# My experience with Inspiron 8600 and Radeon 9600

## sshine

Hi there,

Been browing the forums and the threads aplenty about people's problems with ATI cards. It is my impression that most of the problems people experience are different, partly because people use different ATI cards, and partly because they attempt to make it work in each their own little unique way that only works out for a few people, unfortunately.

When I just got this Dell Inspiron 8600 shipped with the ATI Radeon 9600, the first thing I did was get Gentoo on it. This was my first experience with Gentoo, so I just wanted to get it on there, working, playing DVD, IRCing, playing Quake3.

This installation was very unoptimized. I wasn't sure what to put in at various places, so I chose something conservative. I used the 2.4 kernel and along with alsa-driver sound was working. xorg-x11 and 2d-graphics worked nicely, woo hoo. Even SoftwareGL.

HardwareGL another story. I eventually decided I wanted to reinstall my system from scratch, this time I went with a 2.6 kernel. I did this because with the 2.4 kernel, I understood from reading the forums that some people had problems with "XFREE DRI", which I also had. Since I'm not using xfree but xorg, this is kind of a problem. I hoped using 2.6 would bring some sanity to this, which I believe it has (read below).

A note on the sound, it took me a while to figure that I needed OSS support and the i810_audio module (with 2.4 I could simply emerge alsa-driver and it worked.)

----

As it is now: SoftwareGL doesn't work. I'm not worried, because when HardwareGL works, I won't need SoftwareGL. AGP still works, so I get a nice 1280x800 resolution in X, which boots nicely. (xorgcfg didn't like me and the 2.6 kernel, likely due to the fact that I didn't include a lot of modules it was probing for.)

I'll post the output of a few commands below and hopefully someone can help me point out if I'm missing something obvious such as a setting in xorg.conf. I really think I've come this far, because dmesg does detect that I have a radeon card, and it hasn't complained about the radeon kernel module. I'm probably being naive, but anyway, here's some output:

simon ~$ dmesg |grep radeon

radeonfb: Found Intel x86 BIOS ROM Image

radeonfb: Retreived PLL infos from BIOS

radeonfb: Reference=27.00 MHz (RefDiv=6) Memory=337.00 Mhz, System=243.00 MHz

radeonfb: Reversed DACs detected

radeonfb: Reversed TMDS detected

radeonfb: Monitor 1 type LCD found

radeonfb: Monitor 2 type no found

radeonfb: panel ID string: 

radeonfb: detected LVDS panel size from BIOS: 0x0

radeonfb: Assuming panel size 1280x800

radeonfb: Power Management enabled for Mobility chipsets

radeonfb: ATI Radeon NP  SDR SGRAM 128 MB

[drm] Initialized radeon 1.9.0 20020828 on minor 1

simon ~$ glxgears

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

(something about GLX missing. xorg.conf doesn't mention a lot about this so I might miss something:)

simon ~$ grep -i glx /etc/X11/xorg.conf

# This loads the GLX module

    Load       "glx"

I appreciate these forums, they're really useful and gentoo is a cool linux distribution!

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## Wedge_

Your dmesg output shows two potential problems. Firstly, the radeon framebuffer driver ("radeonfb") doesn't always get along well with the ATI driver. If you find that exiting X back to the console results in weird colors or a hang, switch to the VESA framebuffer instead. 

The second problem is probably what is preventing you from getting 3D acceleration working: 

```
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.9.0 20020828 on minor 1 
```

This means you have the "Direct Rendering Manager" kernel option enabled (under the Character Devices section of the config). When this option is enabled and the "radeon" kernel module is loaded, the ATI driver module (called "fglrx") won't load, and without it loaded, you don't get 3D acceleration. So, to fix this, you need to recompile your kernel with the "Direct Rendering Manager" option disabled. While you're at it, make sure you have the proper AGP support in the kernel. In the Character Devices section, you need to have "/dev/agpgart" support selected along with support for the AGP chipset the Inspiron has, which I'd guess would be Intel in this case. Select both options as modules, recompile the kernel, and reboot. Load the "agpgart", "intel-agp" and "fglrx" modules (you can add them to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 to do it automatically on bootup). 

As for your Xorg config file - run the "fglrxconfig" program included with the ati-drivers. This will generate an XF86Config-4 file. Just copy this over your Xorg.conf file and it should work fine (set the "UseInternalAGPGART" option to "no").

Finally, you might run into some problems with OpenGL libraries and Xorg. This thread has a possible fix for the problems. Alternatively, you can run "opengl-update xorg-x11" before starting X, and then run "opengl-update ati" afterwards, which also seems to work.

Edit: forgot to say - you aren't missing anything by removing the kernel radeon driver, because it doesn't support 3D acceleration for newer cards like the 9600. The ATI binary driver is the only choice for those cards.

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## Drako'99

As I also own the same laptop and I can't make work the Radeon framebuffer, I wanted to know what is the version of your 2.6 kernel ?

I've tried 2.6.6 and 2.6.6-mm with both new and old Radeon Framebuffer and I've never managed to make it work with the native resolution (1680x1050 in my case). If anyone has an idea ?

I'm using Xfree and the fglrx driver is working with 3D acceleration, if I can help  :Wink: 

PS : thank you Wedge_ for your FAQ and the help you can give. You actually helped me understand better how ATI driver and X work.

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## sshine

I have actually made my Radeon 9600 card *work with Hardware GL*!!! Thank you so very much Wedge! I disabled DRM and FB_RADEON in my kernel and loaded fglrx in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 (after having fetched ati-drivers).

In my xorg.conf I changed my Device section (commented version was the old one):

#Section "Device"

#    Identifier  "radeon9600"

#    Driver      "radeon"

#EndSection

Section "Device"

    Identifier "radeon9600"

    Driver "fglrx"

    Option "no_accel"       "no"

    Option "no_dri"         "yes"

    Option "mtrr"           "off"

EndSection

I then ran opengl-update xorg-x11 and started X. Apparently both "xorg-x11" and "ati" works fine here, both with approx. 20,000 FPS. Feedback on other Radeon 9600 FPSes are appreciated.

For those who are still struggling with their Radeon 9600 card: It is certainly possible. But not easy. But do read Wedge's comments above (and elsewhere on the forums), this is what helped me to get it working beyond basic AGP.

Cheers from a happy Gentoo'er  :Smile: 

----

Things I haven't tested yet: usbfs, 802.11b, tv-out. Other than that, I've got a working Inspiron 8600 running Gentoo!

Running ratpoison with aterm.

----

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## sshine

Drako '99: If you have the same graphics card as I have, you don't want the radeon frame buffer, since it does not gve you Hardware GL support. You'll want to remove DRM, XFREE DRI and radeon framebuffer support in your kernel.

Install ati-drivers and load the fglrx module.

echo fglrx >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

Best of luck.

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## Wedge_

 *sshine wrote:*   

> In my xorg.conf I changed my Device section (commented version was the old one):
> 
> #Section "Device"
> 
> #    Identifier  "radeon9600"
> ...

 

Are you sure everything is working with those options? Setting "no_dri" to "yes" should disable 3D acceleration...

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## sshine

The performance is the same with and without. But with, it gives me this error when running glxgears:

Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".

I did remove XFREE DRI from the kernel, I will have to experiment and see if OpenGL still works when this is included, since some programs do rely on this, apparently.

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## sshine

Just for the sake of it, I recompiled my kernel with DRM support because enabling "dri" in my xorg.conf requires DRM. It resolves in the same results (about the same FPS) but with new error messages: Can't load libGL.so: Operation not permitted.

Wouldn't the FPS suggest that Hardware GL is working? I know, you'd probably have to see the animation and compare it, but here's the output from glxgears:

simon ~$ glxgears 

Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".

200 frames in 8.0 seconds = 25.000 FPS

140 frames in 8.0 seconds = 17.500 FPS

140 frames in 7.0 seconds = 20.000 FPS

140 frames in 8.0 seconds = 17.500 FPS

140 frames in 8.0 seconds = 17.500 FPS

140 frames in 7.0 seconds = 20.000 FPS

140 frames in 8.0 seconds = 17.500 FPS

140 frames in 7.0 seconds = 20.000 FPS

140 frames in 8.0 seconds = 17.500 FPS

140 frames in 8.0 seconds = 17.500 FPS

140 frames in 7.0 seconds = 20.000 FPS

Maybe I need to recompile xorg to make its "dri" support depend on the ati-drivers that are now installed? Far shot, probably way off.

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## sshine

This is what startx writes of odd stuff. Doesn't it seem like this driver is incompatible with the kernel driver?

Symbol drmUnmap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmMap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol firegl_CheckMagic from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol firegl_QueryHwCaps from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol DRIGetDeviceInfo from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmMap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol firegl_AllocCache from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol firegl_AllocCache from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmUnmap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmMap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmUnmap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmUnmap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmMap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmUnmap from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol firegl_AGPAcquire from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmAgpGetMode from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmAgpVendorId from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmAgpDeviceId from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmAgpRelease from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmAgpEnable from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmAgpSize from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol drmAgpBase from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Symbol DRIGetDrawableInfo from module /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o is unresolved!

Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/, removing from list!

Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!

Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/, removing from list!

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## sshine

---- It is working now! ----

I enabled DRM and started X as root. I got a few hundred thousand FPS in glxgears and the wheels where flying so fast you could hardly see them... And now the forty-two dollar question: How do I enable DRM for my regular user? It said "Operation not permitted"

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## sshine

It turns out I was missing...

Section "dri"

Mode 0666

EndSection

... in my xorg.conf.

Thanks for responding.

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## Wedge_

If you run the "fglrxconfig" program, it will generate you a new XF86Config with all those options prewritten. Good to see it's working now  :Smile: 

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## seppe

euhm, a bit off topic .. but, do you guys suggest me this card? I really can't decide between a nVidia GeForce FX 5200 64Mb (works perfectly with Gentoo for 100% sure, but it's not as good as the radeon 9600) and the ATI Radeon 8600 Mobile.

I really want to go for ATI, but I hear scary stories about their linux drivers (I have currently an nVidia card)

so my question to you: does it really performs good? Do you get high fps in all games, do you have any problems (except the difficult installation of the drivers)?

suggestions are welcome!

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## sshine

Hi Wedge and seppe:

Wedge, I did run fglrxconfig and I took the useful bits from it and merged it into my own very working xorg.conf. That worked out.

Seppe, I was standing before the same choice. I decided, without knowing which trouble it'd be in Linux, the ATi card because it has much better performance. I haven't tried to install the NVidia card, but I suppose it's easier.

I've been using Linux for some years now, but I don't consider myself any kind of professional, at least not when it comes to configuring hardware, because I have attempted to block it out of my brain how to do it, because it always involves so many problems!  :Wink: 

I can't tell you whether to buy this card or not, but the performance is really nice. Maybe you should read some hardware reviews / comparisons and then ask yourself if you want to use a couple of days (!) to make the card work -- granted you're as lucky as me, however you'll see that as ironic or not.  :Razz: 

I'd like to share my experience, but thinking back, there is a part that's a bit fuzzy. I remember, being my second installation of Gentoo, that I chose 2.6 from the beginning, and deselecting anything that could enable softwareGL. I configured my kernel the way I wanted it to (not including a few modules I would realize I'd need later on for some USB candy), installed xorg-x11, then installed ati-drivers, put fglrx in my /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6, though it wouldn't work for a while. I put DRM support and DRI (?) back into the kernel, added the Section "dri" Mode 0666 EndSection, saved. (Summarized. It took a lot of time to figure it out.  :Razz: )

Here's my xorg.conf, in case you should something that looks like it:

```

Section "Module"

    Load        "dbe"

    SubSection  "extmod"

        Option    "xfree86-dga" # quake3 complained, so I enabled this...

    EndSubSection

    Load        "type1"

    Load        "speedo"

    Load        "freetype"

    Load       "glx"

    Load       "dri"

EndSection

Section "Files"

    RgbPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"

EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier  "Keyboard1"

    Driver      "Keyboard"

    Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"

    Option "XkbRules"   "xorg"

    Option "XkbModel"   "inspiron" # this one is ok

    Option "XkbLayout"  "dk"          # but you should probably change this one

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier  "TouchPad"

    Driver      "mouse"

    Option "Protocol"    "Auto"

    Option "Device"      "/dev/mouse"

    Option "Emulate3Buttons"

EndSection

# My USB Intellimouse requires ohci_hcd in the kernel, I think. I loaded all the *hci_hcd in case I should want to plug other USB stuff in.

Section "InputDevice" 

   Identifier   "IntelliMouse"

   Driver       "mouse"

   Option       "Protocol"      "IMPS/2"

   Option       "Device"        "/dev/usbmouse"

   Option       "Buttons"       "7"

   Option       "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier  "16:10"

    HorizSync   31.5 - 64.3

    VertRefresh 50-100

EndSection

# Probably omittable.

Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Standard VGA"

    VendorName  "Unknown"

    BoardName   "Unknown"

    Driver     "vga"

EndSection

Section "Device"

    Identifier "radeon9600"

    Driver "fglrx"

    Option "no_accel"       "no"

    Option "no_dri"         "no"

    Option "mtrr"           "off"

EndSection

Section "Screen"

    Identifier  "Screen 1"

    Device      "radeon9600"

    Monitor     "16:10"

    DefaultDepth 24

    Subsection "Display"

        Depth       24

        Modes       "1280x800" "1024x640" "800x500" # widescreen resolutions

    EndSubsection

EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"

    Identifier  "Simple Layout"

    Screen "Screen 1"

    InputDevice "TouchPad"      "CorePointer"

    InputDevice "IntelliMouse"  "CorePointer"

    InputDevice "Keyboard1"     "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Section "dri"

    Mode 0666

EndSection

```

And that's that. I still haven't attempted to make dual display monitors work (the radeon has an extension to one monitor). It runs smooth in my dual boot Windows, I guess it's just about putting the right things in xorg.conf.  :Smile: 

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## seppe

Thanks a lot for your reply (and especially for you xorg config file!).

Did you already tested some games? Does quake3, UT, UT2003, vendetta (emerge vendetta-test to check it out) and/or UT2004 run smooth on your machine?

If this card really works without too low fps, then I'll definitively chose it! I really want to chose this one instead of the nVidia card, but I hear awful stories about ATI's driver performance under Linux  :Sad: 

Could you post your .config file from your 2.6 kernel? That will probably help me a lot too, because we'll both have the same laptop with the same specs (expect I'm going to chose the screen with the highest resolution  :Very Happy: )

Thanks a lot for your information  :Wink: 

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## sshine

Quake 3 is running nice and smooth. One annoying thing is that it makes garbage at the part of the screen it doesn't use, but it is not near as annoying as in Windows where it resizes the 640x480 resolution to fit the widescreen area of the screen.

I'll post my 2.6 .config later, I'm in Windows playing Warcraft III, also running nicely.  :Smile: 

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## sshine

I put it on http://simon.eggheads.org/2.6.config

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## IndirectX

Hi,

I'm also using an Inspiron 8600 with the WXGA display.  I can't seem to get X to start in 1280x800, however.  I'm using the Nvidia GeforceGo 5200 instead of the ATI card, but I think that's the only difference.

I'm also using XFree instead of Xorg, so I don't know if that would also affect it.  I spent forever looking for the HSync and VRefresh for this display panel, and while yours seem to work, the screen will only start in 1024x768, regardless of what I do.  That mode isn't even in the listed Modes, yet it still put it in that resolution.  Any ideas why this might be?

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## Drako'99

The place to go :

  :Arrow:  http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl

With this calculator, you'll be able to generate a Modeline for your screen.

I believe you should use:

```
Modeline "1280x800@60" 83.91 1280 1312 1624 1656 800 816 824 841
```

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## stkaplan

Have any of you managed to get dual screen mode to work? I have pretty much the exact same configuration (Inspiron 8600 with Radeon 9600) but I'm having quite a bit of trouble.

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## daphil

I would be very interested in how to get the radeon9600 to work with two sceens (each of them showing a different desktop of course  :Wink:  )

I also have very bad framerates when starting glxgears... something around 100FPS! 

What are the exact kernel options I have to set in order to make this card work (dual head + 3d acceleration)?

----------

