Canonical Publishes ATI Catalyst 8.10 Beta

[SheeEttin]

Hello everyone, is there a way gentoo users can have that "hotfix" version of the 8.10 driver release ?, because i can not find it, can someone write the URL for the package of the "hotfix" for Ubuntu for 64 Bit ?, so i can extract the binary parts and place them by hand on my system, thanks by the way.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=fglrx&searchon=names&suite=intrepid&section=all

For dependencies, you're on your own.

[grantek]

so I wonder why they maintain 2 versions instead of having one (open), just like Intel?

The way I understand it, AMD/ATI are worried that their closed-source driver has code in it that reveals tricks about what the silicon is actually doing. They can release full documentation/APIs for the hardware, but knowing exactly how to squeeze the most performance out of a card isn't always obvious from a datasheet, and AMD think that revealing exactly how their driver works will help competitors learn how the hardware is put together.

From what bridgman's said, they do release example code along with documentation, so that example code is probably from fglrx. But I agree that the closed-source driver shouldn't be necessary in the long term

[ptitgnu]

Hi,

for Gentoo users :

If you want to test the new ati-drivers 8.543 with xorg-server-1.5 , I made some ebuilds this night... There are on my gentoo overlay.

To add the xorg-server and ati-drivers overlay in one line, you can use :

wget -nH --cut-dirs=1 -r -l inf -P /usr/local/portage ftp://ftp.ptitgnu.be/gentoo-overlay/

It's based on the ubuntu 8.543 source package and it's working for me with a Radeon HD3300

I have more FPS with glxgears too (~3170 with 8.543 vs ~3000 with 8.532)


Troubleshooting :

It seems that there is a problem with 'fglrx_dri.so' (don't forget, this is a beta version)..
This causes a problem with AIGLX :

(EE) AIGLX error: fglrx exports no extensions (/usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so: undefined symbol: __driDriverExtensions)

It seems to make 'amdcccle' segfault too..

Does anyone have an idea for that ?

[yoshi314]

I understand there are some IP issues, but those can be offset to small binary module. That would meke possible for community to replace closed module with open source version for people in countries where those SW-patent laws are not valid (EU)

- that would be no small module.
- i don't know of a country where drm solutions are not valid. what about HDCP, for example? is that illegal somewhere in the world?

[mirza]

Question: As opose to Intel, ATI has 2 drivers: Open and closed source (lets ignore fact there are several FOSS versions too). Obviously, closed version is way ahead, so I wonder why they maintain 2 versions instead of having one (open), just like Intel? I understand there are some IP issues, but those can be offset to small binary module. That would meke possible for community to replace closed module with open source version for people in countries where those SW-patent laws are not valid (EU) or for users that just don't care. I would like to have ATI card, but it looks that FOSS drivers will always play catch up game, performance-wise and feature-wise. Closed source driver is OK but this is what I have already with nVidia. So, currently best option I see is switching to Intel and hoping they will continue in performance improvements started with X4500HD.

[rektide]

Running 2.6.27 on a 7.1 xorg. This is bull@#$%.

I found the farbring's patch for fixing the fglrx module compilation error and applied it before the kernel compiled and still got the following:

[Message] Kernel Module : Trying to install a precompiled kernel module.
[Message] Kernel Module : Precompiled kernel module version mismatched.
[Message] Kernel Module : Found kernel module build environment, generating kernel module now.
ATI module generator V 2.0
==========================
initializing...
doing Makefile based build for kernel 2.6.x and higher
rm -rf *.c *.h *.o *.ko *.GCC* .??* *.symvers
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.27.1-deneb/build SUBDIRS=/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.1'
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.o
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function ‘__ke_vm_phys_addr_str’:
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:3528: warning: return makes pointer from integer without a cast
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:3529: warning: return makes pointer from integer without a cast
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:3530: warning: return makes pointer from integer without a cast
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:3532: warning: return makes pointer from integer without a cast
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: At top level:
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:5780: warning: initialization from incompatible pointer type
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:5806: warning: initialization from incompatible pointer type
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/kcl_io.o
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/kcl_pci.o
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/kcl_agp.o
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
WARNING: modpost: module fglrx.ko uses symbol 'init_mm' marked UNUSED
CC /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.mod.o
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.1'
build succeeded with return value 0
duplicating results into driver repository...
done.
You must change your working directory to /lib/modules/fglrx
and then call ./make_install.sh in order to install the built module.
- recreating module dependency list
- trying a sample load of the kernel modules
failed.
[Error] Kernel Module : Failed to install compiled kernel module - please consult readme.

Obviously the patch was not so good.

DAAMIT why do you hate your customers so? Hopefully now that Ubuntu's done it, it will be easy for you to implement quickly.

[Odur]

Have you modified /etc/ati/atieventsd.sh (or something like that, I'w writing from memory - don't have AMD/ATI card with me for now)?
In the fglrx drivers from AMD there's a bug with the wrong path for Xauthority file for KDM. If you change it to the real Xauthority file it should work without such problems. That helped me solve this problem sometime ago for Kubuntu.

Yeah I've done that, and that's a different bug. With the wrong path to Xauthority the computer hangs on shutdown, but the keyboard is still responsive. The freeze when switching user is a whole different story.

[xeros]

I wrote this in the thread about the 8.9 driver, and I got the same issue with the new 8.10 downloaded from AMD. Can someone else confirm, or has anybody got a clue what the h-ll is going on?

Have you modified /etc/ati/atieventsd.sh (or something like that, I'w writing from memory - don't have AMD/ATI card with me for now)?
In the fglrx drivers from AMD there's a bug with the wrong path for Xauthority file for KDM. If you change it to the real Xauthority file it should work without such problems. That helped me solve this problem sometime ago for Kubuntu.

[Odur]

I wrote this in the thread about the 8.9 driver, and I got the same issue with the new 8.10 downloaded from AMD. Can someone else confirm, or has anybody got a clue what the h-ll is going on?

I wrote this about 20 minutes ago in bug report #112518 at Launchpad:

I too got this bug and haven't found a solution yet.

Dist: Kubuntu 8.04.1 Fully upgraded
Graphics card: PowerColor (ATI) HD3870 SCS3
Tested drivers: fglrx 8.3 through 8.9

Symptoms: When switching user the screen goes black and the system is totally unresponsive, including the keyboard. Not even caps-lock trigges the caps-lock light. The only thing that works is the reset button and to hold the powerbutton until it shuts down. Shutdown or restart works without problem (I have fixed the problem with atieventsd, see bug 118605).
If i use the vesa or radeonhd drivers everything is ok. But then I got no 3D acceleration, which I think would be nice...

This bug is really annoying to me, as we are switching users a lot on this computer. It started when I bought this card. I got a ATI X600 before, and that didn't suffer from this bug at all.

[bulletxt]

why is it that every AMD/fglrx driver creates a thread with 200 pages posts? maybe because they are full of issues? WHY? always the same bulls**t.
a publicity on tv says: "change happens" . it seems AMD doesn't.