under windows ATI does not support any drivers for this laptop vid card, and i have to go to panasonic to download the drivers. now i understand that ATI and *nix do not play nice, but i would like to see if there is a way to get some ATI drivers for this laptop that will alow me to play some of the games like UT2004 or any of the other newer games.

my distro is debian sarge edition. did a base install, then apt-get to install my KDE and xdm x-server the vid drivers i can only guess are the default for that kernel as i never told it what to do other then what type of monitor i have and the max res. it can handle of 1024x768.

the 2D world is crystal clear at least on my desktop. tuxtype had a bit of an issue the first time i opened it for my daughter, but after that it seems to be ok.

please keep in mind im an extreem newbie to both *nix and debian, but i have succeeded in getting Nvidia drivers working and getting s-vid out to a TV on my media box also running the exact same distro.

no luv for ATI i take it...

Pretty much that's the case. The best suggestion I would have is to check the ATI site for drivers, and also to do a Search here at LQ on how to install them. (There are a lot of threads about the topic). Personally, I've spent hours wrestling with ATI cards, and although I've got them working pretty well, I still have nagging doubts that I'm really getting the performance I should be seeing. As a general observation, nVidia seems to take Linux support much more seriously than ATI, but that's just my 2 cents. Good luck with it either way -- J.W.

>The best suggestion I would have is to check the ATI site for drivers

Ati's proprietary drivers only support r200 and +

Your 7200 [...r100] should be directly supported by your X server through DRI's "radeon" driver.

You need driver "radeon" in Device Section and Load "dri" and "glx" in Modules Section in your config.
$man radeon should give you further indications on how to set it up properly.

Your kernel needs "agpgart", "<your chipset>-agp" [...kernel 2.6] and "radeon" either built into or as modules.
Modules are usually preferred and most distro's kernel usually include them as such.

Make sure you load the agpgart(s) modules, then "radeon", before you start your X server.
With the correct config , you should get h/w acceleration.

If not check your /var/log/{XFree86|Xorg}.0.log for lines starting with (EE) and post the errors you encountered.

ok Untamed, slow down. that is a lot of information.

first tell me how to see if i have what you say i need, then ill go forward from there.


slow little baby steps for me please. i am sure you said it all, but i did not understand all the steps in the *nix world how to do that.

Your modules are in /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/kernel ...so,
ls -R /lib/modules/2.6.9/kernel/ | grep agp and
ls -R /lib/modules/2.6.9/kernel/ | grep radeon
...will confirm that the required modules are available.
If not you'll have to recompile your kernel accordingly, but as I said, distros kernels, I assume that's what you're using by your reaction, usually include those for compatibility with the most systems "out of the box".

$man modprobe
$man lsmod
...that will help you with the modules tools.

As hinted by J.W., Ati cards are mostly a pain in the ***, you'll need to do your homework [...and learn something along the way],
then if you have specific questions, be sure to include extra info like what kernel, what version of X, what motherboard chipset, errors from your log and such.

neither of those mean a lot to me, but i take it that as i have something installed for them that is a good sign.

yes as for the ATI and *nix i have figured that out, but this laptop i have little choice.

xserver = xdm
KDE >3.2 (think it is 3.22 but not 100%, just know it is the most current vs i can apt-get install kde)

moutherboard chipset... how do i find that info out. IIRC it is an intel of some flavor.

what errors and from what logs would you like to see.

again thanks for the slower step by step help.

So you have a 2.4 kernel, the motherboard chipset is less important for now, only kernel 2.6 has the extra chipset specific agp modules,
...but I'm sure google could help you if you really needed to know.

Your X server is either XFree or Xorg ...and the version.

Now for the config, /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 or /etc/X11/xorg.conf [...see X server],
open with a text editor and in Section "Module" make sure you have
Load "glx"
Load "dri" ...both uncommented, i.e. no # in front

and in Section "Device" you need
Driver "radeon"

Also you may want to backup a copy of the file before you modify it

Now boot into console mode, type lsmod to see if the agpgart module gets loaded automatically, if not do,
modprobe -v agpgart
once the agpgart module is loaded, do the same for "radeon"

Startx and see how it goes, you can usually tell if you have h/w 3d by running glxgears before and after.

The log, I already mentionned, it's either /var/log/XFree86.0.log or /var/log/Xorg.0.log [...again, depending on what X server you have].
That log gets overwritten each time X is initiated [...copied to Xxxx.0.log.old in fact], so if you wanna see the log for a failed attempt, look at it before restarting x with another config file or look into the .old log but basically you have the current log and the one before, make sure you reference the correct one.

HTH

ok sorry, using XFree. i have glx and dri, but under :

can i just change ati - radeon and be ok, or is there more to it?

hmm, though I always used "radeon" I think "ati" is supposed to work just the same, but yes it's that easy and I suggest you try radeon.

And I still suggest you look at the "radeon" man page, you might wanna add "AGPMode" "FastWrite"and other stuff to tweak your performance, but only after/if you get it to work.

Now load the modules and give it a try for crying out loud! ...

ok thanks. not sure if i did the restart right. when i log out of KDE it brings me back to CLI and then i just type startx again.

before i logged out i was getting between 360-445FPS, afterwards i was getting better at 394-460FPS so that is an improvement.

is that going to give better quality on the 3D world games? the 2D i know is very clear and always has been no matter what OS i have on this box.

2k, XP, RH9, MDK10, Debian

all have crystal clear 2d worlds, and with panasonic drivers for the vid card 2k and XP both have very good 3D world graphics too. under RH9 the 3d left a bit to be desired. tryied it with NeverWinterNights. the world was nice, but the PC/NPC (characters) had horrid effects around them.

Type $glxinfo | grep render in a console, you'll know for sure if you have direct rendering or not.
I believe you do and might have all along, if you were able to even load NWN before, Debian must have set you up with the "ati" driver automatically, I know Mandrake used to setup my old radeon way back when.

Don't expect those few frames in glxgears to make a difference in your games though.

Your only hope in getting a few more fps is by tweaking your config, if at all possible, or getting a newer X server, possibly the newer Xorg which have more up to date DRI drivers, but again I couldn't guaranty the outcome will be worth the effort.

Have fun!

ok thanks. looks like that is running...

direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Radeon 20020611 AGP 1x x86/MMX/SSE TCL

well NWN was under RH9 have not tried with debian yet.

Thank you much for your time and efforts.