HD4770 on Linux with Catalyst <= 9.4

[RealNC]

I was running this as root, there seemed to be a problem running as a normal user, something about reverting to indirect rendering.

You need this in your xorg.conf:

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

[droidix]

You need this in your xorg.conf:

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

That worked great. My only issues with the driver now are some parts of ETQW are all scrambled if I look a certain direction. This might have to do with the fact that the ETQW startup script outputs that only 128 MB of video memory were detected (the default fallback) whereas this card has 512 MB (although I forced it to 512 at the command line and graphics still scramble when looking toward the bridge). The CentOS startup screen is completely jumbled as well (once it gets to the login screen everything is fine).

[droidix]

I'll add that when running as root I don't experience the scrambled graphics in ETQW.

[lem79]

Well I got the card. It works, mostly.

Blur doesn't work in Compiz, in any of the modes (mipmap, gaussian, 4xbilinear). Everything else seems to work alright, though the water plugin behaves differently to under nVidia.. the waves go for much longer and move faster, then all of a sudden disappear, rather than slowly fading.

In Quake 4, it looks like things mostly work, except the weapon is textured with really low res textures. Decals seem to be normal. Not sure about other textures, it doesn't look as good as it could, so I'm guessing lower res textures are in use .. might be the same 128mb RAM detected thing that you're experiencing droidix? The correct amount of RAM (512mb) is detected in amdcccle however.

Scorched3D seems to work properly even in a window while Compiz is running. Launching 24 Strangeloves simultaneously makes the graphics stop for a while however, lol. I think it's a limitation of Scorched rather than the HD4770 though

Michael probably has Catalyst 9.5 already for testing.. (wanna share Michael? lol)

[EneergE]

Do any of you experience this bug I reported:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/372345

[droidix]

.. might be the same 128mb RAM detected thing that you're experiencing droidix? The correct amount of RAM (512mb) is detected in amdcccle however.

It might sounds like the ID games are having trouble detecting the correct amount of RAM, did you try to force it to use 512?

[lem79]

Do any of you experience this bug I reported:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/372345

Do you mean just the Xorg process (as seen in top)? I tried maximising Firefox a few times, a terminal with transparency, and also shading (rolling up?) the terminal, no real change in memory usage, virtual, resident or shared.

Running Jaunty (9.04), Catalyst 9.4 (with build-pkg Ubuntu/jaunty), on a Gigabyte HD4770 512mb.

[lem79]

I'm new to ATI on Linux (well, on my own machine anyway), I wonder if this is what I'm going to have to get used to...

I run Compiz. I love it, best window manager ever. Metacity is crap in comparison, and feels clunky to use (same with Windows ). I also like to play a game or two occasionally. I just tried firing up Scorched3D with everything maxed and 4xAA, windowed at 1440x900 on a 1680x1050 display (HD4770 with Catalyst 9.4, says Unsupported hardware lower right)

First, the Gnome panels stopped. Next, Scorched stopped. Then when I tried to Ctrl-Alt-F1, the mouse pointer stopped. I'm not sure if this is because the driver doesn't support this card, or if I'm pushing the bug buttons of fglrx? I could at this point Alt+SysRq sync unmount sync reboot. That worked.

Now this I wouldn't usually get tooo upset about hitting a lockup bug, but I was about 75% through a 3Gb file download with Firefox (Windows 7 RC actually, legit from MS). Firefox's file handling sucks I've found. I lost the few gigs that I had got already.

The other thing I'll whinge about here is VMware with OpenGL/DirectX9 acceleration under Windows XP x86 while Compiz is running is the same as video playback + composite was. i.e. they compete for the display and flicker like mad.

The HD4770's compiz experience also isn't as smooth as my 7900GT's, and it's about a 3x faster card. Makes no sense (well it does, fglrx < nvidia's driver).

I know things are improving. So let me put my vote in for making the Linux composited desktop experience on ATI as smooth as it is on nVidia (which is absolutely silken perfect, even when OpenGL apps are open, and videos playing, etc until you hit the compute power limit of the gfx card in use).