ATI radeon 9700 drivers

zygor · 05-21-2003, 05:58 AM

Hi there

I need to find good drivers for the ATI graphics card with 3D acceleration support. The current drivers at the ATI web site is meant for Xfree86 4.2 and I need one for 4.3. I am running Mandrake 9.1 with an ATI Radeon 9700. My own attempts at making it work is OK but not fast enough, even OpenGL screensavers struggle along.

Knowing the power of the Radeon 9700, I think the 3D aspect is capable of more, so where can I get them?

Vije

nvn · 05-21-2003, 08:03 AM

Using the search function of the forum will present you with a lot of info on this one. But, to be brief:

http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=...rticle&sid=227

http://www.schneider-digital.de/down...linux_X4.3.zip

Personally, I'll wait until ATi releases official 4.3.0 drivers (according to the article, it should be quite soon).

jpbarto · 05-21-2003, 10:20 AM

this subject has been visited multiple times:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=58658
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=56635

Schneider's drivers (which are just modded ATI drivers) have had some success. I have a 9700 Pro running at 8x AGP under linux thanks to these drivers. I also know of some other people that have them running too. These are not the most easily installed however... they work but if you're a newb... prepare to do some learning. Plenty of people here to help though.

zygor · 05-21-2003, 12:01 PM

Thanks for the links, but I see these drivers from Schiender, etc, is for FireGL. Do these drivers work for 9700?

jpbarto · 05-21-2003, 12:22 PM

firegl is the name of the driver... it'll work on radeon

zygor · 05-22-2003, 04:59 AM

Ok, I installed based on the readme file from Schiender, but where can I find fglxconfig (or thereof) command. It says I must run that config, but where is it?

And what is the performance of the drivers? Is OpenGL running fast?

jpbarto · 05-22-2003, 08:17 AM

fglxconfig should be in /usr/X11R6/bin

performance:
Quake III Tournament benchmarks at 197 fps
glxgears was something like 3 or 4000.

I'm getting the same speeds I got under windows 98.

zygor · 05-24-2003, 06:27 AM

I am obviously doing something wrong because I don't find that flgrxconfig in /usr/X11R6/bin. I installed that installation file from Schiender with no problems, what could be wrong?

jpbarto · 05-24-2003, 10:41 AM

Are the other files where they should bi? a directory called fglrx in /lib/modules? A new libGL in /usr/X11/lib? I'm not too familiar with the RPM... I extracted the thing to source and put everything in place by hand... (I don't use RPM or a redhat system sorry).

zygor · 05-25-2003, 07:42 AM

I have forcefully installed it as you have done and it does work now! thanks!

All work well and fast! Xmms (the mp3 player) crashes when I enable any openGL based visualization plugins, but I suppose there drivers are a bit experimental.

Thanks!

jpbarto · 05-25-2003, 04:13 PM

I haven't had any problems with xmms or its plugins... you may want to look into the error... maybe recompile xmms?

zygor · 05-25-2003, 05:25 PM

I can't look into the error as it completely crashes KDE AND Gnome, and hence forced to reset sometimes. How could I possibly look into the error? How do recompile Xmms?

jpbarto · 05-25-2003, 07:08 PM

download the source from xmms.org

to view the errors you could always start xmms from the command prompt and redirect all its output to a file...

'xmms 2>&1 > output.txt'

that way when you crash you can go back and look at the output... if there is any.
that should work.