How to install ati-driver 9.8 HD 4890 2.6.30 amd64?

[soeiro]

Hello folks

I can't install the proprietary ati driver for the Radeon HD 4890 graphics card. At worst, I get no X. At best I get no 2D or 3D acceleration. As suggested by bridgman I'm creating this thread in hope that when a solution is found everyone else will benefit.

My system information follows:
Asus P6T motherboard
Intel i7 920
6GB RAM
Seagate sata HD 1.5TB
XFX Radeon HD 4890 1GB

I'm running pure Debian/testing (squeeze), stock debian kernel
Linux 2.6.30-1-amd64 #1 SMP Mon Aug 3 12:28:22 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Xorg 7.3 (testing repository)

I've already tried to install:

1) Stock Debian packages (fglrx 9-2-2). They don't install because of a missing dependency ( libc6-i386 requires fglrx-glx-ia32 (<= 1:9-5-1) but only 1:9-2-2 is available). Anyway, after reading the bugfixes list, I would rather install something more recent, if possible.

2) Stock Debian sid packages (fglrx 9-8). There were too much dependency problems and I could migrate to Debian sid because I need some stability.

3) Debian packages 9-8-1 backported to testing. The drivers install, but I get no 2D or 3D.

4) Deb modules built directly from ati-driver-installer-9-5-x86.x86_64.run, ati-driver-installer-9-7-x86.x86_64.run and ati-driver-installer-9-8-x86.x86_64.run.

When trying to build debian packages and then installing the deb files, the installation process failed because of missing libGl.so modules.

5) Direct installation process. I've tried that with ati-driver-installer-9-5-x86.x86_64.run, ati-driver-installer-9-7-x86.x86_64.run and ati-driver-installer-9-8-x86.x86_64.run.

I ended up with the same results as item 3: no 2D or 3D. The system actually feels slower than when using pure Vesa driver.

6) As suggested by AdrenalineJunky, I've tried smxi (www.smxi.org), but got the same results: no 2D or 3D.

When I go through the Xorg logs it seems obvious that something went wrong, but I can't figure out how to fix it. There has been 2 weeks of head banging and I just don't have any more clues or ideas. lsmod shows that the fglrx module is there, but Xorr.0.log shows that it hasn't worked.

Here are the logs from #5 (straight ati-driver-installer-9-8-x86.x86_64.run):

dmesg
Xorg.0.log
fglrx-install.log

Thanks in advance for any help,

Soeiro

[hgabreu]

Soeiro, have you solved this problem? Because I'm having exactly it.
I'm on Debian testing amd64 and can't get my Ati Radeon HD 3450 to work.

After many tries I got ati driver 9.6 working on kernel 2.6.26 (debian fresh install). I had to disable composite because it has terrible performance (resizing a window was unusable slow).

But this is ridiculous! I'm so used with compositing since my 6 year old NVidia card and now I can't use it.
ati-driver-installer-9.8 does not even install fglrx module.

If you ever get it to work, please update this thread.
Thanks,
Henrique Abreu

[xmidway]

The problem appears to be with the current version on libdrm2 (version 2.4.12-1) in Testing and Unstable. If you revert to the previous version (2.3.1-2, the current version in Stable) this problem will go away.

If you look about 2/3'rds of the way down in your Xorg.0.log (I think it's like line 529 or so, you'll see a series of "drmOpenDevice" calls which all return a -1. Since it can't find the device, drm is never initialized and no drm = on dri.

I have yet to figure out a solution. Haven't filed a bug report against libdrm2 'cause the dev's will probably tell me that since no one using the open source stuff is complaining, it's ATI's problem. It would be nice if ATI would take a look at it.

Good luck!

[soeiro]

@xmidway

Thanks! I've just downloaded libdrm2.deb from lenny, installed it with dpkg and put it on hold with aptitude. Now even kde4 3d effects are back!

The only thing is the cursor. It disappears all the time, flickers and displays rectangles with things that it has been hovering over. Do you have any idea on how to fix the cursor?

Cheers,
Soeiro

The problem appears to be with the current version on libdrm2 (version 2.4.12-1) in Testing and Unstable. If you revert to the previous version (2.3.1-2, the current version in Stable) this problem will go away.

If you look about 2/3'rds of the way down in your Xorg.0.log (I think it's like line 529 or so, you'll see a series of "drmOpenDevice" calls which all return a -1. Since it can't find the device, drm is never initialized and no drm = on dri.

I have yet to figure out a solution. Haven't filed a bug report against libdrm2 'cause the dev's will probably tell me that since no one using the open source stuff is complaining, it's ATI's problem. It would be nice if ATI would take a look at it.

Good luck!

[soeiro]

Hello again

The mouse pointer flashes, disappears, displays rectangles from places of the screen and often shows rectangles far away from the mouse pointer location. It is also almost impossible to select text.

I've tried to put the Option "SWcursor" "yes" i the device section, but I saw little improvement.

Disabling all desktop effects makes the mouse pointer behave in a better way, but it still shows some flickering and squares at times. Sometimes it still disappears when idle.

Is there something else that I might try?

[xmidway]

I assume you are running a compositing manager. I don't run one (the eye candy does nothing for me except take up time slices), so I'm afraid I can't be of any help. You should probably start a new thread with that specific gripe since there are many users who are running Compiz and the like (though most of them appear to be running Fedora or Ubuntu).

Sorry.

[SRabbelier]

Thank you! After yet another clue-hunt my Lenovo W500 now has a working grahpics driver again thanks to your instructions! I added stable back to my source.list and pinned the version to the one from stable, and all is well now. Again, thanks!

[soeiro]

I assume you are running a compositing manager. I don't run one (the eye candy does nothing for me except take up time slices), so I'm afraid I can't be of any help. You should probably start a new thread with that specific gripe since there are many users who are running Compiz and the like (though most of them appear to be running Fedora or Ubuntu).

Sorry.

Yes. I was running Compiz in Kde4. Although most of the things are just eye candy, there are some useful features I'd love to be able to keep using, among them: bird's view of all the windows and transparency when moving or resizing windows.

Besides that, after acquiring a piece of hardware that is capable of doing that, why not? (Specially when you old piece of hardware was also capable, but theoretically slower at it) ;-)

Unfortunately, I have to keep it disabled for now, until compositing starts to play nice with the other kde components.

Well, thanks to everyone involved anyway. I've moved from a very expensive 15-year-old dumb framebuffer to a usable 2D-and-3D-capable adapter with a package downgrade.

Cheers