AMD Catalyst 8.01 Linux Driver

[Svartalf]

for laptop videocards i DO NOT RECCON TO CHANGE, I DO NOT RECCON!.

1st, its VERY EXPENSIVE, 2nd cooling issues might appy, 3rd you may be unlucky to have something say, put in orginal blabla, i got hp laptops etc which doesnt want to change wireless cpu videocards dvd rom, nothing else than memory.

My take on the laptops situation is as follows:

If you've got a laptop with an ATI chip, you need to:

1. Consider a new laptop with an Intel or NVidia GPU
2. Failing that, try to limp the unit along with an older driver
3. Wait and see if they're going to get their act together.

Right now, I would tell someone to get something that doesn't have an AMD GPU in it. They're not there right now with the needed support for Linux- and may not be for another 6-12 months. If you're stuck, you're stuck. I'm in the forum here because I've got gear with the offending parts. I just don't have to rely on it right at the moment, thankfully.

[Porter]

Stuck in what way? The 8.01 driver seems to work very well for the vast majority of desktop uses.

The biggest drawbacks seem to be power-management related (i.e. gets hot, switching powerstates, etc) or that there are a few (major) bugs still to work out in 3D applications. But really... the vast majority of users don't do 3D and don't have a need for it, especially on a laptop, so I can see why the outstanding issues with the driver codebase have been prioritized in the way that they have.

[littlesaint]

The 8.01 driver is working great on my T60p (FireGL 5200). Ubuntu 7.10 with some updates.

Kernel: 2.6.24-4
Compiz: 0.6.3

AIGLX, video, and suspend are working. I am using the default xorg.conf after running aticonfig --initial. No additional modifications necessary.

fgl_glxgears = ~850 FPS

[Uchikoma]

You know, looking back at the previous releases (8.42, 8.43, and so forth), this release has had (in my percieved opinion) less problems among users.

Sure there are people who picked up this release, installed it and watched it flop and fail to meet their expectations again. Some have gone over to Nvidia/Intel solutions if they can afford to. But I'm seeing it a bit less this time, and more success stories.

As for me, since 8.43, the driver has worked for me with basic setup, and Xv mode on, and going through the way of Step 2 before ATI got it working for Step 1 on Ubuntu systems.

EDIT: The only significant problem would have been suspend/hibernate. Compiz worked out of the box for me, so no problems there. And I'm running a ATI x1800xl PCI-Express Card as well as an ATI Mobility x1400 PCI-Express card (desktop/laptop respectively) if you want to know. Xserver 1.3

[mirv]

Works mostly ok for me - though I do have some issues that mainly revolve around using xorg-server-1.4 (I think), so take these points with a grain of salt:
When first starting X, almost no opengl-based program runs - as soon as I start something (say, glxinfo) it just freezes. Kill that process, then everything runs just fine.
My own program with sdl (only sdl it would appear - so I'm more inclined to think sdl + xorg-server-1.4) does not exit nicely at all - from what I can tell, has an issue with deleting the shaders (if someone wants I can post the full error output, it's kinda long). I've seen something similar once with etqw (demo), but that's normally ok (probably do something different in the order of shader removal, that's just my guess).
I've had some games & whatnot crash on me (most often fullscreen apps - can't remember having an issue with windowed ones) and causing a hard lock, but that happens more frequently after my own program not exiting nicely, so I suspect something isn't put into a stable state again.

Didn't have these problems with xorg-server-1.3, but I do like to see how "new stuff" works. Don't know about aiglx at all - don't use it (though I hear that it still has the whole texture from pixmap missing issue).
amd64, gentoo, radeon1650

-- and amdcccle doesn't run, not sure about previous releases, I generally don't use it.

[oyvind]

You know, looking back at the previous releases (8.42, 8.43, and so forth), this release has had (in my percieved opinion) less problems among users.

Sure there are people who picked up this release, installed it and watched it flop and fail to meet their expectations again. Some have gone over to Nvidia/Intel solutions if they can afford to. But I'm seeing it a bit less this time, and more success stories.

As for me, since 8.43, the driver has worked for me with basic setup, and Xv mode on, and going through the way of Step 2 before ATI got it working for Step 1 on Ubuntu systems.

If I disregard the problems with freeze on logout caused by atieventsd, then yeah, I'd have to agree. This looks like one of the better releases.

[Neithan]

i have editted my post from page 16. this is what is new. have u experienced something similar or i am the only one? and if i am not, how can i fix it?

-- loosing acceleration during usage (after several restarts of applications that use fglrx, i have to reboot to get my preformance back) fgl_fglxgears is droping something like this after every Counter-Strike:Source restart 630fps -> 420fps -> 30fps. I think even restarting fgl_fglxgears makes these errors. well this happens to me with every driver after 8.40.4. looks like some problem with memory.

otput from "dmesg | tail"

[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000002 not found in mutex list
[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000004 not found in mutex list
[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000002 not found in mutex list
[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000002 not found in mutex list

using ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700/64MB
ati-drivers-8.452
2.6.23-gentoo-r3
kde-meta-3.5.7
xorg-x11-7.2
xorg-server-1.3

and my xorg options are on page 16 in this thread

[Melcar]

i have editted my post from page 16. this is what is new. have u experienced something similar or i am the only one? and if i am not, how can i fix it?

-- loosing acceleration during usage (after several restarts of applications that use fglrx, i have to reboot to get my preformance back) fgl_fglxgears is droping something like this after every Counter-Strike:Source restart 630fps -> 420fps -> 30fps. I think even restarting fgl_fglxgears makes these errors. well this happens to me with every driver after 8.40.4. looks like some problem with memory.

otput from "dmesg | tail"

[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000002 not found in mutex list
[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000004 not found in mutex list
[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000002 not found in mutex list
[fglrx:firegl_free_mutex] *ERROR* mutex id 0x00000002 not found in mutex list

using ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700/64MB
ati-drivers-8.452
2.6.23-gentoo-r3
kde-meta-3.5.7
xorg-x11-7.2
xorg-server-1.3

and my xorg options are on page 16 in this thread

I get those errors every time some 3D app. is launched, like a game for example.

[Alexander He?]

The 8.01 driver is working great on my T60p (FireGL 5200). Ubuntu 7.10 with some updates.

Let me guess? 15" UXGA (1600?1200)?

[Bigon]

using ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700/64MB

[...]
[edit]
-- loosing acceleration during usage (after several restarts of applications that use fglrx, i have to reboot to get my preformance back) fgl_fglxgears is droping something like this after every Counter-Strike:Source restart 630fps -> 420fps -> 30fps. I think even restarting fgl_fglxgears makes these errors. well this happens to me with every driver after 8.40.4. looks like some problem with memory.

I have exactly the same issue with 7.11 (with the same card), but I'm not sure about the dmesg warnings