Ati 7.12 linux driver and hd 3870??

[FuzzyLumpkins]

hey all, how can i install the 7.12 linux driver for my hd 3870 when at the ati website the hd 3850 and 3870 arent listed as supported video cards. yet, phoronix says they are supported... (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item=944&num=1)
I have tried the open source driver and it does not support opengl or aiglx for linux yet. i have also tried installing the ati 7.12 driver with no success. but according to the above link... 7.12 supports the cards... how?! this is killing me. i cant get any driver to work for my 3870! can anyone explain how to install this driver? i am using Debian (Sid) atm. thx

[Kano]

AIGLX does not work with Xserver 1.4. I guess it only works with Xserver 1.3 with AIGLX which is used by Ubuntu Gutsy.

[Melcar]

My HD3850 works fine under Gutsy with the 7.11 driver. Aside from some issues in Compiz (no mipmaps) the card runs rather well.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Melcar... can you plz explain how to install tho?

[Melcar]

Melcar... can you plz explain how to install tho?

I just ran the install script:

sudo sh ati-driver-installer-7-11-x86.x86_64.run

Follow the automatic install and once it finishes initialize the driver:

sudo aticonfig --initial

sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

One thing thought; do not blacklist fglrx in the restricted modules, because doing that sometimes prevents the driver from loading (that's when you get the hated Mesa).
This method has always worked for me on every ATI card I use (200M, X1950XT, HD3850). Works on the 7.12 too, but I rolled back because of the screen resolution issue. Keep in mind that if you install the driver this way, you need to uninstall it (when upgrading) a certain way:

 cd /usr/share/ati

sudo sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh

[FuzzyLumpkins]

hey man, i installed the 7.11 drivers like you said, and it works... sorta. i have the right resolutions now and stuff but things move sloooow. like when you move a folder around and also scrolling in browsers.... any way to fix that?

[Melcar]

Maybe it's that memory leak. They work fine for me, even with Compiz on. Confirm that they're loading (fglrxinfo or with the CCC). Maybe try the 7.12 ones, but be weary of the resolution bug.

Here's my xorg.conf if it helps. I commented out the double sections (aticonfig makes a mess of things):

#Section "Monitor"
#    Identifier   "Q20wb"
#    HorizSync    30.0 - 82.0
#    VertRefresh  56.0 - 75.0
#    Option        "DPMS"
#EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
    Option        "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
    Option        "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
    HorizSync    30.0 - 82.0
    VertRefresh  56.0 - 75.0
    Option        "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

#Section "Device"
#    Identifier  "ATI Technologies Inc ATI Default Card"
#    Driver      "vesa"
#    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
#EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
    Driver        "fglrx"
    BusID        "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option        "VideoOverlay" "on"
    Option        "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
    Option        "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps"    "true"
EndSection

#Section "Screen"
#    Identifier "Default Screen"
#    Device     "ATI Technologies Inc ATI Default Card"
#    Monitor    "Q20wb"
#    DefaultDepth     24
#    SubSection "Display"
#        Modes    "1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" #"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
#    EndSubSection
#EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
    Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]"
    Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes    "1680x1050" "1600x1200" 
    EndSubSection
EndSection

[FuzzyLumpkins]

mine is extremely close to yours... yet thing move soo slow. scrolling down web browsers is very slow. what are your versions of all the dependencies, for instance, you r xserver version and stuff. also, does ur control center detect ur card... or just say RV670 or something?

[bridgman]

Do you have "smooth scroll" enabled in the browser ? A few people mentioned that it defaults "on" in Firefox and turning it off makes a big difference.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

smooth scroll is off.... the thing is, its not just iceweasel even scrolling down file browsers is laggy (i can actually see a refresh bar as i scroll down... also moving a window around on the screen takes forever.