The other day, I attempted to play some 3D games, and was informed that my card was not using 3D hardware acceleration. When I checked glxinfo, I found that it was right; I seem to be doing 3D fully on software, without direct rendering.

However, when I tried installing ATI's drivers to get the 3D acceleration, I get into a state where Xorg simply loops and then crashes (Linux can't stop overloaded programs from running, and they run until the system simply dies). Other drivers, I don't get the 3D acceleration. I'm not sure what the problem is; playing with the settings in xorg.conf doesn't seem to do anything here, and I've tried various drivers and installing methods.

Distribution: Debian GNU/Linux unstable
Xorg: 6.9.0
Window Manager: KDE
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9200 SE
Processor: Athlon XP 2500+
RAM: 1.5 GB
Hard Drives, 1 80 GB, 1 250 GB

I just installed ATI drivers for my Radeon 8500. I followed the instructions on their web site. The only problem was that their instructions say to run fglxconfig when the drivers are installed. The installer said to run aticonfig. The installer was correct.

Otherwise the instructions are unbelievably simple. How can you possibly get into a loop? Just use the automatic installation option in the installer.

Make a backup of your XF86Config or xorg.conf file before you run aticonfig.

What exactly did you try?
All you have to do is make sure your kernel sources are installed, download the driver, install it, then run The ati driver is found at https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...p?folderID=356
How to install it properly?https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206...21.7-inst.html

What is the output of (Before and after you install the driver)

Okay, first of all, I get an error if I install while running Xorg, so I have to shut down and restart in Single User mode to run the installer and get an install. When I try to run glxinfo, I get the usual readings, but when it gets to the very bottom (the table of entries), it doesn't return control to the command line. Instead, glxinfo keeps spawning itself over and over and over again until Xorg crashes and I have to press the Reset button. When I try fglxinfo, the ATI panel doesn't even appear; the same result happens, and I have to restart.

I tried installing using the installer, generating a Debian package, and usin alien to convert the RPM's to Debian packages and installing that way. I also tried entries in my xorg.conf to get the system to use 3D acceleration, and I went to the DRI website and checked out using their drivers...

Stopping Xserver for video driver install:
1.logout and login to login screen
2.CTL+ALT+F1,login as root
3./etc/init.d/gdm or kdm or xdm stop
4.Install driver
5./etc/init.d/gdm or kdm or xdm start
6.logout of console
7.CTL+ALT+F7 and log back into X. (Courtesy of debian user forums.)
Make sure kernel config is setup properly to handle 3d accel--right agp if relevant,framebuffer or no frame buffer,etc. Hopefully the ati driver is a good one.And hopefully the sid xorg version supports the fglrx version you want. Good luck.

Actually, I was concerned that might be the problem; the ATI driver site only lists up to Xorg 6.8.0. I was seriously thinking about downgrading Xorg back to 6.8.0 so I can use the driver with it.

Yeah. Use unsupported Xorg versions at your own risk

I can confirm XOrg 6.9 and 7.0 work with the ATI officials just fine. ASsuming the debs were made right, that is not the problem. But to be sure, you can use the script from ATI rather than a .deb installer.