"Ask ATI" dev thread

[allquixotic]

The command is aticonfig --help, or running aticonfig without any options.

Anyways, this leads to another good question.

When will the help parameters for aticonfig get segmented into separate options, because the help output is way to long for most users and could discourage the use of this command (even though currently this command is required to enable crossfire on linux).

The nice thing about the command line is that it's extremely extensible. It would be possible (not that hard, actually) for someone to write a wrapper script in Bash or Ruby or Python that provides a more "friendly" help interface, while calling the real aticonfig under the hood if anything besides --help is supplied as an argument.

I dunno if such a contribution would be accepted under the umbrella of the packaging scripts project, or whether it would have to be written and evaluated separately. My feeling is that ATI would probably not accept any wrapper scripts into the official fglrx but would rather improve aticonfig directly. Still, distros could feel free to package such an improved script with a more user-friendly help display.

Of course, you run the risk of your wrapper script getting outdated and displaying incorrect or incomplete information. So you would have to keep it pretty well version-synced with the fglrx releases and check the --help output each time to make sure that it hasn't changed.

Agree that the easiest way (for everyone) would be to have ATI just improve aticonfig in the official release, but we all know how hard it is to get anything upstreamed into a closed source project

[lukem33p]

What's up with the Repos?

Initial disclaimer: I'm new, and don't know where to make this comment, so I leave it here.

In OpenSuse 11.3, there's no ATi repository. Furthermore, in 11.2 later on, the ATi repository was broken and brought in a terrible, unusable (X.org refused it and switched back) driver. What's the timeframe that a usable fglrx + Catalyst comes in for OpenSuSe?

[ungoliant]

Any way you can get a backtrace from quake live to determine what specific OpenGL function causes the crash? If it isn't the same one, then it's not the same bug.

Also: Savage 2 and HoN on Windows run on DirectX 9. The engine code is completely different for Direct3d, so the bug isn't visible there.

In fact, it's possible to run Savage 2 in wine on Linux, and when wine translates the D3D9 calls into OpenGL, it avoids the faulty OpenGL function and it works. But it's dog slow, and has some of wine's emulation bugs, so it's not really playable. It's more playable with Catalyst 10.4 running the native Linux version.

I wish I could, but Quake Live doesn't crash, so I wouldn't even know where to start looking. It just shows borked graphics. I'm guessing that it's caused by the same OpenGL function because it usually only happens in the newer maps with more eye-candy like Savage 2 or HoN has, and it appeared also when I installed Catalyst 10.5.

I hope this is fixed in 10.7, since I really hate having to dual-boot :P

[allquixotic]

I wish I could, but Quake Live doesn't crash, so I wouldn't even know where to start looking. It just shows borked graphics. I'm guessing that it's caused by the same OpenGL function because it usually only happens in the newer maps with more eye-candy like Savage 2 or HoN has, and it appeared also when I installed Catalyst 10.5.

I hope this is fixed in 10.7, since I really hate having to dual-boot :P

Your issue is almost assuredly separate, though:

*Different operating system (Windows / Linux)
*Different behavior (borked graphics / crash)
*Different game (Quake Live / Savage 2)

It's probably yet another regression in the massive changes made to the OpenGL code as of Catalyst 10.5. When they extended their OpenGL implementation to support GL 4.0 and GLSL 4.0, they inadvertently created a large number of regressions in their OpenGL implementation that still stand today. Just because you're having an issue with the same release of Catalyst is no reason to believe it's the same exact code causing the breakage. My hypothesis is that the evidence suggests there is a different breakage. And knowing ATI, it is extremely plausible that there are even more new OpenGL problems since 10.5 than either you or I am experiencing. It'll be 2011 before these hit a stable release, I'm afraid.

[XabiX]

When can we have GPU decoding on evergreen cards? for linux

[bridgman]

When it's done.

[bridgman]

Stinkin' edit window.

We don't normally comment on schedules/plans for unreleased products or features. XvBA managed to get a lot of press coverage while development was still at the relatively early stages, but right now has only been released for use in the embedded market (which does not include an Evergreen part).

[lukem33p]

So What's up with ATi Repositories?

Just a quick clarification, question and comment, Bridgman.

If I understand correctly, AMD (ATi) has no plans to make a repository for OpenSuSe 11.3, and possibly other distributions.

Question: Is that right, and could ATi possibly go with installer scripts for individual distros?

Comment: If my clarification is correct (as I hope it isn't) then ATi is not competitive with NVidia in the Linux graphics. As a pretty non-capable user who is unsure of himself in the terminal, especially once in level three, I feel I represent the midrange-lowrange user when I say that we could use an easier way, and the repository seemed pretty good to me.

Final Question: Could you get your team to build repositories? Or maybe give some extra tools for distros to do so?

[monraaf]

Question: Is that right, and could ATi possibly go with installer scripts for individual distros?

$ ./ati-driver-installer-10-7-x86.x86_64.run --listpkg
...
Package Maintainer(s): Bob Walmsley <[email protected]>
Status: *UNVERIFIED*
SuSE Packages:
	SuSE/SLE10-IA32
	SuSE/SUSE103-IA32
	SuSE/SUSE110-IA32
	SuSE/SLE10-AMD64
	SuSE/SUSE103-AMD64
	SuSE/SUSE110-AMD64
	SuSE/SLE11-IA32
	SuSE/SUSE111-IA32
	SuSE/SUSE112-IA32
	SuSE/SLE11-AMD64
	SuSE/SUSE111-AMD64
	SuSE/SUSE112-AMD64
	SuSE/SUSE113-IA32
	SuSE/SUSE113-AMD64

Not sure if these can be used with openSuSe.

[monraaf]

Whoops I didn't mean to include the maintainer's email address. Thanks a lot for not letting me edit my own post phoronix...