Problem with fglrx restricted driver: no compiz, weird behavior of X

[Rehdon]

Hi all,
I installed Gutsy Gibbon beta on a separate partition (now fully up to date with the latest changes) of my main box, and I'm facing many problems wrt graphic driver:

1. during the installation my hardware setup wasn't properly recognized: I have an ATI X1300 card + Acer AL2216W LCD monitor, at the end of the installation process the resolution was wrong (limited to a non-wide 1280x1024 res) so I had to tinker with the xorg.conf file from my Feisty partition to have X at the correct resolutiion

2. in spite of installing the restricted driver in a successful way, the driver seems to malfunction in lots of ways:

- switching between virtual desktops is veeeery slow and sometimes freezes the desktop
- fgl_glxgears runs in a jerky way
- 3d games are almost unplayable
- visible artifacts when dragging windows
- no compiz!

It's as if the driver were only partially working, I guess some of my problems might come from my reusing a dated xorg.conf. Looking at the xorg.log I detected these warnings:

(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:1) found

(WW) fglrx(0): board is an unknown third party board, chipset is supported

(II) LoadModule: "glesx.so" (glesx)
(WW) LoadModule: given non-canonical module name "glesx.so"

(EE) AIGLX error: dlsym for __driCreateNewScreen_20050727 failed (/usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so: undefined symbol: __driCreateNewScreen_20050727)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

The "reverting to software rendering" message sounds as particularly bad ... Any ideas? Is AIGLX supported by the fglrx driver? I'm no expert, any help welcome!

Rehdon

[exploder]

Have you installed this mornings updates? There was a new restricted drivers modual released,

[Rehdon]

Yes, I installed all the available updates before posting to the forum. I don't remember seeing a restricted driver update, now there's only linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-14-generic available as an update.

Rehdon

[exploder]

Just a suggestion, try the update and reinstall the ATI drivers. If that doesn't fix things, submit a bug report. You have very detailed information you could submit.

[Rehdon]

Perhaps I should try to create a new xorg.conf before filing a bug report?

Rehdon

[exploder]

Very good idea. I hope that works for you.

[Rehdon]

Ok, thank you very much.

Rehdon

[Sov]

Hi Rehdon!

Sounds like the fglrx module is not loaded in your kernel should have nothign to do with your xorg.conf, just check if you have "Driver "fglrx"" in it then try to run in a terminal:

sudo /sbin/lrm-video fglrx

Then restart X and check if your DRI acceleration is now enabled with:

fglrxinfo

It should print something like:

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6473 (8.37.6)

Byeeee!

[HilliBilly]

i do have the exact same errors resp. warnings in my Xorg.0.log as mentioned in the first post.

But ...

~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Radeon X1950 Series
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6473 (8.37.6)

~$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2

[Rehdon]

Hi Sov,
actually DRI seems to be enabled because I get the same answer as HilliBilly when running glxinfo.

I noticed that I lacked AIGLX related package and I installed it, with the result that compiz was working and the 3d stuff (mainly a game I'm playing) wasn't anymore :( I'm back to Feisty for the moment being, thanks for the help anyway, it's just a bit confusing to me!

BTW, where does the screen and graphics software save it settings? in xorg.conf? or elsewhere?

Rehdon

[Sov]

Hi Sov,
actually DRI seems to be enabled because I get the same answer as HilliBilly when running glxinfo.

I noticed that I lacked AIGLX related package and I installed it, with the result that compiz was working and the 3d stuff (mainly a game I'm playing) wasn't anymore :( I'm back to Feisty for the moment being, thanks for the help anyway, it's just a bit confusing to me!



If fglrxinfo tells you Opengl is active it means both the kernel module and the X driver are working and you should have accelrated 3d working (i.e. if you fgl_glxgears should run smootly, and 3d games should run ok too)

Compiz is another problem, it needs a driver supporting AIXGLX and the actual version of fglrx 8.37 does not support it (8.42 coming next monday will support it!).

To use compiz with fglrx you need to run a particular Xserver that runs on top of the normal server, it is called XGL and you should find many howtos on how to install it on the Internet


BTW, where does the screen and graphics software save it settings? in xorg.conf? or elsewhere?
Rehdon

Everything is in xorg.conf

Ciaoooo

[Rehdon]

If fglrxinfo tells you Opengl is active it means both the kernel module and the X driver are working and you should have accelrated 3d working (i.e. if you fgl_glxgears should run smootly, and 3d games should run ok too)

Accelerated graphics should be working, but actually they don't because I ran into lots of problems (see original post: artifacts when dragging windows, jerky fgl_glxgears with very low FPS, etc.).

Compiz is another problem, it needs a driver supporting AIXGLX and the actual version of fglrx 8.37 does not support it (8.42 coming next monday will support it!).

That's good news you're telling me, but I guess it's too late for Ubuntu 7.10. Anyway, I'm not very much interested in desktop bling, 3D acceleration for apps and games would be fine ;)

To use compiz with fglrx you need to run a particular Xserver that runs on top of the normal server, it is called XGL and you should find many howtos on how to install it on the Internet.

Ah ok, that's the one I installed, with very little benefits unfortunately (my fault surely, I didn't follown any howto ...).

Many thanks for your help!

Rehdon

[Sov]

Hi Sov,
actually DRI seems to be enabled because I get the same answer as HilliBilly when running glxinfo.

I noticed that I lacked AIGLX related package and I installed it, with the result that compiz was [CODE]working and the 3d stuff (mainly a game I'm playing) wasn't anymore :( I'm back to Feisty for the moment being, thanks for the help anyway, it's just a bit confusing to me!

BTW, where does the screen and graphics software save it settings? in xorg.conf? or elsewhere?

Rehdon

Accelerated graphics should be working, but actually they don't because I ran into lots of problems (see original post: artifacts when dragging windows, jerky fgl_glxgears with very low FPS, etc.).


This is really weird! Must be something related to your xorg.conf

Here are the related sections on my xorg.conf

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "AGPFastWrite" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "false"
EndSection

I think you should get sure Composite is set to false an Defaultdepth is set to 24. You could play with options in the Device section too check here http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page



That's good news you're telling me, but I guess it's too late for Ubuntu 7.10. Anyway, I'm not very much interested in desktop bling, 3D acceleration for apps and games would be fine ;)


hehehe you are right


Ah ok, that's the one I installed, with very little benefits unfortunately (my fault surely, I didn't follown any howto ...).

Many thanks for your help!

Rehdon


Ciaoooo