, R200 support still not fixed, possibility of Overdrive in the near future, X.Org 7.1 support coming soon.

[Michael]

The Lenovo ThinkPad T60 coincidentally arrived this morning. Just finished wiping the drive, and throwing Fedora Core 5 on there with a few updates. Using the ATI 8.26.18 drivers, it had no problem with the automatic installation option, and instantly recognized the ATI Radeon Mobility X1400 with 128MB of dedicated video memory. I have yet to try out the new IBM/Lenovo display switching with the atieventsd, however, that will come shortly. The T60 was using the 2.6.17 kernel with the 8.26.18 drivers. More of these mobile reports will come soon.

http://www.phoronix.com/misc/lenovo_ati.jpg

[dmlog]

Alt-Fn switch back from textmode console to X still broken for me. System completely hang.
My spec:
Fedora Core 5 kernel 2.6.17
Sapphire ATI x1600 Pro 256M AGP
EPoX nForce3-250 based motherboard

I'm write small notes about tests on my blog (http://dmlog.com).

[niniendowarrior]

DANG! I haven't even installed the previous version and another one is out!!!

If there's any problems, I'll let everyone know.

[Silent Storm]

I've grabbed the drviers as soon as they've come out but I'm frustrated.
I'm using debian/etch (a mixed selection of packages from stable / unstable / testing).

I've uninstalled the other ones (8.25.x), installed 8.26 but failed. Wanted a X.org 7.0.0. Made an upgrade to X and sucseeded to install...
Also the kernel module installation was smooth and successful...

Now the problem is, while the kernel module says that it enabled direct rendering, I cannot use it over KDE. I'm getting mesa indirect over SGI.

does anybody have an idea how to fix it?

Thanks in advance.

Oops! I forgot. I'm running a Sapphire X1600Pro (512M) over PCIe and Kernel module reports it has 256M ram. Maybe a workaround

Edit for grammatical errors etc.

[mtippett]

I've grabbed the drviers as soon as they've come out but I'm frustrated.
I'm using debian/etch (a mixed selection of packages from stable / unstable / testing).

I've uninstalled the other ones (8.25.x), installed 8.26 but failed. Wanted a X.org 7.0.0. Made an upgrade to X and sucseeded to install...
Also the kernel module installation was smooth and successful...

Now the problem is, while the kernel module says that it enabled direct rendering, I cannot use it over KDE. I'm getting mesa indirect over SGI.

does anybody have an idea how to fix it?

Thanks in advance.

Oops! I forgot. I'm running a Sapphire X1600Pro (512M) over PCIe and Kernel module reports it has 256M ram. Maybe a workaround

Edit for grammatical errors etc.

It sounds as though you have not used the native packages (in etch), or the installer specific packages. This would most likely result in two libGL.so's being around.

Please run 'LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose fglrxinfo' and post the results. Most likely it is using the one from /usr/lib/libGL.so rather than the ATI one installed in /usr/X11R6/lib.

Regards,

Matthew

[Silent Storm]

No, I've installed from the standart debian repo, maybe they've just updated it.

After running LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose fglrxinfo, it said it did not find the file (the fglrx driver thing.so) and I've just created the dirs and linked it to the expected place and everything looks fine now.

Thanks very much for your help.

Regards,

Hakan.

[robegue]

Hello everybody,

I use the linux drivers from 2 years on my SuSE machine.
After each release I test the drivers on my Radeon Mobility 9000 laptop and report them to the "Linux Drivers Feedback" at ATI.
That never helped to improve or resolve the issues:

8.25.18
1) in Clone mode (or Mirror or Dualhead) the overlay on TV is vertically stretched (unusable) since 8.20.8
2)problems (hangs) with multiple sessions, since 8.21.7
NEW ENTRY:
3)DRI not working with default installation; had to replace libGL.so.1.2 with one from 8.14.13 to solve

8.26.18
1) in Clone mode (or Mirror or Dualhead) the overlay on TV is vertically stretched (unusable)
2)problems with multiple sessions
3)DRI not working with default installation; had to replace libGL.so.1.2 with one from 8.14.13 to solve
NEW ENTRY:
4) switching resolution from 1400x1050 to 1024x768 results in a final resolution of ~640x400 (can't set 1024x768 on TV)

I notice that the 8.16.20 was almost better (but lacks the new features) then the later releases. Now I'm on xorg 6.9 and I must use the latest drivers. Those guys at ATI simply ignored my bug reports (probably because my Radeon card is not so new).

I'm so frustrated that I will think on two times before buying an ATI card on my next laptop.

[Michael]

robegue,

Had you tried posting your problem in the (unofficial) ATI Linux Bugzilla? Also, when submitting your Linux driver feedback, had you included the X.Org log, xorg.conf, and any other relevant outputs?

[robegue]

robegue,

Had you tried posting your problem in the (unofficial) ATI Linux Bugzilla? Also, when submitting your Linux driver feedback, had you included the X.Org log, xorg.conf, and any other relevant outputs?

I discovered the Bugzilla site only today. Some of the bugs are known, some aren't.

Yes I did included the logs, but for the radeon mobility cards is not supposed to have responses.

Greetings!

ATI does not provide direct technical support for laptops/notebooks at this current time (telephone or email). If you require direct technical support please contact the system manufacturer of your laptop/notebook.

ATI strives to continually improve our drivers and software and we thank you for taking the time to submit your feedback. The feedback you provided will be forwarded to our development team for review.

In the future, if you are e xperiencing a problem with a specific driver release, or if you have suggestions on how to make our drivers better, please take the time to submit your feedback at http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=491&type=web">http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=491&type=web">http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=491&type=web.

Please Note: This program is intended to gather feedback only for specific driver releases and not to solicit regular support inquiries. All support inquires will not be responded to.

Thank you for choosing ATI and have a great day.

[Licaon]

yay... now i can get a overlay on my screen just like nVidia did on Win 4 years ago... it's like on cars: stickers make them go faster! :(

(in this time nVidia asks FreeBSD kernel devs new ways to make drivers work better and faster)

but a 30% performance hit or a R200 broken support pale in the face of a logo.xpm

:(

[Yekuva]

Michael Thanks for that great Ati + Linux piece. It was a pleasure to read about you experience with the drivers. You have had much better success than I have and I was wondering if maybe someone can nudge me in the right direction to get the Ati driver working properly.
System : AMD 64, 1GB ram, x1600 Ati. OS FC5-x64 :confused:

I think I have followed the installation for 8.26.18 x64 driver from Ati. Using the installer, logs do not appear to be lethal, a few warnings about cast from pointer to integer and one maybe potentially problematic as follows
WARNING: could not find /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/.libfglrx_ip.a.GCC4.cmd for /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/libfglrx_ip.a.GCC4

However the logs report that build succeded with with return value 0. So far so good

aticonfig produces a workable xorg.conf file and display is ok.
The problem is that there does not seem to be any GL support and I was wondering what I might have missed along the way.
Trying to run fireglcontrolpanel gives: fireglcontrolpanel: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib/libGL.so.1: cannot restore segment prot after reloc
I am not quite sure what that means.
google-earth gives the same message., glxgears does not run. etc. etc.
Can anyone provide some insight into what I missed? Thanks in advance.
I apologize for the length but I thought it better to be complete than having to do multiple posts to fill in details.

[Michael]

Yekuva,

Welcome to the forums. Had the previous 8.25.18 drivers worked for you or is this your first shot installing them? What kernel are you using with FC5? Was this after using the automatic installation process or using the Livna RPMs?

[Yekuva]

Yekuva,

Welcome to the forums. Had the previous 8.25.18 drivers worked for you or is this your first shot installing them? What kernel are you using with FC5? Was this after using the automatic installation process or using the Livna RPMs?


Sorry,
kernel is 2.6.17-1.2157_FC5 x86_64 #1 SMP. I did not try the 8.25.18 drivers on FC5. I had issues with it on Kubuntu badger and so did not bother with trying it. I did have the livna rpms installed.
Do I need to remove them??
Ta for the response

[Michael]

So you used the ATI official installer on top of the Livna packages? What were the problems you encountered with those RPMs? You could try uninstalling those, and then reuse the automatic installation method again from the official binary.

[Yekuva]

So you used the ATI official installer on top of the Livna packages? What were the problems you encountered with those RPMs? You could try uninstalling those, and then reuse the automatic installation method again from the official binary.

Tried to do this again from scratch. Here's what I did
1) Remove ati supplied driver (8.26.18-x64) using the fglrx-uninstall script
2) remove all xorg-x11-drv-fglrx-8.26.18 xorg-x11-drv-fglrx-devel xorg-x11-drv-fglrx-libs-32bit
3) remove kmod-fglrx-8.26.18

reboot

system comes up with vesa drivers (wonder if I can live with just that)

Decided to try just the ati-supplied driver

./ati-driver-installer-8.26.18-x86_64.run
goes through and does its thing, install-log still complains about cast from pointer to integer and could not find /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/.libfglrx_ip.a.GCC4.cmd for /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/libfglrx_ip.a.GCC4

but again says build succeeded

running aticonfig gives
aticonfig: error while loading shared libraries: libfglrx_pp.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
running fireglcontrolpanel gives
fireglcontrolpanel: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib/libGL.so.1: cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied

Ok, I'm going to remove this ati-supplied driver and try the livna alone
More to come. (and it's such a nice day outside too, Sigh !!):confused:

[Michael]

running aticonfig gives
aticonfig: error while loading shared libraries: libfglrx_pp.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
running fireglcontrolpanel gives
fireglcontrolpanel: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib/libGL.so.1: cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied

Ok, I'm going to remove this ati-supplied driver and try the livna alone
More to come. (and it's such a nice day outside too, Sigh !!):confused:

Okay, if you didn't remove the drivers yet.... do

su -
aticonfig --initial

The library problem is with Fedora Core 5, but if you do it as su - the library problem will go away. After that if you reboot, it should work flawlessly.

[Yekuva]

Okay, if you didn't remove the drivers yet.... do

su -
aticonfig --initial

The library problem is with Fedora Core 5, but if you do it as su - the library problem will go away. After that if you reboot, it should work flawlessly.

I did it as root but it did not work.
Tried just the drivers from livna (8.26.18). Installed but control panel gives message
Driver does not provide the FireGL X11 extensions ! Panel components will operate only partially.

Today is not my day. Maybe I will really start from scratch. Clean install. Well there goes tomorrow (Yippeeee !!)

Thanks for your help Michael. WIll keep forum posted as to what comes of it.
More to come

[Michael]

What do you mean it did not work? Were you greeted with the same library error when trying to use aticonfig?

[Yekuva]

What do you mean it did not work? Were you greeted with the same library error when trying to use aticonfig?

I still have no info about GL or anything. Running fireglcontrol panel from console as root gives
fireglcontrolpanel
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
fireglcontrolpanel: cannot connect to X server :0
running as normal user gives the message
Driver does not provide the FireGL X11 extensions
Panel components will operate only partially
Palen loads but provides no info
New stuff to interpret??

[Michael]

So as root aticonfig had worked fine for you (saying something about finding an uninitalized file and then making a backup)?

If you have a place to upload the files, upload your Xorg.0.log and xorg.conf (or just try Livna again) or mail them to Michael [at] phoronix.com. Alternatively, you could wait shortly for the July ATI drivers.

[mrapples]

Alt-Fn switch back from textmode console to X still broken for me. System completely hang.
My spec:
Fedora Core 5 kernel 2.6.17
Sapphire ATI x1600 Pro 256M AGP
EPoX nForce3-250 based motherboard

I'm write small notes about tests on my blog (http://dmlog.com).
I had this same trouble awhile back. I solved it by changing my xorg.conf keyboard section to read pc105 instead of pc104, perhaps the same will work for you.

[Yekuva]

Ok so things are working now. Just a brief explaination of what happened in the meantime.
I think the problem that I was having was that the aticonfig script was somehow not changing the driver reference in the xorg.conf file properly. I tried to do it manually but I could not edit the file for some weird reason. I think it might have been because I was running out of space on the /usr partition. Can't quite understand how it got full but that does not explain why I could not write to /etc.
Anyway, since I had to redo the disk to get more space I decided to do a clean install. Spent all day doing that and then updates, all this on a not very fast link, so it really did take all day.
Added livna after doing the updates and then installed the 8.26.18 driver. Works beautifully now. Right now running dual desktop and it seems fine. I will try google earth soon to see if that works. Will let you know what happens with that.
Thanks for all the valuable help Michael, that is what the Linux community needs.

[Michael]

You're very much welcome. If you run into any other problems, or have thoughts to share, feel free to post them.