Hello,

I know there are 2ATI drivers for linux (or maybe more ?) The closed source ATI driver (fglrx) and open source drivers (correct me if I'm wrong). I have a ATI EAX1600 and noticed when switching windows in KDE4 is very slow, also the repainting of windows.. (with the fglrx driver).

Anybody know what is the status of this problem ? What are the problems with ATI drivers? Are they working on it ? is there a solution for now? is this only with fglrx driver?

I've seen this post on planetKDE
http://www.bramschoenmakers.nl/en/node/549

And wondered if this is the good solution? What's the best driver for KDE4 ? how can I solve this for now ?

Many Many questions

Thanks !
Ward

Can you provide us with more information what distro are you using, the /xorg.conf and also the

Code: Select all

glxinfo

.

I think it's not a user specific problem... I just want to know in global. What should I do ? wich driver should I choose ? What's the best with KDE4? Why is this one best etc...

I've been uisng the fglrx drivers with my ATI Radeon X1600 Mobillity without much problems. The biggest problem I encountered was visual glitches when running games in Wine, but that has been resolved by the recent 8.9 fglrx release.

I use the fglrx setup with multiple monitors as well, but I think this is possible with radeonhd as well.

It depends on what you want from the drivers. If you want to run some games or other 3D stuff, fglrx might be the solution. It's a shame it's proprietary software and ATI doesn't release the source code. So if you value non-proprietary radeonhd might be your driver of choice. It does lack support for some 3D rendering features and is effectively less feature complete than fglrx.

mensch wrote:I've been uisng the fglrx drivers with my ATI Radeon X1600 Mobillity without much problems. The biggest problem I encountered was visual glitches when running games in Wine, but that has been resolved by the recent 8.9 fglrx release.

I use the fglrx setup with multiple monitors as well, but I think this is possible with radeonhd as well.

It depends on what you want from the drivers. If you want to run some games or other 3D stuff, fglrx might be the solution. It's a shame it's proprietary software and ATI doesn't release the source code. So if you value non-proprietary radeonhd might be your driver of choice. It does lack support for some 3D rendering features and is effectively less feature complete than fglrx.

I have ATI 1600 and window management in KDE is slow, very slow. When I press start or switch window I have to wait 2seconds before it opens and repainting is done slow. I use fglrx drivers too..

Anybody experienced this problem ?

WardLoockx wrote:I have ATI 1600 and window management in KDE is slow, very slow. When I press start or switch window I have to wait 2seconds before it opens and repainting is done slow. I use fglrx drivers too..

Window switching is very snappy here on my system in KDE 4 with desktop effects enabled, it certainly wasn't the case when I was still running GNOME.

I do have the issue with the start menu, though it seems to take a little less time if you've already opened the menu once during a session.

Open source drivers sure helped me on my laptop with integrated ATI. With fglrx drivers it was slower and it would lock very often wehwn i logged out to KDM. No problems now with the open ource drivers. I'd say, try them and see if they help you too.

Using the open source radeon drivers on Kubuntu Intrepid, my X1600 works great with kwin compositing.

When trying to install the opensource drivers using this manual
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

When I try the command glxinfo |grep vendor
I get glxinfo - "Unable to open display

Have been googling but nothing that helped me

Is the kernel module installed and are you using this command during an X session (if not the display driver won't find any screens)? I'm not sure if this command also works in Ubuntu, it probably does because of its Debian underpinnings. Not sure if it works with radeonhd also, it does with the fglrx kernel module.

Type:

Code: Select all

sudo m-a prepare

Just to be sure you have all the available packages. The type:

Code: Select all

sudo m-a

This will take you in to the "Module Assistant" menu. Choose "Select" and select "radeonhd" (or something similar) by pressing the space bar. Then select "Ok" by switching through the options by pressing tab.

The module assistant should now build and install (you have to confirm that) the kernel module. It should be loaded when you restart your machine. The problem with display drivers is, however, that there is a plethora of reasons (xorg.conf with the wrong config is another example) why it won't function right from the start.

Okay this is where it get's weird :s

When I came home I was able to perform the command glxinfo without any problem...

Then I ran glxgears resulting in +- 3500frames/sec. now I went to my xorg config and saw that it was still the fglrx driver loaded
weird because in the past I only had +- 600frames second with fgl_glxgears). I replaced the fglrx string by ati and restarted X. When i did that i ran glxgears again and frames/second now was 600 again :s very werid...

Can anybody explain this? I switched to the fglrx (best frames/second) (even with the mods on the website mentioned above)[hr]
Okay small update.

With my configuration now i did lsmod and only saw that fglrx was loaded

Here are some performance test of glxgears and fgl_glxgears

Code: Select all

ward@ward-desktop:~$ fgl_glxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
3209 frames in 5.0 seconds = 641.800 FPS
3514 frames in 5.0 seconds = 702.800 FPS
3460 frames in 5.0 seconds = 692.000 FPS
3436 frames in 5.0 seconds = 687.200 FPS
3455 frames in 5.0 seconds = 691.000 FPS
ward@ward-desktop:~$ glxgears
13444 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2688.795 FPS
14876 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2975.195 FPS
14452 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2890.304 FPS



What I noticed when running the tests is that is was flickering very hard.

here is my xorg.conf file

Code: Select all

Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier     "Default Layout"
   Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
   Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
   Driver      "kbd"
   Option       "XkbRules" "xorg"
   Option       "XkbModel" "pc105"
   Option       "XkbLayout" "be"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
   Driver      "mouse"
   Option       "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
   Option       "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
   Option       "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
   Option       "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
   Driver      "fglrx"
   #Option      "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
   #Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
   #Option "AccelDFS" "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" "Enable"
EndSection


You should remove fglrx completely before installing the radeonhd drivers. Search for "fglrx" in Synaptic and uncheck any package related to the display driver. Also, there's still a reference to fglrx in your xorg.xonf:

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
    Driver      "fglrx"
    #Option      "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
    #Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
    #Option "AccelDFS" "true"
EndSection

The driver part should probably be changed to "radeonhd".

mensch wrote:You should remove fglrx completely before installing the radeonhd drivers. Search for "fglrx" in Synaptic and uncheck any package related to the display driver. Also, there's still a reference to fglrx in your xorg.xonf:

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
    Driver      "fglrx"
    #Option      "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
    #Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
    #Option "AccelDFS" "true"
EndSection

The driver part should probably be changed to "radeonhd".

Ok removed everything and when I startup it's the low graphics screen again.

I set my config to ati and radeonhd.

With radeonhd I got message that modules weren't loaded (how can I load them?) and ati give's nothing very meaningful

I read in the ubuntu article mentioned previously the following

Driver specifies which driver you want to use. IT HAS TO BE ati and NOT radeon or fglrx. The "ati" driver is a wrapper that will load the "radeon" driver if possible.

Your xorg.conf should be in order then. To load the kernel module make sure it's compiled and installed per my instructions in my earlier post.

If you've already followed those steps you might want to execute "modprobe radeonhd" (or whatever the kernel module is called) from a terminal. If the command reports the module is not present you might want to install the radeon drivers again, including the ATI display driver wrapper - probably called "xserver-xorg-video-ati".

Okay I now have build the modules using GIT from freedesktop.org, looks like I'm using the drivers now

no fglrx to see in lsmod and glxinfo | grep vendor tells me

server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: SGI
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org

I now use radeonhd in my config. I'll see if I can tweak the driver config reading some articles for better performance.

My current performance

ward@ward-desktop:~$ glxgears
2618 frames in 5.0 seconds = 520.657 FPS
3140 frames in 5.0 seconds = 624.923 FPS
3280 frames in 5.0 seconds = 654.111 FPS
3320 frames in 5.0 seconds = 660.176 FPS
3380 frames in 5.0 seconds = 675.452 FPS
3360 frames in 5.0 seconds = 668.728 FPS
3360 frames in 5.0 seconds = 669.438 FPS

fgl_glxgears is gone [hr]
Okay my top speed is 775 FPS with the current config. Does anybody knows how to speed up things more ?

few hours ago I had fgl_glxgears running @ 3000 or so but can you compare this test?

Code: Select all


Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier     "Default Layout"
   Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
   Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
   Driver      "kbd"
   Option       "XkbRules" "xorg"
   Option       "XkbModel" "pc105"
   Option       "XkbLayout" "be"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
   Driver      "mouse"
   Option       "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
   Option       "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
   Option       "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
   Option       "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
   Driver      "radeonhd"
   Option      "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
   #Option      "AccelMethod" "EXA"
   #Option     "AccelDFS" "true"
   Option   "ColorTiling"    "on"
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" "off"
EndSection

section "ServerFlags"
   option "AIGLX" "Off"
EndSection