Recently I installed the proprietary ATI video driver, fglrx, on my Slackware 13.1 setup, but I have since decided that I prefer the default open-source drivers. (I can boot to Windows for gaming and would rather have a smooth system for development on the Linux side.)

I had originally installed the fglrx drivers by downloading the file directly from the AMD website and using that file to generate Slackware-specific packages to install with installpkg. After some tweaking they seemed to work quite well with 3d applications, so I know they were set up properly. When it came time to remove the drivers, I used removepkg to uninstall both the fglrx driver and module, then copied back my old xorg.conf file. Unfortunately this did not restore my setup as I had (perhaps naively) expected it to.

From there I assumed that I had uninstalled the fglrx drivers properly, so I decided that I would reinstall the drivers via the ATI installer rather than using the ATI installer to generate packages, then uninstall it using the ati-uninstall.sh script. However, after installing the driver this way, I am unable to find the script, so I'm assuming that I didn't do a clean install. (Also, whereas the package install had worked well with 3d applications, this install did not work.)

Before I go on and mess things up further, I decided I'd ask here and perhaps get a clearer idea of what I should be doing. My end goal is to remove all remnants of the fglrx driver and restore the open-source drivers as default. (Also, any comments on what I may have done wrong when uninstalling the first time, using the Slackware system, will definitely be welcome as I'm still new to the Slackware method of doing things.)

Thanks for your time!

The ATI proprietary drivers overwrite some files from stock Slackware packages. You will have to reinstall those packages after removing fglrx to get back to a conventional install. I am not sure which files it replaces in total -- at least mesa will have to be reinstalled.

The uninstaller for fglrx should be in /usr/share/ati/ . If it's not, then the installation didn't go properly and I would recommend creating the packages, installing them, and then removing them. That should clean up fglrx.

Mesa and the Xserver packages will need to be reinstalled afterward (well, perhaps "need" is a bit strong, but do it anyway).

Adam

The uninstaller is missing, but I do still have the packages I created the first time, so I'll give that route a try. As for the Mesa and Xserver packages, I'm assuming they're both on the Slackware CD as individual packages. Thanks for the advice, I'll let you know how it turns out!

Okay, looks like that method worked. For those that may have the issue in the future, the problem was solved by installing the fglrx packages (driver and module) over the messed up install, then removing those two packages for a clean uninstall. Then I reinstalled the xorg-server and mesa packages and restored my old xorg.conf file.

Everything is running smoothly again, though I was sure that before the ordeal, Mesa had been able to do direct rendering, and now it is unable to do so. I'm sure I'll be able to fix that up with a bit more tweaking.

Thanks for the help!

did you manage to find a solution in the end?

Yeah, it was just a missing file that the installation of fglrx had deleted. I just reinstalled all the Xorg stuff to be safe and now it seems to work just fine.

http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonBuildHowTo

hmmm ok I am running 'fine' now.
That is: radeon driver, with KMS enabled , but agpmode set to off.

I have created /etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf to contain:

also glxinfo tells me that direct rendering is enabled.

First a Question. I read somewhere that xorg.conf is NOT used anymore? I should jsut remove it? or the rest of the sections (f.e. mouse) is still used?

Then my problem. googleearth works, but the image of the rotating earth is like a slideshow. The pc is not new (appprox since 2k4), but I wonder if the radeon driver is pushed to its limits or there is room for improvement.

glxgears gives me a frame rate of 237 fps. the gpu is a ati mobility radeon x300 (based on the chip RV370).

Any ideas?
thank you for your help

What is the output of 'glxinfo | grep -i render'.

Adam

It is:

you'll need to search a bit as xorg is removing Hal support. you can keep your xorg.conf and some tweaks are still working, but mouse/synaptics and keyboard settings are being ignored. LQ have some nice threads about it.

kms give low framerates, but the system (2D) feels very responsible. here it is disabled on radeon.conf, but i made a little script to start on demand:

So you aren't using 3D acceleration. You are using the software rasterizer.

Attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file to a post here.

Adam

what should I search about?

well if kms slows things down i'll probably disable it..it's nice to see half the boot process on the mative resolution but its not THAT important.

I guess I could use the exact opposite from the script you offered me

However, the important thing is , how do I get OpenGL to NOt use the software rasterizer????

no friend, it is usable and, for me, the 3D performance is almost the same, just the framerates show lower =]

edit: please, attach you log as adamk75 asked.