Enable DRI on ATI Radeon 9250

voidance · 08-21-2006, 12:59 AM

Hello (my first post!)

I've been trying to make work DRI with no luck. I already readed many of the threads about this subject [thanks all of them, they've been really helpful) sadly I still can't make this work. So this is what I've done so far:

1.- Compile last stable kernel 2.6.17.9 Following Old_Fogie and Cwwilson721 guides (can't paste URL bc of noob reasons in the forum xD)

agpgart as modules, my via chipset as modules also, etc ... All this modules where loaded during fglrx instalation.

2.- fglrx instalation.

3.- I used ./aticonfig --initial since fglrxconfig is no longer provided. It leaved xorg.conf awful but I can live with that.

4.- Added:

Code:

 
Section "DRI"
  Mode  0666
EndSection

5.- Restart X and nothing, no DRI enable and also low FPS (about 300).

Here is the output of: (all edited just the important stuff)

lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
fglrx                 388780  0 
agpgart                25968  1 fglrx

lspci:

Code:

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] (rev 01)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5940 (rev 01)

xorg.conf:

Code:

	Identifier     "Simple Layout"
	Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.
# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
# This loads the font modules
# This loads the GLX module
	Load  "dbe"  	# Double buffer extension
	SubSection "extmod"
		Option	    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension
	EndSubSection
	Load  "type1"
	Load  "freetype"
    #Load        "speedo"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "dri"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"

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

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
	Driver      "fglrx"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
	Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
	Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]"
	Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode 0666
EndSection

Xorg.0.log: (only EE and WW)

Code:

(WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/".
(WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/".
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such device)
(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:1) found
(WW) fglrx(0): board is an unknown third party board, chipset is supported
(WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************
(WW) fglrx(0): * DRI initialization failed!                  *
(WW) fglrx(0): * (maybe driver kernel module missing or bad) *
(WW) fglrx(0): * 2D acceleraton available (MMIO)             *
(WW) fglrx(0): * no 3D acceleration available                *
(WW) fglrx(0): ********************************************* *
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "VendorName" is not used
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "ModelName" is not used

(EE) fglrx(0): [agp] unable to acquire AGP, error "xf86_ENODEV"
(EE) fglrx(0): cannot init AGP

Sorry for the long post. If need something else, have any ideas, etc I will be thanked! (Sorry my bad english!)

EDIT: I am using Slackware 10.2, KDE all stock (I tried with Dropline and latest Xorg but didn't worked, and I read it can bring some troubles, first I want to make it work, then make it nice

)

zborgerd · 08-21-2006, 02:42 PM

Which X.org are you using when you refer to the "latest X.org"?

Also, have you tried ATI's internal GART driver to see if it works instead of the "agpgart" module?

Someone else had a similar problem recently, when he updated to one of the more recent kernels. In his case, he had an Intel i810 compatible chipset. The problem was due to the kernel framebuffer device that he was using. It was causing the agpgart driver to hang up. After disabling the framebuffer driver, the issues were solved. I am unsure if this issue also affects the proprietary ATI driver, but I used their driver with a Radeon 9500 PRO over a year ago. It did not work very well with a kernel framebuffer driver, so it could still be an issue.

voidance · 08-22-2006, 02:00 PM

Now I am trying with X.org version 6.8.2 (I tried with 6.9.something)

According to ATI's web page internal GART is no longer provided by them.

My kernel framebuffer device is not set.

Mh I am kind of stuck, don't know what else to try ... meanhile continue google and LQ. Thanks anyway!

Old_Fogie · 08-23-2006, 04:11 AM

Hi voidance,

Nowaday's the latest ATI driver's no longer require re-compiling the kernel to achieve DRI on slackware's 10.2 default 2.4.31 or the testing 2.6.13 kernel. We should probably revise that post there, it's only happened recently and my mind slips me as to when I noticed this fact.

Personally, I am now using their 8.27 driver altho the 8.28 driver is out as of the 18th of this month. I get slightly better performance on benchmarks for the latest, but find the 8.27 actually better in real life gaming.

That said, maybe you should try the drivers on slackware 10.2's default kernel's again. Tho this does require either the 2.4.31 or 2.6.13 kernel to be used that supports the module for your AGP.

You did not mention in your post if you had added this to your fstab first before you install the drivers from ATI:

Quote:

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

You need to add that to your fstab, then reboot, then install the drivers.

note you do need to have the kernel headers and source for the running kernel properly installed.

Also don't use the 32 bit installer. Use the drivers that are xorg drivers at the bottom of their download page at ATI's site.

Simply rpm2tgz the file then installpkg the tgz...then follow the rest of the how to there.

voidance · 08-23-2006, 06:13 PM

Yeeha! I make it work! Thanks Old_Fogie and zborgerd for replying!

First time I recompile the kernel I tried to make it work with kernel DRI modules directly with no luck. Most probably if you say they work, they do work and I did something wrong, so then I tried with ATI drivers following your post.

Default 2.4.31 don't works right bc of the SATA disk, and 2.6 test also bring me some headeache with the hardware, can't remember what. So I must make a new custom kernel anyway, wich is no problem, I like screwing things with that.

The thing I was doing wrong was not loading the via_agp module since I have a via KT880 chipset. Somehow I was afraid this chipset was unsupported since another guy with the same chipset couldn't make it work. But following Old_Fogie's guide again, with agpgart and via_agp modules loaded worked fine!

Now Direct Rendering yes
FPS 1500 xD Ok it is lame, my card is, but it works and I am happy with that!

Again, thanks

!

Old_Fogie · 08-23-2006, 09:41 PM

I'm glad to hear you got it working