ATI Radeon 9000 Pro installation
 

I tried to install the propietary fglrx onto Slack 8.1. My XFree log tells me this:

(II) Module drm: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
compiled for 4.3.0, module version = 1.0.0
ABI class: XFree86 Server Extension, version 0.2
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DRI
(II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o
(II) Module fglrx: vendor="Fire GL - ATI Research GmbH, Germany"
compiled for 4.2.0, module version = 2.5.1
Module class: XFree86 Video Driver
ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.5
[R200Setup] XFree86 version mismatch - detected 4.3.0, required 4.2.x
(II) UnloadModule: "fglrx"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o
(EE) Failed to load module "fglrx" (module requirement mismatch, 0)
(II) LoadModule: "mouse"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/input/mouse_drv.o
(II) Module mouse: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
compiled for 4.3.0, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: XFree86 XInput Driver
ABI class: XFree86 XInput driver, version 0.4
(EE) No drivers available.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Yes..i did upgrade to Xfree 4.3.0...but apparently the driver was intended for 4.2.0

What do I do?? I recompiled the kernel and it built the fglrx module just fine but when I typed startx..that's when i got the error above. Any help would be enormously appreciated. :-)

Okay..so I unloaded the fglrx module and instead used the generic 'radeon' module from xfree 4.3.0 (used xf86config rather than the given 'fglxconfig'). I can now get into X but no OpenGL.

when i run glxinfo there is no hardware acceleration. When looking at the Xfree log file it tells me that it couldnt find a kernel module for DRM. I compiled the kernel so that there is DRI support but I did not compile the Radeon module because it only supports Xfree 4.1 (in the kernel build that is)

If anyone knows a way around this...it will help me out a lot. Do i need to get the latest kernel build so that I can select Radeon as the DRI module for xfree 4.3.0 as opposed to 4.1.0 or 4.2.0?

Any tips, suggestions, criticisms are welcome. Thanks for reading this.

Patch your kernel with an -ac patch, That will give you a matching drm module, I used 2.4.21-pre5-ac2.

Kernel 2.4.21. Source not out
 

I tried to find 2.4.21 Full source not patches..but I cant find it in the kernel tree. Is it out yet?? I thought 2.4.21 was a prerelease and the full source is never available.

What is my other alternative?

Thanks for the reply. :-)

> I thought 2.4.21 was a prerelease and the full source is never available.

You're absolutely right, if you rather not use a pre release you'll have to look into older -ac patches [...if they're available and if they include the drm patch].

I successively patched to 2.4.21-pre5 and 2.4.21-pre5-ac2, the resulting kernel is totally stable as far as I can tell, it solved my mismatch issue and I now have dri enabled.
But the decision is yours...

Options *could* be:

-DRI used to carry updated modules, ready to compile and install through a script, but I've seen nothing this time around ...might be worth taking a look for yourself, I may have missed it.

-Gatos, if he's got 4.3.0 drivers ready, he usually supplies a drm module to fit his drivers and that *could* give you acceleration, but his module will only fit his drivers AFAIK.

-A dri snapshot, but what remains in the /bleeding-edge folder [ http://dri.sourceforge.net/ ] is quite old [...oct'02 iirc].
They included the drm modules and on a distro where I been trying them, the drm module matched when I installed 4.3.0 final, but the snapshot I had last installed was mid-dec'02.
That would also involve re-installing XFree-4.3.0 afterward since an older snapshot would also install beta driver files, unless you know your way around well enough to back them up and replace them manually.

Almost there...
 

Got the DRI Kernel module as one of your suggestions at:http://www.xfree86.org/~alanh/

Got this:

Compile with the command "make -f Makefile.linux"
linux-drm-4.3.0-kernelsource.tar.gz

Then after enabling DRI and GLX and making sure that the kernel doesnt have DRI enabled I still got a slight error in my XFree Log file (eventhough DRI is set to mode 0666):

(==) RADEON(0): Write-combining range (0xd0000000,0x4000000)
drmOpenDevice: minor is 0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 6, (OK)
drmOpenDevice: minor is 0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 6, (OK)
drmOpenDevice: minor is 0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 6, (OK)
drmGetBusid returned ''
(II) RADEON(0): [drm] drmSetBusid failed (6, PCI:1:0:0), Permission denied
(EE) RADEON(0): [dri] DRIScreenInit failed. Disabling DRI.
(II) RADEON(0): Memory manager initialized to (0,0) (832,8191)
(II) RADEON(0): Reserved area from (0,600) to (832,602)
(II) RADEON(0): Largest offscreen area available: 832 x 7589
(II) RADEON(0): Using XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA)
Screen to screen bit blits
Solid filled rectangles
8x8 mono pattern filled rectangles
Indirect CPU to Screen color expansion

Thus no hardware rendering yet. Odd.. I do have DRI enabled and DGA. Hmm.. Any thoughts on this?

lspci and dmesg
 

Output of lspci:

root@holmes:/home/moriarty lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693A/694x [Apollo PRO133x] (rev c4)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C598/694x [Apollo MVP3/Pro133x AGP]
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 ISA [Mobile South] (rev 23)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. Bus Master IDE (rev 10)
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 11)
00:07.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 Power Management (rev 30)
00:11.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
00:11.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 0a)
00:14.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 model NC100 (rev 11)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4966 (rev 01)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 496e (rev 01)
root@holmes:/home/moriarty

Hmm..unknown device...but why?
:confused:

Dmesg:

eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 321M
agpgart: Detected Via Apollo Pro chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xd8000000
[drm] AGP 0.99 aperture @ 0xd8000000 64MB
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.7.0 20020828 on minor 0
[drm] Module unloaded
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.7.0 20020828 on minor 0
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 321M
agpgart: Detected Via Apollo Pro chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xd8000000
moriarty@holmes:~

>...making sure that the kernel doesnt have DRI enabled

I don't quite get that...

Here's how my kernel is compiled:
and here's the result
As far as the "permission denied" goes, I dunno...
Here's my /dev/dri/card0 and permission,
...if it's of any help.

>Here's how my kernel is compiled:

code:/snip
CONFIG_DRM=y
# CONFIG_DRM_OLD is not set
CONFIG_DRM_NEW=y
# CONFIG_DRM_TDFX is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_GAMMA is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_R128 is not set
CONFIG_DRM_RADEON=m
/snip

This works only if you have your kernel patched. Mine isnt. Remember, I have 2.4.20 and I couldnt get 2.4.21. I have 2.4.20 with the DRI Radeon module disabled and DRI disabled as well.

The DRI config is disabled in the kernel per:

http://dri.sourceforge.net/

Here is the relevant part:
Configure your kernel. You might, for example, use make menuconfig and do the following:

* Go to Code maturity level options
* Enable Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
* hit ESC to return to the top-level menu
* Go to Processor type and features
* Select your processor type from Processor Family
* hit ESC to return to the top-level menu
* Go to Character devices
* Disable Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 DRI support) since we'll use the DRI code from the XFree86/DRI tree and will compile it there.
* Go to /dev/agpgart (AGP Support) (EXPERIMENTAL) (NEW)
* Hit SPACE twice to build AGP support into the kernel
* Enable all chipsets' support for AGP
* It's recommended that you turn on MTRRs under Processor type and Features, but not required.


I am still baffled; we have almost the same configuration. Yet my kernel (2.4.20) has DRI disabled per the instructions on the DRI website. I reckon you are using 2.4.21 and patched it...from your previous post. You also enabled the Radeon module in the kernel build. Hmm...

This will probably get a little easier if a kernel (dont know what stable build) had a DRI Radeon module for xfree 4.3.0.

Thanks for your help though. I am gonna try to do some more troubleshooting. Maybe i missed something.
:study:


p.s /dev/dri/card we have the same permissions.

Awright, this took a little longer than expected but i compiled a 2.4.20 to get a build tree and compiled your drm-patch.

It's exactly as I expected, after copying the resulting radeon.o into
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/char/drm
depmod -a
...here goes:...well thats my old box with a r100, but same difference, I had the infamous module mismatch, all radeons use the same driver.

I dunno, I don't RTFMs half as much as I should but to me logically, the kernel must know that you need dri and that a drm driver will be used, even if the one supplied won't work it'll be updated and the kernel must be set for it ...but that's just me, so that's how I compile my kernels.

Thanks...for your efforts. Greatly appreciated.

When you compiled the kernel..did u disable DRI and the Radeon module..per the DRI website instructions?

Just wondering...if I should just get Slack 9.0r0 and see if I get the same damm result.

I put the built DRM module into /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/char/drm just like you did, but no dice on OpengGL.

There must be a step that I missed...somewhere. Odd..very odd.
:study:

>When you compiled the kernel..did u disable DRI and the Radeon module..per the DRI website instructions?

Nope, that's the whole point, those instructions were challenging my understanding of the process ;)
...on top of that I *always* compile agpgart as a module :D

>Just wondering...if I should just get Slack 9.0r0 and see if I get the same damm result.

Suit yourself, I been using current since mid-oct, just upgraded most pkgs to rc1 level along with the XFree's bins.
It's been more solid than finals of other distros I tried in the past,
...I mean it's Slack!

>I put the built DRM module into /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/char/drm just like you did, but no dice on OpengGL.

Tried depmod -a? reboot?

There must be a step that I missed...somewhere. Odd..very odd.

The only thing I can suggest is compile your kernel as I did and see if that solves it.

How to upgrade without reinstalling.
 

Ok..so I recompiled the kernel with DRI enabled. But no dice on OpenGL. Some other guy responded that the error is due to compiling the kernel with two different gcc's (I did upgrade to 3.x from 2.96.3 a while ago) But I know for sure that gcc -version tells me 3.2.2 Oh well.

My last choice is to update to 9.0r1...but the kernel is still 2.4.20 which doesnt have DRM for 4.3.0 dammit!!!

Is it possible to upgrade to 9.0r1 without reinstalling from scratch? If so, what utility should i use? If not, how can I make an ISO image of 9.0r1 because it's not available on the main site?

Thanks for your help. Greatly appreciated. BTW, GNOME 2.2 has an ATI icon that you can configure...but unfortunately it doesnt recognize the card ... lol

>I did upgrade to 3.x from 2.96.3 a while ago

.....:eek:

>My last choice is to update to 9.0r1...but the kernel is still 2.4.20 which doesnt have DRM for 4.3.0 dammit!!!

Shouldn't be an issue when you have a system consistantly built with the same compiler, the drm patch *will* enable dri.

http://www.abnormalpenguin.com/slackware-mirrors.php
...should help with finding a recent iso, rc3 was just released yesterday, but any iso dated in march will be rc1 level or better.
OTOH with rc3 just released, final should come pretty soon, if you can wait a couple weeks, I guess.

And even though I assume an update is possible, especially because of the gcc compatibility break with 3.x, I would definitely re-install. That's why I switched to -current so early, to get gcc-3.2 with the least pain ;)

Well, best of luck, whatever you decide, hope you get to enjoy that r200 soon.

Thanks..for your help.

I reckon I will wait for a couple of weeks until Slack 9.0 is out. It couldnt hurt to wait a little longer. :-)

You know...getting OpenGL on an ATI card shouldnt have to be this laborious..but then again it's linux and the ATI propietary drivers are a pain in the arse too.

Kudos to u ..