Jason Bailey, Sun Advocate Webmaster wrote:

Jason Bailey, Sun Advocate Webmaster wrote:

...

I'm trying to get desktop effects to work in KDE 4.1.3 (openSUSE 11.1 x86_64) and not having much luck. I'm curious if any of you have have similar hardware and are having any luck.

I have it working on a laptop with a 256 MB nVidia card, and it runs really slick. But in the desktop, I've got a DELL Optiplex GX620, which came with an ATI Radeon X600 video card. I've not had good luck with ATI on Linux...

openSUSE setup detected the card and installed drivers that are fairly satisfactory for 2D. With the desktop effects in mind, I went to ati.amd.com and downloaded the latest Linux x86_64 driver (i.e ati-driver-installer-8-12-x86.x86_64.run).

Once the ATI driver had installed, I ran 'aticonfig --initial' as root and rebooted.

I tried enabling KDE 4's desktop effects and got this:

-------------- Failed to activate desktop effects using the given configuration options. Settings will be reverted to their previous values.

Check your X configuration. You may also consider changing advanced options, especially changing the compositing type. --------------

I've checked my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, which doesn't show any sort of error that I can see. The aticonfig command reports that there is a 'fglrx' section, and I can attest to that.

This is what I have in my xorg.conf file (among a few other things, of course):

-------------- Section "Device" Identifier "Device[0]" Driver "radeon" VendorName "ATI" BoardName "Radeon X600 (RV370) 5B62 (PCIE)" Option "monitor-DVI-0" "Monitor[0]" EndSection

Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection --------------

At this point I'm thinking that maybe my video card isn't supported, I am missing some dependencies of some kind, or that my xorg.conf file needs some tweaking.

Anyone willing to take a shot at this?

Okay, replying to my own post.

I took another look at the Xorg log file, realizing that using "tail" right after I tried to enable effects wouldn't get me anywhere.

So, 'cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep fglrx' gives me:

(==) fglrx(0): NoAccel = NO

(==) fglrx(0): NoDRI = NO

(II) Loading sub module "fglrxdrm"

(II) LoadModule: "fglrxdrm"

(II) Reloading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/linux//libfglrxdrm.so

(==) fglrx(0): Capabilities: 0x00000000 (==) fglrx(0): CapabilitiesEx: 0x00000000 (==) fglrx(0): cpuFlags: 0x8000001d (==) fglrx(0): OpenGL ClientDriverName: "fglrx_dri.so" (II) fglrx(0): [pcie] 262144 kB allocated (II) fglrx(0): [drm] DRM buffer queue setup: nbufs = 100 bufsize = 65536 (==) fglrx(0): UseFastTLS=0 (==) fglrx(0): BlockSignalsOnLock=1 (II) fglrx(0): Direct rendering enabled (II) fglrx(0): AC Adapter is used (II) fglrx(0): Interrupt handler installed at IRQ 16. (II) fglrx(0): Exposed events to the /proc interface (II) fglrx(0): driver needs X.org 1.4.x.y with x.y >= 99.906 (II) fglrx(0): detected X.org 7.4.2.0 (II) fglrx(0): doing DRIScreenInit (II) fglrx(0): DRIScreenInit for fglrx driver (II) fglrx(0): [drm] DRM interface version 1.0 (II) fglrx(0): [drm] created "fglrx" driver at busid "PCI:1:0:0" (II) fglrx(0): [drm] added 8192 byte SAREA at 0x2000 (II) fglrx(0): [drm] mapped SAREA 0x2000 to 0x7f6e21a26000 (II) fglrx(0): [drm] framebuffer handle = 0x3000 (II) fglrx(0): [drm] added 1 reserved context for kernel (II) fglrx(0): DRIScreenInit done (II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module Version Information: (II) fglrx(0): Name: fglrx (II) fglrx(0): Version: 8.56.4 (II) fglrx(0): Date: Dec 1 2008 (II) fglrx(0): Desc: ATI FireGL DRM kernel module (II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module version matches driver. (II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module Build Time Information: (II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel UTS_RELEASE: 2.6.27.7-9-default (II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel MODVERSIONS: yes (II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel __SMP__: yes (II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel PAGE_SIZE: 0x1000 (II) fglrx(0): [drm] register handle = 0x00004000 (II) fglrx(0): DRI initialization successfull! (II) fglrx(0): FBADPhys: 0xc0000000 FBMappedSize: 0x00708000 (II) fglrx(0): FBMM initialized for area (0,0)-(1280,1440) (II) fglrx(0): FBMM auto alloc for area (0,0)-(1280,1024) (front color buffer - assumption) (II) fglrx(0): Largest offscreen area available: 1280 x 416 (==) fglrx(0): Backing store disabled (**) fglrx(0): DPMS enabled (II) fglrx(0): Using XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA) (II) fglrx(0): Acceleration enabled (WW) fglrx(0): Option "VendorName" is not used (WW) fglrx(0): Option "ModelName" is not used (II) fglrx(0): X context handle = 0x1 (II) fglrx(0): [DRI] installation complete (==) fglrx(0): Silken mouse enabled (==) fglrx(0): Using hardware cursor (EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32)

That last line really got me thinking. I am running a 64-big version of openSUSE. Is this driver trying to load a 32-bit version of DRI? If so, is there a way around it?

Again replying to my own comment... I verified my machine was loading the 32-bit version of fglrx_dri.so. I removed the one from /usr/lib/dri/ and symlinked fglrx_dri.so to the copy in /usr/lib64/dri. Rebooted. Now the fglrx and glxinfo show opengl as available, whereas before the commands didn't return anything but errors. But I still cannot enable desktop effects in KDE 4. Strange. Any suggestions? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Make sure your /etc/X11/xorg.conf includes the following at the bottom

Section "DRI" Group "video" Mode 0660 EndSection

Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "true" Option "DAMAGE" "true" EndSection

What does the DAMAGE option do? I have "Composite" "true" and everything is working fine. Thanks, ~/jc -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Jason Bailey, Sun Advocate Webmaster wrote:

I already had the DRI, but not the extensions. I've added them to my xorg.conf.

I suppose by 3D you mean hardware acceleration? That would explain why opengl does not work.

This seems to happen every time I end up with an ATI video card. I know people rant and rave about how terrible nVidia's Linux support is... and I realize some of what they say is true. But in my experience, nvidia cards just work better with Linux. Maybe I'm the odd man out on this one, I don't know.

This is nothing compared to the HELL we went through during November 97 with the release of 10.3. The ATI drivers have been really great from about 8-4 through 8-9. I think ATI is going through growing pains with the linux driver to support the latest 3800 and 4800 series cards which has had the side effect of screwing the driver up for the rest of us. Linux is a VERY LOW priority for ATI so we will be lucky to get any attention at all in the near future. THE ONLY WAY THIS WILL CHANGE is if everyone who reads this message goes to ati.com and takes the 30 seconds to set up a quick account and then OPENS A TROUBLE TICKET and lets them know that ALL OF THESE MILLIONS of linux users need a better driver or we will be left with NO CHOICE other than BUYING NVIDIA cards. If you don't take the time to do this, well -- things will not change. -- 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