Installing Slackware on a laptop with ATI Mobility FireGL V5700

Switch7 · 12-06-2009, 03:35 AM

I have a friend who has a thinkpad w500 and this laptop comes with ATI Mobility FireGL V5700. I got him interested in Slackware but there's a big problem with this card. I don't use ATI so I don't have enough knowledge about it (the performance of ATI proprietary driver) and ATI doesn't have a driver for this card either. I recently got a thinkpad laptop as well but I got the laptop with NVIDIA instead since I knew about ATI's problem with linux.

If open source driver is not a option, is he out of luck? The driver does exist but only for Windows. It feels unfair that even laptops (and many softwares) are locked into Microsoft specific solution.

business_kid · 12-06-2009, 04:28 AM

There are 2 open source drivers for X
1. radeon
2. radeonhd

The driver probably is on the install cd or disc. Just try it and reconfigure xorg.conf.

a4z · 12-06-2009, 08:30 AM

don't search for a FireGL V5700 driver,
I use that one for radeon 3650
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...5&lang=English

here you can find something to use the switchabel grafik (via bios)
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d-w500-755692/

adamk75 · 12-06-2009, 07:26 PM

The FireGL 5700 *should* be supported by this driver, as that driver is listed for the FireGL 5600.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...0&lang=English

In addition, the open source drivers (either radeon or radeonhd) combined with the latest kernel and the latest development versions of Mesa will also provide 3D acceleration. Slackware 13.0 does not come with the necessary components, so various things would need to be compiled from source. I would not recommend that path :-)

Adam

Switch7 · 12-09-2009, 08:13 PM

Thank you for the reply.

After installing it and checking if it went fine:

Code:

# glxgears
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

Code:

# glxinfo | grep rendering
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig

onebuck · 12-09-2009, 10:21 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switch7

Thank you for the reply.

After installing it and checking if it went fine:

Code:

# glxgears
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

Code:

# glxinfo | grep rendering
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig

Which 'mesa' are you using? If the stock install package then you should get the '/mesa-7.5.1-x86_64-1.txz' from current;

Quote:

excerpt for -current changelog;

Sat Sep 19 17:16:06 CDT 2009
x/mesa-7.5.1-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded.
Fixed install script to add glxinfo and other programs that were part
of previous Mesa patches. I was under the impression that these no longer
built, and had been deprecated upstream. Thanks to Adam Kirchhoff for
setting me straight on that.

adamk75 · 12-10-2009, 03:54 AM

onebuck, he should *not* be using Mesa 7.5.1 for acceleration. As I said in my earlier post, he either needs to use fglrx, or the latest version of Mesa from git.

Switch7, please show us your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.

Adam

onebuck · 12-10-2009, 06:34 AM

Hi,

Thanks, I thought it was the '-current mesa' therefore would work. I know 'git' is bleeding edge but I thought the card was supported from the '-current mesa'.

Switch7 · 12-11-2009, 02:42 PM

I don't have access to the laptop for 4 to 5 weeks but I'll post the var/log/Xorg.0.log again when the time comes. Thank you for the replies.