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ATI Releases Drivers For X.Org

Posted by timothy on from the making-things-pretty dept.

Amadaeus writes "ATI released its much anticipated drivers for the X.Org 6.8 Window System today. ATI actually went one step further and updated its driver set for XFree86 as well. Those who had to hack and slash their way through the Fedora Core 3 install only to realize that VESA was the only way to get it working in init 5 will find this highly useful."

31 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Finally by Stoo · · Score: 1

    It's really sad that ATI's support for linux has been so bad in the past that their release
    of a new driver is actually newsworthy.

    I wonder if they've added support for their HDTV dongle - I don't see it mentioned
    in the release notes.

    1. Re:Finally by Curtman · · Score: 1

      It's also sad that there will be a 6.8.2 release, and we'll have to wait for 6.9.0 for the merged Gatos driver. I hacked the Gentoo ebuild to fetch Xorg from CVS, and my tuner worked out of the box. Hoorah!

    2. Re:Finally by smitten0000 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Status of what I've tried so far:
      * Used the posted ebuild (from rage forums) to compile/install the driver
      * changed "Keyboard" to "kbd" in config file
      * ran "opengl-update ati"
      * Detects the card correctly:
      (--) Chipset RADEON 9800 XT (R360 4E4A) found
      * Attempted to get working with InternalAGPGart "yes" - No luck here,
      the desktop will come up, but machine will hard lock after a few seconds
      or when trying to drag a window. Made that the chipset specific AGP
      module (intel-agp.ko in my case) was NOT loaded via lsmod; also moved
      the module to a different location so it would not autoload.
      * Recompiled kernel with chipset specific AGP module compiled in - No luck
      here either. Desktop comes up and fglrxinfo reports DRI enabled and
      opengl implentation to be ATI's. Running glxgears hard locks the machine
      again. Nothing in the Xorg.0.log files.

      I have an ASUS P5B533-E and P4 2.4/533 with Radeon 9800XT, Running Gentoo Linux 2.6.10. I have officially given up on ever getting this card to work in linux. Anyone want to buy a Radeon 9800XT?

      ATI claims to be developing a new driver every two months, but considering this release was a month late and doesn't improve on the old drivers from what I've been hearing, I frankly don't believe them. Another thing, considering they are touting Xorg 6.8 support, how could they possibly forget to update the fglrxconfig program to produce a working config for it!?! Sure it will work with XFree86, but how hard is it to check whether the user has xfree or xorg (or ask) and change the keyboard driver and output filename approriately? Jesus.

      --
      /. sig.
    3. Re:Finally by Gregg+Alan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Another thing, considering they are touting Xorg 6.8 support, how could they possibly forget to update the fglrxconfig program to produce a working config for it!?! Sure it will work with XFree86, but how hard is it to check whether the user has xfree or xorg (or ask) and change the keyboard driver and output filename approriately? Jesus.

      And considering that the x.org version is a different download file, they could have easily modified that one to do the right thing. And is it really easier to provide rpms without providing tgzs? Bah!

      --
      Here before all but 8486 of you.
    4. Re:Finally by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      ATI's support for windows has also been so bad. Their drivers are still horribly buggy, and barely work under windows.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    5. Re:Finally by cg0def · · Score: 1

      I have radeon 9600 and am also running gentoo 2.6.10 and have had no problems running 3d apps ever since I switched to this board. How well opengl works is another story however, my point is that instead of complaining how hard it is to get ati hardware to work maybe you should have looked at the gentoo forum or somewhere else on the web. The old driver required you to run a version of xorg below 6.8 or xfree86. The new driver no longer has that restriction and also the opengl performance has improved. ATI claims that applications using opengl no longer slow down or hang after long periots of running but I am not really sure if that is true. So if you can deal with that potential problem and most likelly slower performance than in windows there's nothing wrong with ati. Oh yeah also don't kind yourself the nvidia linux drivers are no giant leap over the ati ones. Especially when you have to patch them so that they work on kernel 2.6.10 and above.

  2. New Driver Features by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Actually this is quite an impressive release, coming from ATi. It has Xorg 6.8 support, GLSL, and they've also released 64 bit Linux drivers. So contrary to popular belief, the new dev team seems to be actually working, as opposed to the previous assumption that all they did was sit around and play Doom3-linux on nVidia tech...

  3. COMPOSITE and DAMAGE by Gregg+Alan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The new drivers work with x.org, yes. But so did the old drivers. I expected this new x.org approved version to give me accelerated transparency and dropshadows but it doesn't.

    If you load the COMPOSITE extension you lose DRI and XDAMAGE just seems to not be supported.

    So, like, don't go rush to upgrade if that's what you wanted. The 3D acceleration is at least as good as the old version but I wanted eye candy.

    (Though, if you know how to get it all working, please share!)

    --
    Here before all but 8486 of you.
    1. Re:COMPOSITE and DAMAGE by black+hole+sun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You lose DRI when you enable composite even with NVIDIA. As for XDAMAGE...well, I'd rather ATI be concentrating on the bug fixes and performance increases they so desperatley rather than waste time on some silly xorg feature.

    2. Re:COMPOSITE and DAMAGE by Gregg+Alan · · Score: 1

      You lose DRI when you enable composite even with NVIDIA. As for XDAMAGE...well, I'd rather ATI be concentrating on the bug fixes and performance increases they so desperatley rather than waste time on some silly xorg feature.

      I can't disagree with you (well, okay, I wouldn't call COMPOSITE silly but...) because this new driver has already hung my laptop. I guess they still have some bug fixes to work on.

      Reading the threads over at http://www.rage3d.com does seem to indicate that people are more after the bug and performance fixes.

      But, I don't really care what NVIDIA does with their drivers. The stock driver can use COMPOSITE (obviously) and there must be some non-trivial reason ATI couldn't enable COMPOSITE and accelaration. I wish I knew what that reason was though. The release notes don't mention it.

      --
      Here before all but 8486 of you.
    3. Re:COMPOSITE and DAMAGE by fiddlesticks · · Score: 1

      Xdamage *is* gonna be a major performance increase

      redrawing only the bits that have changed, and not having to poll for changes, is going to mean that especially for remote X, (vino, vnc, etc) but also for simple workstation use, it'll be much snappier

      http://freedesktop.org/Software/XDamage

      --
      http://milkshake.dexy.org
    4. Re:COMPOSITE and DAMAGE by cg0def · · Score: 1

      Buddy, you are complaining that the 2 most unstable and still in very much beta stage extentions are not working? Are you nuts? There are tons of other things that ati has to focus on before they even think of adding support for eye candy. How about being happy that the opengl performance is better?

  4. Xorg, gatos, and fglrx? by wowbagger · · Score: 1

    Does anybody know if the Xorg version of the driver will work with the GATOS modules that are in the current CVS build of Xorg?

    And, if not, then WHY ON EARTH NOT?

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
    1. Re:Xorg, gatos, and fglrx? by swv3752 · · Score: 1

      He got it working.

      --
      Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
    2. Re:Xorg, gatos, and fglrx? by wowbagger · · Score: 1

      I don't think he had the fglrx drivers AND gatos running - he simply pulled the Xorg source from CVS and had the tuner working with the standard Xorg build - as I have for some time with my 7500.

      However, I spent the day yesterday working with my 9600, and while I have the fglrx code running with the CVS pull of Xorg, the tuner section is not loading - as the fglrx drivers don't invoke the gatos modules.

      So, it would seem the partial answer to my question is "No, the flgrx driver for Xorg does not work with the gatos drivers."

      Leaving unaswered the question "Why not?"

      --
      www.eFax.com are spammers
  5. they are BINARY only drivers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Who cares about useless binary drivers.

  6. other hardware platforms by chaoschimera · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ATI has made some nice graphics chipsets for the PowerPC platform as well. I love the Radeon Mobility in my Powerbook, but my installation of Debian Sarge on another partition would *love* to have some 3d acceleration and support for the nice S-video and DVI outputs. When will they get around to Linux drivers for non-x86 platforms is what I'd like to know.

    --
    #!/bin/bash
    :(){:|:&};:
    1. Re:other hardware platforms by Basje · · Score: 2, Interesting

      These are OEM chipsets. In other words, only supported by ATI through the vendor.

      So, in this case, go ask Apple if they will ask ATI. Fat chance.

      --
      the pun is mightier than the sword
  7. He's an AC, but... by NeoChaosX · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not everybody wants to bother with compiling drivers, dude. For some, it's simpler just to have binaries they can install. Not everybody wants to sit through a driver compile just to get the video card working.

    --
    One man's selflessness is another man's annoyance.
    1. Re:He's an AC, but... by NeoChaosX · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just because I support binaries doesn't mean I support closed-source, moron. I'm just saying not every person who needs to use a PC has the time to learn how to compile or sit through a compile session. Binaries are useful for those who aren't good with computers and don't have the time to learn about computers as much as we do.

      --
      One man's selflessness is another man's annoyance.
    2. Re:He's an AC, but... by arodland · · Score: 1

      It's relevant not because you don't have to compile them, but because you don't have the choice to.

  8. Rage3D by HRbnjR · · Score: 4, Informative

    Those that are going to try using this should read the Rage3D Linux Drivers Forum.

    Some of the material there is pretty much required reading to get this stuff working, and includes posts with patches from ATI developers to make the driver work with the latest kernels (2.6.10, etc).

  9. Today (kinda) by atrader42 · · Score: 1

    Along with the next x86 drivers on the site is a shiny new set of x86_64 linux drivers. I haven't heard anything about how happy people are with them, but at least they're doing something (yeah, I know you're looking for ppc et al, but 64 bit is a start)

  10. VESA? by turgid · · Score: 4, Informative

    VESA was the only way to get it working? What are you talking about? I downloaded and compiled Xorg 6.8.1 and there were three (ati, radeon, and something else) ATi drivers to choose from depending on your graphics card. OK the performance wasn't brilliant but it worked and the system seemed fairly stable (3 days uptime without an X crash or major bug).

    --
    Stick Men
    1. Re:VESA? by turgid · · Score: 1
      I can't believe that something as high-profile and widely-used as fedora would not come with the standard open-source Xorg (or even Xfree) drivers for ATi cards.

      I use Slackware, and I don't have to compile X from scratch unless I want to do something specific. Since 1995, Slackware has been shipping with XFree (and now Xorg) binary packages, and they come with ATi (rage, radeon and plain ati) drivers.

      You get what you pay for, I suppose.

      --
      Stick Men
  11. wrong - "AllowGLXWithComposite" by sofar · · Score: 3, Informative

    Add the following to xorg.conf (Device section):

    Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"

    Works fine for my GFORCE2, i get composite AND GLX at the same time, works like a charm.

    This doesn't work for Ati's tho.

  12. Groan... by haplo21112 · · Score: 1

    ...OK, I understand that many companies see Red Hat as being "Linux" they have that kind of market share....but there are other distrobutions...could ya maybe also just release a simple tar ball with the install instructions for the individual files.

    --
    Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
  13. It's about time! by Trevin · · Score: 1

    I just tried the new driver out this morning, and I'm just relieved to finally have 3D acceleration again after going several months without it. They haven't got fglrxconfig quite right yet (it still configures XF86 instead of xorg), but it wasn't too much trouble to merge the configuration with my existing xorg.conf file. Also, the driver seems to cause a kernel panic whenever I kill X, so it is obviously still unpolished. But at least it's usable (as far as I can tell). And not only does it support accelerated 3D, but it also supports proper resolution switching on my LCD screen, unlike the X.org radeon driver (which won't let you specify your own ModeLines).

    I'm going to play with it some more after work to see whether it supports rotated displays...

    1. Re:It's about time! by Trevin · · Score: 1

      Let me amend my post: the new driver is even buggier than I thought. Since installing it, my computer has completely locked up twice. I can't recommend this driver except for experimentation.

  14. new drivers by voot · · Score: 1

    i noticed that these were alot stabler then the last release. I used to have a programming that crashed because of the drive all the time.

  15. In Other News... by fistfullast33l · · Score: 1

    X.Org announced version 7.0 of their popular implementation of MIT's X specification.