ATI Radeon HD 5770 is not Linux Compatible Despite Advertisement

[dartmouth]

I have noticed several threads online, specifically this forum, where Linux users are misleadingly talking about how well their Radeon HD 5770 is working in their linux systems, failing to mention that they're talking about dual boot setups and also failing to mention that the performance they're talking about is on a Microsoft system.

The ATI Radeon HD 5770 Card is not supported by any linux version of catalyst, despite the Catalyst documentation claiming that support for this card was introduced in Catalyst 9.11, and despite it being listed as a supported card in 9.12.

I've been in touch with several reps at ATI/AMD and the response I got was that the linux driver was offered 'as is' and that their support wasn't official. That's actually the only support that was given. Period. "A deal is a deal, sucker!".

By 'not officially supported', I think the rep meant "we are not going to support it at all"-- as indicated by ATI/AMDs true failure to get a working driver for this card going.

I've tested this card's compatibility with almost all mainstream linux distros to find that the catalyst driver versions 9.11 and 9.12 (and the hotfix as well), while claiming to support this card, actually do not support the Radeon HD 5770. If someone is telling you otherwise, they are either lying or poorly communicating that they are using the driver on a Microsoft Operating system.

What I have not tested, is support in the Red Hat Enterprise, OpenSUSE, or Ubuntu distros as the version of catalyst for these distros is a special build tailored to those specific distros (and is designed not to work with other distros). Why, oh why, would AMD promise to fix the proprietary attitude that almost wiped ATI out of the industry (which necessitated their buyout) only to follow up with the exact same kind of customer-alienating behaviour?

So, if you need to use a linux system, and some people do, have a backup card-- this thing is a paperweight until someone at AMD reads this and realizes that people are going to eventually associate their brand name with these kinds of problems if they don't start tailoring to the compatibility needs of their customers.

[Kano]

To get rid of the watermark you still can use my hack:

#!/bin/sh
DRIVER=/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so
for x in $(objdump -d $DRIVER|awk '/call/&&/EnableLogo/{print "\\x"$2"\\x"$3"\\x"$4"\\x"$5"\\x"$6
}'); do
 echo found $x
 sed -i "s/$x/\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90/g" $DRIVER
done

Reboot then. The problem is only the control file, the driver basically supports it.

[dartmouth]

To get rid of the watermark you still can use my hack:

#!/bin/sh
DRIVER=/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so
for x in $(objdump -d $DRIVER|awk '/call/&&/EnableLogo/{print "\\x"$2"\\x"$3"\\x"$4"\\x"$5"\\x"$6
}'); do
 echo found $x
 sed -i "s/$x/\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90/g" $DRIVER
done

Reboot then. The problem is only the control file, the driver basically supports it.

Kano, I think you may have posted to the wrong thread, this thread is about no support in linux for the Radeon HD 5770 in the 9.11 and 9.12 versions of catalyst. If the X.org won't run a display through fglrx in the first place, there is no 'watermark to remove'.

Can you be more clear?

[bridgman]

I've tested this card's compatibility with almost all mainstream linux distros to find that the catalyst driver versions 9.11 and 9.12 (and the hotfix as well), while claiming to support this card, actually do not support the Radeon HD 5770. If someone is telling you otherwise, they are either lying or poorly communicating that they are using the driver on a Microsoft Operating system.

What I have not tested, is support in the Red Hat Enterprise, OpenSUSE, or Ubuntu distros as the version of catalyst for these distros is a special build tailored to those specific distros (and is designed not to work with other distros). Why, oh why, would AMD promise to fix the proprietary attitude that almost wiped ATI out of the industry (which necessitated their buyout) only to follow up with the exact same kind of customer-alienating behaviour [/U]

Hopefully I'm reading your post incorrectly. I think you said that "you tested on all distros except the ones that the driver claims to support". The version of Catalyst for those distros is *not* a special build; quite the opposite in fact. The release notes say that those distros *are* the ones supported and that the driver *may* work on other distros.

You are also saying "designed not to work with other distros" when you probably mean "not tested on other distros".

[Hoodlum]

It is fine on SL (RHEL Based). I believe you're having a distro specific issue.

[monraaf]

I have noticed several threads online, specifically this forum, where Linux users are misleadingly talking about how well their Radeon HD 5770 is working in their linux systems, failing to mention that they're talking about dual boot setups and also failing to mention that the performance they're talking about is on a Microsoft system.

Sometimes people assume that if they got something working and someone else fails to get the same thing working it must be a user error. You seem to take the opposite approach and accuse anyone who does have a Radeon HD 5770 card working on Linux of lying.

I'm sorry that you didn't get your Radeon HD 5770 working on Linux, but I have no reason to doubt the claims of other Radeon HD 5770 owners who do have their card working on Linux. Especially since I have a Radeon HD 5750 that is also working on Linux. While it's not working 100% to my liking (for instance XvBA is till FUBAR here) it is certainly NOT a paperweight.

[dartmouth]

Hopefully I'm reading your post incorrectly. I think you said that "you tested on all distros except the ones that the driver claims to support".

No, I said I've tested their drivers on most of the mainstream distros to find that only proprietary or commercial distros were 'officially' supported.

The issue is that in the past the drivers have been pretty distro independent; In fact, almost all linux software is pretty distro independent. That's the beauty of linux (unless, of course, you're dealing with intentionally exclusive drivers from ATI as is their track record that they are doing everything they can to earn).

The version of Catalyst for those distros is *not* a special build; quite the opposite in fact. The release notes say that those distros *are* the ones supported and that the driver *may* work on other distros.

Yeah, just like if I cram bread into an electrical outlet, it *may* make toast depending on the iron content of the water used during the manufacturing process of the dough.

You are also saying "designed not to work with other distros" when you probably mean "not tested on other distros".

I have never seen a real example of this card working on any linux system, even distros the catalyst drivers claim to support.

EVEN IF IT DID WORK ON SOME DISTROS (I don't believe it does and have seen nothing to indicate that fglrx for this card is working on any system out there) I see no reason why this driver would work on some distros but not others if they are not special builds; even if some environment tweaking were necessary for cross-distro compatability.

If it's the case that this driver is indeed working on, say, opensuse, ubuntu, red hat enterprise-- what environmental changes would be necessary to get it working on, say, slackware, or fedora?

If it's the case that those drivers work with this card in those distros-- and again, I haven't seen anything that would indicate this, and if it's the case that the drivers aren't special builds tailored individually to those respective, individual environments, then what is similar between those distro environments that is not similar with other mainstream distros (e.g. slackware and fedora)?

[Hoodlum]

I can personally confirm it works on Fedora 11 (not 12 because of the newer, unsupported x.org), SL and OpenSuse. I have not used any other distros with the card so I can't say for those.

[Michael]

EVEN IF IT DID WORK ON SOME DISTROS (I don't believe it does and have seen nothing to indicate that fglrx for this card is working on any system out there)

This is just FUD. Read the forums, read my review, read others out there... I have used the Radeon HD 5770 on Ubuntu Linux since late September / early October.

[dartmouth]

This is just FUD. Read the forums, read my review, read others out there... I have used the Radeon HD 5770 on Ubuntu Linux since late September / early October.

Ok, great news! Well I retract the statement, then; so why are these other distros having issues with this driver? What's different?