[solved] ati x300 in T43

[wudmx]

Hello,
I've read some threads about the whole ati thing - but I can't get it to work in my T43 Thinkpad. It's a PCI express card, so this gives me more questions...

For me it's important to extent battery lifetime, so i do not need special 3D acceleration. which driver does i have to use? how do I install it? i think it's the radeon one... but do i need x11-drm or not?

i'm using xorg-6.8.2... do i have to enable agpgart in the kernel even though it's a pci express card? what other kernel options do i have to enable / disable?

thanks in advance!
wudmx

[wudmx]

ok, I've eventually found some really good sites. here is my little howto for an ati x300 in a T43 thinkpad!

ati-drivers: 8.23.7
kernel: 2.6.15.1 vanilla-sources

installation:
read this http://odin.prohosting.com/wedge01/gentoo-radeon-faq.html

some kernel adjustments:
i have a pci express card. don't know why, but you have to enable /dev/agpgart in the kernel config, but you do not need any chipset support for ATI or Intel! (if you do not enable agpgart, you won't be able to modprobe the fglrx module). I've compiled /dev/agpgart as a module!

don't forget to emerge ati-drivers after each kernel compilation!

power management features for laptop users:
read this
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_make_use_of_Graphics_Chips_Power_Management_features

so glxgears tells me:
6835 frames in 5.0 sec = 1367.000 FPS

HTH
wudmx