Catalyst 10.1 and Xorg 7.5 / 1.7.x?

[mirv]

Well aware of that one. Well aware that the trend is towards replacing bits & pieces. Well aware it takes extra time to certify new drivers against multiple xorg (or even xfree86) versions. Still doesn't mean I like an invasive driver.

[Kano]

I like a working driver, that's not the case with fglrx + newer xserver.

[RealNC]

and what is so important about 1.7 that you must have it? Apart from the version number?

oh wait.. nothing.

Bug fixes in all the parts of X.Org 7.5? ("1.7" is just the server version. X.Org consists of several dozens of pacakges.)

[Kano]

You can be sure even Xserver 1.4 is still enough for most ppl with Kanotix. Only those with Intel series 4 gfx have got some performance problems compared to other drivers. That means when you use binary drivers the difference does not matter at all. But for Intel or ATI oss with kms or whatever you may want to use a new Xserver. It is unlikely that U will downgrade the Xserver when they want to support latest Intel onboard chips. ATI really has to wake up.

[djee]

I don't know exactly which community you are speaking out for, but I think a lot of people who bought a HD 5xxxx card, me included, would disagree with this.

I've got a Mobility HD 3650. It's been supported since recently, at least officially. Yet older drivers works perfectly well without "official" support. I had OpenGL 3.0, then 3.1, then 3.2 support and was able to use the latest functionality. That was more than expected. Now I'm stuck with OpenGL 2.1 with open source drivers, and barely can do 3D. There is support and support. I'm just asking for a driver that works with basic functionalities. As of today on Xorg 7.5 the driver does not even load.

and what is so important about 1.7 that you must have it? Apart from the version number?

oh wait.. nothing.

Thanks to read posts instead of being sarcastic:

From what I know, given that most distributions are moving to Xorg 7.5/1.7.x and that downgrading is a mess (impossible?) most users will end up being totally unable to use ATI proprietary drivers because of their daily/weekly upgrade.

Or if you don't understand:

True. But if something is already old enough to be in Debian testing(!!), and you still say it's 'too new'.. well.. that can't be good. Then even users with a rather conservative upgrade philosophy will be stuck.

And finally thanks to bridgman for its explanations. Regarding the control panel though I think it's not a reason for delays, since it's totally optional to a working configuration: cf. "Display driver only" downloads for Windows; why not on Linux? I guess there are some other "chunks of functionality" in the core of the driver though...

[monraaf]

I've got a Mobility HD 3650. It's been supported since recently, at least officially. Yet older drivers works perfectly well without "official" support. I had OpenGL 3.0, then 3.1, then 3.2 support and was able to use the latest functionality. That was more than expected. Now I'm stuck with OpenGL 2.1 with open source drivers

Lucky you. My HD 5750 is not yet supported by the open source drivers, so now I'm stuck with fglrx. Cannot even enjoy watching a video. Tear-fest galore!

If only I could run these drivers side-by-side. The oss driver on my IGP for normal desktop usage and video watching, and fglrx on my HD 5750 for the casual 3D gaming.

[bridgman]

What happens when you watch video using gl or gl2 output with fglrx and vsync turned on ? I think there's one player that is hard-wired to Xv but the rest should be able to use GL or Xv interchangeably.

[monraaf]

Yes I know you can use Mplayer with gl output to get tear-free playback. And nothing negative about Mplayer, but it's just a video player, not a solution. I mostly use Miro. It has two backends GStreamer and Xine. The Xine backend chokes on my mkv files, so that's not an option. And the GStreamer backend works great with Xv output but the GStreamer gl output is horribly broken.

[dalingrin]

and what is so important about 1.7 that you must have it? Apart from the version number?

oh wait.. nothing.

I need the updated drivers that depend on 1.7 such as input drivers like synaptics. Just because you do not need it doesn't mean others don't.

[Kirurgs]

I may add that I'm running fglrx on mobility radeon 3650 with xserver 1.6.3 and synaptics are there and working.
So, it's not that You need 1.7 to have synaptics

P.S. I just can't figure out (didn't try much) how to improve performance with fglrx in KDE4...