On Tuesday April 03 2007 11:15:43 am John Horne wrote: > On Mon, 2007-04-02 at 23:55 -0400, Claude Jones wrote: > > I've been working on this a few days, and reading about others struggling > > with the ATI driver. I can't seem to find anything definitive. > > Hi, > > If it's any help I have the same card as you. However, I am using the > 'radeon' driver. I have had no problems using it, and with beryl. > Thanks John for this lengthy response. You may have seen later in this thread that I finally got my ATI driver working - it turned out I installed the wrong kernel-module when I installed the livna driver. However, I don't think that was my only issue. Also, as I'll note below, my performance, while considerably improved, does not seem to match yours using the radeon driver. If that's the case, I would like to revisit the issue and try out the radeon driver - using the open source driver is certainly preferable - I have found info to the effect that 3D acceleration is supported for our card but is classified as experimental - I don't mind being an experimenter, so that's no issue for me. Presumably, using the open source driver would eliminate the headache of having to update the kernel-module with each kernel update, right? > > glxinfo shows among other things: > > > > OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org > > OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect > > OpenGL version string: 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.5.1) > > I have: > > OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc. > OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R300 20060815 AGP 4x x86/MMX+/3DNow! > +/SSE TCL > OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 6.5.1 > my glxinfo now shows: OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc. OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9600 OpenGL version string: 2.0.6334 (8.34.8) > > Running glxgears gives me: > > > > $ glxgears > > Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0". > > 1951 frames in 5.0 seconds = 389.746 FPS > > 3240 frames in 5.2 seconds = 628.040 FPS > > 3240 frames in 5.0 seconds = 642.329 FPS > The above numbers were from before I fixed my kernel-module > I get: > > [root@ash ~]# glxgears > libGL warning: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0x4b > 9319 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1863.677 FPS > 8756 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1751.074 FPS > 10568 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2113.578 FPS > 12001 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2400.160 FPS > 12645 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2528.954 FPS > 10775 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2154.851 FPS > I'm now getting: $ glxgears 14658 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2931.519 FPS 26963 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5392.432 FPS 26962 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5392.329 FPS 26963 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5392.544 FPS > The 10-12,000 readings were because I had minimised the glxgears > display. If you have the glxgears running in front of you then I get > about 9,000 frames. Second point to note, is that I used to have a > problem with SELinux and the xorg-x11-drv-fglrx RPM files. SELinux would > cause something like glxgears to run very slow. You could either try > temporarily disabling SELinux (use 'setenforce 0'), or change the > relevant file contexts. The files I changed, and the commands were: > > chcon -t textrel_shlib_t /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so > chcon -t textrel_shlib_t /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux/libfglrxdrm.so > I'm running Blag 60000 on this laptop, which is basically FC6 with a lot of improvements in areas that are of concern to me. Selinux is disabled by default in this distro, so that has not been the issue for me. Your number of 9000 frames is what catches my attention - as you can see, I'm now getting close to 5400 frames, which is considerably less than you. 3d motion is exceptionally smooth now, and streaming video works well, but, improving performance is always desirable, especially if I can achieve it with the open source driver. I'm running glxgears from the yakuake terminal, which is a utility that drops a terminal window into view by pressing the F12 key when it's running; the glxgears are hidden by the terminal window, but, if I drag it into view, my performance numbers go way down; also, I just tried opening KDE Konsole, which is the KDE terminal window, and running glxgears from there produces a visible glxgears window, but horrible performance: $ glxgears 2903 frames in 5.0 seconds = 580.379 FPS 2501 frames in 5.0 seconds = 500.029 FPS 3629 frames in 5.0 seconds = 725.697 FPS 4996 frames in 5.0 seconds = 999.057 FPS 2289 frames in 5.0 seconds = 457.643 FPS 2501 frames in 5.0 seconds = 500.028 FPS 4073 frames in 5.0 seconds = 814.484 FPS 3166 frames in 5.0 seconds = 632.975 FPS 3775 frames in 5.0 seconds = 754.901 FPS 2502 frames in 5.0 seconds = 500.230 FPS 3260 frames in 5.0 seconds = 651.906 FPS So, there's some discrepancies there I don't fully understand... > > I've tried various mods to xorg.conf such as disabling composite - my > > current is: > > I have: > > ========================================================= > # Xorg configuration created by system-config-display > > Section "ServerLayout" > Identifier "single head configuration" > Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 > InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" > EndSection > > Section "Files" > EndSection > > Section "Module" > Load "glx" > Load "extmod" > Load "dri" > EndSection > > Section "InputDevice" > Identifier "Keyboard0" > Driver "kbd" > Option "XkbModel" "pc105" > Option "XkbLayout" "gb" > EndSection > > Section "Monitor" > Identifier "Monitor0" > ModelName "LCD Panel 1280x1024" > ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC: > HorizSync 31.5 - 67.0 > VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0 > Option "dpms" > EndSection > > Section "Device" > Identifier "Videocard0" > Driver "radeon" > Option "AGPMode" "4" > EndSection > > Section "Screen" > Identifier "Screen0" > Device "Videocard0" > Monitor "Monitor0" > DefaultDepth 24 > SubSection "Display" > Viewport 0 0 > Depth 24 > Modes "1280x1024" > EndSubSection > EndSection > > Section "DRI" > Group 0 > Mode 0666 > EndSection > > Section "Extensions" > Option "Composite" "enable" > EndSection > ========================================================= > > > Note: Be careful with the AGPMode option if you use it. The card will > support it (4x), but your motherboard must do so as well. > Here's mine after installing the correct module and re-running fglrx-config-display Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "single head configuration" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Synaptics" "CorePointer" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "us" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics" Driver "synaptics" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes" Option "LeftEdge" "120" Option "RightEdge" "830" Option "TopEdge" "120" Option "BottomEdge" "650" Option "FingerLow" "14" Option "FingerHigh" "15" Option "MaxTapMove" "110" Option "VertScrollDelta" "20" Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20" Option "MinSpeed" "0.3" Option "MaxSpeed" "0.75" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "fglrx" Option "VideoOverlay" "on" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Videocard0" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Disable" EndSection As you can see, you're running composite enable and mine is disabled - I'll try your setting later, as I must leave > > Am I on a fools errand? Should I forget about the ATI driver and revert? > > Well that's your decision :-) However,as said I have had no problems > with this setup and using the ATI card. > Thanks again for your input - there are still some unexplained anomalies which I sure would like to understand. Again, I have a huge increase in performance now which is tangible - streaming video was effectively impossible on this machine before - the video would just freeze after a couple of frames, and perhaps refresh every few seconds - now it's smooth and looks great; glxgears was a stutterer as were most of the screen savers - now, these are smooth with almost no hesitations to speak of. Maybe I need to learn some incantations... ;-) -- Claude Jones Levit & James, Inc. Leesburg, VA 20175 703-771-1549
