Hey guys the noob is back,

Well Slack is installed with a kernel im happy with, got the sound working, now i gotta get my video card working. My graphics at the moment are fantastic but im planning on getting wine later and i want to play FF11, WOW, and Guild Wars, so i want my graphics to be top shelf. Anyways i have a radeon 9200 128 DDR, how can i test if the graphics card has been installed and if not where can i get a driver for the card. Guesssing the Ati site ill check there.

replace your current graphics card.
Boot to init level 3 so that your gui doesn't start automatically.
compile the driver/modules
reboot to the new kernel and try the GUI.
If X loads, download the ATI drivers from ATI's website and follow the instructions.

If for whatever reason the card doesn't seem to work, power off and put the old one back in.

The "radeon" driver should be the one you need. This is already in your kerrnel. You just need to make sure it is loaded and you are not using the generic "vesa" driver that I guess would give reduced performance.

Take a look in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Mine looks like this in the critical video driver section of xorg.conf .... I have a Radeon 9250 128Mb btw ...

Section "Device"
BoardName "RV280 5960"
BusID "1:0:0"
Driver "radeon"
Identifier "Device[0]"
Screen 0
VendorName "ATI"
EndSection

To really answer your question ..... "is there a better driver than this one?" .... I am not sure ... but I would like to know the answer! I wondered if the driver of the ati website would be better also? Anybody know?

To test your graphics performance, you could use the command #glxgears

These are my results ....
854 frames in 5.0 seconds = 170.800 FPS
720 frames in 5.0 seconds = 144.000 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
720 frames in 5.0 seconds = 144.000 FPS
720 frames in 5.0 seconds = 144.000 FPS

Yes, the driver module is called fglrx.

I use an ATI Radeon 9200 and an 9200SE with frame rates of 2000 and 1100 respectivly using glxgears. You will more than likely need this driver in order to play 3D games.

Hey guys,

I fianlly got around to checking my /etc/X11/xorg.conf. This is what i get

Section "Device"
Identifier "VESA Framebuffer"
Driver "vesa"
#VideoRam 4096
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

I suppose this means my Ati radeon 9200 running. Anybody know how to get it running?

Have you done an #xorgconfig?

You have the dodgy generic 'vesa' driver.

First off, use glxgears to get a benchmark, then run xorgconfig.

Recheck your glxgears and your xorg.conf to find out the changes.

I thought the 'radeon' would be the module you want, but the other guy suggested 'fglrx'.

Maybe try both out and let us know what frame rates you get with glxgears.

Hey,

Awesome, but where do i get these glxgears are they already installed from the kernel or do i have to download them. I did a search on google but didnt really get any solid feed from my search.

Good question!

In my experience, when I install some distros, it is included and on others it is not.

So when you tried typing #glxgears ... I assume nothing happened? If not, hopefully google can help. Or another LQ member!

ah finally home from work. Tested teh glxgears while in bash. Promted bash-2.05b# glxgears
and go this
746 frames in 5.0 seconds = 149.200 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
840 frames in 5.0 seconds = 168.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
dosent solve my graphics card problem but atleast now i know how to use the glxgears. WOOT!

WOOT WOOT! I got the my radeon 9200 working finally thanks to you guys. Here are my results of my glxgears.
1120 frames in 5.0 seconds = 224.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
1120 frames in 5.0 seconds = 224.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
1120 frames in 5.0 seconds = 224.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
1120 frames in 5.0 seconds = 224.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
1120 frames in 5.0 seconds = 224.000 FPS
980 frames in 5.0 seconds = 196.000 FPS
1120 frames in 5.0 seconds = 224.000 FPS
Thanks again guys. Check out the transition from my last results with the default card up above.

Sorry a little OT but what do the numbers mean when you run glxgears?

Here is what mine look like:
Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0". Am I missing something?
874 frames in 5.0 seconds = 174.800 FPS
956 frames in 5.0 seconds = 191.200 FPS
1255 frames in 5.0 seconds = 251.000 FPS
1515 frames in 5.0 seconds = 303.000 FPS
1491 frames in 5.0 seconds = 298.200 FPS
1193 frames in 5.0 seconds = 238.600 FPS
1513 frames in 5.0 seconds = 302.600 FPS
1467 frames in 5.0 seconds = 293.400 FPS
1481 frames in 5.0 seconds = 296.200 FPS


I have onboard video using the sis driver. I ran the xorgconfig and it picked the proper drivers.
Just curious as I can't seem to get OpenGL games to work.

You might want to try the drivers from ATI's site. Haven't used ATI cards, but this is what I get with a Nvidia FX5200 128MB:
markus@mrk-fujibox:~$ glxgears
6096 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1219.200 FPS
8003 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1600.600 FPS
8007 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1601.400 FPS
8004 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1600.800 FPS
7880 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1576.000 FPS
8011 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1602.200 FPS

With a decent driver, your card should surely give more than ~200 FPS.

I don't think you guys have the 3d working on those cards. I have a 16mb nvidia card that does better glxgears fps, so I guess you are using a generic driver from xorg. Get the ATI driver from ATI site and install those. Your fps should be way higher with that card. Also fps stands for frames per second.

I did some reasearch noob and the fglrx is the one you want.

Go to the ati website and download.

Not that easy to install however!

Not an easy task at all. (Installing ATI driver) The radeon driver is a genetic driver, you want the fglrx is the ATI offical driver. Good Luck