Ysgrifennodd Per Jessen:

Assuming you've got a module called 'fglrx' loaded, you should be able to figure out which rpm in came in.

How can you tell if the fglrx module is loaded? I've tried using modprobe on my box - because it was the only thing Google came up with - and got these results: linux:~ # modprobe fglrx linux:~ # modprobe radeon WARNING: Error inserting drm (/lib/modules/2.6.22.19-0.2-default/kernel/drivers/char/drm/drm.ko): Cannot allocate memory FATAL: Error inserting radeon (/lib/modules/2.6.22.19-0.2-default/kernel/drivers/char/drm/radeon.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg) linux:~ # modprobe drm FATAL: Error inserting drm (/lib/modules/2.6.22.19-0.2-default/kernel/drivers/char/drm/drm.ko): Cannot allocate memory linux:~ # modprobe fglrx linux:~ # So modprobe fglrx comes back with nothing. I tried the others (radeon and drm) to see if I had something that was stopping the fglrx module from loading: but I've no idea how to interpret the results. I don't want to hijack the thread - so I'll start a new one if that's the right thing to do and if people can stand another thread on ATI drivers. Perhaps the OP could get back on that, if I'm not adding anything to the solving his problem (as well as my own). My box is AMD64 with an ATI Radeon X1300/1550 series graphics card, and openSUSE 10.3. Cheers Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ysgrifennodd Per Jessen:

lsmod | grep fglrx

Thanks Per. I think it's installed: linux:~ # lsmod | grep fglrx fglrx 2244760 31 I poked around in the logs as well, and the logs seem to indicate that it's there. On the other hand, if I try to open the ATI Catalyst control centre, I get the following "initialization error": No ATI graphics driver is installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appropriate for you [sic] ATI hardware, or configure using aticonfig. I get this message whether I try to open the Control Center under my own user or as root. I've tried the obvious aticonfig --initial, and also aticonfig --initial -f, but nothing seems to make any difference. glxgears shows ~250FPS: peter@linux:~> glxgears 1298 frames in 5.0 seconds = 259.524 FPS 1238 frames in 5.0 seconds = 246.044 FPS 1348 frames in 5.1 seconds = 266.860 FPS 1327 frames in 5.0 seconds = 265.259 FPS 1392 frames in 5.1 seconds = 275.116 FPS 1280 frames in 5.0 seconds = 255.354 FPS 1319 frames in 5.0 seconds = 262.030 FPS I have to say there's nothing very urgent about this. Compiz can get a bit flakey, but that's about the only display issue I have with normal use. It's annoying, though, 'cos it aint right. :( Cheers Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ysgrifennodd Mike:

Did you do the complete line as in aticonfig -- initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf ?

First of all, thanks to you guys for sticking with me on this one. It's appreciated.

It's a longshot, but I thought I'd ask.

Worth a try, but no. No change.

Or paste your the parts of xorg.conf so we can take a look.

Here's the xorg.conf content. I wasn't sure what bits were relevant, so I've pasted it all in # /.../ # SaX generated X11 config file # Created on: 2008-02-15T21:21:03+0000. # # Version: 8.1 # Contact: Marcus Schaefer , 2005 # Contact: SaX-User list https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users # # Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1) # PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! # Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout[all]" Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0 InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer" Option "Clone" "off" Option "Xinerama" "off" EndSection Section "Files" InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata" InputDevices "/dev/input/mice" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/local" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/URW" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/PEX" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/CID" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/xtest" FontPath "/opt/kde3/share/fonts" EndSection Section "Module" Load "dbe" Load "type1" Load "freetype" Load "extmod" Load "glx" EndSection Section "ServerFlags" Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard[0]" Driver "kbd" Option "Protocol" "Standard" Option "XkbLayout" "gb" Option "XkbModel" "microsoftpro" Option "XkbRules" "xfree86" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse[1]" Driver "mouse" Option "Buttons" "5" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Name" "ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse" Option "Protocol" "explorerps/2" Option "Vendor" "Sysp" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "Modes" Identifier "Modes[0]" ModeLine "1280x1024" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0" Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver" Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor" Option "DPMS" "true" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0" Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "DRI" Group "video" Mode 0660 EndSection -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Peter Bradley wrote:

glxgears shows ~250FPS:

peter@linux:~> glxgears 1298 frames in 5.0 seconds = 259.524 FPS 1238 frames in 5.0 seconds = 246.044 FPS 1348 frames in 5.1 seconds = 266.860 FPS

That seems very slow.

I have to say there's nothing very urgent about this. Compiz can get a bit flakey, but that's about the only display issue I have with normal use. It's annoying, though, 'cos it aint right.

You might want to upgrade to the latest ATI driver (from ati.amd.com). I did so only last week - I know David Rankin is complaining about it being sluggish, but I haven't experienced that myself. (I get occasional hangups in Doom3 though). The upgrade is essentially - download script/file - run script, choose to rebuild package for 10.3 (you'll need compilers and kernel source installed for this). - install new RPM. To avoid screwing something up, you could start with 'rpm --test --install <package>', I always do. /Per -- Per Jessen, Zürich (4.31°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ysgrifennodd Peter Bradley:

Ysgrifennodd Per Jessen:

...

You might want to upgrade to the latest ATI driver (from ati.amd.com). I did so only last week - I know David Rankin is complaining about it being sluggish, but I haven't experienced that myself. (I get occasional hangups in Doom3 though).

The upgrade is essentially

- download script/file - run script, choose to rebuild package for 10.3 (you'll need compilers and kernel source installed for this). - install new RPM. To avoid screwing something up, you could start with 'rpm --test --install <package>', I always do.

/Per

Ah! I see what you mean.

I did the generate package thing and two packages were created: fglrx64_7_1_0_SUSE103-8.532-1.x86_64.rpm fglrx64_7_1_0_SUSE103-8.573-1.x86_64.rpm I installed the second one, since it looked later. It installed OK. I did aticonfig --initial. Rebooted. No change (250 FPS). And the Control Center still gives the same error message. Do you think there's any mileage in doing as Mike suggests and getting the config file regenerated. I'm a bit nervous of things like that, so I guess I'm after a second opinion. Sorry, Mike. It's not that I don't trust you. I don't trust me. Cheers Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Wednesday 04 February 2009 03:02:16 pm Nkoli wrote:

On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 4:03 PM, Peter Bradley wrote:

...

Do you think there's any mileage in doing as Mike suggests and getting the config file regenerated. I'm a bit nervous of things like that, so I guess I'm after a second opinion. Sorry, Mike. It's not that I don't trust you. I don't trust me.

Cheers

Peter

I'd definitely recommend rerunning sax. As far as I can tell, the only change "aticonfig --initial" makes to your xorg.conf is to add one line to load the fglrx driver, which may or may not be useful if your xorg.conf has been modified to work best with the radeon driver. If you use "sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx" your /etc/xorg.conf will be replaced with the default configuration for the fglrx driver - ie working 3D, compositing and a few others. You can use that as a base if you want to tweak xorg.conf in the future.

Nkoli

List, the way i got my ati card to work has always been as follows: 1. download the last two ati drivers from ati.com. 2. remove all ati/fgrlx shtuff that yast /initial install has thrown in. 3. do a "sh ati...blablabla bla" install. 4. run aticonfig --initial, sometimes the full command with "input = /etc/X11/xorg.conf" or whatever the full command line is. 5. REBOOT! even an rcxdm restart will not do, the stoopid driver thinks it 's installed on windows or something!!!!!!!!! if the card fails on the latest, usually it is good on the next to the last driver. this has worked well for the past 2 years, suse 10.2 , 10.3 and the minimal test install of 11.0. have not had the guts for 11.1 yet, probably i will wait for 11.2, 3 or something like that, i guess i am not brave enough... d. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ysgrifennodd Per Jessen:

That's weird - after you installed the RPM above, did you restart X? I would cycle to runlevel 3, make sure the module is unloaded, then cycle back to 5.

Well, I rebooted, so I'm assuming that does the same thing.

Is this where your fglrx module resides:

# find /lib/modules/ -iname fglrx\* /lib/modules/2.6.22.5-31-default/extra/fglrx.ko

Yep. Seems OK to me if I'm understanding you correctly: linux:/lib/modules/fglrx # ls build_mod fglrx.ko make_install.sh fglrx.2.6.22.19-0.2-default.ko make.2.6.22.19-0.2-default.log (Hmm. Except the kernel version numbers don't match)

I've put my xorg.conf here:

http://jessen.ch/files/io64-xorg.conf

Maybe you can spot a core difference.

My xorg.conf files are in the usual SUSE place. Not sure what you mean by a core difference Anyway, I'm going to try Nkoli's suggestion of doing "sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx". I'll post again to let you know how I get on. BTW, sorry about the delay in replying. Sleep and work got in the way. Cheers Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Peter Bradley wrote:

They all gave exactly the same results -- 250FPS -- and the ATI Control Center still will not start.

The latter must be key to the problem - if the ATI Control Center cannot "speak" to the driver, something's wrong with it. The ATI CC - that's the 'amdcccle' executable. I didn't get a menu-entry for it, but starting it from the command line works fine. do a "ps axl | grep -i firegl" - that should show you a kernel thread belonging to the fglrx driver. Do you have one of those? Also try "dmesg | grep fglrx" - I've the following: fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel. [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 3797 MBytes. [fglrx] vendor: 1002 device: 71c1 count: 1 [fglrx] ioport: bar 4, base 0xd000, size: 0x100 [fglrx] Driver built-in PAT support is enabled successfully [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.57.2 [Jan 14 2009] with 1 minors [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 3985 [fglrx] Gart USWC size:1915 M. [fglrx] Gart cacheable size:60 M. [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000 [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:fe07000, size:1f4000 [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:fffb000, size:5000 [fglrx] It's not necessary to adjust system aperture on this ASIC [fglrx] It's not necessary to adjust system aperture on this ASIC [fglrx] It's not necessary to adjust system aperture on this ASIC [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 10673 [fglrx] Gart USWC size:1915 M. [fglrx] Gart cacheable size:60 M. [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000 [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:fe07000, size:1f4000 [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:fffb000, size:5000 -- Per Jessen, Zürich (4.50°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Peter Bradley wrote:

linux:~ # dmesg | grep fglrx fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel. [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1886 [MBytes. [fglrx] vendor: 1002 device: 7146 count: 1 [fglrx] ioport: bar 4, base 0xef00, size: 0x100 [fglrx] Driver built-in PAT support is enabled successfully [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.57.2 [Jan 14 2009] with 1 minors [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 3108 [fglrx:drm_parse_option] *ERROR* "locked-userpages" is not a valid [option fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1886 [MBytes. fglrx] Gart USWC size:942 M. [fglrx] Gart cacheable size:60 M. [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000 [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:7ffb000, size:5000 [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:feff000, size:100000 [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:ffff000, size:1000 linux:~ #

I see there is an error in the latter, but I have no idea what it might mean or what to do about it.

Nor do I, so the next best thing is to google. If you look for 'drm_parse_option' you'll get quite a few hits with error-messages similar to the above. AFAICT, the "*ERROR* "locked-userpages" is not a valid option" message seems to be from the DRM part of the kernel, but I haven't found the actual code yet. I'm going to make a wild guess and suggest you add the following line Option "KernelModuleParm" "locked-userpages=0" to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the Section "Device" which contains Driver "fglrx" It really is just a hunch, and I have no ideas what it might or might not do. I'll try it out myself in a bit.

Once again, my thanks for sticking with me on this, and my apologies for not being better placed to help myself.

Not to worry Peter - it's a challenge, bit of a way to relax from the daily run-o-the-mill stuff :-) /Per -- Per Jessen, Zürich (3.56°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ysgrifennodd Per Jessen:

Nor do I, so the next best thing is to google. If you look for 'drm_parse_option' you'll get quite a few hits with error-messages similar to the above.

AFAICT, the "*ERROR* "locked-userpages" is not a valid option" message seems to be from the DRM part of the kernel, but I haven't found the actual code yet.

I'm going to make a wild guess and suggest you add the following line

Option "KernelModuleParm" "locked-userpages=0"

to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the Section "Device" which contains

Driver "fglrx"

It really is just a hunch, and I have no ideas what it might or might not do. I'll try it out myself in a bit.

Ouch! Thanks for doing my Googling for me. I could have shown a bit more initiative there, I think. The first thing to say is that the option was already in my xorg.conf file, with a value of 0. i tried it with a value of 1. No luck. Same error. So I tried it with the option commented out. Would you believe it still comes back with the same error? You'd be right. glxgears doesn't change either, regardless of the configuration. One thing I did notice from hitting Google was that Compiz got mentioned a few times. I'm going to try uninstalling compiz then reinstalling the drivers and see if I have any more luck. If that works, I might then try reinstalling Compiz to see what effect it has. That'll be tomorrow's job, though. My birthday!

Not to worry Peter - it's a challenge, bit of a way to relax from the daily run-o-the-mill stuff :-)

You can say that again. I've spent all week porting a program from Visual Basic, and I reckon I've got another week to go. I hated VB before I got this job. I hate it with a passion now. I did get one laugh, though. The standard of the coding throughout is pretty poor, but this variable declaration hit the G-Spot for me: Dim bool As Integer Comedy gold, as they say. I'll let you know how I get on. And if you should think of anything else ... Cheers Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Peter Bradley wrote:

The first thing to say is that the option was already in my xorg.conf file, with a value of 0.

I wonder how that happened. Maybe as part of the driver installation.

i tried it with a value of 1. No luck. Same error. So I tried it with the option commented out. Would you believe it still comes back with the same error? You'd be right.

Hmmm. I guess whatever it is 'locked-userpages' does, it's not supported by your card. I've just noticed another difference between our two systems - your kernel is 2.6.22.19-0.2-default, mine is 2.6.22.5-31-default, so a little older. It probably doesn't mean much though. /Per -- Per Jessen, Zürich (3.62°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Per Jessen wrote:

David C. Rankin wrote:

...

If your running 11.1 -- you're hosed for now. Maybe the 9-2 driver will be better.

David, what's the problem in 11.1 ? I've recently put 11.1 on a laptop, a Lenovo with Radeon R200 - the ati driver worked fine.

/Per

Per, There are 2 primary issues currently with the ATI driver and 11.1 that are made worse by the fact that the December ATI driver release is the only release that supports xorg 7.4 (i.e. 11.1) so you don't have the option of using an earlier driver. The issues are: (1) Broken 3D Acceleration. (that's a loud period at the end) (2) Performance Sucks. For reasons I cannot explain (only ATI can) driver performance is 40% slower than with the 8-9 driver (September '08). Meaning since September '08, every ATI Linux driver released has suffered the same performance degradation. I don't know if this is only openSuSE specific, or older hardware specific, but I *do* know that on both my laptops with ATI cards (9600 and x1300) the driver performance is terrible *and* not only is it limited to screen performance, whatever the problem is it dramatically affects application startup time for *all* apps. The problem is bad enough on my laptops that if I was running 11.1 and forced with the choice between the radeon driver or fglrx driver, I'd ditch compiz and all the other niceties and run the radeon driver just to recover decent system performance. We've been here before though. All through fall of '07, the fglrx driver was borked, so I know sooner or later (probably later) ATI will get around to taking a look at the Linux driver code and solve the problem. But presently for 11.1 users, you have been thrown back to the dark days of fall '07 waiting on ATI to fix a screwup. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Kjartan Geble Olsen wrote:

On my system, 9.1 wouldn't even load. I'm now trying 9.2b, 3D performance seems to be a lot better than 8.12, +70%. The promised (for 9.1 at least) 'flicker free' video playback is, of course, not there... (I have a 3450 that was supposed to go in a media pc,probably bin it and get a nVidia card instead.)

Kjartan

I downloaded the 9-1 driver when it was released, installed it (it would load here), ran it for 30 minutes, the performance was so bad that I dumped it and went back to 8-9. Your 9-2b report sounds encouraging. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

David C. Rankin wrote:

To which my only reply to AMD could be:

Thanks Rick,

Your answer was obviously a political kiss-off, but hey if ATI doesn't want to sell cards in a growing sector of the market, especially in these troubled economic times, -- that's your call.

No point in wasting your breath on a 1st-level supporter. :-( /Per -- Per Jessen, Zürich (3.62°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org