# good news for ati owners

## xlyz

seems that ati commitment to linux is growing

new drivers with new features be released on oct 8th

more details here

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## Achilles

That sounds great! Do you think they will be better than the current ati-drivers?

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## Wedge_

I hope so  :Smile:  It'd be nice to see a big performance jump.

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## bushwakko

whee, and TV-OUT for my mobility, that would be mindboggeling :)

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## xlyz

2 days to go ...    :Cool: 

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## Lycander

But still no PPC drivers   :Evil or Very Mad: 

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## Stu L Tissimus

SWEET! ONE DAY!

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## bushwakko

really hope the drivers are good, so it will jumpstart the linux desktop market, maybe force nvidia making faster drivers and other people too.

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## bushwakko

yes? yes?!

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## violentgreen

So... What's the word?

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## Epyon

The 3.8 drivers are out for windows but ATI still has the 3.2.5 drivers on their site for linux.   :Sad: 

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## Wedge_

Well you didn't expect them to release the Linux drivers first did you?  :Very Happy:  Hopefully they aren't far behind...

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## bushwakko

they've released the windows drivers?

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## Wedge_

Yep - XP versions

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## Epyon

I was under the impression that they were going to be released at the same time.

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## xlyz

actually a catalyst rep said they was due for 3 pm CEST today

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## Sohryu Asuka Langley

geeeeh ! Sitting in front of my Computer on pressing the bookmark ati.com twice a second !!!   :Laughing: 

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## ieatchicken

I see 3.2.8 up.

Ebuild ready yet? =]

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## Sohryu Asuka Langley

I don't get it to install them manually !!! Or i am too lazy ! Please make an ebuild !!!   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz: 

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## Epyon

I installed it manually. It seems to work fine on my r8500.

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## schoett

 *ieatchicken wrote:*   

> I see 3.2.8 up.

 

Yup, http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/fglrx-glc22-4.3.0-3.2.8.i586.rpm

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## MasterX

Has anyone tried the previous veriosn of catalyst?

Does it worth installing it. I mean right now I am using the driver that comes with XFree and it looks nice. 

Is there any particular reason why someone will want to install catalyst 3.8

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## Panick007

Changelog:

"Driver now builds against Linux kernel 2.6.0-test6 

Fixes for Via KT400 systems 

Fixes for Athlon K7 systems with 2.4.19 and 2.4.20 

Added support for the following graphics cards: 

RADEON 9200SE 

RADEON 9600SE 

RADEON 9800LE 

RADEON 9800SE 

RADEON 9800XT

Improved GLX 1.3 features (pBuffers) 

AGP updates for the following AGP chipsets: 

intel i865, SiS648/651/746 

VIA PLE133/KL266/KM266/P4M266

Added glxATI.h to driver package for Developer Use 

Moved ATI source tarballs to /usr/src/ATI "

I guess that's better than the "added TV out and fixed some OpenGL stuff" from the last one.   :Razz: 

Maybe Mindrover will actually work now?!? What the hell is a pBuffer?

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## xlyz

I posted a preliminary ebuild on bugzilla:

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30715

enjoy

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## MasterX

 *Panick007 wrote:*   

> Changelog:
> 
> "Driver now builds against Linux kernel 2.6.0-test6 
> 
> Fixes for Via KT400 systems 
> ...

 

All these are great.

The sad thing is that the ati drivers for Linux, support only the above cards that you mentioned, whereas for window they support all the Radeon series, including mine, which is Radeon 7500

This is not fair   :Crying or Very sad: 

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## Panick007

You can buy a Radeon 9000 for less than $90. 

You'll have to move up to something newer to play Doom 3 anyway.  :Razz: 

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## bushwakko

the problem comes when you own a laptop, where getting a new gfx card costs you a whole new computer .:/

any news on TV-out support in the mobility 9000 ?

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## Peteroxxx

emerge sync

emerge /usr/portage/media-video/ati-drivers/ati-drivers-2.3.8.ebuild

I am installing now. I hope it fixes alot of my issues.   :Wink: 

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## xlyz

ebuild in portage install also on 2.6.0-test7

great work devs!!   :Very Happy: 

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## MasterX

 *Panick007 wrote:*   

> You can buy a Radeon 9000 for less than $90. 
> 
> You'll have to move up to something newer to play Doom 3 anyway. 

 

I do not want to throw the old one away. It works fine.

BTW, Doom 3 is out???  :Question: 

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## Sohryu Asuka Langley

Has anybody seen an improvement about speed ?!

My glxgears scores are the same as with 3.2.5 ??? Maybe i should play a game / ET ! ;D

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## alshain

 *Sohryu Asuka Langley wrote:*   

> Has anybody seen an improvement about speed ?!
> 
> My glxgears scores are the same as with 3.2.5 ??? Maybe i should play a game / ET ! ;D

 

Seems almost exactly the same speed to me. I haven't used it enough to tell whether it's more stable, but the ut2003 demo crashes after 6 seconds or so every time, same as with 3.2.5. I don't know if this is specific to ut2003 but it never happened with my old GeForce 4200 before it died.

This is quite disappointing as I'd been led to believe that this release would be a spectacular improvement in both stability and speed.

             Andrew

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## bushwakko

yes, I believed so aswell, also I got the impression that since it's catalyst it would support everything the wincat does, like the same cards, tv-out, have a similar control panel, though it's still called fireglcontrol... and 7500 still isn't supported, and I have no tv-out on my 9000...

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## alshain

 *bushwakko wrote:*   

> yes, I believed so aswell, also I got the impression that since it's catalyst it would support everything the wincat does, like the same cards, tv-out, have a similar control panel, though it's still called fireglcontrol... and 7500 still isn't supported, and I have no tv-out on my 9000...

 

Is it catalyst? Seems like just a minor upgrade to 3.2.5 to me...   :Sad: 

         Andrew

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## Panick007

I think the "big news" was that Linux driver support will be getting more robust and get a release schedule similar to the Windows Catalyst drivers.

It looks like the spent more time fixing problems than improving performance. Dissapointing to be sure.

For the people that keep complaining about it, it is unlikely that ATI's driver will ever support the older Radeon cards. Even though they call the driver "unified" in Windows it's actually two seperate drivers: one for the 7500 and older Radeons and a seperate one for the 8500 and newer Radeons. The reason for this is because the chip architecture changed between the older Radeons and the 8500. Everything after the 8500 was built upon that architecture.The 8500 and above cards don't even have true hardware T&L! T&L and all PS versions below 1.4 are emulated on the fly by the pixel shaders on the board (the GeForce FX does the same thing with it's 2.0 pixel shaders, everything below that is emulated). Very cool if you ask me.

Bottom line is that I wouldn't expect the Linux drivers to pick up support for the older Radeons anytime soon (that's why ATI has given so much information about the old chips to the DRI project).

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## phelan

 *Panick007 wrote:*   

> Bottom line is that I wouldn't expect the Linux drivers to pick up support for the older Radeons anytime soon (that's why ATI has given so much information about the old chips to the DRI project).

 

Well I think I wouldn't expect it at all. There's just no reason for a profit oriented company to support old hardware on an alternative OS...  :Rolling Eyes: 

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## The Mountain Man

 *Sohryu Asuka Langley wrote:*   

> This is quite disappointing as I'd been led to believe that this release would be a spectacular improvement in both stability and speed.

 

You are aware you're dealing with ATI?

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## MasterX

 *phelan wrote:*   

>  *Panick007 wrote:*   Bottom line is that I wouldn't expect the Linux drivers to pick up support for the older Radeons anytime soon (that's why ATI has given so much information about the old chips to the DRI project). 
> 
> Well I think I wouldn't expect it at all. There's just no reason for a profit oriented company to support old hardware on an alternative OS... 

 

Xmm, I would agree with both if they did not make new drivers for Windows. But, they are and that is frustrating

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## Jamon

Are any of you able to run two X servers at the same time without a system lockup?  If so, could you post your config?  I would really like to be able to do that again, since I switched from NVIDIA.  Thanks!  :Smile: 

	Jamon

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## violentgreen

OK...  I am not sure that I am following this thread completely.  Do you all suggest these drivers for the 9000?  If not, then I suppose the previous version then?

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## alshain

 *The Mountain Man wrote:*   

>  *Sohryu Asuka Langley wrote:*   This is quite disappointing as I'd been led to believe that this release would be a spectacular improvement in both stability and speed. 
> 
> You are aware you're dealing with ATI?

 

Hummm.... I ditched my ancient Radeon 7500 over a year ago because of the lack of drivers and got a GeForce Ti4200 which was great. When that died last month I assumed I'd given ATI long enough to get their act together. I was seduced by the hardware without paying due attention to the drivers. It won't happen again.

Andrew

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## bushwakko

I think it sucks that my tv-out for 9000 doesn't work.. anyone who has a card which TV-out works for who can give me some info about it? I saw no option for selecting S-video or composite signal, anyone tell me if composite works?

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## xlyz

tv out is not supported so far for r200

I just complained on http://apps.ati.com/linuxDfeedback/index.asp

for the moment you can use vesa driver, with adequate resolution and refresh, and atitvout

search the forum for more details

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## bushwakko

I can't get atitvout to work at all:

lapwakko root # atitvout t

VBE call failed.

Maybe this command is not supported by your graphics adapter?

Did your parameters (if you specified some) really make sense?

Please try all other available commands before complaining!

lapwakko root # atitvout vbe

VBE Version: 2.0

VBE OEM Identification: ATI MOBILITY RADEON 8500

this annoys me greatly :/

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## Panick007

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Hummm.... I ditched my ancient Radeon 7500 over a year ago because of the lack of drivers and got a GeForce Ti4200 which was great. When that died last month I assumed I'd given ATI long enough to get their act together. I was seduced by the hardware without paying due attention to the drivers. It won't happen again.
> 
> Andrew

 

I don't think the drivers are so bad realitive to their age. Nvidia's first year drivers for Linux were much worse than these.

I don't know what the performance complaints are for either. Every game that I have played on both Windows and under Linux at the same settings are perfectly playable in either OS. Even some of the heavy maps on UT2K3 are running fine for me. I lose maybe 5 fps on average in the OS switch. Enemy Territory takes a bigger hit but is still totally playable.

If it wasn't for the fact that Nvidia's PS 2.0 hardware sucks ass there might be an alternative to ATI for Doom 3 (also known as "the only game I give two shits about running under Linux for now"), but right now I don't see it. Nvidia's OpenGL drivers are better than ATI's under Windows so I guess it would stand to reason that they'd have a more robust Linux driver too.

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## MADcow

THEY WILL WORK IN 2.6?? that's great. i was under the impression that nvidia hadn't released 2.6 drivers yet?

so ati actually beat nvidia driver-wise for once?

or am i under a wrong impression?

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## bushwakko

both nvidia and ati has worked in 2.6 quite a while

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## MADcow

oh, ok. my information must be old.

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## kronon

hmm stopid thing didn't work for me so I had to hack it  :Evil or Very Mad: . Any ways. I have a dga option now:). Just run trough the setup and you'll notice it 2 :Smile: 

:edit: I could do this cause the driver is now SOURCECODE!!!   :Very Happy: 

:edit:edit: Just noticed while reading up that I'm not the only one with a not working tv-out on a 9000. I haven't tried alot, but at least my tv reacted on the signel (2x flashes on the screen)

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## DuDe

Hi, i have a asusp4c800 deluxe based on 875 intel chipset with gentoo installed i have kernel 2.6.0-test6-mm4, and radeon 9600-pro triplex, yesterday night after emerge sync, i run emerge ati-drivers, and with my surprise i see new driver, but, in my system the driver could not make driver, someone had some experience with new driver? 

Many thanks

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## ak

I might be a retarted one  :Smile: , but for me only 2.9.12 drivers work with hw acceleration on my radeon 9600. Tried the newest driver, still no go.

Oh well, will wait for 2.6 kernel in stable portage  :Smile: 

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## DuDe

 *ak wrote:*   

> I might be a retarted one , but for me only 2.9.12 drivers work with hw acceleration on my radeon 9600. Tried the newest driver, still no go.
> 
> Oh well, will wait for 2.6 kernel in stable portage 

 

What Kind of problem do you have with 9600 card? in my old system it works perfectly glxgears like 2500 300o fps rtcw it's like windows version at 1600x1200 24 bit 

keep in mind DONT syncronize frame with vertical sync in option, if you do so, the fps are like 250 300

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## kronon

I did. I had to hack the source code to make it compile.

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## DuDe

What? but the ati-drivers are closed source or from this version are open source?

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## Forge

There's still a lot to do, WRT the Catalyst-ness of these drivers. Give it time. ATI has made a serious and firm commitment to Linux for the first time ever, and they need time to get it all together. As someone noted further up the thread, NV was doing far worse at this stage of their driver process.

ATI has now commited to bimonthly driver releases for Linux. They are planning to GRADUALLY move as many of the Catalyst Windows driver features as is feasible into the Linux driver. It's going to be slow going, but progress is being made. I've heard nothing official, but there are some hints that R100/RV150/etc support might be added in later, to make Catalyst Linux support Radeon *.

Also, the 2D driver is now totally source, no binaries involved. Only the 3D-related portions will be mixed binary/source the way the whole driver was previously. This ought to give the XFree86 guys a happy dance.

Haven't heard anything about Alpha/PPC/Sparc drivers, PPC might get something but it'll be a while, I'd guess. AMD64 should probably get a driver soon, can't imagine why one isn't out already.

Anyways, I'm in occasional contact with the ATI Linux project lead. I'm planning on pointing out this thread to him.

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## trexmaster

Hello everyone.

I must admit I'm quite happy to see that we finally have official drivers that supports the tv-ouput of my radeon 9700. But right now I've got a new problem : OpenGL apps won't start in accelerated mode, only in software. That's quite annoying and I wondered if any of you had an idea of what could be wrong ?

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## xlyz

 *trexmaster wrote:*   

> Hello everyone.
> 
> I must admit I'm quite happy to see that we finally have official drivers that supports the tv-ouput of my radeon 9700. But right now I've got a new problem : OpenGL apps won't start in accelerated mode, only in software. That's quite annoying and I wondered if any of you had an idea of what could be wrong ?

 

check agpgart

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## MADcow

```
tux@Helix tux $ glxinfo

name of display: :0.0

Trace/breakpoint trap

tux@Helix tux $ glxgears

Trace/breakpoint trap

tux@Helix tux $ 

```

heh... oops. i've never seen THAT one before... i'm using the same XF86Config that i used for the last ~x86 version of the drivers. maybe that's my problem? any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

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## bushwakko

the tv-out "reacts" for me to, I get a black and white signal that's really distorted, like if you have the wrong hz or someting...

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## Forge

If your stuff isn't running right, do this:

Kill X if it's running. ALL the way off.

emerge ati-drivers (WATCH CLOSELY. Sometimes the kernel module doesn't compile, but the emerge can still succeed.)

run opengl-update ati at least once.  More doesn't hurt.

run /opt/ati/bin/fglrxconfig and let it build you a new XF86Config-4. Make sure to get rid of any old configs.

The new drivers have new options in the X config and you should really just build a new one each release, for now. Once the XF86Config options stabilize, then keeping a config will be viable.

If that still doesn't get Direct Rendering: Yes, then drop by #ati on irc.freenode.net

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## jufoa

the only thing that is keeping me with nvidia cards is their exelent linux drivers.  everything just works. tv-out one of the most important things for me, because i watch DVD:s from my computer. As soon as ati gets tv-out working I will try out some ati card. I think that this is a big issue for many users.

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## gdjohn

I'm having some problems getting DRI working with the new ati-drivers (3.2. :Cool:  and my 2.6.0-test7 kernel.  I've disabled AGPGART in the kernel config, rebuilt kernel+modules and reinstalled, rebuilt drivers many times, but dmesg output is still as follows:

fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.

[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 430 MBytes.

[fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 3.2.8 [Sep 21 2003] on minor 0

Fire GL built-in AGP-support

Based on agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann

agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 439M

agpgart: Detected a Via Apollo KT400 chipset in AGP v2 compat mode at 0000:00:00.0

agpgart: Detected Via Apollo KT400 chipset

agpgart: unable to determine aperture size.

[fglrx:firegl_unlock] *ERROR* Process 6256 using kernel context 0

I'm using a KT400 chipset motherboard with Radeon 9700 pro graphics card.  Has anyone managed to get a similar hardware combination working with the new drivers and latest development kernel?  Any pointers on what the above errors mean would be appreciated...

Cheers,

Gareth

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## Wedge_

Try using the kernel AGP instead.

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## kamikaz3

 *ak wrote:*   

> I might be a retarted one , but for me only 2.9.12 drivers work with hw acceleration on my radeon 9600. Tried the newest driver, still no go.
> 
> Oh well, will wait for 2.6 kernel in stable portage 

 

looks like I have the same problem

I just installed the new one, and glxgears is really slow

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## gdjohn

 *Wedge_ wrote:*   

> Try using the kernel AGP instead.

 

Thanks Wedge_ - that's done the trick. back to 3831 fps in glxgears again  :Very Happy: 

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## dj_choco

 *bushwakko wrote:*   

> the tv-out "reacts" for me to, I get a black and white signal that's really distorted, like if you have the wrong hz or someting...

 

tv-out==s-video???

if so, connected to s-video tv, using some adapter? 

Have u tried a different tv?

What resolution?

Does the vesa fb work with tv-out for u?Last edited by dj_choco on Mon Oct 13, 2003 9:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## bushwakko

yes, it's a s-video tv connected directly. and I have another computer that works, also it shouldn't matter if I use s-video or composite, the only different is that if it's not the right signal coming from the computer you'll get black and white...

nvidia has a option "S-VIDEO" and "COMPOSITE", I haven't seen this in ati yet? anyway, I'm looking forward to tv-out working on my 9000M :)

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## dj_choco

 *bushwakko wrote:*   

> yes, it's a s-video tv connected directly. and I have another computer that works, also it shouldn't matter if I use s-video or composite, the only different is that if it's not the right signal coming from the computer you'll get black and white...
> 
> nvidia has a option "S-VIDEO" and "COMPOSITE", I haven't seen this in ati yet? anyway, I'm looking forward to tv-out working on my 9000M 

 

I see u already searched through the relevant threads..  :Sad: 

Good luck is all I have at this time....

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## MADcow

i got mine working by using fglrxconfig... apparently it hated my hand config...

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## kronon

can we see you config file?

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## MADcow

me?

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## MADcow

me?

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## MADcow

me?

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## xlyz

yess, you, all of you    :Cool: 

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## sputnik1969

 *Panick007 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> For the people that keep complaining about it, it is unlikely that ATI's driver will ever support the older Radeon cards.

 I think so, too..

 *Panick007 wrote:*   

> The 8500 and above cards don't even have true hardware T&L! T&L and all PS versions below 1.4 are emulated on the fly by the pixel shaders on the board (the GeForce FX does the same thing with it's 2.0 pixel shaders, everything below that is emulated). Very cool if you ask me.

 

Not completely correct...

1. T&L isn`t emulated by PixelShader but by VertexShader

2. The Radeon 8500 (R200) is ATI`s only Chip which contains BOTH: a DX7-Style T&L Unit AND a DX8-Style VertexShader. With Radeon 9000 (RV250), ATI removed that DX7-Style T&L Unit and started to emulate it via the VertexShader. Radeon 9500+ Chips (R3xx) only containe VertexShaders.

3. PixelShader below 1.4 are emulated with PixelShader 1.4

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## frbie

 *Forge wrote:*   

> If your stuff isn't running right, do this:
> 
> Kill X if it's running. ALL the way off.
> 
> emerge ati-drivers (WATCH CLOSELY. Sometimes the kernel module doesn't compile, but the emerge can still succeed.)
> ...

 

Hello, 

seems to be my problem. I cannot load the fglrx module with modprobe fglrx the module is not found.

What can I do to fix?

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## Wedge_

Post the output from the ebuild so we can see what's going wrong.

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## frbie

Hello, 

the ebuild gives me a success, I run it from the pure console without x. It's a supid question but how can I save the output to a file - sorry.

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## jaska

emerge whatever >> whatever.txt, should give you something outputted to the text file.

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