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ATI Releases AIGLX Linux Driver

Posted by kdawson on from the making-compiz-sing-and-dance dept.

Michael writes "A month after AMD released a Radeon HD 2000 'R600' Linux driver based on their new Linux driver codebase, they have now released another driver that provides AIGLX support used for Compiz and Compiz Fusion. In addition to this long-awaited AIGLX support, this driver also addresses issues with previous Radeon product families, performance improvements, AGP fixes, and added features to their graphical control panel. Phoronix has a review of the 8.42 Linux driver with all of the details about this much-anticipated release."

26 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. So.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ..will it run on Linux? Seriously...

    1. Re:So.. by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 5, Informative

      ..will it run on Linux? Seriously...

      From TFA: "but there are a few words of caution. Be forewarned that there is a bug in Compiz 0.3 affecting the fglrx 8.42.3 driver and there may be a few other situations where Compiz or Compiz Fusion may not work immediately. The bug found in Compiz 0.3 and that's causing havoc with fglrx 8.42.3, has been resolved in Compiz 0.6. Next month in fglrx 8.43, AMD will be introducing a workaround for Compiz 0.3 support. "

      So that's a definite "Maybe".

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    2. Re:So.. by noisehole · · Score: 3, Insightful

      how about stopping the instant whining when some company is releasing something for linux? it's really annoying.
      here is the 2.6.23 patch btw: http://pluto.blackbone-ev.de/atipatch.php

      but getting to that link implies READING THE ARTICLE and using a mouse. yeah i know... this is slashdot...

  2. Re:That's great but... by jagilbertvt · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Mod parent down. He's replying to his own posts trying to look insightful.

  3. Finally!!!! by slap20 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well it will be nice to get my cheap ATI card out of vga mode at 640x480 at 4bit color.... Maybe one day I can move up to 8 bit color.

    --
    ~Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder~
    1. Re:Finally!!!! by stinerman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, it's quite good and is especially needed as fglrx doesn't support R200 chips anymore.

      The bad thing for us R3xx owners is now that all the specs are open for R5xx and R6xx, I don't think there will be much more work on the older cards. I wouldn't want to do a bunch of reverse engineering for an old card when I could get docs for the new ones.

  4. Bullshit... by MostAwesomeDude · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...at least in my experience.

    Problem one: Doesn't actually work with Compiz. While AIGLX works, XComposite does not, and loading Compiz results in massive screen corruption. Joy.

    Problem two: Anybody who had XVideo problems before, will probably still have them now. Sad but true. Ditto with font selection and rendering.

    Problem three: While X.org server 1.4 is supported, Linux 2.6.23 is not. Anybody running on the bleeding edge is once again locked out.

    I'm sure more bugs will show up, but I'm pretty disappointed that they haven't improved the heavily broken XComposite support that they claim "works just fine."

    --
    ~ C.
    1. Re:Bullshit... by FMZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Problem three: While X.org server 1.4 is supported, Linux 2.6.23 is not. Anybody running on the bleeding edge is once again locked out. Umm... there's a reason they call it the "bleeding edge". Sometimes it hurts.
    2. Re:Bullshit... by DeadManCoding · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While the system may still be broken, it doesn't matter. The Linux community (myself included) has wanted better open source drivers for video cards, and AMD is finally making good on it. I may not be able to play bleeding edge games on my Linux system, but the software is getting there, and that's the important part.

      --
      "The only constant in the universe is change." - Unknown author
    3. Re:Bullshit... by AmaDaden · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Keep in mind how new this is and how complex a GPU is these days. It's gonna be a mess for a few sometime. What I would like to know is who is more dedicated to making Linux drivers that are (eventually) rock solid? I'm planing to build a new rig soon. Should I go nVidiea because I know they have decent drivers now or ATI because once they get the kinks out it'll be better? I'm sure people are gonna say that ATI is better because they went Open Source. But nVidiea could open up any day now in response to all this and they already have a working code base.

    4. Re:Bullshit... by qbwiz · · Score: 4, Informative

      You seem to be a bit confused. ATI has not released the source to fglrx, and they haven't yet released the spec for doing 3D.

      --
      Ewige Blumenkraft.
    5. Re:Bullshit... by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ATI committed to providing complete documentation, but did not provide the source code to their current driver. This is (partially) because their current closed driver contains proprietary IP that ATI does not own, so they can't open-source it. NVIDIA is in the same situation and will have to take the same slow route to open-source drivers when they eventually come to their senses. They cannot "open up any day now" and "have a working code base" instantly, any more than ATI could.

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  5. Re:Site not upgraded? by darthpenguin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Try this link: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run

  6. Am i only one? by Fri13 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm having problems with Nvidia and ATI drivers on windows and on GNU/Linux side. With different motherboards and different 3D cards and with different drivers. Many users bashes ATI because they old driver style. My friend dont have any issues with ATI on windows but linux side he has. I didnt have 9700 on Linux side but with windows i did. Now on 8600GT i get so much problems that it's just enought just to mention that i have them. Best drivers what i have seen has come from Intel and #2 position is ATI and last one is Nvidia. These are my experienses what i have collected from my PC's and my friend systems too. Many user just says something "these drivers sucks so bad that..." even without testing them. I even buyed Vista (with OEM version just 20 euros) to know it sucks. I didnt even just dumped when i feeled it was enough, i used it few months to learn what problems normal user might get and how to resolve them. And i did even have big problems even GNU/Linux and previous windows versions i can handle very well. Same thing with 3D drivers, need to know almoust every possible problem and what is good and what is bad to tell just something 'neutral'. We need more open API's and open specs to get things work... it just takes time.

  7. Suspending? by The+Analog+Kid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can you suspend your laptop using these drivers. There was a problem using the 8.40.3 drivers and any distro that uses the SLUB allocator that causes the system to hang while trying to suspend. Since most distros (if not all) are moving to SLUB this is a pretty big issue, ATI is usually behind the 8-ball though so I'm not getting my hopes up.

  8. I don't normally reply twice, but... by MostAwesomeDude · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...this is not an open-source driver.

    There are three ATI drivers. There is fglrx, which is this driver that was just released. There is radeon, which is the open-source driver that controls Rages, R200s, R300s, and R400s. And there is radeonhd, which controls R500s and R600s.

    fglrx has many issues. It now has AIGLX, but it still has broken XComposite. Xvideo doesn't work for many people. Direct 3D rendering is slower than on Windows. The entire driver is closed-source and shims a binary blob into the kernel. But, it still offers 3D for R400, R500, and R600 chipsets.

    radeon is the dependable open-source driver for older Radeon-based and Rage-based cards. It works excellently, with direct rendering for all chipsets up to the R200 series. People are working on R300/R400 direct rendering right now; see http://tirdc.livejournal.com/ .

    radeonhd is a brand-new open-source driver that controls new R500 and R600 cards. It has no direct rendering yet, but there is a promise from ATI/AMD that documents pertaining to direct rendering will be released sometime soon without NDA. This driver is still being worked on, but it offers satisfactory 2D for many people.

    --
    ~ C.
  9. Does AMD have a developer/beta channel? by r_jensen11 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Because I think then many of these issues could get resolved more quickly. By "these issues," I mean things like better Compiz support and more modern kernel support. Fortunately*, I don't even upgrade my kernel more than two or three times a year (unless there's some major feature or fix that I happen to read), so not supporting the latest & greatest kernel isn't a major issue for me.

    *I know that this leaves me vulnerable to security exploits, but I'd rather take my chances with that than not being able to use my programs at all because of an incompatibility. Plus, I've gone through upgrading after every kernel revision and it just gets tiring. There are many systems that are up for a longer period of time than whenever each kernel upgrade is released, so I have a feeling I'm not alone here, either.

  10. So what's the estimate... by Amphetam1ne · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ..until I can get hardware H.264/AVC1 decoding in LinuxMCE using my Radeon HD card then? Months? Years? the day after the next big encoding standard is released?

    --
    I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
  11. Separate stuff. by DrYak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    TFA is about the current closed source ATI drivers, (the one downloadable from AMD's website).

    The GP was speaking about the opensource drivers, which is a different project. Anyway, AMD/ATI has promised to help them too, and is currently in the process of releasing specs, step by step. Currently they have provided enough information for the mode setting :
    - it's now possible to switch to a 2D mode using opensource drivers. Before that, VESA was the only working solution because of important change between the Radeon 2D architecture (up to R4x0 / Radeon X850) and the Avivo 2D architecture (from R5x0 Radeon X1x00 onward).

    Other specs will follow step by step. Anyway, you'll still have to wait at least 1 year befor good and stable opensource drivers for Radeon HD 2900 start to popup in your favorite Linux/BSD distro. The good news from today's article is that until then the current closed source drivers are ratter good.
    And AMD is promising to keep releasing specs for the opensource drivers project.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  12. Goati? by Elyscape · · Score: 4, Funny

    Am I the only one who saw the tag "goati", became confused, and read "goatse"?

    --
    I own itburns.net. What should I put there?
  13. Not quite my experience... by Junta · · Score: 2, Informative

    The SLUB problem was that laptop would never complete suspend. The manifistation of it was that the half-moon would just keep blinking and never go solid. Now with 8.42 (mind you, hacked for a FireGL PCIID), it completes suspend. Resuming however, has yet to return me a working screen. However, if I kill X with alt-sysrq-k, and I can set capslock and change VTs, indicating it almost works. I'll play with the resume scripts, but it appears that the SLUB-blocking-suspend was addressed, but for some strange reason, it still doesn't resume right.

    Ahh... closed source drivers.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Not quite my experience... by Wizarth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Interesting, I've noticed since upgrading to Gutsy my laptop (with ATI video chipset) wouldn't suspend, would shut down the PCMCIA WiFi card but then leave me at a blank screen (blinking cursor, I think, not in front of it right now). I hadn't played with it yet though. I thought it might be because I modified the sleep/resume scripts slightly, when I was having some issues with said wifi card, ndiswrapper, WPA and sleeping.

  14. Let me know... by Junta · · Score: 2, Informative

    So far, I've gotten it to suspend, and resume successfully in Gutsy, *but* the catch that makes it useless, is I essentially make /etc/acpi/resumed/65-console.sh *not* attempt a single chvt, and so I can never get back to X. So the kernel seems fine, but X won't come back and chvt will hang in the process. Have tried saving vbestate and post_video, and neither, but of those two there is no success. The graphics did work with the vbestate saving and post_video in text consoles though....

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  15. URL by detain · · Score: 2, Informative

    ati.com was still linking to the old driver for me, im not sure if it is for everyone else, however, this URL
    should let you download the new driver:

    https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run

    --
    http://interserver.net/
  16. Its progress... by hitmanWilly1337 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    At least the new overlords of ATI (AMD, for those not in the know) are actually making a halfway decent effort to support nix. While granted, they have a LONG way to go to meet even the quality of nVidia's drivers, at least its a step in the right direction, instead of the old "We'll make one, but we're really not going to put any effort into it" attitude. Hey, sometimes we have to be thankful for even small miracles.

  17. The different versions and URLs by DrYak · · Score: 3, Informative
    • 8.42 : is currently *being* released, links are not updated everywhere. But a few google request may bring you to forums where it is already available. For exemple, Phoroinix have published a link to the driver they did test. I think the release is not official yet because of the reported problems with 2.6.23 kernel. The same google search can also bring out patches to circumvent those problems and even howtos about using the new AIGLX for desktop compositing.
    • 8.41 : Is the previous release. It was mainly centered around bringing RadeonHD support on linux. Thus some bugs may have managed to slip by with older chipsets. IT IS available on the ATI website. But it comes with a caveat explaining the situation, that this driver is mainly targeting Radeon HD and that it's "use at your own risk" with previous chipset generations. You're still free to try it on X800XL if you want (Phoroinix did it in their).
    • 8.40 : is the latest release using the older code base. Currently it is what has been the most widely tested and debugged for older chipset, so that's why it's the first thing you land on.
    • There's a nice wiki about ATI on Linux, with distro specific pages, links to the latest bleeding edge versions and such.


    GPL drivers are currently standard on most distribution for cards up to R4#0 (Radeon X8#0). If you want bleeding edge you can get them from freedesktop's git repository.
    GPL drivers for R500 and up are currently being created. You can get the currently couple of working pieces from its corresponding irregular devel companion.

    You either have to wait more time until it's trivially offered as the first choice on the ATI selector (for the binary drivers) out of the box with major distros (for the GPL driver).
    Or you have to accept "bleeding edge" mean, understand that all those drivers are fresh from the oven, not thoroughly tested thus maybe not ready for the public at large, and that you need a little bit of google before assembling the necessary pieces, or use specialised resources like the afore mentioned wiki.
    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]