how to install gallium drivers on a fresh ubuntu 10.04 n X1950

[avengerxp]

Hi,

I'm user switching to ubuntu to from XP, mainly to try it out and switch to it completely ..later..

so far my experience with ubuntu has been not so good. i have a ATI radeon x1950 AGP card which does a great job in XP with games n videos.

but in ubuntu using the default drivers i cannot play a video nor enable desktop effects. after extensive research i found out about gallium drivers.(i need 3d performance in my card)

could any one kindly guide me through on how to install this drivers in my system (I'm newbie, and i could copy and paste code into Terminal.

my system

AMD athlon64 2.8
x1950 AGP vga - ATI radeon
512MB ram

having a fresh ubuntu 10.04 install

Thank you all

[tormod]

At the current state, there is no performance improvement by using the gallium drivers. Also, if you don't have working 3D hardware acceleration with the classic drivers, you should fix that before trying the experimental gallium drivers. Finally, if you want to try out gallium, you should use something newer than 10.04 and know a bit about troubleshooting and googling for information.

[PGHammer]

At the current state, there is no performance improvement by using the gallium drivers. Also, if you don't have working 3D hardware acceleration with the classic drivers, you should fix that before trying the experimental gallium drivers. Finally, if you want to try out gallium, you should use something newer than 10.04 and know a bit about troubleshooting and googling for information.

As long as you are running Ubuntu 9.04 LTS or later, (and this is especially true for 10.04 LTS and later), all you need is a 2.6.35-series kernel (Kernel Mainline PPA has several suitable for use back to Karmic) and add the xorg-edgers PPA to your update repository. For those of you running Maverick Meerkat (RC and, as of 10 October, the release), as long as you are running X1K-series hardware and older (back to the original Radeon 9700), you need do nothing more than add the xorg-edgers PPA, as the kernel is already setup for it.

At the least, R3xx through R5xx should have hardware acceleration with the *basic* Xorg drive (as has been the case for the X1K series since 2007, and the older hardware from the beginning). The issue prior to 2007 was proper GART support (especially for AGP X1K-series cards); this has been particularly thorny for non-Intel AGP chipsets. I'm currently runnnning the Gallium 0.4 OGL/DRI2 driver (aka R300g) on the following:

Kubuntu 10.10 RC
xorg-edgers as of 8 October
kernel mainline PPA (image 2.6.36-996-generic)

I have zero issues as far as performance or stability.

[customcarvin]

As long as you are running Ubuntu 9.04 LTS or later, (and this is especially true for 10.04 LTS and later), all you need is a 2.6.35-series kernel (Kernel Mainline PPA has several suitable for use back to Karmic) and add the xorg-edgers PPA to your update repository. For those of you running Maverick Meerkat (RC and, as of 10 October, the release), as long as you are running X1K-series hardware and older (back to the original Radeon 9700), you need do nothing more than add the xorg-edgers PPA, as the kernel is already setup for it.

At the least, R3xx through R5xx should have hardware acceleration with the *basic* Xorg drive (as has been the case for the X1K series since 2007, and the older hardware from the beginning). The issue prior to 2007 was proper GART support (especially for AGP X1K-series cards); this has been particularly thorny for non-Intel AGP chipsets. I'm currently runnnning the Gallium 0.4 OGL/DRI2 driver (aka R300g) on the following:

Kubuntu 10.10 RC
xorg-edgers as of 8 October
kernel mainline PPA (image 2.6.36-996-generic)

I have zero issues as far as performance or stability.

Hi there, I am also new to Linux, and I am also having the same problem as the person who started the thread lol. I'm running Mint 9 on my rig though... which is built off of Ubuntu 10.04... I'm pretty sure. Anyway, although I totally appreciate any advice offered, what you said just blew over my head with the force of a jumbo jet :-(

What should be done now to get my x1950 pro 256MB AGP card to work?
Update the linux kernal? xorg PPA hunh? lol ...I'm not opposed to learning new things, but this sounds like it has a bit of a learning curve.

Maybe i should just stick with windowz? I mean this card has been out for years now! i dont understand why it hasnt been properly implemented into one of the most popular distros of linux?!?

Again, thanks for any help any of you could offer me.

[Beiruty]

someone has to post the code to add the xorg-edgers PPA and add link to how install mainline ppa Kernels.

[Decatf]

There isn't much of learning curve here.

xorg-edgers

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Mainline kernel

1. Go here and download the newest kernel version.
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

2. Double click the .deb and install.

3. Reboot.

4. Great success.

[tormod]

If X1950 does not work out of the box on 10.10, please file a bug report using "ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-ati".

Seriously, if the default classic drivers do not work at all there is a problem, and trying to install gallium drivers will probably not help this but just give more work to you and the people who will help you.

When the classic drivers work as they should, I would suggest go on with gallium. But then you should first google around for what a PPA is, and how to install from one, and more important how to revert from it. And when you have found the xorg-edgers or the "light" version "radeon gallium" PPA, you should read and understand what is written on the PPA page itself, and not just copy-paste some instructions someone gave you.

And when you have done your "bible time" we are happy to help you further here.

[customcarvin]

There isn't much of learning curve here.

You're right, it looks pretty straight forward, I will try it tonight.
Thank you!