# ATI releases Catalyst 7.5 (8.37.6) for Linux TODAY!

## VinzC

Hi everybody.

Some will probably be pleased ATI releases their latest (proprietary) drivers for Linux today, especially for x86_64 (EM64T and AMD64), which I'm highly interested in. Since I've just received my Inspiron laptop with an ATI Mobility X1400, I'll probably try and write an ebuild (for the AMD64 platform) today or tomorrow.

Hopefully will I be able to get rid of the IA32 emulation...

Cheers.

----------

## TemplarKnight

aiglx or any compatible implementation ? NO   :Evil or Very Mad: 

----------

## VinzC

This is the first time I ever use ATI under Linux (in 3 years of Gentoo) so I might not figure out what it means exactly. Is it that bad? Knowing AMD/ATI will now definitely open their drivers?... If it is then it won't for long, will it? So all we have to do is wait. Tell me if I'm wrong.

----------

## TemplarKnight

I've stopped using fglrx driver quite some time ago because of their uncountable bugs, lockups, etc. and cause i also wanted 3d effects on my desktop   :Smile:  wihtout some intermediate X layer (XGL). Open source r300 driver (which notably is not for your card) does what i need through aiglx support which is native in Xorg > 7.0 and give a decent 3d acceleration for games   :Rolling Eyes: 

No arguing that this driver supports most of the recent ati cards and gives a good acceleration, but:

-is it as good as it is under windows platform?

-shouldn't they support their new cards sooner as they come out (and not have to wait for 3 years as in ur case)?

----------

## Gusar

 *VinzC wrote:*   

> This is the first time I ever use ATI under Linux (in 3 years of Gentoo) so I might not figure out what it means exactly. Is it that bad? Knowing AMD/ATI will now definitely open their drivers?... If it is then it won't for long, will it? So all we have to do is wait. Tell me if I'm wrong.

 

You're wrong. Read this. Until airlied writes on his blog that ATI/AMD has contacted him and they're working things out, their claim of opensourcing the driver is nothing more than marketing BS.

----------

## VinzC

 *Gusar wrote:*   

> You're wrong. Read this. Until airlied writes on his blog that ATI/AMD has contacted him and they're working things out, their claim of opensourcing the driver is nothing more than marketing BS.

 

You seem to be pessimistic... Note however that marketing allegations like these will be taken care of for only a short time. People don't like liars and I'm sure ATI/AMD know that. They won't benefit from unsatisfied promises or customers will drop them in favor of any other makers. Their drivers are yet very poor they would commit suicide if they didn't free their drivers someday, just because claiming it too much will lose them. But that's only my opinion.

----------

## i92guboj

 *VinzC wrote:*   

>  *Gusar wrote:*   You're wrong. Read this. Until airlied writes on his blog that ATI/AMD has contacted him and they're working things out, their claim of opensourcing the driver is nothing more than marketing BS. 
> 
> You seem to be pessimistic... Note however that marketing allegations like these will be taken care of for only a short time. People don't like liars and I'm sure ATI/AMD know that. They won't benefit from unsatisfied promises or customers will drop them in favor of any other makers. Their drivers are yet very poor they would commit suicide if they didn't free their drivers someday, just because claiming it too much will lose them. But that's only my opinion.

 

He is not pessimistic, he is realistic. 

To start with, AMD/ATI has not made any official announce about that. I have only seen lost blogs here and there, and rumours on not so credible web sites, starting with the mother of all those sites: slashdot.

Spreading rumours is a very old tactic that so many enterprises do use and have used in the past. Since there is no official announcement, there is nothing you can complain about. They will just tell you the truth: "We never said that". I am not too informed about the issue, but I also think that there is a third party involved in the issue. So, anyway, if that is true, AMD can't release that info, even if they wanted.

Freedom in this field will never come, unless we start making free hardware specifications (software is not enough to be free). The nouveau project also seems interesting, but I don't think we will see anything usable soon.

----------

## Gusar

I don't think I'm pessimistic. It's very simple: Talk is cheap. What I want to see is action.

They don't have to opensource their 3d driver tomorrow, I know that's impossible. But what they could do is let airlied release the 2d driver he has written months ago. That would be a clear sign that there is substance behind their talk.

----------

## VinzC

Well, I never read (past and present tense) slashdot hence am not contaminated by them at least  :Wink:  . I saw the news on linuxfr.org. The post refers to that article. But if it's a "joke", I just regret I selected ATI in spite of an Intel GPU  :Sad:  (I made the configuration myself).

----------

## i92guboj

 *VinzC wrote:*   

> Well, I never read (past and present tense) slashdot hence am not contaminated by them at least  . I saw the news on linuxfr.org. The post refers to that article. But if it's a "joke", I just regret I selected ATI in spite of an Intel GPU  (I made the configuration myself).

 

I an not infalible either, but that is a blog. Blogs are things that people write, cause they are bored. It is the very nature of the blog.

In any case, that is not the AMD site, the AMD site is this: www.amd.com

While they don't say a word about that there (and they don't say it), then, it is a rumour, nothing more.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=es&safe=off&q=site%3Aamd.com+open+source+ati+drivers+linux&btnG=Buscar&lr=

59 results, not a single one about that. I am sorry, but I think you are one of the victims of a rumour. We all are every now and then   :Crying or Very sad: 

----------

## MoridinBG

Fglrx is around 50% slower than Windows. Tested with both emulated and native games /Quake 3&4, Doom 3 etc/.

----------

## yangman

Switching to dual screen is still broken, still triggers xcb errors due to improper locking, and amdcccle seems to be even less useful than before, even when I've recompiled libX11 so it would launch at all.

Just... sigh...

----------

## VinzC

Let me add a little more positive note: compositing seems to be less buggy than with 8.36.x. I'm with XFCE4 and have enabled desktop compositing. Sometimes redrawing doesn't work quite weel when scrolling vertically but it's far better than with the previous drivers (windows are now fully redrawn when switching applications).

----------

