AMD Catalyst 9.3 Brings OpenGL Composite Support

[bridgman]

Are you sure that 9.5 really got installed ?

AFAIK the restricted driver included with 9.04 did not provide support for flicker-free OpenGL under a compositor, maybe you're still running some pieces of that driver ?

[ypcx]

for people with "freeze on X startup" problem: in kernel config, disable "Processor Type and Features -> MTRR -> x86 PAT support"

mplayer video playback in compiz: try options vo=x11, zoom=yes + patch from bugs.gentoo.org/258657

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now a question about 9.3 / 9.5: guys do you get anti-aliasing in redirected OpenGL app windows under Compiz? I don't..

[RealNC]

mplayer video playback in compiz: try options vo=x11

That's a joke and you know it :P

now a question about 9.3 / 9.5: guys do you get anti-aliasing in redirected OpenGL app windows under Compiz? I don't..

Me neither.

[ypcx]

That's a joke and you know it :P

why? works here.. I don't know of any other way how to watch movies in Compiz, up to 720p.
In certain scenes, when the whole scene moves horizontally, there is a tiny redraw-alignment issue due to the V-sync-to-blank not being utilized, but that's not a problem specific to the video playback, or even compoziting.

[RealNC]

The only way for me is with OpenGL + VSync (VSync works in fullscreen mode even with compositing; by default in KDE 4 and after you set it up in Compiz). With vo=x11 everything is tearing so hard for me that it's unwatchable, the aspect ratio is broken and the colors look washed out. That's why I said it's a joke. Maybe it's dependent on the GPU, I don't know. I'm on a Radeon HD4870.

[ypcx]

The only way for me is with OpenGL + VSync (VSync works in fullscreen mode even with compositing; by default in KDE 4 and after you set it up in Compiz). With vo=x11 everything is tearing so hard for me that it's unwatchable, the aspect ratio is broken and the colors look washed out. That's why I said it's a joke. Maybe it's dependent on the GPU, I don't know. I'm on a Radeon HD4870.

I'm on HD3850, and you're right, it might be due to the GPU difference.
(I should have stated my GPU type when giving tips
First I thought it's because you use KDE/Kwin and I'm on Gnome/Compiz, but then I assumed that you probably tried to play video in Compiz too - so it's probably not due to Kwin/Compiz differences, altough there may be other things in play, like Xorg version.

[oryan_dunn]

It's the same here, the output looks exactly like the first video, *IF* starting glxgears doesn't crash/freeze the entire system first. Also other OpenGL applications crash/freeze my system (fgl_glxgears, googleearth, mplayer -vo gl/gl2, etc). The strange thing is things like the 'fish-tank' inside the desktop cube do work.
Also XVideo does not work, I see a black window with occasionally a video frame displayed in it. I haven't tried some of the other video options yet though (OpenGLOverlay, TexturedVideo).

Some information:
grep RV350 Xorg.0.log: (same as Mr_Ed?)
lcpci | grep "ATI Tech":
fglrxinfo: (notice the strange version number, which suggests a release other than catalyst 9.3, which should have 8593 instead of 8543. It's the same for Mr_Ed)
xdpyinfo | head
uname -a

Same song and dance here as well, well not exactly.
I have two pc's that are running Ubuntu 8.04.3 (Intel celeron with an xpress 200, and an AMD XP 2400 with 9700pro) and in both cases, the installation was hell. I first tried the deb packages created by the installer, they installed just fine, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get Ubuntu to use the fglrx driver (I did run the aticonfig, and the xorg had fglrx listed). On the one machine (9700pro box), the only way I could get the driver to run is by killing x, and insmoding the .ko file myself (modprobe wouldn't work). Then i could start x and use the driver, but the composite didn't work like the videos in the article. Somehow, I have no idea what I did, but after uninstalling, reinstalling, aticonfiging, etc. I ended up getting the driver to load on boot (but it is version 2.1.8543, same as bugmenot above). I'll leave it as it seems to work the same for me as the ati driver in the repos.

I saw basically the same behavior on the second (xpress200) box as well. After installing, the driver wouldn't load on boot, etc. Since this is my girlfriends box, I didn't try much else, but to revert to the driver in the repo.

So, am I alone in having install trouble with the 9.3 driver in ubuntu 8.04.3? It almost seems as if I were missing a step, but I followed the directions as listed (and as verified by many other sites). And, as reports here seem to indicate, am I to assume that an r300/ubuntu 8.04.3/cat9.3 does not work with compositing and opengl windows? I've been holding off on upgrading to 9.04, since otherwise these machines are working just fine for us.

Edit:
So perhaps this is an error with the combo r3xx, xorg 7.3, and catalyst 9.3?

[d_e_monat]

Oh my! I just read (h/t baqtor) that my older card: ATI Radeon 9600 AP (AGP) is not supported by newer driver >9.3 but I have upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 which uses xorg 1.6.

Hey ATI: Why don't you add xorg 1.6 support to version 9.3?

I do not want to upgrade motherboard, processor, memory, video card and probably power supply, just to run a stoopid driver!

[bridgman]

The 9.10 Ubuntu release includes open source drivers for your card. No need to upgrade motherboard, processor, memory, video card and probably power supply.

You might want to try an early build of Lucid, which adds Kernel Modesetting to the open source driver stack.

[d_e_monat]

The 9.10 Ubuntu release includes open source drivers for your card. No need to upgrade motherboard, processor, memory, video card and probably power supply.

You might want to try an early build of Lucid, which adds Kernel Modesetting to the open source driver stack.

Hmmm, I might, but I am not into "testing"

I am using the open source driver but it does have it's limitations.

BTW I forgot to mention that I'm using 64bit. My reason for scanning driver posts is because I have a game (Driver) that is not running well in Wine. Many d3d errors no recognizing card etc.