Mobility Radeon HD 3870 / M88 drivers... :(

[bridgman]

You don't need to take memory out AFAIK, just boot with a mem= parameter for testing (say mem=2048M).

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/10-boo...ux-kernel.html

If you have the default kernel with a working drm (or 2.6.30 with a working drm) then the radeon drivers should enable EXA and Xv automatically. If they don't, can you pastebin the dmesg output ?

I read through the thread again and didn't find any details on your laptop, eg model number, etc.., would that be easy to post ?

The aticonfig command is for fglrx, it will be ignored by radeonhd and radeon. Probably best to pick one driver and stick with it until we get it working; if you're running Jaunty I really suggest running out-of-box stuff and then pasting xorg log and dmesg output so we can start troubleshooting. If you flip back and forth between fglrx and the open source drivers then the old rule is going to apply... "if you mess with souething enough it's gonna break"

[Poop Loops]

I used the aticonfig thing with the fglrx drivers. Good point on the back and forth, though. I don't really care which drivers I get working, either. I'd just like some 3D accel if it's possible. I guess I'll try the fglrx drivers again, since they theoretically offer the most benefit if I get them working fully. I'll have to do that tomorrow, though. One thing I've seen in my Xorg logs is that a screen error appears often, i.e. "no screen found" and junk like that.

My laptop is an Alienware M17, with a 2.66GHz Intel processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and the Mobility Radeon HD3870 card,

[sab1dura]

My laptop is an Alienware M17, with a 2.66GHz Intel processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and the Mobility Radeon HD3870 card,

I have essentially the same laptop and am experiencing the same problem as you PL, have you made any headway yet or are you still having issues?

[Poop Loops]

I have essentially the same laptop and am experiencing the same problem as you PL, have you made any headway yet or are you still having issues?

No. I tried to go back to Hardy, hoping those drivers would work better, but no dice. So I decided to wait for Karmic to come out, and surprise surprise, people are still having the same issues from what I can tell.

I also tried Arch Linux, hoping that if I got to set up my own crap, I could make it work. Or something. I was thwarted by being on a campus network and having to log into it before I can use the web. Well, it's hard to log in from a terminal when they want you to log in through a website. Yeah, I could have downloaded the files I needed from another boot and just used them that way, but I got tired of it so I called it quits.

For now I've been using Vista 64 and... I'm ashamed to say... enjoying it.

I've also bought a student version of Windows 7 that I can pick up Oct. 22nd, so we'll see about that.

I'm starting to work a lot more on my computer again since classes started back up, though, so I really would like to go back to Linux, since I just had an easier time for things like that.

[bridgman]

Poop Loops, did using the mem= boot parameter to simulate <4GB of RAM make any difference ?

[Poop Loops]

Poop Loops, did using the mem= boot parameter to simulate <4GB of RAM make any difference ?

I don't know if I tried that. But while we're on that topic, does that mean the OS will use <4GB or is this just fooling it into thinking I have <4GB but it will still use it? I might try this either way, but I'd have to reinstall some Ubuntu version. Is Karmic good enough to use now, or should I still stick with Jaunty?

[agd5f]

IIRC, this is a bios MTRR problem:

http://lists.opensuse.org/radeonhd/2009-05/msg00070.html

[sab1dura]

so you saying that'll fix our problem agd5f?

also, PL, have you tried actually removing the 2gb of ram and just booting with 2gb? i havent, just wondering if that was in your list of things you checked as 'didn't work'...

[Poop Loops]

so you saying that'll fix our problem agd5f?

also, PL, have you tried actually removing the 2gb of ram and just booting with 2gb? i havent, just wondering if that was in your list of things you checked as 'didn't work'...

I have not tried physically removing 2GB. Even if it did work, I still wouldn't keep it that way, so it's a moot point.

[sab1dura]

I have not tried physically removing 2GB. Even if it did work, I still wouldn't keep it that way, so it's a moot point.

Yeah, same reason I haven't tried it I want it to work with my system, not have to make my system work with it. It is just so hard for me to believe that such a mainstream card has went this long without a fix...