ok so im new to linux and i've decided to delete winxp off of my machine, cancel my projects im dev'ing on my own in .net studio, install linux, learn some new things like opengl and publish everything i write under the gpl, w00t! errr something like that...

So i've a question or two
im trying to get my drivers for my radeon 9700 working correctly. I of course have no clue what im doing. i went to ati.com got some drivers from them got home and it didn't work.
got back to work today to do some quick research found this site, and lots of information, i did some research here and find some nice posts on installing the radeon9xxx serious cards on linux already but i still have some specific questions that im curious about.

It specifies in the driver notes which i got from a shneider... .de site i found a link to here, and in the ati download for xfree86 4.2 that it uses a glibc 2.2, and ?nothing else will work?. My slack game with 2.3 and the schneider file says it SHOULD be backwards compatible. though everywhere else in all other documentation says 2.2, i dont see why they wouldn't put 2.3 even though i do see why they wouldn't does that make sense? so could someone comfort me today saying "dont worry about it" so that when i get home thats one less thing to think about and i dont have to wait yet another day to get back to work with no internet

slack9 comes with a flavor of rpm along the lines of 4.0.xxx if i remember correctly and for some reason im thinking i read in ati documentation somewhere or that when i tried rpm'in to package last night i got errors that lead me to believe i needed a new version of rpm. but then this could just be the fact that i didn't have the xfree86 4.3 package but the 4.2 i got from ati. i checked out rpm.org and see problems stated with 4.1 and am reluctant to upgrade. So could someone ease my mind with a "you dont need to upgrade what you have is fine".

well i suppose thats it, all i can think about is getting home to find out i need to download this or that and replace this or that and its the unknown part thats driving me insane. i want to make sure i have everything i need on a cd when i get home tonight to get this thing working. thanks

the 2.2 vs 2.3 shouldn't be an issue... plus I think slack9 comes with XFree86 4.3 (not 4.2).

slack9 does not have RPM... it will convert rpm to tgz though (tgz is slack's package management software).

the hardest part about installing the ati drivers is creating your own kernel module if your kernel is not supported by the prebuilt ones. but there's is lots n LOTS of help on this site for just this particular subject.

best of luck
jpbarto

Is it an All-in-Wonder card? If so and you want to get X working. Run the command xfree86config. Then answer the questions. The only thing that you will need to really know is your vertical and horizonal refresh rates. Running xfree86config is a little confusing at first, but if you know what your graphics card is, hor/ver refresh rates are your should be able to get it working.

Also one more thing, when you are done type startx to start x.

rpm doesn't come with slackware 9? i pulled up an rpm utility following in document instructions as follows

rpm -Uhv package
and it listed dependencies saying i need this and that which looked related to the fact that i had the wrong package to start with. still if i can convert rpm to a tgz format, even though i know no more about one then the other in all truth some how it seems like id understand that method better. thanks for the tip ill do some research on managing tgz packages in slack9 and converting rpm 2 tgz

to tangle: no its not an all in wonder card, but i did run throught the xf86conf thing a couple times then play around with it in gui mode making changes and it works, i was just under the impression i need to install proper drivers mainly due to playing the occasional game of neverwinter nights. i was playing around with the ?/etc/rc.d/rc.modules? and some of the little things like ?agart? were turned off and i was reluctant to turn that on, again i dont really know what im doing, i even tried to take the via linux sound driver wrote a quick line into the rc.module but it didn't work till i relized that that file wasn't the driver but some special thing to use in conjuction with a vinstall script to get the sound installed. But i did get X started. I was playing around with the bootup setting a vga=790 and when i boot up then go to X then logout a lot of times i hit a black screen and cant do anything. i figured the right drivers might fix this to. Also if i start X on say tty1 and try to change with crtl-alt F2 X crashes on the first one. Is this supposed to happen, i figure it is seeing that i can then have 16 different desktops if i could start X in each tty

Yeah, you need good drivers for games. I thought that you where in consle mode and wanted the gui up and running to configure the system.

If you find a modules in the rc.modules that you want to try out. You can type /sbin/modules <module name> to load the module.

I have had x crash when changing to a different tty. It doesn't happen all the time. I have never been able to get x to start in each tty either, though I haven't really treid all that hard either.

The rpm thing, rpm should come with slack 9. I looked at the download site and it was there, so all the packages that you would need to satify dependencies should be on there to.

coolness, i think i'll learn both ways of managing packages and install driver twice just for the learning experience. Thanks for all the help tangle and jpbarto

sio: my apologies. I thought slack only came with the rpm2tgz util. Anyway. The basics (in a nutshell) of installing the ati drivers are as follows:

build or locate premade kernel module in /lib/modules/fglrx
(/lib/modules/fglrx is created after you install the rpm / tgz).

once the kernel module (fglrx) is built insert it into the kernel:
modprobe fglrx

Next ensure that the libGL.so files that come with the rpm / tgz properly replaced the existing libGL.so's (located in I think /usr/X11/lib)

Next execute fglrxconfig (or something to that effect, installing the rpm / tgz will put 3 or 4 binaries in /usr/X11/bin) to create an XF86Config file.

After that you should be on your way.

jpbarto

nice see im thinking in windows and rpm seems like some self executable that sticks things where you can find them or does some self install and makes it all automated which almost defeats the purpose of what i want to do which is learn. and the tgz seemed like just a rar file and then i could place everything manually and setup all the necsesary stuff by manually adding etc you confirmed it all for me now i know i have everything i need when i get home today
thankyou

not a problem... sorry about the rpm confusion earlier.