ATI drivers not working on Ubuntu 6.06
Hello,
Like apparently many people, I have been having great trouble getting the ATI graphics card in my Toshiba laptop to work properly in Dapper, though it seemed to work fine on Breezy. I have checked many many forums and HOWTOs, starting with wiki*cchtml*com/index*php/Ubuntu_Dapper_Installation_Guide, but nothing works. (Sorry, had to replace "." with "*" to get my post on, since I haven't yet posted 3 times and therefore am not permitted to post URLs. Sorry to hack around the policy, but I think my motives are legitimate.) MAIN PROBLEM: 3d graphics seem to be okay; screensavers work, as does the openGL 3d viewport of my 3d animation application (Houdini). Currently fgl_glxgears doesn't work (see below), but it has worked at various stages of my fruitless fix attempts. One problem is that in Houdini and some other apps (eg. Cinelerra), parts of the UI are black. This wouldn't be so bad, but also, at random but frequent occasions while I'm interacting with the UI, the screen will just go black, then go to text-only login, and then go to a black screen with "_" at the top, at which point I have to manually turn the machine off. So I'm thinking the problem is with the 2d, not 3d, aspect of the drivers, if that's possible. When I follow the instructions at wiki*cchtml*com/index*php/Ubuntu_Dapper_Installation_Guide (again, replace "*" with "."), I don't notice any errors, but after rebooting, fglrxinfo still says I'm using mesa3d, not ati (see below). Even after trying all the other tips I could find, I can never get fglrxinfo to show that I'm using ati. Note that Houdini didn't work properly right away with Breezy but the problem was different; crazy triangular drawing artifacts all over the place instead of black and crashes. I fixed that by following the Breezy instructions here: wiki*kubuntu*org/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI. Sorry to post a problem so similar to so many others out there, but I'm really at my wit's end. Note (in case you haven't already) that though I've been using Linux for a couple years, I'm not very savvy with sys-admin stuff. That's mainly why I've so loved Ubuntu -- very friendly to the non-technical. But I'm stuck. Any help much, much appreciated. SYSTEM INFO: Here is a bunch of info about my system that people seemed to find relevant on the forums I've checked. Let me know if you need more. ********************************** Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 Laptop model: Toshiba Satellite A70 ********************************** Output from lsmod | grep fglrx: fglrx 391756 8 agpgart 36784 2 fglrx,ati_agp ********************************** Output from dmesg | grep fglrx: [4294697.374000] [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 372 MBytes. [4294697.374000] [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.25.18 [May 18 2006] on minor 0 [4294716.316000] [fglrx:firegl_init_mask_ram] *ERROR* maskram_type not detected [4294716.317000] [fglrx] Internal AGP support requested, but kernel AGP support active. [4294716.317000] [fglrx] Have to use kernel AGP support to avoid conflicts. [4294716.317000] [fglrx] AGP detected, AgpState = 0x1f00021b (hardware caps of chipset) [4294716.318000] [fglrx] AGP enabled, AgpCommand = 0x1f000312 (selected caps) [4294716.336000] [fglrx] total GART = 33554432 [4294716.336000] [fglrx] free GART = 17559552 [4294716.336000] [fglrx] max single GART = 17559552 [4294716.336000] [fglrx] total LFB = 60911616 [4294716.336000] [fglrx] free LFB = 52719616 [4294716.337000] [fglrx] max single LFB = 52719616 [4294716.337000] [fglrx] total Inv = 0 [4294716.337000] [fglrx] free Inv = 0 [4294716.337000] [fglrx] max single Inv = 0 [4294716.337000] [fglrx] total TIM = 0 ********************************** Output from fglrxinfo (again, replace "*" with "." for the Mesa project): display: :0.0 screen: 0 OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www*mesa3d*org OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect OpenGL version string: 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.4.1) ********************************** Output from fgl_glxgears: Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) Major opcode of failed request: 144 (GLX) Minor opcode of failed request: 5 (X_GLXMakeCurrent) Serial number of failed request: 33 Current serial number in output stream: 33 ********************************** /etc/X11/xorg.conf file: Code:
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) |
Similar problems
I've been wrestling with ATI drivers for years, and always managed to get them working in Suse or Red Hat, but so far no luck in Kubuntu. It looks like you have the driver installed and the kernel module loading properly, but the 3-D part isn't being used. I cant' tell if this is because the driver itself is having problems or because X isn't configured properly. Do you have an older xorg.conf file from when things were working you can compare to your current setup? I don't see anything out of the ordinary in you xorg.conf file, but I'm not an expert by any means. Which method (1 or 2) did you use when following ATI's instructions? Sorry I couldn't offer more help.
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I've tried both methods 1 and 2, in that order. Sorry, I'm not entirely sure which xorg.conf I started with -- I've got about 25 backups by now! But I think these are xorg.conf before I installed ubuntu 6.06, and then after I installed 6.06 but before I started hacking at the driver. In any case, I've grown so exasperated with this problem (been working on it pretty steadily for a week) that I think I'm just going to backup my home and reinstall Breezy -- a pity since Dapper does seem to have some nice features, but I'm at my wit's end and I really need proper graphics. Thanks for your input tho, and any more thoughts still appreciated.
BEFORE INSTALLING 6.06: Code:
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) Code:
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) |
I feel your pain, I wasted three days on this same problem. What I discovered was that after a failed attempt at method #1, I needed to remove everything before trying method two. At the bottom of the page are tips for trouble shooting. One section gives instructions for removing the Breezy packages. You have to do this before trying to install the Dapper ones. I had a clean install of Kubuntu 6.06, but I followed these instructions for removing the old packages from the failed attempts. One of them was not uninstalling properly, and I had to manually delete a file and a directory. Once I got everything removed, I used method two and everything worked. However, if you use method two, make sure to not update the fglrx-kernel-source package. Adept will tell you there are updateds available, but DON'T install them. I made that mistake once as well. You may have already tried all this, but it is what worked for me. Looking at your xorg.conf files, it doesn't appear that the upgrade re-installed this file, as "fglrx" is still the driver listed. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a package left over from Breezy that is not getting removed. Good luck.
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Mm, I tried to follow your advice but after I followed the tip at the bottom and removed all the old fglrx packages, find /usr/ -name "*fglrx*" -print showed that the following files were still installed:
Code:
/usr/share/doc/fglrx In any case, regretful though I am to say it, I've pretty much given up hope on getting the ati graphics working on Dapper, and I'm now trying to back up my home to an external hard drive so I can reinstall Breezy -- which is also giving me problems! It seems that when I copy to the external drive, it takes up space on my root filesystem. I'm about to make another post about this, which will be the only other post by eMcJagger on this forum, if you're interested. Many thanks for the help though. |
I know at one point I deleted the /usr/src/modules/fglrx directory. If you still end up doing a re-install, I would strongly recommend making /home a separate partition. Then you can leave it alone when you update or change operating systems and never have to worry about losing data during an upgrade, although you'll still probably want to ocassionally back things up. I even use the same /home partition and user account for both Suse and my Kubuntu experiment so that I always have access to my personal data.
If you have enough free space on the drive, it is possible to do this before you upgrade and you won't have to restore any data. Of course it is always a good idea to back up anything important before playing with partitions. It looks like you got your external hard drive issue figured out so you now have a good backup. |
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