Configuring 3D Acceleration for ATI Video Card on Laptop
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As I said in an earlier reply, all you have to do nowadays is to download & run the graphical installer.
An addition point... You can't enable 3D acceleration in Sax2 with the ATI drivers.
If you had just gone to the Linux driver section on the ATI website and read it, you'd know that you configure your ATI's 3D acceleration with 'fglrxconfig' not Sax2.
Here's the safest way to do it....
1- Switch to another session by pressing [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F1],
2- Login as root,
3- Type cd /etc/X11
4- Backup your 'xorg.conf', i.e. cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.backup
5- You may want to switch it down to runlevel 3 by typing init 3
6- Run fglrxconfig and go through the choices. Mostly you can just accept the default choices apart from the resolution bit, You need to actually choose which resolutions you want available, at the end accept to save the changes.
7- Switch back to runlevel 5 by typing init 5.
If the X server doesn't start then it's not configured properly, you can just restore you original xorg.conf by doing cp xorg.conf.backup xorg.conf and accepting to overwrite.
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Then again all that aside if you've got both an ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 and a synaptic touch pad pointing device and your laptop's screen goes upto 1400x1050 , then my xorg.conf should work for you... It needed a bit of addition tweaking to get my synaptics touch-pad and a USB mouse working properly.
Don't forget to backup your original xorg.conf first. Here it is....
# File: xorg.conf
# File generated by fglrxconfig (C) ATI Technologies, a substitute for xf86config.
# Note by ATI: the below copyright notice is there for servicing possibly
# pending third party rights on the file format and the instance of this file.
#
# Copyright (c) 1999 by The XFree86 Project, Inc.
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
# THE XFREE86 PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
#
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of the XFree86 Project shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from the
# XFree86 Project.
#
# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config(4/5) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************
# **********************************************************************
# DRI Section
# **********************************************************************
Section "dri"
# Access to OpenGL ICD is allowed for all users:
Mode 0666
# Access to OpenGL ICD is restricted to a specific user group:
# Group 100 # users
# Mode 0660
EndSection
# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this section is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************
#
Section "Module"
# This loads the DBE extension module.
Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension
# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection
# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx" # libglx.a
Load "dri" # libdri.a
EndSection
# **********************************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************
Section "Files"
# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)
#
# If you don't have a floating point coprocessor and emacs, Mosaic or other
# programs take long to start up, try moving the Type1 and Speedo directory
# to the end of this list (or comment them out).
#
# The module search path. The default path is shown here.
# ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
EndSection
# **********************************************************************
# Server flags section.
# **********************************************************************
Section "ServerFlags"
# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is
# received. This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may
# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging
# Option "NoTrapSignals"
# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><BS> server abort sequence
# This allows clients to receive this key event.
# Option "DontZap"
# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> mode switching
# sequences. This allows clients to receive these key events.
# Option "Dont Zoom"
# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With
# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,
# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will
# receive a protocol error.
# Option "DisableVidModeExtension"
# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client.
# Option "AllowNonLocalXvidtune"
# Uncomment this to disable dynamically modifying the input device
# (mouse and keyboard) settings.
# Option "DisableModInDev"
# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local client to
# change the keyboard or mouse settings (currently only xset).
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"
# For most OSs the protocol can be omitted (it defaults to "Standard").
# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris),
# uncomment the following line.
# Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"
Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# These are the default XKB settings for XFree86
# Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
# Option "XkbModel" "pc101"
# Option "XkbLayout" "us"
# Option "XkbVariant" ""
# Option "XkbOptions" ""
# The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override
# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.
# Chipset "generic"
# The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.
Driver "vga"
# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for. When this line isn't present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# installed.
# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
#Option "backingstore"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050" "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1152x864" "1280x1024"
ViewPort 0 0 # initial origin if mode is smaller than desktop
# Virtual 1280 1024
EndSubsection
EndSection
# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.
Section "ServerLayout"
# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Server Layout"
# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen.
Screen "Screen0"
# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".
dear person who started post. Simply comparing the cards capabilities to that of its action in windoze is absurd. You best bet it is to read at bare minimum, a newbies guide to linux or unix. You must understand that there is a server running your gui before you can understand how to configure it.
Using suse is a wise choice as it can take a lot of the foot ...excuse me ... hand work out of config. There are several if not tens of tutorials which tell you how to install the drivers, some are on this site.
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You best bet it is to read at bare minimum, a newbies guide to linux or unix. You must understand that there is a server running your gui before you can understand how to configure it.
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I bought a book on SuSE and was instructed to use Sax2 to configure the video card but ==as someone here mentioned== that cant be done with sax2 which just added to my frustration
The very first thing I did was go to the ATI web page but did not find any mention of the mobility 900 linux drivers.
Off course not until this post did I realize I had to go to the fireGL section!
It'll take me forever to download the drivers and probably get me in trouble but it'll probably be worth it.
Thanks to all for your help and all your patience.
You don't need the FireGL drivers, just follow the link (in the Linux Drivers section of the ATI website) for Radeon 8500 and higher and go through to download the 35MB 'ATI Driver Installer'. Then follow the instructions
Normally you would use Sax2 to configure graphics settings in SuSE but the ATI drivers requires configuration through their own fglrxconfig.
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