# ATI FGLRX, KDE 4.0.0, my notebook and me - final problems.

## Charlie.

Before I enumerate the final problems...

Linux boots. It does this really well. My kernel is working - supporting my network devices, block devices and the fglrx module. I added XDM to the default runlevel and set it to launch KDM so, when I boot, I'm confronted with a KDM login screen. As you probably guessed, X starts up nicely. (In fact, there are NO EE LINES in the log at all! (Although some twit put SCREENSAVER in capitals, so grep always returns that line.)

KDE 4.0.0 runs. It runs really fast. The mouse feels like a hardware mouse and dragging windows around is at least as smooth as Windows XP. I *think* that transparency (i.e. desktop effects) are enabled and working because I have a "yang" at the top right of the screen and a little transparent message saying "Add Widgets" floats up when I hover over it. Window borders are not transparent, however. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be.

fglrxinfo says...

[code]display: :0.0  screen: 0

OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.

OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT

OpenGL version string: 2.1.7170 Release[/code]

... and glxgears gives me about 15200 frames in 5 seconds, that's about 3000 FPS. I'm not sure whether this is good or bad, but it isn't an error message or a crash, so I'm not complaining.

There are two remaining issues. The first: I can't seem to get the screen to its native resolution. The highest it wants to go is 1152x864 where it is actually capable of 1440x900. I think this is a problem with xorg.conf. I believe that the reading of DDC and EDID information is broken with fglrx (8.443.1-r1) (an issue linked to the PreInitDAL failed bug) and that the only way to get things working is to prevent the use of DDC and EDID information by specifying the capabilities of the monitor in xorg.conf. I can't do this, however, because I don't know what the monitor's horiz- and vertical- synch ranges are. (It's a notebook monitor and new to me) I can't find those because I can't run get-edid because I'm running amd64.

I really need some help with this.

The second issue is a series of warnings from X' log file:

[code]...

(WW) AIGLX: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0x49

(WW) AIGLX: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0x4a

...[/code]

I'm really not sure what to do about those, apart from disabling AIGLX. If I disable AIGLX, will that kill all the 3d features of the card, including desktop effects? Please help.

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## Jaglover

1440x900 at 60 Hz will result in horizontal sync frequency about 57 kHz, this certainly won't kill your display. Just fix VertRefresh on 60 in xorg.conf and set your resolution.

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## Charlie.

I know it won't break the monitor, duh!

The problem is that X won't run in that resolution, even though I have it as the ONLY resolution in the Modes line in xorg.conf.

I noticed an application called "ATI Catalyst Control Center Linux Edition." Inside that, it has a page where it says that the monitor is capable of 1440x900 and another where it has a slider that has a maximum of 1152x864. (On the left. Duh. Again.)

The changes I made in ATI CCC don't seem to be written to xorg.conf. I suspect that there is something else running which is overriding the settings in xorg.conf. I think it's the ATI CCC.

I couldn't find a way to remove the ATI CCC or to edit its config file manually, so I'm still stuck.

Please help.

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## Jaglover

KDE may override xorg.conf settings, shouldn't exceed limits set in xorg.conf though.

Why don't you try removing (commenting out) all settings you do not want in xorg.conf and leave only one? Fixed HoriSync on 57 and VertRefresh 60 and Modes 1140x900 and see what happens. If it refuses to run with these settings there could be at least error messages in Xorg log. Or comment all settings out in Monitor section and set modeline:

Modeline "1440x900@60" 108.84 1440 1472 1880 1912 900 918 927 946

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## Charlie.

I Tried...

in Monitor section...

HorizSync 20-80

VertRefresh 60-60

and Modes "1440x900"

That didn't work. The settings were ignored. I also tried Option "NoDDC" "on" and "IgnoreEDID" "on". No difference.

I assumed that, if I made HorizSync wider than necessary, it would not be a problem as long as VertRefresh was set correctly.

I'm sure that these settings are being ignored.

As a matter of interest, if I just run startx I get a completely different view to the kdm view. I'm sure that CCC is fooking with my settings.

Where do I put that Modeline line, do I need all the extra numbers (what are they?) and what can I remove if I have it?

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## Lori

I had the same problem. I have a laptop with a 1680x1050 resolution and after upgrading to x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.443.1-r1 I couldn't get the native resolution. It's a bug of this version of the proprietary driver, as reverting to 8.433 solved the issue. I just added the buggy version to /etc/portage/package.mask:

```

echo "=x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.443.1-r1" >> /etc/portage/package.mask

```

ATi/AMD just released a new version of the fglrx driver (8.452) 3 days ago, the Resolved Issues section contains:

 Connecting a display device that supports 1680x1050 to a system running Linux will no longer result in a maximum display resolution of 1280x1024 only being available

 Custom mode lines in xorg.conf will no longer be ignored by the fglrx driver

According to this, the modelines you added were simply ignored. I'm sure the new version will shortly be added to portage, according to my experience they are quite fast updating ati-drivers.

I hope this helps.

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## Charlie.

Thanks.

I can confirm that 8.452 fixes the problems that I have been having. I emerg'd it using Je_Fro's overlay. I now have 1440x900 resolution.

I suppose I should remove the unmasking of 8.443.1-r1 right about now, before I end up with billions of lines in the unmask file... it's unlikely that I'll roll back... ever.

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## Charlie.

I'm still fighting with the second issue - i.e. the AIGLX errors in Xorg's log. I'm pretty sure that they are caused by an invalid xorg.conf file. Here's why:

fglrxinfo indicates that ATI's proprietary driver is in use.

neither fglrxinfo nor glxgears throw errors or segfaults

there are no errors in Xorg's log.

if I do `glxinfo | grep direct` I see that direct rendering is enabled and working.

I'm also fairly sure that the fact that AIGLX isn't working is also the reason why KDE 4.0.0's composite desktop effects aren't working.

Are there any special things I need to stick in xorg.conf to fix this AIGLX issue? Option lines or something?

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## Lori

I'm not sure if this is actually an xorg.conf problem. My logfile shows the same, all visuals from 0x23 to 0x72 are reported as not supported. I don't know what exactly those visuals refer to...

I have KDE 3.5.7 and currently not use AIGLX for anything, but I will install compiz-fusion and report back. It uses AIGLX as well, so if it will work, you shouldn't worry too much. After all, it's a warning, not an error.

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