Video Types
 

Hi all ,

Was not sure exactly where to post this , it is not so much a problem as some advise needed please . I am also very new to the Linux in all forms . I am not computer illiterate , just Linux illiterate ( smile ) .

By way of explanation first:
I am running kanotix-VMware-XP with an ATI 9800 video card . The reason for this is I have some high end graphics programs that will not run in Linux Distro's . My wish is to do as much as possible in Kanotix and the rest as required in VMware-XP .

I have been reading around the forums about kdm ( I think it is ) , X , and xorg . I have read so much now that I have read myself into confusion . My system runs in kdm and not X , it says it can not start X because it is not the default . I would like to utilise my card to its full potential , or as much as possible , because of the work I do .

Question:
What is the main difference between these ? , condensed version would be fine ( grin ) , Which one would be the best to use with my card ? , or is the difference so slight that there is no point in persuing this further ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated .

D.A

Hi D,
kdm is a display manager:
it starts X for you, and takes care of the login process.
X (or X-Windows) is provided by either XFree86 or Xorg.
X does the actual display work.
But wait .... there's more!
Now you have to get your head around "Window Managers"
and "Desktop Environments"!!!
(helps to have 2 heads1 ;))
but that can wait until later.

Hope that helps ...

Oh ... yeah ... "can't start ... not default" ???
more input, please? :)
What happens if you do "/etc/init.d/kdm restart" as root?

M.

Hi M ,

Thanks for that , understand what you say there . I am just looking for the most out of my card because I do a lot of graphical work on a 19 or 21" monitor , this at the moment is on the 19 , and in full screen 1280x1024 , when you scroll , there is a little lag there , but still quite workable , no problems . But if I can get the full usage out of my card , why not ? . But if this is the best I get , well that is fine also . It still amazes me how well it all works anyway . XP in VMware works just about as good if not better in some cases than native XP , untill you hit the graphics , and this is one of the main areas that Linux per-se falls down very badly , with video and hardware drivers .

From what I have found it is working on Xfree86 , I found that listed there some where as running , so I would say that it is working fine , as it should . I have been banging around in Kanotix , or Debein , or what ever you want to call it for about a week now , getting the feel of it . Multi desktops , multi user etc , etc , good stuff . I do not have to dual boot . Boot up kanotix , do what ever , then double click the icon for VMware , one click on a button and XP comes out of hibernation , and that only takes six to eight seconds ( I timed it several times ) , so for the matter about ten seconds I am in XP working , exactly where I left off last time , but wait , there is much more , now to come back to Kanotix , without hibernating , it is just ctrl-alt and one mouse click , and wallah , back to Kanotix , VMware-XP is idling on the tool bar untill required again . For example , I set Kanotix to do a large download , while I tootled off into XP to do other work . I mean , I ask you , as that a dream setup or what ? . For me it is .

Oh ... yeah ... "can't start ... not default" ???
more input, please? :)
What happens if you do "/etc/init.d/kdm restart" as root?

Answer : a B.S.O.D ( B for black ) , and the command prompt , not knowing the command to return to the desktop , the good old reset button ( smile ) . I am still pretty certain that it is working fine though , tried to pause the load screen , but some how the pause key deas not seem to pause it . Any other way i can get you further information on this ?

Have a good one

D.A

Hi D.
Check out CTRL+ALT+Fn

For performance make sure drivers are installed, and see:
http://www.rage3d.com/content/articles/atilinuxhowto/
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.14.13.html
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...asp?deptID=894

To see what's going on with X, check out /var/log/XFree86.0.log

Later!

M.

Hi M ,

Check out CTRL+ALT+Fn : What is Fn ? Fn to me is usualy Funtion Key , which one ? ( smile ) , or I am a little brain dead today ( smile ) .

Will check out the links also .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Try all of them :) ... you'll get the idea.

Damnit M ,
that's Russian roulette with all cylinders loaded ( grin ) . Ok , I will play then .

Some info from the XFree86.1 log file . There is one Shxt load of information in those log files , if you know what you are looking at ( smile ) .

(II) LoadModule: "ddc"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libddc.a
(II) Module ddc: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
compiled for 4.3.0.1, module version = 1.0.0
ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.6

So I guess by this it is running XFree86 .
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Some more snipets of info
ATI driver running , and it recognises my card .

(II) ATI: ATI driver (version 6.5.5) for chipsets: ati, ativga

(II) Primary Device is: PCI 02:00:0
(--) Assigning device section with no busID to primary device
(WW) RADEON: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:2:0:1) found
(--) Chipset ATI Radeon 9800SE AH (AGP) found
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
After all that I am a bit lost ( smile ) , understand some . But it seems that I am running on XFree86 , with ATI driver installed , and recognising my card .
Had a look at those threads for updating the driver , not sure if it is needed , but I think I will give that a miss for the time being untill I gain some more knowledge on all this , convert the package , re-compile and so on . I am glad that I have ATI and not Nvidea , have read where they are a bigger problem ( smile ) .
I think I will go and play with my Fn keys now ( smile ) .

H.A.G.O

D.A

That WW WARING is the important bit so far.
If you edit your XF86Config file:
#vi /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

you _should_ notice a device section,
use Section "Device" to search

mine, using the *cough* nvidia solution, reads:

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x]"
# Driver "nv"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection


In your case I'm guessing it should be either 'ati' or 'ativga' instead of 'nvidia'.

Your warning suggests that your device section contains a driver that doesn't match your card.

Note that your Section "Screen" should contain a device line refering to the declared device above.

eg.

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
...


M.

PS. I very much doubt you will already have the nice&pretty ATI drivers installed.
Make sure you get them from ATI and build them! :)

It is correct that KDM is a display manager, but KDM does not start X. X is already loaded when KDM loads up. KDM is a login manager that works in GUI that handles the desire desktop manager or window manager to load for the user.

It is false that ATI is easier to install than nVidia. ATI takes more work to install than nVidia. People that can not install nVidia does not have the kernel source or kernel headers installed, does not have a C and C++ compiler, or does not know how to edit a file to add a line or two. Install nVidia modules (drivers) is very straight forward. I suggest either buying a nVidia card or wait a few months before installing the real ATI software.

Do not hit the reset, because Linux is very picky with filesystems. Hopefully you are using a journaled filesystem that minimizes data corruption when doing a hard reset. Use either halt, reboot, or shutdown -t now. Also CTL+ALT+DELETE will also do the same in Windows which is reboot.

Hi M ,

Did the ctrl-alt-fn thing , that was fun ( smile ) .
------------------------------------------------------------
From the config file :

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
# sw_cursor is needed for some ati and radeon cards
#Option "sw_cursor"
#Option "hw_cursor"
#Option "NoAccel"
#Option "ShowCache"
#Option "ShadowFB"
#Option "UseFBDev"
#Option "Rotate"
Identifier "Card0"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
Driver "fglrx"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
VendorName "All"
BoardName "All"
# BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
------------------------------------------------------
As you can see , none of what you suggest is there .
I am sure there is no ATI in there .
Get them from ATI and build them ? , forget that at the moment , would not have a clue
anymore , it has been a longgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg time since I did ,
get this , fetch that , unpack it , compile it , re-pack it , and hope it works ( smile ) .

H.A.G.O
D.A

Hi there Electro ,

Thanks for the reply and the information .

On the video cards , ATI is what I have , and I do not intend to buy a NVidea , nothing against them at all ( sorry M ) , a good card . If installing drivers is such a pain in A all the time , I guess I should find a Distro that it is not , if that is ever possible . Do you know of any ? , and not Linspire .

Ahh , ooops , did a hard boot a couple of times , still seems to be holding together though ( smile ) , does that come under the heading of ' Abuse ' ( smile ) , well I guess you could say that I am giving it a good test then ( smile ) . The good old C-A-D works , thats good to know .

Actualy when I installed it , I just went along with the suggestions and the defaults at the time . For the file system , I think it is ' reisifer ' some thing or other .

H.A.G.O

D.A

I _would_ suggest using bright & shiny drivers from ATI,
however, in the meantime, try:

man radeon

;)

M.

ps. It's not that I like nV... that's just what I've got
works OK for me using modules-assistant

Hi M ,

Did the man radeon thing , it gave me information , sorry , but now what fo I do with it ??? , a bit like the dog that caught the car .

M , don't get me wrong here , I still do like the NVidea cards , they are a good card , just that their high end cards are toasters now , and the ATI out performs them and runs a lot cooler .

As for getting the ATI drivers , downloading no problem , as for the rest of it , forget it at this time . I think I wil have to find a ' Distro ' that does not have all this fooling around just to get a driver on there . I am now seriously thinking about ditching Linux ' Distro's ' .

H.A.G.O

D.A

ATI video cards perform the worst in Linux. OpenGL takes a huge toll on the GPU than DirectX. All the in benchmarks are DirectX so the tests are not fair. Anandtech wrote a benchmark tool for Linux and they benchmark ATI and nVidia cards. nVidia beats all ATI cards. I like ATI cards because their video graphics quality outperforms nVidia but nVidia is the easiest to install and to setup for dual monitor or TV output. You can use ATI card that you have, but you probably may want to look into the GeForce7 series from nVidia.

Getting OT ppl?

D., don't give up yet ... some things in Linux have to be learnt the hard way...
and this one isn't one of them!

By doing 'man radeon' you should have noticed a line saying
Driver "radeon"

By using an editor such as vi, you open up your XF86Config-4 file,
arrow-key down to the line which currently says
Driver "fglrx"

Delete fglrx with DEL, press INSERT and type radeon

To save and exit:
ESC:wq (yes that's 4 keys)

Now, as far as the 'getting it going' issue goes:
Downloading, compiling and installing drivers for 'special' hardware
should not be a big deal.
Once you are comfortable with the concepts involved, you will
probably find that someone else has already been there and
developed a tool to assist you.
xdebconfigurator and modules-assistant being excellent examples.
Telling you to use these at the outset might seem like a good idea at first, but when something goes wrong .... hmmm .... let's say
it's unlikely you'll get much help because you haven't helped yourself.

Anyway, once you've edited your XF86Config-4 just try
/etc/init.d/kdm restart
and see what happens.
If you're lucky all will go well.
If not, examine your X log again and look for warnings and errors.

You may need to #modprobe radeon or something, but
that sort of detail is probably left for someone who actually knows
anything about ATI and Linux :)

Good luck D.

Hi there Electro ,

ha ha ha ha , you are right , since when has any test been fair ( smile ) ,

But anyway , from what you say , it seems that NVidea is best for Linux , and ATI is best for Windows . They are both good cards , the only problem I have with NVidea is that they are toasters , especialy if you go into the high end cards . I don't use dual monitors , and I don't use TV out . As far as I can remember in our client base , no one uses TV out , and I think only one uses dual monitors , and he is on NVidea .

The point of all this experamenting of mine is a two edged sword , for myself , and to see if we can offer an alternative to Windows to our clients , other than Mac , for ease of use . Because we will not be supporting the Windows when they drop it on us , for many , many reasons .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Hi there M ,

It is not a matter of giving up here M , but a matter of time as well . As I said to Electro , it is also a dual egded sword . With the main thing of Ease Of Use for the general desktop user . As I have said before the setup I am looking for is is Linux-VMware-XP . It seems that the Distro's that run VMware quite well , are not so user friendly , and the ones that are sort of user friendly , do not run VMware very well , or not at all . Damnit ( smile ) .
There are probably only about 2% of our client base that would even bother to look at this sort of thing with Linux . 'We' have all been spoilt by the ' ease of use ' and automation of a lot of mundane tasks in Windows . Lets face it , if Linux per-se wants to atract the desktop general user , they are going to have to do the same . If they do not , then Linux per-se will only ever be for the ' enthusiests ' , which is fine also , to each his own . But for my main purpose , our clients , the answer is no . But I will keep on perservering with it a little longer . For me I can learn it , and I like this setup very much .

Back to what we were talking about .

A video card is not a special item , it is a mandotaory item , and should be one of the easiest things to install drivers for .

Ok , I understand what you say there , I will give it a whirl and see what happens ( smile ) .

-----------------------------------------------------

xdebconfigurator and modules-assistant being excellent examples.
Telling you to use these at the outset might seem like a good idea at first, but when something goes wrong .... hmmm .... let's say
it's unlikely you'll get much help because you haven't helped yourself.

Hmmmm , I will take a little issue with you on this statement though . Is it still the general feeling in the Linix world , that if you use tools to do things , that you are not cosidered ' worthy ' to use Linux/Distro's , and would receive very little assitance because of this ? . If this is the thinking in the Linux World , then you have just blown both your legs off , going no where , and will only ever be an enthusiasts OS . What is needed is both .

------------------------------------------------------
Ok , I am off to try your sugestions , and I promise not to use any tools , I will do it the hard way ( smile ) , and see what i can mess up .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Here are the results M , We got Radeon in there anyway ( smile ) .

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
# sw_cursor is needed for some ati and radeon cards
#Option "sw_cursor"
#Option "hw_cursor"
#Option "NoAccel"
#Option "ShowCache"
#Option "ShadowFB"
#Option "UseFBDev"
#Option "Rotate"
Identifier "Card0"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
Driver "radeon"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
VendorName "All"
BoardName "All"
# BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
----------------------------------------------------------

H.A.G.O

D.A

Sorry D, I put that rather badly.

These tools are handy, and they do make life easier.
It was not my intention to make you work harder for your result,
but simply to point out that (I think) in this case only ONE WORD
needs changing in your XF86Config file!

ie. Hopefully, you don't need to spend hours working out why prog-x or app-y
won't automagically configure everthying for you.

That being said, I wasn't keen on advising you to use modules-assistant to
install radeon drivers as I have no idea if/how it works fpr radeon!
(and lots of other things like kernel-headers, etc would have to be installed ....)

Should you be unable to edit the config file as I suggested, by all means try
xdebconfigurator, which does a fantastic job ... however, again, there may be
some hurdles to overcome just to run this app, let alone use it effectively.

Bottom line, try these in order until you win:
1. try edit as suggested
2. try xdebconfigurator
3. download ati drivers and follow instructions

I'm sure you'll win :)

M.

Nice work ... :)

Got 3D acceleration going now then? (Try chromium! :))

M.

Hi M ,

I was not actualy , realy taking issue with you at all in any way . But I have read on 'Linux ' forums about the place , that if you do not want to learn to do it this way , then go back to Windows , not said to me at any time , but I have read where it was said to others , on more than one occasion .
But enough of that , to each his own .

I have no problems with editing files etc , etc , god knows I have done enough of that in my time ( smile ) , it is the syntax used , and correct usage of the said syntax . For me at this time it is a quick crash course in Linux and Distro's to see if it is feasable to migrate any of our clients over to it at this stage . So for me now , it is a crash course in Linux , for reasons eaxplained , in cluding all the easy to use tools , a full study up of Mac , while still maintaining Windows 32 bit , while ever it lasts .
We absolutely refuse to get involved with the new 64 bit Windows . They say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks , you can , it just takes a little longer ( smile ) , and there is not that much time left untill the ' Terror System ' hits us . We will be side shifting to Mac , Mac has seen the light in a lot of ways , and would also like to add Linux as well . But our core business is with people who have little or no computer savvy , and why should they , they just want to use the tool , for what ever , without having to have a private IT with them to keep it running , etc , etc .

Also what M$ , Intel ( I$ ) , Film Industry ( F.I$ ) and the Music Industry ( M.I$ ) , have planned for the general public in the very close future is nothing short of total mayhem . But that is another story .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
back to the other bit ( smile ) .

Nice work ... :)
Thanks ( smile ) . Did not quite do it your way , but got it done without breaking any fingers trying to get to all those keys at once ( smile ) .

Got 3D acceleration going now then? (Try chromium! :))
Not sure if it is or not just yet , how do I check that , is there a testing tool ? , ( ooops ) , I said that dirty word again ( smile ) , you can't take me anywhere , my mouth is so bad ( grin ) .

Chromium to me is an electroplating process for coating metal with a shiny sunstance .
I wish you would speak plain English ( smile ) .

When I put the other HD in I will see if I can find Chromium , I am on a pure XP drive at the moment , but I am sure I will swap it soon ( smile ) , all of this is realy ruening my productive time ( smile ) . So when anyone complains that they have to do my work , I just , well I have to learn this , so I am productive , and besides , damnit , I am the boss after all ( smile ) .

I will et you know what happens .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Excellent D,
I'm currently building machines for a business that seems to be doing something similar (minus the Mac part!:)),
so it's good to hear of others doing the same.

Re: 3D
#grep 3D /var/log/XFree86.0.log
in my case gives:
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA 3D Acceleration Architecture Initialized

The whole point of 3D (IMHO) is OpenGL.
Do a similar grep for GL or glx (these are modules enabled in XF86Config)

And, to speak with my other head, chromium is a game that uses OpenGL.
Think of it like the grandson of galaxian/galaga on steroids :cool:
#apt-get install chromium !!!

:)

M.

Hi there M ,

I guess and think that there are more people going down this road now , forced on them by M$'s gluttonouse greed for money , they are more interested in what it looks like , rather than what it operates like . There are also a lot of other insidiouse things behind the scenes in all this as well , all to booste their hold on the market , and of course , the money in it . But also from this , there may be some good , it will force a lot of changes away from M$ , and if any of the Linux Distro's have their head screwed on the right way , they will have a huge oportunity , if they do it right . This is what I am counting on , at least a couple or a few of them that do have their heads screwed on right . A good user friendly OS for a reasonable price .

We are only a very small show , and the training and certification costs for us will kill us , and that is just for starters
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is what I get :
(II) RADEON(0): Using XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA)
(II) RADEON(0): Acceleration enabled
glx is there also in variouse places .

I will have a go at the ATI driver later on .

A question for you , I have two XFree logs , one is a .0 and the other is a .1 , is there any difference , or what is the purpose of them , or are they backups etc , etc . ?

Ok , I will have a look at the Chromium , I could do with some relaxation ( smile ) . Normaly I play Rome Total war , or Morrowind The Elders Scrolls on XP .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Excellent!
Although, I have a feeling XAA might be for 2D acceleration :( ... dunno.
Running an OpenGL app _should_ prove it all works.
Apart from my favourite 'test' game (ooh don't forget ppracer :))
there's a glxgears app for testing framerates, and so on,
just press ALT+F2 in X and type glxgears
(man glxgears for info)
...or type glxinfo in a console

Hmmm ... training & certification ... yeah not in my budget at all, I'm afraid,
self taught and (M counts fingers) 28 years on a keyboard (ouch!:))
eg. know what a Signetics 2650 is? or ...
remember replacing your tape-drive with single-density floppies? :) lol

M.

Hi M ,

You are right , it is for 2D . I tried an OpenGL app , no go , so I only have 2D acceleration .
I will have to get onto that ATI driver thing soon as I have the time .

ha ha ha ha ha ha , only 28 years huh , you are still a pup ( smirk ) , sorry about that ( smile ) . Damn , I feel and sound like methusala here .

I originaly started off machine coding chips for machine control , they call that Robotics now , and building interfaces for such things , etc , etc .
In those days , no such thing as a PC of any sort , my first ' Keyboard ' I built myself , It was just a couple of rows of small push buttons .
Can you imagine a world of no PC's , the only computers realy , were mainframes that took up enough realestate that you could build a decent house ( smile ) .
So I guess that you could say that I have seen the thing grow . About the only thing that I regret is that when Billy Goats floated Microsoft , I was offered a thousand shares for two hundred bucks , I said naaah , I have seen the product , and at that time there were better out there , and those CEO's of those giants at the time said that the PC would never take off , it is just a fad and we are just wastying our time and money , I bet a lot of those idiots kiked themselves all the way to the grave , I would guess that most of them are not alive today . Also most of those giants are either gone , or dwarves of their former selves , and left it wide open for Billy Goats , one of the giants even gave hin Basic because they did not think it would have been of much use ( smile ) , little did they know .

Those were the good old days huh . I mostly started with PC's when the Z80 kicked off , got into it pretty heavily then , Z80 , a , b , and c versions , quite a nice old chip that one ( smile ) , trying to remember others but can not bring them to mind right now ( smile ) , I think my old hard drive is getting full and slow .

Time to hit the hay , it is 1.30am again , ny time flies when you are having such fun ( smile ) .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Hi D (ancient one;) 40+ ?? woof, yeah I'm only 36 (next week) lol

Yes I know what you mean about the handmade stuff.
Dad built his (I added bits like sound & voice) which had
folded aluminium casing, 1cm safety glass sandwiching
a peice of green celophane (*smirk*), 3 floppies, 2 printers
(1 was a modified electric typewriter), a UHF 'modem' using
a handheld ... it was even dual-boot Flex & OS9 !!
... you get the idea.

Back when computers were real and their speeds were not
(ie. 2MHz double clocked was pretty quick!) (late 70s?)

Kids these days have got it good, hey?
All my machines have been built from repaired junk until relatively recently.
I bought my first new computer a couple of years ago -- a pocket pc!
(stangely enough, the only version of Windows I own!)

Z80, hmmm... I was a Motorola boy - thru&thru! :)
(6809)

Yeah, figured as much with the drivers.
Downloading and installing ATI's drivers should fix that np,
if anything like nvidia you'll need to install kernel-headers.
I haven't found any shortcuts that'll help you (and don't know of any)

Have fun.

M.

Hi M ,

Thanks for the compliment , I am not quite twice as old as you ( smile ) .

Your machine was a modern one then ( smile ) . But yes , those were the fun days , trying real hard to remember them now ( smile ) . Yep , remember them well , the 6800 series , actualy was playing with them as well .

I went and downloaded the ATI driver , and also got a pleasant surprise , they have a new ATI driver instaler for Linux , damn , my luck has changed , but not quite , there is a slight problem there , when you go to download it , instead of downloading as a file , it opens in the browser and then proceeds to open in the browser , all 35 meg of it ( frown ) , It does the same even in XP , and no matter what browser you use , damn , luck did not change after all ( smile ) . So it would seem like back to the manual install , damn ( smile ) .

H.A.G.O

D.A

errr... I see what you mean with the download,

########################### Option 1
with a browser do a right click, save as (into your home directory, say)
and then in a console run:
./ati-driver-installer-8.14.13.run

Ff that doesn't work try chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.14.13.run
(to make it executable!)
and try again

########################### Option 2 (the easy way)
in a console do:
wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/at...er-8.14.13.run
chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.14.13.run
./ati-driver-installer-8.14.13.run

or select those three lines from the browser using mouse,
and middle-click in the console (oohh .... cheap thrill :))
###########################

That should put a smile on your face

M.

ps. You might have to run it as root, if the installer isn't smart enough ;)

Hi M ,

Doing a ' save link as ' works fine , it then downloads , why every thing else is double click and this is different , usualy a save link does just that , just saves the link , who knows , it works anyway . It never even dawned on me to do a save link , for heavens sake ( frown ) .

Incidentaly , with this problem I even registered so I could send a ticket to them , the reply is below .
Just an auto responder :

The Linux drivers available from ATI are provide are "as is".
You may be able to get further assistance from the Linux community
at the links below:


http://www.linux.org/help/index.html

http://www.linuxdoc.org/

http://www.xfree86.org/


To report issues with Linux drivers you can submit an online ticket
using
the "Linux Driver Feedback" Category, and your report will be
received and reviewed/tested by our driver team. Please note that your
report
will only be responded to if we require additional information.

It has down loaded , so I will give it a whirl and see what happens .

Let you know later .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Hi M ,

Well it installed ok , but now it says to run ' fglrxconfig ' , in the Konsole . Damned if I can get that to work ( frown ) , tried varius paramaters , ./fglrxconfig , ./fglrxconfig.run , nothing happens .

Any suggestions , and don't be rude ( smile ) .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Hey D,

Looks like you're getting there.
The first time is always the hardest.
The ./ in front of a command indicates to run the command found in the current directory.
ie. if 'run-me' is in /home/myuser and your current working directory is /home/myuser (~/) then './run-me' will execute it.
That also assume that 'run-me' is executable (ls -l run-me should have an 'x' somewhere in the permissions:))
To make it executable: chmod +x run-me

If fglrxconfig is not in your current working directory and you can't find it try
#updatedb &
(# indicates you should run this command as root!)
and then
locate fglrxconfig

(which fglrxconfig might be even better)

What all these commands do can be examined using man command-name
You can find out what commands are related to it using apropos command-name

I'm guessing that fglrxconfig is installed by the ATI driver (I don't have it!).
If you installed as a user then the installer should have asked you for a root password
at some stage (or for an sudo password ... long story).
edit: if not, run it as root
It may also be possible that fglrxconfig needs to be executed as root.

Lot's of guesswork there, hope it helps.

M.

ps. after all that, hopefully you've learnt to just try fglrxconfig as root without the leading ./ :)

Hi M ,

Hold the fort !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It works !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I can play FooBilliards now ( grin ) . Sort of got held up testing it out ( smile ) .

The installer worked well , but when I went to configure it , I changed to the directory where it was , no way could I get it to run , but eventualy I went back out to the root directory , put in the whole path and away it went , go figure that one .

On configure , you have a mile of questions to answer , I mostly went with the defaults , not sure if it is running at its optimum , but it is working .

In summary of all this , what a P.I.T.A ( smile ) . Give me installer tools any day ( smile )

It does not seem to help with my graphics work on VMware-XP , I still get a little lag in it . But I did notice in the configure list it made reference to VM software , I went with the default , I will do a re-configure and experimant now that I know how to do it .

H.A.G.O

D.A

Excellent!

Now you can do things like gxgears fps test.
Just type glxgears in a console.
eg.
glxgears
9527 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1905.400 FPS
11548 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2309.600 FPS
11554 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2310.800 FPS
11614 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2322.800 FPS
11521 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2304.200 FPS
11569 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2313.800 FPS
...

I'm ignorant of VMware I'm afraid, but I'd have thought there was some
way to improve graphics with GL support. I'll leave that to you to figure out ;)

Glad you've got it going.

M.

Hi M ,

Yep , get about an acerage of 2100 fps , and that Billiards game is quite good ( smile ) .

The installer worked fine , once I understood , the configuration was a little different , to say the least ( smile ) . I might even run config again .

With the VMware , I am still not too sure myself , but you must remember that it is still an OS running on top of another OS , so it must take some hits , but still it deos run quite well , and very workable .

H.A.G.O

D.A