ATI Driver & Radeon Xpress 1100 IGP?

[imacamper]

I am running Gentoo with a 2.6.21-r3 amd64 kernel. I have been trying to use the ATI drivers in an effort to get 3D acceleration working. My first question is "is it possible to use the ATI driver with the Radeon Xpress 1100 IGP?" It seems to be based upon the information in this link:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_14603_14624%5E14627,00.html

So assuming it's possible, I have used Gentoo's portage system to add the ATI driver to my system following these guides:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/ati-faq.xml

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/dri-howto.xml

However I get the following error when attempting to load the fglrx module into the kernel:

tagalong ~ # modprobe fglrx
FATAL: Error inserting fglrx (/lib/modules/2.6.21-gentoo-r3/video/fglrx.ko): Operation not permitted

I am using the 'root' account.

In a last ditch effort I removed the ATI drivers installed by Gentoo's portage and downloaded the ATI driver directly from ATI's web site. Next, I installed them per the instructions but got the same error.

I'd really appreciate any help in getting 3D acceleration working with this graphics card.

Thanks,

Drew

[Xipeos]

tagalong ~ # modprobe fglrx
FATAL: Error inserting fglrx (/lib/modules/2.6.21-gentoo-r3/video/fglrx.ko): Operation not permitted

That will only happen if you're not root (but you are) or you have a kernel mismatch. Make sure that your kernel sources (maybe headers too) are the same version as your running kernel. For example do
"uname -r" to get your kernel version and "ls -l /usr/src/linux" to get your kernel sources version.

For example on my system:

# uname -r
2.6.21.3
# ls -l /usr/src/linux
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2007-06-23 13:42 /usr/src/linux -> linux-2.6.21.3/]

The versions should match.

If/when they do match, reinstall as I described here.

Hope that helps.

[imacamper]

Thank you for your reply. However I am still having trouble and I am stumped.

tagalong ~ # whoami
root

tagalong ~ # uname -r
2.6.21-gentoo-r3

tagalong ~ # ll /usr/src/linux
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Jun 24 11:43 /usr/src/linux -> linux-2.6.21-gentoo-r3

Next I removed and rebuilt the module.

tagalong ~ # modprobe fglrx
FATAL: Error inserting fglrx (/lib/modules/2.6.21-gentoo-r3/video/fglrx.ko): Operation not permitted

I just don't get it. This is a Gateway MX6454 laptop that has the Turion X2 processor. I am running the 64 bit kernel. It is a new install and the only kernel I have run is the one listed above.

I feel like there is something configured in my kernel that is conflicting with the fglrx module. However I have no idea what. I have most things configured as modules and the only module loaded is:

tagalong ~ # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ndiswrapper           190528  0

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Drew

[Xipeos]

Check dmesg and syslog, after trying to load the module (dmesg|tail, tail /var/log/syslog). There may be some information there

[imacamper]

dmesg reports:

[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1762 MBytes.
[fglrx:firegl_init_module] *ERROR* firegl_stub_register failed
[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1762 MBytes.
[fglrx:firegl_init_module] *ERROR* firegl_stub_register failed

and /var/log/messages shows basically the same thing:

Jul  4 10:32:09 tagalong [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1762 MBytes.
Jul  4 10:32:09 tagalong [fglrx:firegl_init_module] *ERROR* firegl_stub_register failed

So is the firelg_stub error the reason I can't load fglrx or is the firegl_stub error caused *because* I can't load fglrx?

Thanks,

Drew

[Xipeos]

Well then... That should happen only if you have a graphic card-related module and/or drm loaded or built into your kernel.

Recompile your kernel, but make sure that "Direct Rendering Manager" and anything ati/radeon (and other graphic cards) are set to module, not built in (drm is in device drivers/character devices).

You said that you configured most things as modules, but it seems really strange to me that your system is up and (fully?) running with just one wireless module loaded.

Don't forget to copy your kernel to /boot and re-run lilo :P small mistakes like this can happen.

EDIT: you can just check the .config file in your kernel sources tree for CONFIG_DRM and the like (ex: grep CONFIG_DRM /usr/src/linux/.config). It should be set to m not y.

[imacamper]

OK, I just re-read the Gentoo Handbook regarding kernel building. There is one little line I missed about copying the newly built kernel to /boot. A 'zcat /proc/config.gz' did in fact reveal that CONFIG_DRM was set. So all this kernel rebuilding I thought I was doing was really nothing. Thanks for pointing that out.

So after copying the new kernel to /boot, fglrx loads just fine.

tagalong ~ # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
fglrx                 780900  14 
ndiswrapper           190528  0 
ehci_hcd               28364  0 
ohci_hcd               19204  0 
usbcore               119856  4 ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd

However now starting X gives this "error":

tagalong ~ # X

X Window System Version 1.3.0
Release Date: 19 April 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 1.3
Build Operating System: UNKNOWN 
Current Operating System: Linux tagalong 2.6.21-gentoo-r3 #4 SMP Wed Jul 4 09:12:37 PDT 2007 x86_64
Build Date: 04 July 2007
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Jul  4 14:25:05 2007
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(II) Module already built-in
(II) Module already built-in
(EE) AIGLX error: dlsym for __driCreateNewScreen_20050727 failed (/usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so: undefined symbol: __driCreateNewScreen_20050727)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

Is this really an "error" or is this related to posts I've read about proprietary drivers not supporting AIGLX? glxinfo does show "direct rendering: Yes".

Also, now that I've actually loaded a new kernel, my disk access seems much slower than it used to be. Thus I suspect I turned something off or modularized it that was important. Any ideas on where to start looking?

Thanks,

Drew

[Xipeos]

The AIGLX error is just fglrx's incompatibility, nothing to worry about.

As for the disk speed, your hdd probably isn't set to maximum power (DMA for example). Use hdparm to do it. To set it on full speed just do "hdparm -X udma6 -d1 -u1 -m16 -c3 /dev/hda" and replace udma6 with something lower if your motherboard/hdd doesn't support it (unless it's antique, it should at least support udma2).

If you can't set dma, then you have to load the module(s) for your motherboard chipset (use lspci to find out what you have) or build them with your kernel (in this case, I recommend that you include them in your kernel).

[imacamper]

Thank you so much for your help. You were right. DMA was disabled because I had modularized the ATI IXP chipset module I needed. Put that back in static and rebuilt. Remembered to copy the kernel and voila! Things are good.

Thanks so much for your help!

Drew