# Radeon XPress 200M - any alternative except ati-drivers

## Uzytkownik

ati-drivers are the last unfree driver in the kernel. Also it often works just wrong(currently it mess the screen when enters 3D). 

I've tried to use x11-dri but I've got unaccelerated mode. Did I missed something or I have no chance for 3D.

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## fidel

According to http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ATIRadeon there seem to be two different cards named xpress 200m. If you have a RV370 / M22 Chip 3D should work, if your machine has a RS400, you're in a less lucky situation:

 *http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ATIRadeon wrote:*   

> RS400
> 
> Radeon XPRESS 200/200M IGP 
> 
> Broken memory initialisation for 2D/3D. ( git version has fixes for this since June 2007, needs more testing on differing models ) 
> ...

 

In such case you might want to try out the git version....

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## Uzytkownik

Well - how to check it? Searching through the X.org log do not help.

I've tried version from git but I've received no acceleration. I'm also unable to use x11 overlay as /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.la was removed and pango (among others) cannot be build.

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## fidel

Just check with lspci. On my laptop it shows:

```

...

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M9+ 5C61 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01)

...

```

So I am lucky to have an old ati card with a M9+ chip that is supported by the open source radeon driver, including 3D support.

[edit]

I guess if you already tried the git version and still get no acceleration, the only way to get 2D/3D acceleration is the poor binary driver.... It'll get better in a couple of weeks, months! Novell is developing the open source driver for AMD, so I guess its a matter of time until everything works well.

[/edit]

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## Uzytkownik

```
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M
```

RC410?

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## fidel

Hm, I suggest you stick to the binary drivers as long as radeonhd doesn't work. I remember there were problems with previous ati drivers not displaying cursors and pointers right. This shouldn't be the case with the latest unmasked drivers. Did you try the unmasked ati-drivers?

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## Uzytkownik

 *fidel wrote:*   

> Hm, I suggest you stick to the binary drivers as long as radeonhd doesn't work. I remember there were problems with previous ati drivers not displaying cursors and pointers right. This shouldn't be the case with the latest unmasked drivers. Did you try the unmasked ati-drivers?

 

I don't use and can't use radeonhd - the card is too old. 

PS.

By unmasked ati-drivers do you mean the ~x86? I have the whole system on ~x86.

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## fidel

Sorry! Got confused! You say you tried x11-dri, do you mean the in-kernel drm module or have you installed x11-drm? On my laptop with the radeon 9200 I get 3D acceleration with the latest x11-drm from portage (as well on a computer with a radeon 9600xt). Not sure whether I put that Load "drm" within the section module myself or not, sure worth checking.

Ehm, I suggest you take x11-drm from portage and load the drm module within xorg.conf. Hope that works!

[edit]

 *Quote:*   

> I have the whole system on ~x86.

 

... I never do that! 

[/edit]

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## Uzytkownik

From portage (or rather overlay). I can try with the kernel one...

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## fidel

I wouldn't even try the kernel module. I would stick to radeon from xorg and x11-drm from portage and I would definitely not use an unstable arch. Do you load the drm module within xorg.conf and does lsmod show the drm module?

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## Uzytkownik

 *Quote:*   

> I wouldn't even try the kernel module. I would stick to radeon from xorg and x11-drm from portage

 

From portage of x11 overlay?

 *Quote:*   

> and I would definitely not use an unstable arch.

 

I'm using it for a long time.

 *Quote:*   

> Do you load the drm module within xorg.conf and does lsmod show the drm module?

 

Yes. I've loaded and lsmod has shown (drm, radeon & co.).

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## fidel

Not from any overlay, just plain from portage. But hey, as it seems that this is not going to work for you, honestly, I know its not nice, still, I would stick to the binary driver. Here everything works great, with stable arch, just some packages are masked (almost none). I use xorg-x11-7.2, xorg-server-1.3.0.0-r6, x11-drm-20071019 on a kernel 2.6.24-gentoo-r8 and have no issues at all. Even with the 5 years old notebook with the radeon 9200 compiz is running smoothly. 

Good luck!

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## Uzytkownik

In my case everything run smoothly until yesterday when it messed in the 3D mode...

I'll try the downgrade of kernel.

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