Is this compatible?

Hey everyone, how's it going?

I just got a new computer, here are the hardware:

- Intel Pentium4 540J 3.2Ghz 800Mhz
- ASUS P5GD2-X
- 1GB DDR2 RAM PC4200 533mhz
- Radeon x700 Pro 256Mb PCI-Express
- Maxtor SATA 300Gb 7200rpm

I tried running halo in windows with the highest settings. it worked out fine. everything was great. Then I installed Suse 9.3 pro and expected to not work, but it worked out all right. I had to tweak the fglrx setting for my ati card. but when I opened up a flash game (ex. heliattack3), the flash game it self lagged like hell. and this simple 3D flying-simulation that's included with suse also lagged a bit when the settings are set to the highest.

so, my question is, is my new box compatible with suse 9.3? Are there any drivers/firmware that are required/(available) for it to run better? (in windows, the integraded lan card;marvell, couldn't even work without a driver)

Thanks a lot before hand for your time and suggestions!

Are you sure you have 3D accelleration enabled? Run glxgears from an xterm with no other programs running and dont move your mouse, and let it run for about a minute. Then post the output it gave in the xterm.

Is that w/ no other progs on the entire box? or just the xterm?

Posting my results for easy reference (I want to be able find them again).

Box #1 -- 750 Duron, 160M, nVidia GeForce2 Ti; nothing shutdown:

glxgears
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
875 frames in 5.0 seconds = 175.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
700 frames in 5.0 seconds = 140.000 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
XIO:  fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
      after 21742 requests (20546 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

Box 2 -- Via Ezra 800, 128M, SiS 630/730 on mobo; missed 2 trying to shutdown all:

$ glxgears
 Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
 186 frames in 5.0 seconds = 37.200 FPS
 268 frames in 5.0 seconds = 53.600 FPS
 260 frames in 5.0 seconds = 52.000 FPS
 240 frames in 6.0 seconds = 40.000 FPS
 240 frames in 5.0 seconds = 48.000 FPS
 240 frames in 6.0 seconds = 40.000 FPS
 260 frames in 6.0 seconds = 43.333 FPS
 240 frames in 6.0 seconds = 40.000 FPS
 260 frames in 5.0 seconds = 52.000 FPS
 240 frames in 6.0 seconds = 40.000 FPS
 240 frames in 5.0 seconds = 48.000 FPS
 135 frames in 5.0 seconds = 27.000 FPS
 192 frames in 5.0 seconds = 38.400 FPS
 XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
       after 6676 requests (5841 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

Please excuse any cluttering of the thread, I am interested in following the answer & seeing if it applies to me.

*edit* sorry, I thought those were the stats for the P4 3.2 system :P

whoa, those numbers are REALLY low, Im running a P4 3.0 on an asus P4P800SE with an AGP ATI Radeon 9600XT 256MB and I get 2674 FPS running KDE, with firefox (8 tabs), thunderbird, xmms, amsn, and dnetc on the go.

ampex189

Yes and no. Yes it is compatible, but ATI cards are harder than you think to setup. A nVidia GeForce6 or GeForce7 is better to use with Windows and Linux games.

For games, AMD Athlon 64 processors are better for anything you are going to be doing. Pentium 4 processors including the Extreme Editions are slow, consume a lot of power, produces a lot of heat, and are very, very expensive. AMD's built-in memory controller is by far faster than any overclocked DDR2 setups even though AMD still uses DDR.


archtoad6, this thread does not refer to you. You have an nVidia card in your first system, so there is no excuses that 3D hardware rendering is working. With the obsolete processor and graphics card the results you getting is about correct give or take. You are joking right with your second system because Mini-ITX motherboards are not design to run 3D games.

Originally posted by linux-rulz Are you sure you have 3D accelleration enabled? Run glxgears from an xterm with no other programs running and dont move your mouse, and let it run for about a minute. Then post the output it gave in the xterm.

Here are my results from the glxgears test; I think my problem's been fixed already, but I'll post them anyway:

glxgears
22268 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4453.600 FPS
20640 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4128.000 FPS
24712 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4942.400 FPS
24833 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4966.600 FPS
24836 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4967.200 FPS
24777 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4955.400 FPS
24677 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4935.400 FPS
24673 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4934.600 FPS
24674 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4934.800 FPS
24674 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4934.800 FPS
24679 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4935.800 FPS
24676 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4935.200 FPS
24676 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4935.200 FPS
24676 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4935.200 FPS
24678 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4935.600 FPS

Yes ATI cards can be difficult to setup if you don't do the steps in the correct order. This is how I got my ATI card to run on my Suse 9.3 system.

Step 1 download the "ATI Driver Installer" from the ATI website.

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...ge&folderID=27
DO NOT INSTALL IT YET!

Step 2. Open yast and do the following...
Click on " Install and Remove Software"
after clicking " Install and Remove Software" look for where it says "Filter" . In the drop down menu click search.

Search for the following packages and make sure that they have check marks next to them and are installed.

glibc
kernel source
rpm

If they aren't installed place check marks in each of the boxes and then click "Accept"
Yast will do its thing and install those packages for you.

Step 3. Install the driver using the "ATI Driver Installer" that you downloaded in Step 1.
a. right click on the file and go to "Properties"
b. Click on the "Permissions" tab.
c. make sure the " executable" box is checked
d. click " ok"
e.Left click on the "ATI Driver Installer" file to begin the driver installation.

Step 4. After the driver has successfully installed do the following...
In the console type the following...
fglrxconfig

This utility will automatically configure the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for you. After the configuration is done I would recommend restarting your system to employ the new driver.

Step5. After rebooting in the console type the following ....

fglrxinfo

it should read as the following or something like it. It should not say MESA in any part below.

OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9800 Pro Generic
OpenGL version string: 1.3.5272 (X4.3.0-8.16.20)


I hope that this helps you out in getting your ATI card to work. If you have any questions please let me know.
Thanks,
Michael

thanks Michael!

I'll try that and let you know the results.

You're welcome. How did that work out for you?

It worked out well. the ATI driver has been installed, but one more problem. when when I turn on my computer, there are some splash screens. in my case, the colors are all messed up. (it's possible that the color depth is too low) maybe it's because the kernel doesn't recongnize the graphics card before suse starts? (while booting up)

I'm glad to hear that it's working out for you. I believe that you may be right that at the splash screen it uses kind of a generic driver and then it loads the xorg.conf file after login. If you could please open yast and navigate to where it says "Misc" and then click on the icon that says "View System Log". There should be a portion of the log that looks like this

Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 929 MBytes.
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.16.20 [Aug 16 2005] on minor 0
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] free PCIe = 54804480
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] max PCIe = 54804480
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] free LFB = 111144960
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] max LFB = 111144960
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] free Inv = 0
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] max Inv = 0
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] total Inv = 0
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] total TIM = 0
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] total FB = 0
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: [fglrx] total PCIe = 16384
Sep 22 04:01:39 Linux kernel: input: Wacom Intuos2 4x5 on usb-0000:00:0b.1-1

Please copy that portion and paste it in your reply. I might have a solution for you but I'm not sure.

Michael

Here's the part in the log file:

Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: fglrx: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 928 MBytes.
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:04:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.16.20 [Aug 16 2005] on minor 0
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] free  PCIe = 51118080
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] max   PCIe = 51118080
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] free  LFB = 122613760
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] max   LFB = 122613760
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] free  Inv = 134217728
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] max   Inv = 134217728
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] total Inv = 134217728
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] total TIM = 0
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] total FB  = 0
Sep 23 14:56:42 linux kernel: [fglrx] total PCIe = 16384

Thanks, I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Well there's only one thing that I think may help you. Locate your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and open it. Go ahead and save a copy of it before editing it. Look for the portion that looks like this.

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Driver "fglrx"

edit it to look like this....


Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "BusType" "PCI"

This is generally used as a fix for people that are having trouble with the internal AGP gart module but it may help you also. This section may already be a part of your xorg.conf file seeing that your device is PCI express. But it's worth a shot. If this doesn't work I'm unsure what else can be done to fix this problem. But I hope it does help.

Michael

I noticed that there are two "Section Device" parts in the xorg configuration file. One is the "Standard VGA Device" section, and the other is the "ATI Device" section. I'll just go ahead and edit both parts. Please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong.

Thanks.

I wouldn't add anything to the standard VGA device section. I think that will only cause you problems.