AMD Catalyst 9.7 For Linux Released

[rklrkl]

I think the problem with the Catalyst drivers is actually the policy of only supporting enterprise Linux distros, which is utterly ludicrous because as a percentage of Linux desktops, enterprise distros probably cover less than 1%!

The people who really *need* 3D drivers are those running home Linux desktops - why on earth can't ATI support them in a timely fashion? If they did, then the enterprise distros would automatically get support too (since they always lag behind w.r.t. versions).

Hence, anything non-enterprise (OpenSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu non-LTS) Linux will inevitably use a later kernel and X server than enterprise distros and Catalyst inevitably becomes immediately unusable upon release of the latest non-enterprise distro version.

The biggest Catalyst disaster of the last few years was the release of Fedora 9 - I can guarantee you that there were more users of F9 within a month of its release than *all* the enterprise Linux distros in the world combined.

And did ATI care? Nope, they sat on their fat arses for month after month, not supporting the kernel/X server combo that F9 shipped with. It took 4.5 months (yes, months) before a Catalyst driver finally came out that worked - so long that I stuck with F8 and jumped to F10 a few months after that.

Now we're in the same vicious cycle with Fedora 11 - one of the best Linux desktop distro users out there (particularly for programmers) and completely unsupported for multiple months *again* by ATI. This time, it looks like a kernel 2.6.29 issue (F9 mostly had the X server to blame) and it isn't the only non-enterprise distro suffering this problem.

And what do we read in the release notes for Catalyst 9.7? Not support for a later X server release, not support for a newer kernel (leaving Catalyst now 3 versions behind, which is an absolute disgrace), but the addition of support for an obscure enterprise Linux distro (Red Flag DT 7.0 - barely used in Western countries where I suspect the bulk of ATI's Linux market is) that's probably running a crusty old X server/kernel combo and not used by many desktop users anyway (can you see a lot of Chinese people paying top Yen for an obscure enterprise Linux distro on their desktop? Nope, I can't either).

Basically, ATI have badly let down Linux desktop users in the last couple of years and this latest 9.7 release shows no sign of fixing that either. At this rate, I'm wondering if Fedora 12 will be out before ATI supports Fedora 11, it's getting that ridiculous!

Before you mention the "radeon" and "radeonhd" drivers, I've tried them both and they simply don't work well - monitor alignments are wrong, refresh rates aren't set right and the 3D acceleration is either poor or non-existent. The Catalyst driver, when they eventually update it for the X server/kernel I run, is the only one that does its job properly, albeit sadly many months late.

Get your arses into gear, ATI! You may have a monthly release schedule, but it's virtually worthless if your latest release doesn't work on the latest versions of world's most popular Linux destkop distros (Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE).

[Kamikaze321]

LOL!!!!!!!!

Open Source driver works with .31 on my karmic alpha. And look at fglrx LOL!!

3D is better at fglrx? install it on my mashine with x1400 and .31 and we will se what driver has better 3d performance. LOL

[mirv]

Ahh, I was wondering where the trolls were lurking....

[AdrenalineJunky]

LOL!!!!!!!!

Open Source driver works with .31 on my karmic alpha. And look at fglrx LOL!!

3D is better at fglrx? install it on my mashine with x1400 and .31 and we will se what driver has better 3d performance. LOL

thats with an x1400.... alot of people have newer cards than that which have less full featured OSS drivers....

[poofyyoda]

For anybody with 9.7, who sincerely believes that this driver release is progress please run

X :3 -ac -terminate &

and then kill the server and then enjoy the frozen machine


Please tell me if it actually works for someone without a reboot, so I can give it another go assuming my setup was wrong.

I pretty much rely on multiple x screens for every game I launch so that they aren't affected by the compositing manager, and apps setting my desktop to non-preferred resolution after quiting. I also use them for running virtualbox - very handy for switching between tasks.

[bridgman]

I think the problem with the Catalyst drivers is actually the policy of only supporting enterprise Linux distros, which is utterly ludicrous because as a percentage of Linux desktops, enterprise distros probably cover less than 1%!

When did Ubuntu become only an enterprise distro ? Based on feedback from OEMs and end users RHEL, SuSE and Ubuntu together cover at least 60% of our market, much more if you factor in the higher Linux marketshare in the workstation segment. For SuSE, our test focus is actually on OpenSUSE (the consumer distro) not SLES/SLED (the enterprise distros).

The people who really *need* 3D drivers are those running home Linux desktops - why on earth can't ATI support them in a timely fashion?

Can I suggest that the primary people who *need* 3D drivers are those running commercial workstation (eg CAD) applications ? They run enterprise distros almost exclusively, and represent a significant part of the Linux graphics business. I agree that home desktop users who class themselves as "gamers" (perhaps 30% of that market) are the next in line.

If they did, then the enterprise distros would automatically get support too (since they always lag behind w.r.t. versions). Hence, anything non-enterprise (OpenSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu non-LTS) Linux will inevitably use a later kernel and X server than enterprise distros and Catalyst inevitably becomes immediately unusable upon release of the latest non-enterprise distro version.

For Ubuntu and SuSE we focus testing on the consumer releases (non-LTS Ubuntu and OpenSUSE) since the consumer and enterprise versions are close enough that testing the consumer version is usually sufficient to ensure the driver will work on the enterprise version. In the case of RHEL/Fedora, the two distros are much further apart, to the point that testing on Fedora is not sufficient to ensure operation on RHEL.

The biggest Catalyst disaster of the last few years was the release of Fedora 9 - I can guarantee you that there were more users of F9 within a month of its release than *all* the enterprise Linux distros in the world combined.

And did ATI care? Nope, they sat on their fat arses for month after month, not supporting the kernel/X server combo that F9 shipped with. It took 4.5 months (yes, months) before a Catalyst driver finally came out that worked - so long that I stuck with F8 and jumped to F10 a few months after that.

OK, help me here. We don't claim to support Fedora, and we recommend the open source drivers for Fedora (which RH agrees with). How can we have a "Catalyst disaster" with Fedora ?

Now we're in the same vicious cycle with Fedora 11 - one of the best Linux desktop distro users out there (particularly for programmers) and completely unsupported for multiple months *again* by ATI. This time, it looks like a kernel 2.6.29 issue (F9 mostly had the X server to blame) and it isn't the only non-enterprise distro suffering this problem.

And what do we read in the release notes for Catalyst 9.7? Not support for a later X server release, not support for a newer kernel (leaving Catalyst now 3 versions behind, which is an absolute disgrace), but the addition of support for an obscure enterprise Linux distro (Red Flag DT 7.0 - barely used in Western countries where I suspect the bulk of ATI's Linux market is) that's probably running a crusty old X server/kernel combo and not used by many desktop users anyway (can you see a lot of Chinese people paying top Yen for an obscure enterprise Linux distro on their desktop? Nope, I can't either).

China is actually a huge market for Linux, particularly for OEM preloads.

Basically, ATI have badly let down Linux desktop users in the last couple of years and this latest 9.7 release shows no sign of fixing that either. At this rate, I'm wondering if Fedora 12 will be out before ATI supports Fedora 11, it's getting that ridiculous!

Before you mention the "radeon" and "radeonhd" drivers, I've tried them both and they simply don't work well - monitor alignments are wrong, refresh rates aren't set right and the 3D acceleration is either poor or non-existent. The Catalyst driver, when they eventually update it for the X server/kernel I run, is the only one that does its job properly, albeit sadly many months late.

Have you filed bugs for the display issues ? I don't think I remember hearing those.

Get your arses into gear, ATI! You may have a monthly release schedule, but it's virtually worthless if your latest release doesn't work on the latest versions of world's most popular Linux destkop distros (Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE).

I believe the latest releases of Ubuntu and OpenSuSE are both supported.

[ptiboli]

Improvements on HD3200

Some improvements with my HD3200 running Ubuntu 9.04 : more frames in glxgears, even with compiz on... video decoding still works, we'll see if the occasional image freeze still happens.

[energyman]

before you get pissed because AMD is concentrating on CAD users:
just compare the prize of a FireGL card with a normal desktop product.

It is basically the same hardware. You are paying the premium for the drivers and support.

If you are willing to shell out the money for a firegl card (and you buy, say 100 or 1000 of them) I am sure AMD will be a lot quicker helping you out.

At the moment supporting 'us' is a nice bonus. A fallout of the firegl support. And it is not that bad. Sure, dmesg is still spammed, but 9.6 has some nice bugfixes. Supporting the open source driver development with documentation AND manpower is something AMD should be lauded for.

So, please, calm down a bit, ok? AMD is not as big as Intel and unlike nvidia plays nicely.

[McDuck]

OK, help me here. We don't claim to support Fedora, and we recommend the open source drivers for Fedora (which RH agrees with). How can we have a "Catalyst disaster" with Fedora ?

I don't like that "we don't claim to support" statement, why aren't you even trying to make it work?

The point is that you _should_ support fedora, a very common distribution that has a lot of users. Hiding behind some statement that fedora is too far apart from rhel is not a good reason for me, I want support for fedora itself, not rhel.

That you decide on a few distributions and support them is perhaps enough for you, enough for any big corpration, but not for an end user like me and many others.

Remember that you are competing against nVidia, so people will always want you to have more or less equal support.

I just had to change distribution from ArchLinux to Ubuntu because you don't support any new kernels not in these selected distributions.
I am fine with this, which is why I've never complained, but alot of people are not, and with right.

And also, please don't say that you support through your oss driver until it actually is good. Full 3D with very good performance (think I read an estimate of ~80% of fglrx in some thread), and more or less feature parity.

[Erikina]

OK, help me here. We don't claim to support Fedora, and we recommend the open source drivers for Fedora (which RH agrees with). How can we have a "Catalyst disaster" with Fedora ?

Because you're ignoring a distribution with many ati users? Fedora / RH will always push the opensource (and patent unencumbered) solution -- but it doesn't mean that magically it suits all users (that's why there's RPM fusion etc.). To put it in perspective, there are an estimate ~16 million fedora machines (albeit the vast majority are too smart to have an ATI card). The amount of bad will this is generating is astounding, all for something you're going to add in a couple month anyway. (and is seriously not that big of a deal to add)

Considering the quality of all the previous fglrx releases, I don't see why fglrx is reduced to bare-maintenance releases and all effort put into a solution that doesn't suck (radeon drivers) including adding all the CAD stuff that you say opensource will never support ;D.