Installing latest Open Source ATI drivers under Ubuntu 8.04

[freetime]

I'm not sure where to ask this, but does this ati driver support dual-monitors in "big desktop" mode? Do I need to use the randr utility
or will the Gnome (Preferences->Screen Resolution) allow these changes?

Currently, the a second monitor is just a clone of the first screen.

Does the Gnome utility use randr to setup the screens?

I have not installed version 1.5 yet (to get compiz). Do I need this for dual screen support?

I'm running a Thinkpad with a FireGL 5250. (Not sure what else it is called...

[agd5f]

I'm not sure where to ask this, but does this ati driver support dual-monitors in "big desktop" mode? Do I need to use the randr utility
or will the Gnome (Preferences->Screen Resolution) allow these changes?

Currently, the a second monitor is just a clone of the first screen.

Does the Gnome utility use randr to setup the screens?

I have not installed version 1.5 yet (to get compiz). Do I need this for dual screen support?

I'm running a Thinkpad with a FireGL 5250. (Not sure what else it is called...

Depends on what version of gnome you are running and what utility your distro includes. Some of the screen resolution utilities are/were not randr 1.2 compliant so they could deal properly with xrandr 1.2 capable drivers. You can use the CLI utility:

xrandr --output VGA-0 --right-of LVDS

Note you might need to add a Virtual line to your config to reserve enough framebuffer for dualhead as the driver is not able to dynamically manage memory yet. See whit page for more info:

http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12

[Melcar]

Finally got working 3D with my 200M (5955) with "radeon". A few differences I have noticed compared to fglrx:

- Video playback is better. No screen tearing, very little pixelation, and less CPU usage

- 3D is slower (expected)... about 60% slower

2D performance seems to be about the same for both drivers. One thing thought, scrolling in FF with KDE transparencies on is unbearably slow (even a little slower than with fglrx). However, this is only on FF, since scrolling in other places (windows, text files, etc.) seems unaffected.

[sundown]

Could somebody poste a complete xorg.conf for R500 for the radeon/ati driver?

[Kano]

In theory no xorg.conf should be needed for radeon.

[sundown]

OK, then video playback is again crap for me for what I use from Sid

[tormod]

In theory no xorg.conf should be needed for radeon.

You'd better use EXA though (and XAA is still default). So you need a minimal xorg.conf with Option "AccelMethod" "EXA" in the Device section.

[d2kx]

Debian/sid defaults to RadeonHD instead of ati/radeon nowadays on R500+.

[tormod]

Debian/sid defaults to RadeonHD instead of ati/radeon nowadays on R500+.

Yes, the same goes for Ubuntu, if you have the xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd package installed of course. The difference is that Debian installs it by default. Then add "Driver" "ati" to the Device section as well.

[freetime]

I've been using these instructions for the ati driver and it's been working great.

Today, I installed the pending updates on this Hardy machine and the kernel was updated to 2.6.24-19. I rebuilt the drm module (using "easy" installer) and even went through all the steps again.

Now my video is almost too slow to use -- with a single xterm running top just moving it shows %85 cpu usage for xorg. glxgears is about 850fps.

I'm not seeing anything obvious in:

http://hank.org/Xorg.0.log

My config is http://hank.org/xorg.conf


I have a FireGL 5250 on a T60p thinkpad. Again, was working great before (and have been though one kernel update where rebuilding the drm modules was all I needed to do. No I can hardly drag windows.

Can anyone offer suggestions to get me working again?

Thanks,