Mediocre performance on X1900XT?

Hi guys.

I decided to take the plunge and try out Ubuntu 6.10 (my first Linux distro) and so far I've been doing alright. I have one question, though... why is it that my ATI X1900XT has serious trouble with half of the screensavers in Ubuntu? I'm usually not a screensaver kind of person, to be honest, but the fact that a higher-end card like this has this much trouble doing something as simple as *screensavers* kind of worries me. I'm pretty sure I installed my graphics drivers properly... I don't know. Help a newbie out!

ati fglrx on google should give you exactly the driver you need. It is likely you only have 2D graphics enabled with the driver you have. just newb to newb, but this was the trouble I had.

Hi

Yes, you can get the fglrx drivers from ati themselves, but you will find yourself in a world of pain there. I've personally only managed to get the drivers from ati to work *once*. But, there is hope!

The Ubuntu team seems to have spent a reasonable amount of time making sure that their repositories contain a working driver for you card -- you just have to go and get it!

First, fire up Synaptic, and make sure that you have the universe and multiverse repositories enabled. I forget where this is in Synaptic, but you can always go edit /etc/apt/sources.list, and add "multiverse universe" (without the quotes) to a line that looks like:

deb ftp://archive.ubuntu.com/ edgy main

(Your line may look a little different, and I can't even confirm that mine looks like that because I'm at work on a FC6 machine, but I'm sure you will cope!)

Now, update your lists (you can do this from Synaptic, or open a console, and do:
sudo apt-get update
)

Now, go search for fglrx packages. There should be something like xorg-driver-fglrx. You will also have to install the -restricted modules for your kernel (probably kernel-modules-2.6.17-386-restricted, or something similar). Again, you can find this all in Synaptic. If I remember correctly, requesting an installation of the xorg-driver-fglrx package will pull in the restricted modules for you).

Next, you need to enable glx extensions on your Xorg. Either go to a console and do:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and make sure that when the modules screen comes up, you mark "glx"

or, even simpler,

edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and look for the modules section (you should see something like:
load "dri"
somewhere in there.)
Add a line:
load "glx"

Retstart X (by issuing:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
or, if you are confused, rebooting the machine (

You should have working glx now. ATI makes particularly bad drivers for linux -- I had, until recently, a 9650 in my desktop machine. You may find that you will struggle a little (or maybe not, if the winds blow well for you ( I would suggest reading up on the fglrx installation as well -- there are some specific settings, expecially to enable XV and / or Xinerama with an ATI card.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the (very helpful) replies, you guys! A bit of an update...
I've got glxgears running at... get this, 9500-10000 FPS.

However, the screensavers are still running like crap, which tells me something is still not installed correctly.

Does glxinfo work for you?
What is the output from that?

Are the screensaves with problems OpenGL screensavers?

xiile@xiile:~$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_OML_swap_method,
GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_hyperpipe,
GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_ARB_multisample,
GLX_ATI_pixel_format_float, GLX_ATI_render_texture
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_multisample
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Radeon X1900 Series Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6234 (8.32.5)
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array,
GL_S3_s3tc, GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_fragment_program,
GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow, GL_ARB_fragment_shader,
GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_parameters,
GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shading_language_100,
GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_texture_float, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat,
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_vertex_blend,
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_vertex_shader,
GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_draw_buffers,
GL_ATI_element_array, GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap, GL_ATI_fragment_shader,
GL_ATI_map_object_buffer, GL_ATI_separate_stencil,
GL_ATI_shader_texture_lod, GL_ATI_texture_compression_3dc,
GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATI_texture_float,
GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_ATI_vertex_array_object,
GL_ATI_vertex_attrib_array_object, GL_ATI_vertex_streams,
GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATIX_texture_env_route,
GL_ATIX_vertex_shader_output_point_size, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra,
GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_blend_minmax,
GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_framebuffer_object,
GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters,
GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap,
GL_EXT_texgen_reflection, GL_EXT_texture3D,
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map,
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,
GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic,
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array,
GL_EXT_vertex_shader, GL_HP_occlusion_test, GL_NV_blend_square,
GL_NV_occlusion_query, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_SGI_color_matrix,
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp,
GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
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0x41 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x42 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
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0x62 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None


Yeah. The problems seem to be exlusively with OpenGL screensavers.

Yeah, I have to admit that I also ran into a problem like that -- opengl screensavers ran like sticky poo, and things like quake3 ran like the bomb. *sigh* once again, it's just proof that the hardware guys really should just open up their stuff, and let people who know what they are doing write the drivers for their hardware.

ATI writes pathetic software for any OS. If your distribution comes with Xorg 7.0 or higher, use the drivers from Xorg instead. 3D hardware rendering for most ATI cards are supported with Xorg 7.0 or higher. Also ATI cards that contains Rage Theater is supported with Xorg 7.0 or higher.

I recommend using nVidia video cards because they make reliable and stable software for any OS.

Screen Savers are a waste of time. Monitors are more resistant and DPMS can be used to blank out the screen after a certain amount of time that have lapse. I do not use a Screen Saver because it is not needed. I usually use DPMS settings or use tvtime.

Some scenarios mandate a screen saver (such as work environments if you're not at your desk), and sometimes they're just fun to watch.

It would be nice to see the screen savers work as they're intended, and often it can be a warning of impending problems.

I would concur with the ATI+Linux=problems, and recommended NVidia if you're dealing with any more than just Windows. I'm hoping that the AMD merger with ATI brings out a change on this front, but I digress.

I've had a problem before where a screensaver caused my X server to reboot, and that was due to a faulty NVidia driver. I checked and grabbed a more recent driver and all was fixed. NVidia do tend to release updates a little more frequently for Linux users.

But... this isn't helping Xiile solve his problem. (To solve - swap your ATI beast for an NVidia card... ;-) )

Are there other problems with OpenGL apps ? Games?

It could be just that the particular OpenGL screen savers aren't that well written. <shrugs> If you're able to compare them to a similar machine with an NVidia card, it could give you a benchmark to go by to determing if they're bad on anyone's machine, or just yours.

HTH!

Nah. GL games run just fine. I even got Beryl/XGL installed just yesterday and it runs without a hitch. Again, I don't really care for screensavers, I just noticed they ran like crap and that kind of worried me. Thanks for all the information