AMD Catalyst 7.12 Linux Driver -- The Baby's In Surgery

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Catalyst 7.12 Linux Driver

It's that time of the month again where we get to share with you all of the details on the latest ATI/AMD Linux driver release. This month, the ATI Catalyst 7.12 Linux driver (formally, what is known as fglrx 8.44) brings a host of new changes, mostly in the form of bug fixes. In total, there are just under a dozen noteworthy bug fixes in this release -- including addressing 3D acceleration issues on AGP graphics cards and the well-known OpenGL memory leak that was introduced with the new driver code-base. In addition, the FireGL graphics cards are now supported on this new driver code-base.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=11590

[ltmon]

First the good:
- Installed easily
- Memory leak does indeed seem to be gone
- dkms is good - the installation has one less step. Hint for Ubuntu users: sudo apt-get install dkms before attempting the install, and then just don't worry about any of the module-assistant stuff that you normally do
- xrandr seems to work better (was intermitently failing to change resolution for me previously)
- Setting screen gamma outside of amdcccle works now, so having gamma set up inside games will work
- Ubuntu packaging script updates the compiz whitelist upon install

Now the bad:
- My dual head 1680x1050 is down to 1280x1024 (as per the release notes). Is this just a detection problem??? Can I fix it?? Because otherwise I have to downgrade and lose the above goodness

FYI, the relase notes say:

* Connecting a display device that supports 1680x1050 to a system running Linux may result in a maximum display resolution of 1280x1024 only being available
* Custom mode lines in xorg.conf may be ignored by the fglrx driver

Cheers,

L.

[Crunchy]

Ack! ATM I get a black screen and the following error in Xorg.0.log:

(EE) fglrx(0): PreInitDAL failed

From Gentoo Wiki on ATI Drivers:

PreInitDAL failed

Disable framebuffer in kernelconfig, recompile, reboot! This happend as i upgraded from 8.28.8 to 8.32.5.

This error may also occur after receiving the EDID information: There is a known bug [1] which has been solved in the 8.32.5. Also, just upgrading to 8.32.5 solved the problem.

rmh3093 reported running vbetool vgamode prior to starting gdm will fix X crashing with framebuffer See post.

I'm not using a framebuffer in my kernel at all, ugh don't tell me I'm screwed for several more months .

EDIT: I've tried turning my monitor off before starting X, as suggested on the Gentoo Bugzilla, but that didn't help. I did have to remove a Powermode patch from the ebuild to get it to install so its possible it's to do with that.

EDIT2:

Here's my Xorg.0.log: http://rafb.net/p/Ez7WOs26.html

Here's the dmesg from the session: http://rafb.net/p/MfMuYd10.html

Here's the xorg.conf I used: http://rafb.net/p/kg9pKd64.html

I'm running Gentoo x86 with kernel 2.6.23, X.org 7.3, gcc 4.1.2, Catalyst 7.12 installed through modfied 8.433 ebuild. My hardware is a nVidia nForce 3 mobo, ATI Radeon x1950 Pro AGP, Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1G RAM.

EDIT3:

I'm using a HP w22 LCD monitor with native resolution of 1680x1050. I've tried modelines but it didn't help.

[hardran3]

I was wondering the steps to install on Ubuntu 7.10. I am currently using the open source radeon drivers. Would it be like so?

sudo apt-get install dkms
sudo ./atidriver.foo.bar.run

and then set up my xorg.conf?

And of course recompile a new kernel with SLAB rather than SLUB if I want to suspend my laptop?

I have been waiting forever due to having a FireGL mobility T2.

[benneque]

i have a strange error , too:

(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so
(EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so
(EE) fglrx: Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) fglrx(0): Failed to load GLX module.


the file exists.. but why there are TWO / in the path ?!

EDIT:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 42 Dec 15 18:33 libglx.so -> //usr//lib/opengl/ati/extensions/libglx.so


EDIT2:

this path doesn't exist:
/usr/lib/opengl/ati/

[givemesugarr]

I'm not using a framebuffer in my kernel at all, ugh don't tell me I'm screwed for several more months

could you post a more exaustive log of what xorg does before getting that error, your xorg.conf device, server and extensions sections and what xorg, xorg-server and arch you're currently using?! the chipset model (r100 ... r600) or the board would also be useful. also would be useful to know which version was the last functioning version before upgrade.
how have you installed the driver?! ebuild or manual install?!
i'll test this in some hours and let you know if i encounter problems.
just mentioning the error without any other information would not be of great use if it hasn't been encountered before or if it hasn't been encountered in the same context as yours.

[Crunchy]

I was wondering the steps to install on Ubuntu 7.10. I am currently using the open source radeon drivers. Would it be like so?

sudo apt-get install dkms
sudo ./atidriver.foo.bar.run

and then set up my xorg.conf?

And of course recompile a new kernel with SLAB rather than SLUB if I want to suspend my laptop?

I have been waiting forever due to having a FireGL mobility T2.

I think SLUB support is in fglrx now.

[happycampers]

Now the bad:
- My dual head 1680x1050 is down to 1280x1024 (as per the release notes). Is this just a detection problem??? Can I fix it?? Because otherwise I have to downgrade and lose the above goodness

Does 1680x1050 work in single-head mode?

[givemesugarr]

i have a strange error , too:

(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so
(EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so
(EE) fglrx: Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) fglrx(0): Failed to load GLX module.


the file exists.. but why there are TWO / in the path ?!

EDIT:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 42 Dec 15 18:33 libglx.so -> //usr//lib/opengl/ati/extensions/libglx.so


EDIT2:

this path doesn't exist:
/usr/lib/opengl/ati/

the /usr/lib/opengl/ati is usually the ati drivers install path for what i know. try removing the /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so and then manually copy the one from the opengl/ati/extensions or to symlink to it and then do a chmod +r+x on it. restart x and it should load the module.

[d2kx]

The known issues are longer know, I mean they are more complete now. The same can be seen with the Windows driver. I think this is a great improvement. AMD doesn't want to hide their issues.