ATI Released New Driver

iplayfast · Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:03 am Post subject:

OK, I've tried everything I can think of and can't get above 380 fps.
I've found one thing which might be the cause of my grief.
my XOrg log shows

djcronos · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 53 Location: San Jose, CA

iplayfast - I'm pushed for time right now, but I'll answer your questions as detailed as possible. One thing though - go to http://www.gentoo-wiki.com and read some of the HOW-TO's for the ATI Driver's. Make sure /dev/agpgart is compiled into the kernel and not as a module (Device Drivers/Character Devices), the correct chip for your motherboard is compiled into the kernel (I have a Nforce2 motherboard, so I chose the NVIDIA nforce2 option, a few slots underneath the /dev/agpgart option), Direct Rendering Manager is selected, ATI Radeon is compiled into the kernel and NOT as a module, ATI Radeon Display Support and DDC/I2C for ATI Radeon support are both compiled into the kernel (Device Drivers/Graphics Support), Support for the framebuffer splash is marked, make sure Video mode selection support and Framebuffer Console support are the only two items checked in the Console display driver support area. I think these are all the important items. Oh yeah, and make sure you DO NOT mark anything inside the Logo configuration section.

Why don't you paste your config file to the forum, and I'll take a look through it? Also, if you could tell me your exact system setup, that might help too.

If push comes to shove, IM me, and maybe I can ssh into your box and see what's wrong. I'd like to think of this as a very last resort, but let's first see what system you got going on, and how your kernel config is set up.

Oh yeah, and what kernel version are you using, as well as what type? Like I said, I am using the 2.6.9-nitro2 kernel, and I highly recommend it. I have found that it is much faster than the other variations of the kernels out there.

Patrick

I don't know if this does anything or not, but I just recently added
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iplayfast · Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:18 pm Post subject:

I've recompiled and tested the kernel about 20 times since my last post. I'll post my latest config file tonight. I'll check out the wiki as well. Thanks for the link. (Wow took a quick look. I've been needing this link!)

I've noticed that when I compile the radeon as a module it is about 50 fps slower. Not the difference that I'm looking for. When I compile it into the kernel it's faster but I get a message in the XOrg log that it couldn't load the radeon driver. (weird).

It seems that the the dri is being disabled and that is the crux of the problem.
I'm not sure which version of kernel I'm using, but I think it's close to vanilla. I'll check out nitro as well. (What the heck I've got nothing to do beside compile kernels

Thanks for your help.

iplayfast · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:18 am Post subject:

Here are my .config, my Xorg.0.log and my xorg.conf and my dmesg.

The important bits. dmesg says that

iplayfast · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:23 am Post subject:

The post was too large for a single entry. Here is dmesg and Xorg.0.log

dmesg

iplayfast · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:28 pm Post subject: SOLVED!

Updated my xorg last night and all of a sudden I was getting 900 fps on GLX Gears. I can now tweek things to approach the 1600 fps that Ranthog and others were getting.

All that work and it was a bug in Xorg.

titan100 · n00b Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 61

-TooL · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 75

Ok messing around with your config managed to make x not run: fatal error no screen found...

Got it back running by emerging ati-drivers and ati-drivers-extra and using the old xorg.conf that i had backed up as xorg.conf.working (glad i did that).

Looking at my kernal i have basicly the same as you, except my kernel is 2.4

Tho, my radeon driver is not a module

Somet things i noticed, is this in my kernal and possably stopping it from working? Two things I noticed in your kernal's config

-TooL · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 75

Ok i give up.. i compiled 2.6.9 kernel, loaded the radeon drivers as a module..

When I used your config (i did add my monitors hz ranges and supported resolutions) everything looks to load fine (well except a couple of fonts I do not have) except X wont load, here are the only errors in my log file:

eelke · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 7:29 pm Post subject:

iplayfast · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 8:21 pm Post subject:

I've got a radeon 9200 se and right now I'm getting about as good results as with ati's drivers. (YES!) These cards use the series 300 chipsets which is stuff there is documentation for.

The 9600 series cards use a different chipset (and wasn't mentioned in your quote). So the 3d rendering on those cards probably won't work.

-TooL · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 75

I figured it out.. im getting over 2000 fps now with a small box

Resizing the glxgears box or trying diffrent resolutions does the trick..

madbiker · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:29 pm Post subject:

Followed the advice, upgraded to 6.8, unmerged the ati-drivers, compiled radeon driver into the kernel, changed the driver to "radeon" in my xorg.conf, did an opengl-update xorg-x11, and now it says I have no direct rendering, and glxgears hardlocks my machine.

Hmm....

Herrscher · n00b Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 27 Location: Germany

iplayfast · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:53 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the info.

mrpdaemon · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Aug 2004 Posts: 134

By the way, did anyone have any luck compiling ATI's drivers with gcc 3.4.3 ? I get "unkown module format" when modprobe'ing them. Works fine when compiled with gcc 3.3...

Herrscher · n00b Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 27 Location: Germany

I finally managed to be able to modprobe fglrx without errors.

But still, when starting X I get errors because of unresolved symbols from fglrx_drv.o - Gnome loads although.

But fglrxinfo hangs and doesn't return.

glxinfo is gone by now, don't know why.

What is the difference between XFree86 4.3.0 and X.org 6.7.0 ?

They will work both?!?

mpalmer · n00b Joined: 09 Nov 2004 Posts: 9

i've tried all the "option" tweaks in this thread and i'm stuck at 1300~ fps with a radeon 9600 (xp 2000+, 2.6.9 kernel, 3.4.whatever gcc, xorg 6.7.something)

everything seems to be working fine (loads modules, direct rendering shows up as on, etc) but it sounds like i should be getting better framerates.

Wedge_ · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 8:49 am Post subject:

glxgears isn't a proper benchmark. If you want to compare, use a real game like Q3A or UT2K4 or Doom3, they'll give much more useful results. Don't expect stellar performance from any card using the ATI binary driver though.

mpalmer · n00b Joined: 09 Nov 2004 Posts: 9

Wedge_ · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 4:24 pm Post subject:

You said in your last post you have a R9600, so you unfortunately don't have the option of using the "radeon" driver instead, since it doesn't support 3D accel on the newer cards. At the moment there isn't any other alternative to the ati-drivers, although it might be worth keeping an eye on the progress of this project: http://r300.sourceforge.net which is attempting to create an opensource driver for the newer ATI cards. It already works to some extent, but I doubt you could use it as a replacement for the ATI driver yet.

I'm pretty sure I remember one of the ATI driver developers stating that their focus is on features and stability for now, rather than on improving performance - it may well improve in the future, but I don't know when.
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Herrscher · n00b Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 27 Location: Germany

Damnit!

I finally managed to get 3D working.

fglrx doesn't claim about any unresolved symbols anymore, and when "startx" starts the X-Server, everything works flawlessly.

fgl_rxgears shows > 1000 fps. Wonderful.

BUT - and here comes the caveat:

It seems that all my kernel modules are gone.
ALSA claims about not finding snd-0, a manual "modprobe via82xx" doesn't work cause modprobe doesn't find ANY module.
Windows-Mounting also fails, cause VFAT and NTFS couldn't get loaded, modprobe fat, etc. also fails.

lsmod shows that the only module that gets loaded is the mentioned fglrx.
However, my /etc/modules.autoload has all important modules in it (fat, acpi, etc.).
Dependencies in modules.dep only shows "fglrx" again.

What am I supposed to do best next?

I don't want to scramble my 3D for example which ate 3 days of mine.

I'm happy to get 3D finally to work, but I want sound and windows-mounts again...

Help is very appreciated. :idea:

Wedge_ · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 7:21 pm Post subject:

What did you do to get your 3D accel working that might have affected the other kernel modules? Are the modules actually still where they should be (under /lib/modules/<kernel version>)? If not, cd to /usr/src/linux and run "make modules_install" - that should copy them back to the right places.
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Gentoo Radeon FAQ

Vide · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:53 pm Post subject:

djkronos, thank you very much for your helps in this thread. Thanks to them I got migrating from XFree 4.3 with fglrx to Xorg with radeon at the very first strike! (well, xorg 6.8.0 seems to not take care about XF86Config-4 so I had to rename it)

The 2D side seems ways off better than the old Xfree/fglrx one!! it rocks! much more clear and responsive!
on the 3D side, I ganed about 600fps in glxgears BUT I tryed Neverwinter Nights and it seems to me a little slower..more glitching, I mean.
What's your experience with 3D games?
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