ATI 9500pro w/DVI as primary display RH9
 

Hi all... quick question...

I've been closely following the discussion about getting the 9500 pro working correctly (non-vesa mode) in the new version of XF86... I've installed the brand new FireGL drivers, ran the config utility, annnnndddd nadda. I know some people have had problems where the XFree86Config-4 file has an incorrect BusID line (ex: BusID PCI:1:0:0). By default, my installation has set the correct BusID, but it's for the analog connector (BusID PCI:1:5:0)... I'm using the DVI connector as my only connection (BusID PCI:1:5:1).

Is anyone else running a similar config? When I try to start X using the freshly generated config file, it will blank the screen... only to come back on reboot (I'm guessing because it's trying to use the other adapter). When I change the BusID to 1:5:1 (the correct setting), it gives me the error:

(WW)fglrx: No matching device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:5:0) found
(EE) No devices detected

Which is the error that some other people were getting... is there any way for me to make the config file ignore 1:5:0?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me....

Advice to all - Tar up your entire /usr/X11R6 directory before throwing it out the window, like I've been doing. ;)

Bump

Can anyone help me?

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SOLVED!!!
 

I GOT IT WORKING... here's how:

Specs:
AMD 1.4ghz Tbird (not that it really matters)
Gigabyte GA-7DXR (AMD 761 chipset)
80g WD drive (boot disk)
2x 40g IBM drives, raid 0 using onboard raid
ATI Radeon 9500pro (using DVI as display)

Here are the assumptions I'm making for this guide:
-Fresh install of RH9 w/kernel sources, GCC, Gnome

1) Update all filesets (ftp.software.umn.edu is usually pretty speedy, but choose your favorite mirror)
2) Ensure that GCC and the newest kernel/kernel source are installed.
3) Download the FireGl drivers from http://www.schneider-digital.de
4) Unzip the package, and do an "rpm -Uvh --force fgl*.rpm"
5) The rpm will automatically compile a custom kernel module for you, but you need to have GCC and the kernel source installed.
6) Run "fglrxconfig"
7) Edit /etc/X11/XFree86Config-4, and remove only the line that contains "BusID" (near bottom). I'm guessing this will make the adapter auto detect which display it is...

It had to be way easier than we were making it, didn't it?

the busID not ID'ing right does seem to be a problem on some systems... I'd be interested to find out what the cause is. I didn't have any problems with the busid in xfconfig but I have seen others.

The weird thing is that I still get a BusID error for the pci address of my dvi output... but it's working... go figure. I can set it to where it will give me an error for the analog adapter instead, but if it's not broken.....

I haven't tried setting up the dvi yet. I was planning on getting a dvi flat panel here in a couple months but we'll see. What kind of refresh rate problems (if any) do you get with playing quake or ut2k3 on a flat panel?

Refresh rates are not apples-to-apples between CRTs and LCDs... While CRTs measure their refresh rate as the number of times (in hz) the screen is refreshed per second, LCDs refresh eac individual pixel. The backlight is nothing more than a florescent buld panel. It's really quite interesting... LCDs will say that they refresh at 60hz, but this is just the flicker of the backlight.

What you really want to look for is what's called "Response Time". This measure the amount of time, in milliseconds, in which it take a single pixel to go from black, to full color, and back to black. Obviously the lower the better.

As far as I'm concerned, LCDs are very playable game-wise... the only thing is that you have to get used to a little blurryness when you're whipping around corners, etc. With a good response time (sub 25-30ms), it's not bad at all.

thanks! good to know. and that is probably one of the best explanations I've read yet.

Thanks... I appreciate the compliment. I forgot to mention that some manufacturers seem unwilling to disclose their pixel response times. Weird, I know... but I think they're banking on everyone thinking every lcd is the same. For example; Dell won't have any response time in their tech specs for their LCDs, Gateway does... perhaps this means that some manufacturers are being more honest than others, I don't know. I got my (very nice) 18.1" gateway (colors don't match my hand builts system/modded case, but oh well) from Comp Geeks... it's one of the sweetest [legit] deals I've ever come across.