UT2004 won't start, and is killing me
 

Ok, I've worked a long time on this before actually making a post here. I've perused all the other posts on this topic I could find. I've installed Unreal Tournament 2004 on my Slackware 9.1 system with the linux 2.6.5 kernel, and, despite my failed attempts thus far, it won't work.

I am currently using an ATI 9600 card with the new 3.7.6 drivers

In X (4.3.0), the splash screen comes up, it tries to load, then the splash screen disappears and it gives me this error:

So after this, I delved further into the bowels of my graphics configuration and discovered that, for whatever reason, my FGL stuff isn't working at all. Glxgears runs, but FGL_Glxgears will not (I average about 350 FPS in glxgears). Could these things be related?

AGPGART is running as a module
DRI has been disabled
FGLRX is currently using AGPGART instead of its own built in module, but that can be changed on a whim...either way it hasn't been working.

fglrxinfo:
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: (mesa's website: i can't post URLs)
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 4.0.4

I also have the kernel configured to run with my asus a7n8x deluxe nForce-2 chipset. Everything as far as the AGP configuration in the kernel seems to be functioning accordingly. As far as I know, the drivers are working fine for 2D as well, framerate in KDE is great ever since I installed them. Please help, I just spent forty bucks on this game, and I really dont want to play it in Windoze.

You don't have 3D activated, as 350 for glxgear with your card is far from correct.
Try to use the agp build from ati's drivers and also try te reboot the X system if the first boot does not show you 3D accel (that happens to me, i have to reboot X server for having 3D).
There's a lot of tutorials on this forum for installing the drivers for the ATi video cards (Hell, the next one i'm gonna buy will be nVidia for sure!!!).

Hope this hepls

I've reinstalled the driver at least twice now using two different tutorials. Modprobe fglrx works, but not modprobe nvidia_agp.

I still can't get fgl_glxgears running.

Couldn't get fbconfig.

I really am clueless as to what to do now.

mmmmmmm try to use agpgart, or the built-in agp module that comes with the driver. When running fglrxconfig, it asks you wether to use agpgart or not. Try both.
Look if you have DRI module in your kernel, if so, recompile your kernel without that module, as it interferes with ATi's drivers.
If that also fails, I'll be clueless also cause that should work (I'm beginning to hate ATi a lot!!).

Hope you're gonna make it

Did you disable DRM when you compiled the kernel? Did you force install the RPM so that it overwrote the conflicting MESA libraries (I don't use MESA, but still have conflicting libraries even under regular XFree86-- apparently they exist in both).

Did you revert back to 3.2.8, as it's possible that this is a bug in the current drivers (don't even bother with 3.7.0, they were pretty much trash as far as I can see)?

I'd also say that you probably missed a step in those how-tos, as I only recently (like 2 weeks ago) moved from Slack 9.1 to Gentoo, and I have the ATI drivers for my AIW 9800 SE working fine under Gentoo (3.2.8), and had them working fine under Slack (3.7.6). I'm not running UT2004 (yet, gotta borrow it from a friend, just to see if it installs and works), but I've got several games installed under Wine, and they're working fine, as was NWN under Slack (haven't reinstalled it to get it working under Gentoo yet).

Which How-Tos are you using?

The most useful I've found are:

The ATI Radeon Linux How-to at http://www.rage3d.com/content/articles/atilinuxhowto/. The patches mentioned can be found on the Rage3D forums at http://rage3d.com/board/showthread.p...adid=33730800.

The How-to/FAQ for Gentoo users at http://odin.prohosting.com/wedge01/g...adeon-faq.html

and

The ATI Radeon How-to at http://www.gmpf.de/english/ .

The drivers really ought to work better; I had used both 3.2.8 and 3.7.0 before I updated to 3.7.6 under Slack, and I did notice a distinct improvement. If you're seeing such bad performance, it's most likely due to the kernel in one way or another (I'm using 2.6.3)-- either your kernel is not properly configured/patched, or there's an actual conflict between the kernel and the drivers.... or possibly a conflict between the drivers and UT2004 specifically.

I'll let you know if it installs and works for me in a bit; that will tell us more.