Difference between revisions of "Fglrx"

Latest revision as of 02:17, 15 April 2013

Packages

The ATI drivers have explicit permission for repackaging and redistribution of the Linux drivers. Many distributions are supported within the installer, and many more repackaged by external developers. Please visit the Distribution Page at the Unofficial ATI driver Wiki

Debian
- These packages have been added to Debian unstable as fglrx-driver, so you can now apt-get them and use module-assistant to install.
- If you are on stable sarge with backport's kernel 2.6.15, download ATI's installer, let it build Debian packages and proceed as usual. There's a detailed description available.
- Debian Howto
SUSE packages: http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/ati-installer-HOWTO.html
Gentoo # emerge ati-drivers
Fedora 4 packages: http://rpm.livna.org
- For stock Fedora kernels: # yum install kernel-module-fglrx-$(uname -r) ati-fglrx
- For custom-compiled kernels: see How to build custom packages for fglrx
Fedora 5 packages: http://rpm.livna.org
- For stock Fedora kernels: # yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx
- For custom-compiled kernels: see How to build custom packages for fglrx
Fedora 7 packages: http://rpm.livna.org
- The newest version of the driver (8.39.4) is supposed to work with Fedora 7, and is available from Livna.
Arch Linux

# pacman -S catalyst (kernel module for the stock kernel)

# pacman -S catalyst-utils (xorg7 stuff and tools)

Ubuntu
Mandriva packages: # urpmi x11-driver-video-fglrx
- the easiest way however to configure everything easily is to run # drakconf

Building for Xorg 7.0

To compile fglrx versions <= 8.24.8 for Xorg 7.0.0, fake Xorg 6.9.0 by

# export X_VERSION=x690; sh ati-driver-installer-8.24.8-x86.run

Next, move the various resulting libraries and modules from /usr/X11R6 to /usr/lib/xorg

In /usr/src/ATI additional sources are installed for fireglcontrol and fgl_glxgears

Status

Current version: 8.1 (8.454) (18st January 2008). Major changes:

8.4 compilable on 2.6.25 using this patch
8.1: Fixed suspending on kernel version 2.6.23 or later. Custom code in xorg.conf will no longer be ignored.
7-12: FireGL support, fixed memory leak when running OpenGL applications, X -configure no longer results in a segmentation fault. Connecting a display device that supports 1680x1050 may result in a maximum display resolution of 1280x1024 only being available.
7-11: new versioning scheme, kernel 2.6.23 support. Required for Xorg server 1.4, but does not support FireGL cards. So don't upgrade to Xorg 1.4 if you have one!
8.42.3: Composite support added enabling AIGLX and Beryl/Compiz on the desktop. Support for (most?) FireGl cards dropped (should be restored in upcoming versions)
8.41.7: increased OpenGL performance on some Radeon Cards, size/position TV-out adjustments work for Radeon X1900 or higher, X crash when connecting external DFP display fixed
8.40.4: some new TV out control options in CCC, another (non-exciting) maintenance release (see Phoronix)
8.39.4: kernel 2.6.22 support, TexturedVideo fix, aticonfig segfault fix (see 8.38.7 hotfix), to get rid of the "AMD Testing use only" logo, use this workaround.
8.38.7: hotfix release for "Using aticonfig --initial segfaults destroying xorg.conf file when run in X with Vesa driver.", search for "737-28261" on the ATI website.
8.38.6: RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 support, Xserver crashes on moving video window between two monitors fixed, corruption when playing multiple vodeps with textured video fixed
8.37.6: Xorg Server 1.3 support, CCC 1.0, crash when logging off from X fixed, Xv cropping bug fixed
8.36.5: Kernel 2.6.20 support, CCC Beta 0.9 with localization
8.35.5: Beta AMD Catalyst Control Center, X-Server termination from console does not result in a blank screen. Kernel 2.6.20 requires some patching (see fglrx patches section).
8.34.8: Radeon Xpress 1250 support, X-Video on x86_64 fix, hibernation mode fix. Kernel 2.6.20 requires some patching (see fglrx patches section).

Known problems and solutions

See Problems with fglrx.

User experience

Speed

How much is the speed gain versus the opensource drivers?

Compared to the old drivers, approximately 40% speed gain have been noticed with fglrx. However, there are issues with freezing/garbage after suspend, garbage when resizing desktop (via ctrlaltplus, ctrlaltminus), and garbage while using VMware. The current 8.14.13 has shown 400% improvement over using the open source radeon driver: 1200 FPS for glxgears¹!

However the situation seems to be changing significantly as time goes on. With recent x11-drm-20060608 driver (gentoo) and thinkpad t42 (ati 9600) the speed is confirmed as 1900fps and stable. As of October 2007 there is dramatic improvement in the open source 3d drivers in speed and stability.

3D acceleration

According to Flavio's page you need these options:

 Section "Module"
   ...
   Load "GLcore"
   Load "glx"
   Load "dri"
   ...
 EndSection

 # Of course you need to activate the driver
 Section "Device"
   ...
   Driver     "fglrx"
 EndSection

Don't forget to load the module fglrx (modprobe fglrx). Under Debian the module can be placed in /etc/modules.

With fglrx drivers prior to 8.42.3 will need to disable composite to enable 3D DRI acceleration. To do this, add an extra Extensions section (if necessary) containing:

 Section "Extensions"
    Option  "Composite" "Disable"  #make DRI work with fglrx.
 EndSection

If you are unsure whether you have DRI running, issue glxinfo | grep -i direct after disabling composite. Note, this

NOTE!

Video overlay acceleration may be disabled when 3D acceleration is enabled. The following comment from the xorg.conf file bundled with the fglrx driver indicates that:

  # === OpenGL Overlay ===
  # Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay
  #       will be disabled automatically
      Option "OpenGLOverlay"              "1"

However, you can use either regular Xv video overlay or make the video an opengl texture and let the OpenGL engine scale your video. This has nothing to do with the acceleration of 2D drawing primitives. Further, your mileage on performance may vary depending on what card you have. The open source drivers don't support newer cards, while the ATI drivers don't support older cards.

You may be able to preserve VideoOverlay acceleration if you explicitly remove the OpenGLOverlay using:

Option "VideoOverlay" "True" and Option "OpenGLOverlay" "False". See Flavio's page for detail.

Power saving

Power saving is much better than with the radeon driver, but doesn't work in dual-screen configuration (see How to make use of Graphics Chips Power Management features).

Suspending with fglrx

On a ThinkPad T42 with Kernel 2.6.19 with Software Suspend 2 and R60 with Kernel 2.6.18-suspend2-r1 (Gentoo) , the following addition to /etc/hibernate/suspend2.conf is required:

 # For fglrx
 ProcSetting extra_pages_allowance 20000

Display Switching (Dynamic Display Management)

Version 8.25.18 introduces a new feature: Dynamic Display Management. It allows display switching on-the-fly.

To list all connected and enabled monitors:

# aticonfig --query-monitor

To switch displays:

# aticonfig --enable-monitor=STRING,STRING, where STRING can be: none, lvds, crt1, crt2, tv, tdms1, tdms2

Only 2 displays can be enabled at the same time. Any displays that are not on the list will be disabled.

Using an ACPI script, aticonfig can be used to switch displays on a key press.

The Catalyst Control Center, which comes with the driver (at least from Livna in Fedora Core 6) can be used to do this switching. It also does various other kinds of display managements. However, the version that comes with 8.39.4 doesn't seem to handle switching into Big Desktop mode, does anyone know how to get this to work? The control center also complains a lot about rebooting, but rebooting doesn't seem to be required. Does anyone have decent documentation for the control center?

Useful links

ATI Linux Driver FAQ
ATI Radeon Linux How-To
Rage3D Linux Discussion Forum
Radeon Driver Forum at Driverheaven
Gentoo ATI Radeon FAQ
Gentoo T42 ATI. DRI + xorg driver
Unofficial community ATI bugzilla - tracks bugs in the driver. Might be monitored by ATI ([1], [2]).

ThinkPads that may be supported

Supported chips, as found in select IBM ThinkPads:

NOTE!

fglrx version 8.29.6 discontinued support for Radeon 9200 and earlier.

ThinkPads that are NOT supported by fglrx

Unsupported chips, as found in select IBM ThinkPads:

ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
- R40, R51
- T30
- T41, T42

FOOTNOTES [Δ]

Note that glxgears isn't a benchmark tool, it's so simple that its FPS values is without any meaning... you can only compare glxgears using the same drivers/machine, if you change any of then you can have higher/lower values and in real life programs/games happen to have the opposite effects. Think in terms of a car engines rpms: higher rpms in the same car usually means a faster car, change anything and it's meaningless, ie: gears, truck, wheel size, etc. make it useless.

External links

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 |style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
 |style="vertical-align:top" |
-== ATI fglrx driver ==
-This is a proprietary Linux binary-only driver for ATI graphic chips with support for 3D acceleration.
-Also see [[R300|opensource driver]] with 3D support
+'''Fglrx''' is a proprietary, Linux binary-only driver for ATI graphic chips with support for 3D acceleration.
+<thinkwiki>5</thinkwiki>
 |}
-==Availability / Project Homepage==
-Home page: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html
 == Packages ==
 The ATI drivers have explicit permission for repackaging and redistribution of the Linux drivers.  Many distributions are supported within the installer, and many more repackaged by external developers.  Please visit the  [http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Category:Distributions Distribution Page at the Unofficial ATI driver Wiki]
-*{{Debian}} packages: http://www.stanchina.net/~flavio/debian-official/fglrx-driver.html
+*{{Debian}}
 ** These packages have been added to Debian unstable as <tt>fglrx-driver</tt>, so you can now apt-get them and use module-assistant to install.
 ** If you are on stable sarge with backport's kernel 2.6.15, download ATI's installer, let it build Debian packages and proceed as usual. There's a [http://jroller.com/page/erAck?entry=lot_day_6_2_fglrx detailed description] available.
+** [http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Debian_Installation_Guide Debian Howto]
 *{{SUSE}} packages: http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/ati-installer-HOWTO.html
 *{{Gentoo}} {{cmdroot|emerge ati-drivers}}
@@ Line 25: / Line 23: @@
 ** For stock Fedora kernels: {{cmdroot|yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx}}
 ** For custom-compiled kernels: see [[How to build custom packages for fglrx]]
+*{{Fedora}} 7 packages: http://rpm.livna.org
+** The newest version of the driver (8.39.4) is supposed to work with Fedora 7, and is available from Livna.
 *{{Arch Linux}}
-:{{cmdroot|pacman -S ati-fglrx}} (kernel module for 2.6.15-ARCH)
+:{{cmdroot|pacman -S catalyst}} (kernel module for the stock kernel)
-:{{cmdroot|pacman -S ati-fglrx-archck}} (kernel module for 2.6.15-archck)
+:{{cmdroot|pacman -S catalyst-utils}} (xorg7 stuff and tools)
-:{{cmdroot|pacman -S ati-fglrx-utils}} (xorg7 stuff and tools)
 *{{Ubuntu}}
 **[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Dapper_Installation_Guide Dapper Drake Howto]
 **[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Breezy_Installation_Guide Breezy Badger Howto]
 **[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Edgy_Installation_Guide Edgy Eft Howto]
+**[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Feisty_Installation_Guide Feisty Fawn Howto]
+**[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Gutsy_Installation_Guide Gutsy Gibbon Howto]
+**[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php?title=Ubuntu_Hardy_Installation_Guide Hardy Heron Howto]
+**[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php?title=Ubuntu_Intrepid_Installation_Guide Intrepid Howto]
+**[http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Jaunty_Installation_Guide Jaunty Jackalope Howto]
+*{{Mandriva}} packages: {{cmdroot|urpmi x11-driver-video-fglrx}}
+** the easiest way however to configure everything easily is to run {{cmdroot|drakconf}}
 == Building for Xorg 7.0==
@@ Line 42: / Line 48: @@
 == Status ==
-Current version: 8.31.5 (15th November 2006)
+Current version: 8.1 (8.454) (18st January 2008).
 Major changes:
-* 8.31.5: no new features, only bugfixes.  Of note, for some users, this version breaks suspend-to-ram.
+* 8.4 compilable on 2.6.25 using this [http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-5037932.html#5037932 patch]
-* 8.30.3: no new features, only bugfixes
+<!-- some versions missing -->
-* 8.29.6: Linux 2.6.18 support, dropped support for Radeon 8500/9000/9100/9200/9250 (both, mobile and normal versions)
+* [https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/catalyst_81_linux.html 8.1]: Fixed suspending on kernel version 2.6.23 or later. Custom code in xorg.conf will no longer be ignored.
-* 8.28.8: Display Switching Support for ThinkPads, ATI Pairmode support, Retaining display device state between restarts, Support for Radeon Xpress 1200, 1250, and 1300
+* [http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/catalyst_712_linux.html 7-12]: FireGL support, fixed memory leak when running OpenGL applications, X -configure no longer results in a segmentation fault. Connecting a display device that supports 1680x1050 may result in a maximum display resolution of 1280x1024 only being available.
-* 8.27.10: X.org 7.1 support, Fedora Core package support
+* [http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/catalyst_711_linux.html 7-11]: new versioning scheme, kernel 2.6.23 support. Required for Xorg server 1.4, but does not support FireGL cards. So don't upgrade to Xorg 1.4 if you have one!
-* 8.26.18: support for dynamically attached DFPs and Thermal Event Power Management (both via daemon), minor bug fixes
+* 8.42.3: Composite support added enabling AIGLX and Beryl/Compiz on the desktop. Support for (most?) FireGl cards dropped (should be restored in upcoming versions)
-* 8.25.18: Xorg 7.0 support, FireGLâ„¢V5xxx/V7xxx support, Dynamic Display Management, fixed a lot of critical bugs.
+* 8.41.7: increased OpenGL performance on some Radeon Cards, size/position TV-out adjustments work for Radeon X1900 or higher, X crash when connecting external DFP display fixed
-* 8.24.8: support for X1300, X1400, X1600, X1800 (generic and mobility) and 3D accelerated video playback on Avivo
+* 8.40.4: some new TV out control options in CCC, another (non-exciting) maintenance release (see [http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=804&num=1 Phoronix])
-* 8.23.7: support for X850 and X800, OpenGL 2.0 Enhancement, FSAA for some chips
+* 8.39.4: kernel 2.6.22 support, TexturedVideo fix, aticonfig segfault fix (see 8.38.7 hotfix), to get rid of the "AMD Testing use only" logo, use [http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10641&postcount=44 this] workaround.
-* 8.22.5: added kernel 2.6.15 support -- patch no longer required
+* 8.38.7: hotfix release for "Using aticonfig --initial segfaults destroying xorg.conf file when run in X with Vesa driver.", search for "737-28261" on the ATI website.
-* 8.21.7: initial OpenGL 2.0 support
+* 8.38.6: RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 support, Xserver crashes on moving video window between two monitors fixed, corruption when playing multiple vodeps with textured video fixed
-* 8.20.8: fixed resume issues, fixed compile problems with kernels 2.6.13 and 2.6.14
+* 8.37.6: Xorg Server 1.3 support, CCC 1.0, crash when logging off from X fixed, Xv cropping bug fixed
-* 8.19.10: has added suspend / resume and dynamic GPU power management support.  Using vbetool no longer required.
+* 8.36.5: Kernel 2.6.20 support, CCC Beta 0.9 with localization
+* 8.35.5: Beta AMD Catalyst Control Center, X-Server termination from console does not result in a blank screen. Kernel 2.6.20 requires some patching (see [[Problems_with_fglrx#fglrx_8.35.5|fglrx patches section]]).
+* 8.34.8: Radeon Xpress 1250 support, X-Video on x86_64 fix, hibernation mode fix. Kernel 2.6.20 requires some patching (see [[Problems_with_fglrx#fglrx_8.34.8|fglrx patches section]]).
 == Known problems and solutions ==
 See [[Problems with fglrx]].
 == User experience ==
 === Speed ===
@@ Line 66: / Line 74: @@
 Compared to the old drivers, approximately 40% speed gain have been noticed with fglrx. However, there are issues with freezing/garbage after suspend, garbage when resizing desktop (via {{key|ctrl}}{{key|alt}}{{key|plus}}, {{key|ctrl}}{{key|alt}}{{key|minus}}), and garbage while using VMware. The current 8.14.13 has shown 400% improvement over using the open source radeon driver: 1200 FPS for glxgears{{footnote|1}}!
-However the situation seems to be changing today. With recent x11-drm-20060608 driver (gentoo) and thinkpad t42 (ati 9600) the speed is confirmed as 1900fps without any single crash so far.
+However the situation seems to be changing significantly as time goes on. With recent x11-drm-20060608 driver (gentoo) and thinkpad t42 (ati 9600) the speed is confirmed as 1900fps and stable.  As of October 2007 there is dramatic improvement in the open source 3d drivers in speed and stability.
+=== 3D acceleration ===
+According to [http://xoomer.alice.it/flavio.stanchina/debian/fglrx-installer.html#configure Flavio's page] you need these options:
+  Section "Module"
+    ...
+    Load "GLcore"
+    Load "glx"
+    Load "dri"
+    ...
+  EndSection
+  # Of course you need to activate the driver
+  Section "Device"
+    ...
+    Driver     "fglrx"
+  EndSection
+Don't forget to load the module <tt>fglrx</tt> (<tt>modprobe fglrx</tt>).  Under Debian the module can be placed in <tt>/etc/modules</tt>.
+With fglrx drivers prior to 8.42.3 will need to disable composite to enable 3D DRI acceleration. To do this, add an extra Extensions section (if necessary) containing:
+  Section "Extensions"
+     Option  "Composite" "Disable"  #make DRI work with fglrx.
+  EndSection
+If you are unsure whether you have DRI running, issue <tt>glxinfo | grep -i direct</tt> after disabling composite.  Note, this
 {{NOTE|1=Video overlay acceleration may be disabled when 3D acceleration is enabled. The following comment from the xorg.conf file bundled with the fglrx driver indicates that:
@@ Line 73: / Line 110: @@
     #       will be disabled automatically
         Option "OpenGLOverlay"              "1"
-However, you can use either regular Xv video overlay or make the video an opengl texture and let the OpenGL engine scale your video.  This has nothing to do with the acceleration of 2D drawing primitives.  Further, your mileage on performance may vary depending on what card you have.  The open source drivers don't support newer cards, while the ATI drivers don't support older cards.}}
+However, you can use either regular Xv video overlay or make the video an opengl texture and let the OpenGL engine scale your video.  This has nothing to do with the acceleration of 2D drawing primitives.  Further, your mileage on performance may vary depending on what card you have.  The open source drivers don't support newer cards, while the ATI drivers don't support older cards.
+You may be able to preserve VideoOverlay acceleration if you explicitly remove the OpenGLOverlay using:
+Option "VideoOverlay"  "True" and Option "OpenGLOverlay" "False".  See [http://xoomer.alice.it/flavio.stanchina/debian/fglrx-installer.html#configure Flavio's page] for detail.}}
 === Power saving ===
 Power saving is much better than with the <tt>radeon</tt> driver, but doesn't work in dual-screen configuration (see [[How to make use of Graphics Chips Power Management features]]).
+=== Suspending with fglrx ===
+On a ThinkPad T42 with Kernel 2.6.19 with Software Suspend 2 and R60 with Kernel 2.6.18-suspend2-r1 (Gentoo) , the following addition to <tt>/etc/hibernate/suspend2.conf</tt> is required:
+  # For fglrx
+  ProcSetting extra_pages_allowance 20000
 === Display Switching (Dynamic Display Management) ===
@@ Line 89: / Line 137: @@
 Only 2 displays can be enabled at the same time. Any displays that are not on the list will be disabled.
+Using an [[Script for Dynamic Display Management with fglrx|ACPI script]], aticonfig can be used to switch displays on a key press.
+The '''Catalyst Control Center''', which comes with the driver (at least from Livna in Fedora Core 6) can be used to do this switching.  It also does various other kinds of display managements.  However, the version that comes with 8.39.4 doesn't seem to handle switching into Big Desktop mode, does anyone know how to get this to work?  The control center also complains a lot about rebooting, but rebooting doesn't seem to be required.  Does anyone have decent documentation for the control center?
 == Useful links ==
@@ Line 126: / Line 178: @@
 * [[ATI Mobility FireGL V5200]]
 ** {{T60p}}, {{Z61p}}
+* [[ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200]]
+** {{X100e}}
 == ThinkPads that are NOT supported by fglrx==
 Unsupported chips, as found in select IBM ThinkPads:
 * [[ATI Mobility Radeon 7500]]
-** {{R40}}
+** [[:Category:R40|R40]], [[:Category:R51|R51]]
-** {{T30}}
+** [[:Category:T30|T30]]
-** {{T42}}
+** [[:Category:T41|T41]], [[:Category:T42|T42]]
 {{footnotes|
 #Note that glxgears isn't a benchmark tool, it's so simple that its FPS values is without any meaning... you can only compare glxgears using the same drivers/machine, if you change any of then you can have higher/lower values and in real life programs/games happen to have the opposite effects. Think in terms of a car engines rpms: higher rpms in the same car usually means a faster car, change anything and it's meaningless, ie: gears, truck, wheel size, etc. make it useless.
 }}
+== See also ==
+* [[radeon]]
+== External links ==
+* [http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html Official website]
+* [http://debian.asconix.com/ati-fglrx-debian-lenny-howto ATI fglrx drivers on Debian 5.0 "Lenny" Howto]
 [[Category:Drivers]]

Difference between revisions of "Fglrx"

Latest revision as of 02:17, 15 April 2013

Contents

Packages

Building for Xorg 7.0

Status

Known problems and solutions

User experience

Speed

3D acceleration

Power saving

Suspending with fglrx

Display Switching (Dynamic Display Management)

Useful links

ThinkPads that may be supported

ThinkPads that are NOT supported by fglrx

See also

External links

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