Installing latest Open Source ATI drivers under Ubuntu 8.04

**oibaf** · 05-20-2008, 11:47 AM

NOTE: Ubuntu 8.10 already have all these updated drivers. Compiz is also supported (up to R500).

if you have some problem after upgrading to 8.10, make sure to remove all packages installed from the PPAs while in Ubuntu 8.04 with dpkg (ignoring eventual dependencies) and, before rebooting, reinstall all these packages from 8.10 official repositories with apt-get;
if compiz still isn't working, make sure you have compiz and compiz-gnome packages installed.

WARNING: the following guide is no longer actively supported. Please upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 if you need updated radeon drivers.

This is a quick guide on installing latest versions of open source radeon drivers for Ubuntu 8.04.

0 - Introduction and status

This guide uses prebuilt - by the Ubuntu community - packages for mesa, libdrm, xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd, xserver-xorg-video-ati, so that they can be easily replaced with original ones if you want to revert this.
DRM modules are built and installed from sources using a script. Old ones are backupped with .orig extension.
Keep in mind that this is experimental code. If you fear to break something don't try it. Anyway, it works well for many users. Ideally, you should first try these packages on the LiveCD, following HowTo test newest radeon/radeonhd/mesa from a live CD guide.
Driver packages status:
- ati (radeon):
  - all Radeon card should be supported
  - fast 2D with Option "AccelMethod" "EXA" in xorg.conf (require DRM module)
  - 3D support
  - basic scalers (for full screen games in not native resolution) support
  - textured video Xv support with bicubic filtering
  - DynamicClocks (but not Powerplay) power saving support
- radeonhd:
  - all Radeon card from Radeon X1xxx (R500) and later should be supported
  - fast 2D with Option "AccelMethod" "ShadowFB" in xorg.conf (XAA and EXA are slower; DRM module not required)
  - experimental, disabled by default 3D support
  - configurable scalers (for full screen games in not native resolution) support
  - Xv not yet supported
  - power savings not yet supported
3D packages status:
- all Radeon card <R600 (so, not Radeon HD 2XXX) should be supported.
- See RadeonProgram WikiPage for the status of many games with current code.
- AIGLX (and therefore Compiz) is not supported when using mesa 7.1 packages unless you also upgrade your xserver (for example using packages at PPA for xorg crack pushers: enable the repository and do a sudo apt-get dist-upgrade - WARNING: this is untested and may break your system, see also comment 20 and laters)
Feature Matrix for Radeons Wiki Page
Supported Program List for Radeons Wiki Page

1 - Installing latest 2D ati and radeonhd drivers

Add
Code:
```
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu hardy main
```
to System -> Administration -> Software sources -> Third party software

In a shell (one or both of the followings, depending on your desired driver):

Code:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-ati
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd

Disable
Code:
```
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu hardy main
```
in System -> Administration -> Software sources -> Third party software

2 - Installing latest drm modules

Add
Code:
```
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ubuntu hardy main
```
to System -> Administration -> Software sources -> Third party software
In a shell:
Code:
```
apt-get source libdrm2
```
Disable
Code:
```
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ubuntu hardy main
```
in System -> Administration -> Software sources -> Third party software
Download easy-drm-modules-installer from here and put it in the same directory of the libdrm2 sources:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~xorg-ed...kg-tools/files
In a shell:
Code:
```
chmod +x easy-drm-modules-installer
./easy-drm-modules-installer radeon
```
Answer N when asked to download newest git version and y when asked to install (backup of original modules will be created in
Code:
```
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm
```
directory with .orig extension).
Note that after every kernel upgrade and its reboot you should redo this step.

3 - Upgrading to latest libdrm and mesa packages

Remember that after installing the following mesa 7.1 packages AIGLX (and therefore Compiz) will not work (obliviously this is not a problem on R500 where Compiz never worked before), unless you also upgrade your xserver. If you have already working 3D and Compiz or you have a RS480 or RS690 with 3D or Compiz broken try first the updated mesa 7.0 packages at PPA for Andrius Štikonas that should also work with AIGLX/Compiz.
Add
Code:
```
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ubuntu hardy main
```
to System -> Administration -> Software sources -> Third party software

In a shell:

Code:

sudo apt-get install libdrm2
sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa mesa-utils

This should upgrade all libdrm and mesa libraries.

Disable
Code:
```
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ubuntu hardy main
```
in System -> Administration -> Software sources -> Third party software

4 - Customize your "Device" section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf

ati (radeon) driver fully supports 3D and EXA acceleration:

Code:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
        Driver          "ati"
        Option          "AccelMethod"   "EXA"
EndSection

if you want to use radeonhd driver (note that in radeonhd XAA and EXA are a lot slower than ShadowFB AccelMethod):

Code:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
        Driver          "radeonhd"
        Option          "AccelMethod"   "ShadowFB"
        # Un-comment the following to enable experimental 3D support:
        #Option         "DRI"
EndSection

5 - Reboot

6 - Test

You can test 2D performance with gtkperf (download and install the "Debian i386" packages if you are on x86)
If you installed also 3D packages, to make sure you really are using 3D try running glxgears. This is what I get:
Code:
```
glxgears
9787 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1957.329 FPS
9890 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1977.899 FPS
```

Testing openarena:
Install it from Ubuntu repositories:

Code:

sudo apt-get install openarena

Edit openarena settings (under SETUP -> SYSTEM) to your taste; I only changed "Graphics Settings" to "Very High Quality" and "Video Mode" to "1024x768", then quit and download the demo:

Code:

mkdir -p $HOME/.openarena/baseoa/demos
cd $HOME/.openarena/baseoa/
wget http://people.freedesktop.org/~anholt/benchmarking/anholt.cfg
cd demos/
wget http://people.freedesktop.org/~anholt/benchmarking/anholt.dm_68

To execute the test:

Code:

openarena +exec anholt 2>&1 | egrep -e '[0-9]+ frames'

On my RV530 with "Very High Quality" setting I get a very nice

:

Code:

840 frames 13.6 seconds 61.9 fps 7.0/16.2/31.0/3.6 ms

7 - For more info:

Ubuntu resources:
tormod comment on "xorg crack pushers" and "Tormod Volden" repositories usage
GtkPerf
Developer's blog:
TiRDC - The irregular Radeon Development Companion
ATI R500: Mesa vs. Catalyst Benchmarking (2008-08-29)

8 - Suggestions welcomed

If you have some useful suggestions post a reply in this thread!

**sundown** · 05-20-2008, 02:20 PM

That's great... thanks.

Although, I would really like to see a guide on how to install the radeon driver from git, because there already exists one for radeonhd, here at Phoronix. From personal expereince I know that the steps from the radeonhd guide don't exactly work for radeon because it required some other devel packages to be installed.

**elenius** · 05-22-2008, 11:01 PM

Thanks for the guide. I did this before "manually", but I never got 3D to work, so I decided to give this method a try.

I followed the instructions, and 2D works normally, but I get this from glxgears:

~$ glxgears
unknown chip id 0x7145, can't guess.
libGL error: InitDriver failed
libGL error: reverting to (slow) indirect rendering
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

Some more output below from glxinfo with LIBGL_DEBUG. I have an x1400, I guess I need to add my chip id somewhere... This is the same problem I've had before.

libGL: XF86DRIGetClientDriverName: 5.3.0 r300 (screen 0)
libGL: OpenDriver: trying /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/r300_dri.so
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 4, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID pci:0000:01:00.0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 4, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 4
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports pci:0000:01:00.0
unknown chip id 0x7145, can't guess.
libGL error: InitDriver failed
libGL error: reverting to (slow) indirect rendering

**bridgman** · 05-22-2008, 11:29 PM

elenius, if you have a 5xx family card you'll probably need to add the IDs yourself.

Right now the IDs in the 500-support branch pretty much represent the cards owned by developers working on the code

**elenius** · 05-22-2008, 11:48 PM

Right. I don't mind getting my hands dirty. I'm trying to figure out which branch of Mesa to check out and how to get it. The main one doesn't have any R500 chip ids, so I assume that's not what I want.

This article

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=NjQ1Ng

mentions an r500-support branch in Mesa. Is that what i want? I tried

git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/mesa

followed by

cd mesa; git checkout r500-support

but that didn't do it. Obviously, I'm just guessing here.

**bridgman** · 05-23-2008, 06:28 AM

The 500-support branch in mesa is the right one. Not sure about the exact git commands to pull from a branch but may have time to tinker today. Best bet would be to hop onto the #radeon IRC channel and ask there since that's where most of the 5xx 3D discussion is happening. Alex is away for a few days but airlied and MostAwesomeDude have been making huge progress on the remaining fragment shader work and Mr Cooper and airlied have been working on some vblank issues. It's looking pretty good !

**tzu23** · 05-23-2008, 10:00 AM

Hi oibaf,

thanks for your How-to, unfortunately i can't seem to get it work on my Thinkpad T60p. I followed *exactly* your instructions and here is what i get:

Code:

#/var/log/Xorg.0.log|grep RADEONHD
....
(--) RADEONHD(0): Detected an M66 on a Lenovo Thinkpad T60p V5250
(II) RADEONHD(0): Mapped IO at 0xb7ae4000 (size 0x00010000)
(II) RADEONHD(0): Getting BIOS copy from legacy VBIOS location
(II) RADEONHD(0): ATOM BIOS Rom: 
	SubsystemVendorID: 0x1002 SubsystemID: 0x71c4
	IOBaseAddress: 0x2000
	Filename: BR25044.BIN 
	BIOS Bootup Message: 
Lenovo M56/M66CSP256GL ATOM BIOS 400e/330m LCD/CRT/DFP/TV                   

(II) RADEONHD(0): Analog TV Default Mode: 135075026
(--) RADEONHD(0): VideoRAM: 262144 kByte
(II) RADEONHD(0): Framebuffer space used by Firmware (kb): 20
(II) RADEONHD(0): Start of VRAM area used by Firmware: 0xfffb000
(II) RADEONHD(0): AtomBIOS requests 20kB of VRAM scratch space
(II) RADEONHD(0): AtomBIOS VRAM scratch base: 0xfffb000
(II) RADEONHD(0): Default Engine Clock: 432000
(II) RADEONHD(0): Default Memory Clock: 330000
(II) RADEONHD(0): Maximum Pixel ClockPLL Frequency Output: 1100000
(II) RADEONHD(0): Minimum Pixel ClockPLL Frequency Output: 0
(II) RADEONHD(0): Maximum Pixel ClockPLL Frequency Input: 13500
(II) RADEONHD(0): Minimum Pixel ClockPLL Frequency Input: 1000
(II) RADEONHD(0): Maximum Pixel Clock: 400000
....

Code:

$glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: No (If you want to find out why, try setting LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose)
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, 
    GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_OML_swap_method, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_hyperpipe, 
    GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory, 
    GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_swap_control, 
    GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, 
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, 
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, 
    GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, 
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.0.3-rc2)
...

Code:

#cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"de"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Driver		"radeonhd"
	Option		"AccelMethod"	"EXA"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

any clues? what am i doing wrong?

Thanks!
tzu

**oibaf** · 05-23-2008, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by tzu23

Hi oibaf,

thanks for your How-to, unfortunately i can't seem to get it work on my Thinkpad T60p. I followed *exactly* your instructions and here is what i get:

any clues? what am i doing wrong?

Thanks!
tzu

I don't see nothing wrong in what you post. If your problem is that you don't have 3D, you should use the ati driver, as now it's not yet supported in radeonhd as stated in section 0.

Edit: also, it appears that you didn't upgraded mesa libraries:

Code:

OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.0.3-rc2)

you should see

Code:

OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 7.1

And also remeber that radeonhd with EXA acceleration is very very slow. If you want to use radeonhd you should use ShadowFB. Or if you want use EXA you have to use ati driver.

**tzu23** · 05-23-2008, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by oibaf

I don't see nothing wrong in what you post. If your problem is that you don't have 3D, you should use the ati driver, as now it's not yet supported in radeonhd as stated in section 0.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Sorry, i'm not that familiar with that. What 'section 0' do you refer to? My T60p has an ATI r500 Chip:

Code:

M66: Mobility Radeon X1700, X1700 XT; FireGL V5250

Originally Posted by oibaf

Edit: also, it appears that you didn't upgraded mesa libraries:

Code:

OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.0.3-rc2)

you should see

Code:

OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 7.1

that's strange indeed:

Code:

#dpkg -l |grep mesa
ii  libgl1-mesa-dev                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- G
ii  libgl1-mesa-dri                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- D
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- G
ii  libglu1-mesa                               7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  The OpenGL utility library (GLU)
ii  libglu1-mesa-dev                           7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  The OpenGL utility library -- development fi
ii  mesa-common-dev                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  Developer documentation for Mesa
ii  mesa-utils                                 7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  Miscellaneous Mesa GL utilities

i'll have to dig further on this one

Greetings,
tzu

**oibaf** · 05-23-2008, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by tzu23

Thanks for the quick reply!

Sorry, i'm not that familiar with that. What 'section 0' do you refer to?

Section 0 of my first post: 0 - Introduction and status

that's strange indeed:

Code:

#dpkg -l |grep mesa
ii  libgl1-mesa-dev                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- G
ii  libgl1-mesa-dri                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- D
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- G
ii  libglu1-mesa                               7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  The OpenGL utility library (GLU)
ii  libglu1-mesa-dev                           7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  The OpenGL utility library -- development fi
ii  mesa-common-dev                            7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  Developer documentation for Mesa
ii  mesa-utils                                 7.1.0~git20080523+r500-support.9ab7a2df-0.1tormod  Miscellaneous Mesa GL utilities

i'll have to dig further on this one

Greetings,
tzu

Did you reboot after mesa installation?

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