Help with ATI Radeon Xpress 200

The Dew · 02-10-2007, 11:24 AM

My specs follow as.....

ASUS A8R-MX (Integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 200)
AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (Integrated in AUSE A8R-MX)
SATA Maxtor 160gig

I have read that my video card doesn't work very well with linux. Every distro(Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu) always freeze or lock up on me. It usally turns a bright blue color and you can't go into the terminal via CTRL + Shift + F1.

Is there anyway I can use linux? There isn't nothing wrong with my hardware, because windows(Vista and XP) work fine on my computer. I have also, Had linux working on my computer before.

squisher · 02-10-2007, 02:37 PM

I don't have an ATI, but some hints for you:

So which distributions did you really try out on the computer?

Have you tried both the official, binary only ATI driver (called fglrx), and the opensource one that comes with X.org (I think it's called radeon)? If you are having trouble with one, give the other a shot.

rickh · 02-10-2007, 04:56 PM

I also have that integrated video card. Works great. Keep trying.

Maybe post the Device, Monitor, and Screen sections of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

The Dew · 02-10-2007, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by squisher

I don't have an ATI, but some hints for you:

So which distributions did you really try out on the computer?

Have you tried both the official, binary only ATI driver (called fglrx), and the opensource one that comes with X.org (I think it's called radeon)? If you are having trouble with one, give the other a shot.

I tried Fedora Core 6 X86_64 and X86, openSUSE 10.2 and Ubuntu(Including Kubutu).

Fedora Core and openSUSE freeze when I'm using the computer, and Ubuntu freezes during installation.

Yes, I tried the official driver from Ati.amd.com, and used the driver that came with the distros. Didn't try the open source driver, don't know where you get it. But got this from Wikipedia.....

Quote:

As of the 8.25.18 Linux driver release R200 support is completely broken. There has been no comment from ATI on the problem.

BogusTrumper · 02-10-2007, 10:37 PM

I've had this problem before; it's no fun. Fedora does badly with ATI cards, and NVidia cards don't work either. The problem seems to be that neither ATI nor NVidia want to make drivers for linux.

The solution for me (I use Fedora 5) has been the Livna repository. It works pretty well with yum (big plus for me; I like being able to update without a lot of hassle). For great instructions, I'd recommend hopping over to Stanton Finley's website: http://stanton-finley.net/

I haven't yet had it in me to play with Fedora 6 yet, but I'd bet this would work similarly; Livna is pretty good about keeping up with the kernel updates on their repository, no reason they wouldn't have made the jump to FC6.

rickh · 02-10-2007, 10:55 PM

Quote:

As of the 8.25.18 Linux driver release R200 support is completely broken. There has been no comment from ATI on the problem.

I don't know about that, but I'm using version 8.31.5 with zero problems.

Code:

debian64:~$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
.
.
.
.
debian64:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON XPRESS Series Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6174 (8.31.5)
debian64:~$

Of course I use Debian, and we Debian folks learn to just kind of expect things to work.

The Dew · 02-10-2007, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BogusTrumper

I've had this problem before; it's no fun. Fedora does badly with ATI cards, and NVidia cards don't work either. The problem seems to be that neither ATI nor NVidia want to make drivers for linux.

The solution for me (I use Fedora 5) has been the Livna repository. It works pretty well with yum (big plus for me; I like being able to update without a lot of hassle). For great instructions, I'd recommend hopping over to Stanton Finley's website: http://stanton-finley.net/

I haven't yet had it in me to play with Fedora 6 yet, but I'd bet this would work similarly; Livna is pretty good about keeping up with the kernel updates on their repository, no reason they wouldn't have made the jump to FC6.

Thank You!

I have been trying to figure this problem out for about 1 week and it ain't been fun. Glad someone knew what I'm talking about.

Sucks, I just put Windows XP back on my computer, but I don't mind reinstalling linux.