Once more, Ati Radeon 9800 3D rendering
 

I'm trying to enable 3d rendering with my Ati Radeon, but because I'm completely illiterate to Linux, I am having some trouble. I am running Fedora Core 2, kernel 2.6.7, and I downloaded the Ati drivers for Linux (version 4.3.0). However, I could not find out what version of Xfree86 I have->

[root@user-0ce2hs2 root]# sh check.sh
=====================================================================
ATI Technologies
=====================================================================
Your possibly not running this script from the console
or maybe you simply dont have the console ownership.
Unable to determine XFree86 Version. Stopping now.

Following the how-to on Ati's site, I then installed the rpm for the driver->

[root@user-0ce2hs2 root]# rpm -Uh -force fglrx-4.3.0-3.11.1.i386.rpm
-force: unknown option
[root@user-0ce2hs2 root]# rpm -Uh --force fglrx-4.3.0-3.11.1.i386.rpm
########################################### [100%]
########################################### [100%]
*** Trying to install a precompiled kernel module.
*** WARNING ***
Tailored kernel module for fglrx not present in your system.
You must go to /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod subdir
and execute './make.sh' to build a fully customed kernel module.
Afterwards go to /lib/modules/fglrx and run './make_install.sh'
in order to install the module into your kernel's module repository.
(see readme.txt for more details.)

As of now you can still run your XServer in 2D, but hardware acclerated
OpenGL will not work and 2D graphics will lack performance.

failed.
*** Found kernel module build environment, generatinIg kernel module now.
ATI module generator V 2.0
==========================
initializing...
Error:
XFree86 drm includes at /lib/modules/2.6.7-1.494.2.2smp/build/include/../drivers/char/drm do not fit this driver.
This driver is designed to only work with X4.1.0 or higher.
You can match this by getting Linux kernel 2.4.8 or higher.
*** WARNING ***
Tailored kernel module for fglrx not present in your system.
You must go to /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod subdir
and execute './make.sh' to build a fully customed kernel module.
Afterwards go to /lib/modules/fglrx and run './make_install.sh'
in order to install the module into your kernel's module repository.
(see readme.txt for more details.)

As of now you can still run your XServer in 2D, but hardware acclerated
OpenGL will not work and 2D graphics will lack performance.

failed.
Installed: qt3 (gcc 3.2) based control panel application
===
ATI display drivers successfully installed
please run 'fglrxconfig' now
===

I have not run fglrxconfig yet, now that I think of it, but I tried the advice given from the output, namely
this->

[root@user-0ce2hs2 root]# cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod subdir
[root@user-0ce2hs2 build_mod]# ./make.sh
bash: ./make.sh: Permission denied

Can anyone help me as to what I'm doing wrong or need to do?
Thanks very much in advance :Pengy:

There's a bit more to it than just loading an RPM unfortunately. Take a look through these links. As a side note, Fedora does not run xfree86, it runs xorg, but you chose the right RPM.

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16690

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20211

Ok, thank you

I will try a guide I found at fedorafaq.org

This is the guide I tried ...
www.fedorafaq.org/#radeon
I got to the part where you are supposed to shut down X console despite the fact I wasn't sure if what I had done worked... Bad idea... So I continued until the point where I needed to enter run level 5, but when I tried to get into that, I received the error that my mouse pointer could not be located and got the following , which I had to hand write -

(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time:
(EE) Unable to locate/open config file
xf86AutoConfig: Primary PCI is 1:0:0
Running "usr/x11R6/bin /getconfig -X60700000-I /etc/X11,?usr/X11R6/etc/X11,/usr/x11R6/lib/modules,/usr/x11R6/lib/X11/getconfig -v 0x1002 -d
getconfig.pl: Version 1.0
getconfig.pl: Xorg Version: 6.7.0.0
getconfig.pl: 23 built-in rules
getconfig.pl: file '/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/getconfig/xorg.cfg' has bad signature.
getconfig.pl: no rules in file 'usr/X11R6/lib/X11/getconfig/xorg.cfg'.
getconfig.pl: Evaluated 23 rules with 0 errors
getconfig.pl: Weight of result is 500
New driver is "ati"
(==) Using default built in configuration (53 lines)
(WW) RADEON: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:1) found
(EE) open /dev/fb0: No such device
(EE) <default pointer>: Cannot find which device to use
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: No Device specified
(EE) <default pointer>: cannot open input device
(EE) Pre Init failed for input device "<default pointer>"
No Core pointer

Please, forgive my noobitity, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Post the 'input' section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file here. It's the section that defines your core pointer (mouse). What kind of mouse do you have?

How would I view /etc/X11/xorg.conf in run level 3? I can't get a graphical display now.
It's some kind of Dell PS2 wheel mouse. I tried setting it up as generic wheel mouse, but to no avail.

Once you get to a prompt, logon as root. The do the following;

cd /
cd /etc/X11
vi xorg.conf

You're going to have to learn how to use the vi editor.

http://www.chem.brown.edu/instructions/vi.html

Is this Dell mouse a USB mouse?

PS2 mouse

I just tried to edit xorg.conf, and it was completely blank and at the bottom said it was new. I tried to cd to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and it wasn't a directory. So under /etc/X11 i enter ls to see what was there, and xorg.conf, xorg.conf.bak, xorg.conf.Y13627 are there. But xorg.conf is highlighted in red and flashing...

In the howto: Did you do step 13? If you did it did not work.

# The ATI driver has now created a new configuration file. We have to make sure that X uses the new config file, not the old one:

cd /etc/X11
mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak
ln -sf XF86Config-4 xorg.conf

I changed directories to /etc/X11 and entered "mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak", and feedback was "mv: overwrite 'xorg.conf.bak', overriding mode 0777?" To which I entered yes. then i entered "ln -sf Xf86Config-4 xorg.conf". Then I tried to enter X by using init5, but nothing happened. So I rebooted and got the same error as before...

If you view the contents of Xf86Config-4 , does it look identical to how xorg.conf did?

Where is XF86Config-4?
I noticed that now both xorg.conf and xorg.conf.bak are highlighted red and blinking. I looked in /etc/X11/xorg.confY13627 and found the input device section in it

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"

I also noticed that under the video card section it had the driver listed as "radeon"

Again, in step 13 you linked /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to /etc/X11/xorg.conf by issuing the command;

ln -sf XF86Config-4 xorg.conf

This is a symlink that logically ties one file to the other. So if you look in either one with an editor they will be identical. If they are not identical, the symlink did not work. The validity of the data in XF86Config-4 is dependant upon the previous step (fglrxconfig) having been done correctly.

Try this command instead, does the same thing. (logon into shell as root)

ln -sf /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Try 'man symlink' from a shell for a better explanation.

I don't think I've done everything up to 13 correctly. So do you think I should just try the guide step by step again?