Radeon Driver Is Now KMS-Only, 7.0 Released

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Radeon Driver Is Now KMS-Only, 7.0 Released

Alex Deucher announced the release of the xf86-video-ati 7.0.0 driver this morning, which is the first open-source ATI Linux graphics driver release that is strictly KMS-only...

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

[przemoli]

Phoronix: Radeon Driver Is Now KMS-Only, 7.0 Released

Alex Deucher announced the release of the xf86-video-ati 7.0.0 driver this morning, which is the first open-source ATI Linux graphics driver release that is strictly KMS-only...

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

Any one have link to up to date tutorial on how to install drm/messa/kernel needed for mesa from Git?

I have 5720 MOBILE, so OSS drivers around Ubuntu 11.12 where overheating for me preaty quickly, but I want to give another try.
(on idle , big heat and fan always on, on any workload it was nightmare after 1h. Under catalys its managalbe)

[schmidtbag]

Any one have link to up to date tutorial on how to install drm/messa/kernel needed for mesa from Git?

I have 5720 MOBILE, so OSS drivers around Ubuntu 11.12 where overheating for me preaty quickly, but I want to give another try.
(on idle , big heat and fan always on, on any workload it was nightmare after 1h. Under catalys its managalbe)

I'd say you probably ought to just clean out your cooling fan. If you get overheating problems at all, there's only so much drivers can do to prevent that entirely. Also I'd say take advantage of the catalyst drivers while they're still available to you. with a gpu as low end as yours i can't imagine the radeon drivers offer much more performance than intels i945.
Unless youre a developer or have compatibility issues (in terms of hardware, software, or legally), I really don't understand the fuss with people using closed source drivers. To me it seems to be based on a principal that nobody is putting any serious thought into.

[zxy_thf]

Any one have link to up to date tutorial on how to install drm/messa/kernel needed for mesa from Git?

I have 5720 MOBILE, so OSS drivers around Ubuntu 11.12 where overheating for me preaty quickly, but I want to give another try.
(on idle , big heat and fan always on, on any workload it was nightmare after 1h. Under catalys its managalbe)

Kernel is relatively easy because it depends on nothing but itself, and have a stable ABI.
drm and mesa are somewhat complex. You need to clone their code from git (see http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa and http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/drm/), and compile&install them sequentially.
I have tried and it works, but it's painful and confusing (image TWO sets of libdrm+mesa!).

Personal suggestion: try Arch if you really want bleeding-edge software

[Nille]

Any one have link to up to date tutorial on how to install drm/messa/kernel needed for mesa from Git?

http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonBuildHowTo

And new kernel Packages can you grap there -> http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

[przemoli]

I'd say you probably ought to just clean out your cooling fan. If you get overheating problems at all, there's only so much drivers can do to prevent that entirely. Also I'd say take advantage of the catalyst drivers while they're still available to you. with a gpu as low end as yours i can't imagine the radeon drivers offer much more performance than intels i945.
Unless youre a developer or have compatibility issues (in terms of hardware, software, or legally), I really don't understand the fuss with people using closed source drivers. To me it seems to be based on a principal that nobody is putting any serious thought into.

I would say you are a troll.

5720 IS CAPABLE OF DX11 you know... (OGL 4.3 in Linux speech) and is fairly capable gpu mid range. (Or was at the release :P, FIRST laptop with OGL 4.0 AND core i7!)

Only that OSS drivers overheated, while Catalyst do not. (And no I did not cleaned fans between switching those drivers either :P )

Thx to everybody else for tips.

[MetalGeek]

I'd say you probably ought to just clean out your cooling fan. If you get overheating problems at all, there's only so much drivers can do to prevent that entirely. Also I'd say take advantage of the catalyst drivers while they're still available to you. with a gpu as low end as yours i can't imagine the radeon drivers offer much more performance than intels i945.
Unless youre a developer or have compatibility issues (in terms of hardware, software, or legally), I really don't understand the fuss with people using closed source drivers. To me it seems to be based on a principal that nobody is putting any serious thought into.

I have two all AMD systems, a desktop and a laptop. On my laptop at ilde Windows 7 is about 18-23Watts, Linux+Catalyst is 28-34Watts and the Linux+OS is 38-45Watts. On my Desktop, at idle Windows 7 is 118-123Watts, Linux+Closed Source is 138-143Watts and Linux+OS is 175-180Watts. Even with the Closed Source Driver my laptop ins't usable for long periods because it gets hot and the fans run on high eating the battery. IMHO power consumption is a huge issue for not only the AMD Video cards but for their processors and chip sets as well. We all have to make our own choices but for me the OS driver isn't even an option until the power consumption issues are addressed.

[Edit] - All power readings were taking at the socket with a Kill A Watt

[kaszak]

Any news about when the power management will be actually useful?

[markg85]

Any news about when the power management will be actually useful?

I would like to know the exact same thing!
Mainly if dynpm actually works and if my fans stay silent without blowing at full speed.

[Rigaldo]

A few months ago when I was using/testing radeon on Arch Linux, activating dynpm helped a lot with temps compared to before(could be a bit better though ..).
But the screen flickered often when he card was reclocked and it was .. annoying ...
I still had better temps with Catalyst.
Maybe it's better now though, it's not so tough to test your distro vanilla radeon and your mileage may vary(better or worse than me). But I think if there was a big breakthrough in this sector, I'd have seen it here on Phoronix ..