[SOLVED] Please help with Ati Radeon HD4850 card setup on Slackware 13.37

Totoro-kun · 05-01-2011, 11:35 AM

Hello good poeple,
As Slackware 13.1 is runing like charm on my laptop and work computers (And few others too), and the new Slacware 13.37 is here, i have decided to install it on my Desktop pc (getting rid from all the commercial software), I have allready installed it, and everything except video card is working well.

As mentioned in topic, I have Ati Radeon HD4850 card in this computer (the only Ati card in my possesion, all the other computers are pure Intel, there for zero problems with them) The Ati however is *crap* in compare, why oh why can't it just work?

The problem is, that i had slow performance (even low resolution videos would tear screen, i'd get artifacts while X starting) Seems as no 3d rendering is there at all or it's painfully slow), So i have tried to install Catalyst drivers directly from Amd, and i have failed miserably, made fglrx-8.841-x86_64-1.tgz package, installed it, rebooted and once pc started X, my monitor turned off (lucky i had started that sshd before), affter that, i removed this package, recompiled my kernel (for better overall performance and to go back to open source radeon driver), but now if i run glxinfo from terminal:

$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig

Mplayer won't play any movies at all and i want to bumb my head into the wall while pulling my hair out...
Is't there any easy (for laisy/technicaly stupid/impatient people to follow) how to document on this matter? Or maybe you have any ideas where I should start poking?

P.S.
And whats with that long long pause when booting when it says: [drm] Loading RV770 microcode? It's so annoying to watch it there for like 5 minutes or so :/

acummings · 05-01-2011, 11:58 AM

Hi,

FWIW until a better comes along:

Search the forum here for radeon

also for ati

I've a HD45xx that I got working on 13.1. I'm yet to install 13.37

Search forum for posts by my username acummings

will turn up some on HD45xx and 13.1

--
Alan.

Buumi · 05-01-2011, 12:26 PM

Removing fglrx requires reinstalling some other packages, mesa and libdrm as it changes them.
I'll still need to test to install fglrx on my 13.37 but how did you install it? On 13.1 one could create slackware packages with installer or use installer itself to install the driver and after that one needed to make xorg.conf for it by typing aticonfig --initial.

Edit: This topic made me install it and I had some problem as well. Earlier it created two packages but now only one, that wasn't the problem but that it didn't blacklist the old module radeon and it resulted in black screen when I started. I'm not sure if that's meant to be needed but after I put radeon into blacklisted modules in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf it now boots into X. Hopefully someone else can help you more.

trademark91 · 05-01-2011, 12:48 PM

simply download the fglrx drivers from ati, generate the packages using the installer, install, then reboot into runlevel 3. as root, run

Code:

aticonfig --initial

and start x normally. ive only ever used my ati mobility 4650 on any linux install ive ever had, and its worked perfectly, as long as you use fglrx. (i dont see why you wouldnt, unless you really dont care about using your card to its full potential)

you only have to run aticonfig once, and if you normally use runlevel 4, you only have to use runlevel 3 the one time you need to run aticonfig.

one caveat: you have to uninstall and rebuild/reinstall the fglrx packages every kernel or xorg upgrade.

Totoro-kun · 05-01-2011, 02:10 PM

Many thanks for your answers, just managed to get if working (somewhat). As you suggested, i have tried to blacklist radeon module and install fglrx driver. What i have done (step by step):
1. Rebuild my kernel again (to make sure drm and drm_radeon are compiled as modules, as I am running vanilla kernel), set up runlevel 3 as default (for the time being)
2. As you have pointed out, I reinstalled mesa and libdrm, and then added "blacklist radeon" to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
3. Downloaded ati-driver installer from amd.com to /usr/src and ran it like this: sh ati-driver-installer-11-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Slackware/Slackware
4. Then got a Slackware package: fglrx-8.841-x86_64-1.tgz and installed it with installpkg
5. Ran: aticonfig --initial, and one more time to add my display resulution just in case: aticonfig --resolution=0,1680x1050,1280x1024,1024x768
6. Rebooted my pc, ran startx afterwards and voila! It works now, glxinfo | grep rendering command returns direct rendering: yes, I have high fps in glxgears, overall video performance seems much snappier and smooth now.

However, there are still few annoyances left:
1. I need to somehow configure a frame buffer for 1680x1050 resolution (I suppose i can't use radeonfb kernel driver, so i am left with Vesa/uvesa?)
2. As i am now using proprietary driver, i think i should also have catalyst control panel, but for some reasons it was't build by that run script from ati, why?
3. There is this weird thing with mplayer, X11/xv video out device selected, movie quality is good (no more tearing), but if I use arrow buttons on keyboard to skip forward/backward, the osd progress bar appears all blury, becomes "a brick show" then disappears. Weird.
4. Cairo-dock is also displaying buggy behavior, refuses to run, hangs, etc etc. Seems like I've still having problems with direct rendering.
5. If i do aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv it complains about not supported mode or something like that, I have two options: opengl (I get black screen upon X startup) and disable (buggy behavior).

Totoro-kun · 05-01-2011, 03:18 PM

Ok, since something is wrong with fglrx driver (eather my both hands are lefts, that driver is crap, or ati really really sucks). So lets try Open Source drivers now:
1. Went into runlevel 3.
2. Uninstalled fglrx driver with removepkg, moved xorg.conf away to safe place, slackpkg reinstall mesa (and libdrm), remove radeon from blacklist.conf
3. Reboot pc.

Now I am back to: glxinfo
Error: couldn't find RGB visual or fbconfig

But i do get nice framebuffer, no buggy behavior from programs like cairo-dock, all is nice but Mplayer, again I have video tearring, but that is to be expected, becouse direct rendering is absent, right? Overall, I do prefer open source drivers, they give less trouble, no buggy behavior, nice framebuffer, and if I compile drm_radeon as module, i even do not have to wait at loading RV770 firmware anymore. If i just could get past this glxinfo error and get some 3d performance, I'd be a happy man.

Any more suggestions? Maybe there are more things i should reinstall affter fglrx removal?

adamk75 · 05-01-2011, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro-kun

Now I am back to: glxinfo
Error: couldn't find RGB visual or fbconfig

Sounds like you didn't fully remove the fglrx driver. That error is typical when you are using the open source drivers, but still have libglx from another vendor. Can you show us your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file?

Adam

Totoro-kun · 05-02-2011, 12:37 AM

Probably it is true, but I do not really know hot to fully remove fglrx. Here are some bits from Xorg.0.log:

Code:

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE
[    24.109] Current Operating System: Linux nabagelis 2.6.38.4-custom #5 SMP PREEMPT Sun May 1 22:42:49 GMT+2 2011 x86_64
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[    24.223] (II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[    24.223] (EE) Failed to load /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[    24.223] (EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)
[    24.280] (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)

And

Code:

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep glx
[    24.223] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[    24.223] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[    24.223] dlopen: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
[    24.223] (EE) Failed to load /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[    24.223] (II) UnloadModule: "glx"
[    24.223] (EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)

So it seemsI need libgl.so, I have used ls to see content of xorg modules/extensions:

Code:

# ls -l /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/
total 252
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     21 May  1 17:52 FGL.renamed.libglx.so -> fglrx/fglrx-libglx.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    919 Mar 18 01:51 libdbe.la
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  20352 Mar 18 01:51 libdbe.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    941 Mar 18 01:51 libdri.la
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  44640 Mar 18 01:51 libdri.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    947 Mar 18 01:51 libdri2.la
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  23424 Mar 18 01:51 libdri2.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    937 Mar 18 01:51 libextmod.la
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 107696 Mar 18 01:51 libextmod.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    924 Mar 18 01:51 libglx.la
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     21 May  1 21:30 libglx.so -> fglrx/fglrx-libglx.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    937 Mar 18 01:51 librecord.la
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  29824 Mar 18 01:51 librecord.so

Aha, you were right, there is FGL.renamed.libglx.so and libgl.so both showing up in red collour and both are symlincs pointing to not existing location. What is left now, is to learn how can this be fixed

hakan56 · 05-02-2011, 12:49 AM

To remove ati...
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Sla..._.3E.3D_11.3_2

I had also trouble with the "package" and found this...
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...1/#post4340038
..but I never tried to "blacklist radeon", maybe that would have helped in my case.

In addition to libdrm and mesa, you can also try...
# slackpkg reinstall xorg xf86-video-ati
..that's what I did after I used "removepkg fglrx..." instead of "aticonfig --uninstall"

/Håkan

Totoro-kun · 05-02-2011, 01:12 AM

Thank you very much, slackpkg reinstall xorg xf86-video-ati helped, I now have direct rendering:

Code:

$ glxinfo | grep rendering
direct rendering: Yes

What still bother me, is VSync enabled by default:

Code:

$ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
302 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.339 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.883 FPS

How could I disable it?

adamk75 · 05-02-2011, 04:25 AM

Set vblank_mode=0 before running a 3D application, though I don't know why you would care that vsync is enabled.

Adam

Totoro-kun · 05-03-2011, 05:04 PM

Over last couple of days i have played little more with both, xf86-video-ati and proprietary catalyst (fglrx) drivers, and even switched for Slackware 32bits just for fun

And I have managed to tune my card to acceptable performance and good overall user experience. In the end, I think that open source driver suits much better for this card, which I have chosen to use.

My impression of proprietary catalyst (fglrx) driver 11.3:
As in earlier posts I have learned, the setup of this driver is fairly easy:
1. blacklist drm and radeon modules in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
2. download catalyst driver from amd site, then make Slackware package:

Code:

sh ati-****.run Slackware/Slackware

3. installpkg fglrx package that resulted from above command, then run

Code:

aticonfig --initial

After reboot, X will work. On 32bit system I also got catalyst control center. However I was very much disappointed with user experience with this driver on both 32 and 64bit Slacks, many annoying things like sound chopping, clipping, skipping while watching movies with Mplayer and Vlc. Mplayer behaved strangely most of the times, I have seen brick shows when osd and direct rendering was enabled. Cairo-dock was practically unusable too. I did not had frame buffer in text mode. Basically this is kind of behavior that plays on your nerves and I truly can't even begin to imagine how people manage to live with such crappy driver. Anyways, at least there is a nice way to uninstall it, just go to the runlevel 3 and execute

Code:

aticonfig --uninstall

as root and thats it. No need to reinstall anything.

As for open source xf86-video-ati drivers, the story is a bit different thou. At first performance does not look good, there is video tearing in movies (highly noticeable when more action intensive scenes takes place), but the great thing is - it works pretty much out of box and without all kinds of buggy/weird/annoying behavior. Plus there are some things that can be tweaked via xorg configuration, and that improves performance to a decent level.

To use it you just need to (obviously to remove drm and radeon from blacklist.conf if you have used catalyst), then install xf86-video-ati if for some reason you would not have it. To get general idea of what cards and features are supported by video-ati driver, I suggest to read RadeonFeature.

Now, to see configuration options you can apply to Section "Device" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf you can read just by running

Code:

man radeon

, there is a lot of interesting info to read

I, however, did not need to use xorg.conf, i have just created file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/graphics.conf and put a single device section in there:

Code:

Section "Device"
       Identifier  "Ati Radeon  HD4850"
       Driver      "radeon"
       Option      "DRI" "on" 
       Option      "DynamicPM" "on"      # Dynamic powersaving.
       Option      "ClockGating" "on"    # Assisting option for powersaving.
       Option      "AccelMethod" "EXA"   # EXA should fit most cases.
       Option	   "ColorTilling" "on"   # Hopefully a better performance
       Option      "EXAVSync" "on"       # Sync to lcd controller
       Option      "DMAForXv" "on"       # Forced option in order to enable Xv overlay.
       Option      "ScalerWidth" "2048"  # That should fix some very rare bugs.
       Option      "EnablePageFlip" "on" # It will not be enabled on R5xx cards.
       Option      "RenderAccel" "on"    # Optional. It should be enabled by default.
       Option      "AccelDFS" "on"       # Optional. See the man page.
       BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Neat feature, I have learned about it by reading CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT

After this, my pc is back into normal business, videos are playing well, no annoying behaviors, etc etc, and I can enjoy Slackware on all of my computers now.

I have posted all this in hope that it may become of some use to someone, and i also add couple of links:
a. Archlinux wiki/Ati - Although this information is designed for Archlinux, the general information is still usefull and can be applied to another KISS distros too

b. Amd Linux Community Wiki - This link is already mentioned in this thread, but I'll add it here anyway, since it also very usefull, thank you hakan56 for it.

Thank you all very much for help, I can now mark this thread solved.

acummings · 05-04-2011, 12:06 AM

Thank you very much to Totoro-kun for sharing.

I previously had accomplished getting a Radeon HD(something) (I think an HD5450) -- got it working alright on Slackware 13.1 64 bit machine using the open source radeon (and, back then, I used a later, *much later*, my own compiled, kernel).

Thanks again. What you shared will help me when I soon go to install Slackware 13.37 on that same machine with the Radeon HD5450.

BTW, I've been following (by looking at various kernel changelogs), for many (many) months now, such changes in the later kernels that are pertinent to radeon and kms and the like. There have been *many* of those particular changes.

(And now for the it's good news :-) Slackware 13.37 I think ships with a later kernel than my own compiled kernel that I've been running on my above mentioned box with the HD5450 and SW 13.1

Go Slackware!!! Did I say it yet? > ***Go Slackware!!!!!!***

It's Slackware. Make it into what you want it to be. IOW, ***do what you want.*** Desktop machine -- no prob. Server machine -- unbeatable, go for it.

--
Alan.

hakan56 · 05-04-2011, 01:01 AM

I agree, this is very good, thank you "Totoro.kun" for sharing.

/Håkan

Ramurd · 01-26-2012, 03:46 AM

Much as I hate to resurrect old topics, which is not the intention. A new thread for an additional question to what was described pretty well here would be overkill imo.

Anyway, situation is as follows: friend of mine runs Slackware 13.37 (as do I) but he has an ATI card, and I do not...

Quote:

blacklist drm and radeon modules in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

A search on drm in this file did not give any results, searching on radeon resulted in radeonfb, being on the blacklist already (on MY system, I don't know about his);
To give this friend of mine good instructions, I'd like to know which exact lines would be needed to blacklist both drm and radeon, to enable the use of the catalyst driver. I assume:

Code:

blacklist drm
blacklist radeon

But I want to show this friend something that will really work, so I want to be sure ;-) TIA