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Old 06-09-2005, 10:52 PM   #1
Keithjr
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Location: Greensboro, NC
Distribution: SImplyMEPIS 3.3
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Unhappy ATI woes abound


Hi, I recently switched to MEPIS, due to recommendation


I'm having some awful problems getting 3d to work correctly (fgl_glxgears) won't work at all with manually-downloaded ATI drivers installed. Looks like ATI really hasn't gotten their act together. Or ever will. *shrug*

question the first: is there any way to change the resolution without going through the ENTIRE fglrxconfig? It's getting old.

question the second: over and over again I've tried to reconfigure this thing, but the resolution always seems to come out too big for my monitor and I have to scroll around the edges to see everything. Anybody have any ideas about that?

I had to go through a great deal of troubles to get this to work in Mandrake a year or so ago, anybody got a good solution for MEPIS?
 
Old 06-10-2005, 01:39 AM   #2
joosep
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Well, my ATI card worked quite smooth. All i did was install the fglrx modues with Synaptic and configure them with fglrxconfig. When it ask if you want a virtual desktop larger than your screen say no. When it asks if the resolutions look good, say no(press 1) because they don't(only 640x480). You need to set all the resolutions you need(sya 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1280x980). Make sure the default resolution is the first. When it saves it under /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, you need to restart X(Ctrl-Backspace). It should load the drivers. You can change resolution using Ctrl-Alt-+ or Ctrl-Alt-- on the numpad. By the way, what ATI card do you have.
 
Old 06-10-2005, 02:12 AM   #3
Keithjr
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yeah I've pretty much gone through all that. I'm using a Radeon 9200SE (which is basically a 9600), last ATI card I think I'll buy.

I stumbled on a strange error when using ATI's automatic installer:
Code:
[Message] Kernel Module : Trying to install a precompiled kernel module.
[Message] Kernel Module : Precompiled kernel module version mismatched.
[Error] Kernel Module : No kernel module build environment - please consult readme

...which is strange since I've installed the necessary kernel headers, at least I thought.

no matter what I do in fglrxconfig, fgl_glxgears won't run at all, and glxgears gives something horrific, like 100fps.

Last edited by Keithjr; 06-10-2005 at 02:47 AM.
 
Old 06-10-2005, 02:47 AM   #4
Keithjr
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Update:

according to lsmod, the agp modules are loaded:
Code:
amd_k7_agp              5772  1
agpgart                27048  1 amd_k7_agp
so why won't fgl_glxgears work? All it says is
Code:
Error: couldn't get fbconfig

will I have to go the External AGP module route? Certainly seems that way, nothing else is working right as-is
 
Old 06-10-2005, 08:51 AM   #5
joosep
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Well, i've got the exact same card and it works good. Can't say there's any trouble with the driver package or ATI. Are you using a self-compiled kernel or one from the repositories. I think because you don't download the fglrx source, you don't even need the kernel headers, but i may be mistaken. After you've installed the fglrx drivers(fglrx-driver & fglrx-kernel-YOUR-KERNEL-VERSION) you need to load it using modprobe, i think. Also install the firegl-control-qt and see what it's saying. Post your X config file section about the card. Since we have the same card you could try my config.
Code:
Section "Device"
    Identifier                          "ATI Graphics Adapter"
    Driver                              "fglrx"
# ### generic DRI settings ###
# === disable PnP Monitor  ===
    #Option                              "NoDDC"
# === disable/enable XAA/DRI ===
    Option "no_accel"                   "no"
    Option "no_dri"                     "no"
# === misc DRI settings ===
    Option "mtrr"                       "off" # disable DRI mtrr mapper, driver has its own code for mtrr
# ### FireGL DDX driver module specific settings ###
# === Screen Management ===
    Option "DesktopSetup"               "0x00000000" 
    Option "MonitorLayout"              "AUTO, AUTO"
    Option "IgnoreEDID"                 "off"
    Option "HSync2"                     "unspecified" 
    Option "VRefresh2"                  "unspecified" 
    Option "ScreenOverlap"              "0" 
# === TV-out Management ===
    Option "NoTV"                       "yes"     
    Option "TVStandard"                 "NTSC-M"     
    Option "TVHSizeAdj"                 "0"     
    Option "TVVSizeAdj"                 "0"     
    Option "TVHPosAdj"                  "0"     
    Option "TVVPosAdj"                  "0"     
    Option "TVHStartAdj"                "0"     
    Option "TVColorAdj"                 "0"     
    Option "GammaCorrectionI"           "0x00000000"
    Option "GammaCorrectionII"          "0x00000000"
# === OpenGL specific profiles/settings ===
    Option "Capabilities"               "0x00000000"
# === Video Overlay for the Xv extension ===
    Option "VideoOverlay"               "on"
# === OpenGL Overlay ===
# Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay
#       will be disabled automatically
    Option "OpenGLOverlay"              "off"
# === Center Mode (Laptops only) ===
    Option "CenterMode"                 "off"
# === Pseudo Color Visuals (8-bit visuals) ===
    Option "PseudoColorVisuals"         "off"
# === QBS Management ===
    Option "Stereo"                     "off"
    Option "StereoSyncEnable"           "1"
# === FSAA Management ===
    Option "FSAAEnable"                 "no"
    Option "FSAAScale"                  "1"
    Option "FSAADisableGamma"           "no"
    Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos"         "no"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX0"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY0"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX1"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY1"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX2"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY2"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX3"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY3"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX4"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY4"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX5"                "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY5"                "0.000000"
# === Misc Options ===
    Option "UseFastTLS"                 "2"
    Option "BlockSignalsOnLock"         "on"
    Option "UseInternalAGPGART"         "yes"
    Option "ForceGenericCPU"            "no"
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"    # vendor=1002, device=5964
    Screen 0
EndSection
Also this may be of use
Code:
$ lsmod | grep "agp"
intel_mch_agp           8464  0
sworks_agp              7456  0
amd_k7_agp              6284  0
ali_agp                 5760  0
sis_agp                 6404  0
ati_agp                 6924  0
nvidia_agp              6172  0
via_agp                 7808  1
intel_agp              19100  0
agpgart                28080  10 fglrx,intel_mch_agp,sworks_agp,amd_k7_agp,ali_agp,sis_agp,ati_agp,nvidia_agp,via_agp,intel_agp
 
Old 06-10-2005, 03:01 PM   #6
Keithjr
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Distribution: SImplyMEPIS 3.3
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actually, I gave up and re-installed MEPIS. I concluded that the drivers that come by default work well enough. Since we have the same card, what do you get from glxgears and fgl_glxgears? Mine are something like ~800 fps and ~170 fps, respectively.

without doing anything after re-install, lsmod now shows fglrx being used by 17 modules! Well, that's certainly much better, but it does prove that the ATI driver installer was missing something crucial.

Lesson learned: Trust MEPIS. The main difference between you and I seems to be that you're working from Synaptic and I'm getting things from www.ati.com

What do you mean by firegl-control-qt? I dont seem to have that package available.
 
Old 06-10-2005, 03:47 PM   #7
Gurduloo
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If it makes you feel any better, your suffering has inspired me to stick with the default MEPIS drivers and not attempt to download any drivers from ATI. I had been considering doing that next week.
 
Old 06-10-2005, 04:27 PM   #8
Keithjr
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ha ha, yes I do recommend that if things aren't in trouble, don't fiddle, but keep in mind I have no !#$&ing idea what I'm doing, so I probably got what I had coming.



what xconfig file is it where I find that information?

Last edited by Keithjr; 06-10-2005 at 04:37 PM.
 
Old 06-10-2005, 06:53 PM   #9
nuka_t
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/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
 
Old 06-13-2005, 04:21 AM   #10
joosep
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Quote:
Originally posted by Keithjr
you get from glxgears and fgl_glxgears?
...
What do you mean by firegl-control-qt?
I get basically the same FPS. Whoops. By firegl-control-qt i meant fglrx-control-qt3. Just do a Synaptic search for fglrx.
 
Old 06-13-2005, 01:50 PM   #11
Keithjr
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Distribution: SImplyMEPIS 3.3
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the control was already installed. I upgraded it, along with the driver and the fglrx kernel, just to be safe. I'm going to run fglrxconfig again and then post the xconfig stuff in a moment...

(edit)

the only difference between out XF86 files is this line:

Option "UseFastTLS" "2"

on mine, this is a 0. This seems like a trivial difference, however... seeing as I'm now getting the following error when I try to run fgl_glxgears, ever since I upgraded the drivers USING SYNAPTIC:

Error: couldn't get fbconfig

I changed my mind, I don't think tinkering was my fault, it's possible the newest drivers are just broken?


(update again)


Yes, it seems from a little searching I've done, the ATI proprietary drivers (the newest ones, most likely), tend to have a linking problem. I'm a newbie so I'm still trying to sort things out as to how to fix it

Last edited by Keithjr; 06-13-2005 at 02:35 PM.
 
Old 06-14-2005, 09:24 PM   #12
Keithjr
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Ok so here's a solution I found:
http://www.wlug.org.nz/RadeonOnNforce
Quote:
I finally managed to get this to work: the error 'Error: couldn't get fbconfig' occurs if the GL-libraries that are linked are not correct. The ATI proprietary driver overwrites the file /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1.2, so this is the library that should be used, and not mesa- or nvidia-versions of it. All libGL.so* files should link to this. You can check the library dependencies with 'ldd': for example 'ldd /usr/X11R6/bin/fgl_glxgears' gives the libraries used in fgl_glxgears. Check this. It works for me now. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Well... I have no idea what I should do... how can I tell if a link is incorrect? More importantly, what can I do about it? Most importantly, WHY did it happen?

Last edited by Keithjr; 06-14-2005 at 09:43 PM.
 
  


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