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tsigo
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 12:56 am    Post subject: ATi X800 + xorg + AMD64 woes Reply with quote

I need help with getting an X800 to display at 1280x1024 in X.org. After running X -configure it defaults to a vga driver, and running X with that config works, but it's locked at 640x480 and what looks like black and white.

I just need it to do 2d, I have no plans to bother with gaming just yet. I also would like dual monitor support, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

I've seen some people have success with the "fglrx" driver, but I don't seem to have it and don't know how/where to get it. Some other people have said the "radeon" driver works, but again I don't have it. Are there any special kernel configurations I need to make, or something else I need to emerge?

This is my first ATi card, my first 64-bit install, and my first time with X.org, so I'm encountering a bit of a learning curve.
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riprjak
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:55 am    Post subject: Re: ATi X800 + xorg + AMD64 woes Reply with quote

tsigo wrote:
I need help with getting an X800 to display at 1280x1024 in X.org. After running X -configure it defaults to a vga driver, and running X with that config works, but it's locked at 640x480 and what looks like black and white.

I just need it to do 2d, I have no plans to bother with gaming just yet. I also would like dual monitor support, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

I've seen some people have success with the "fglrx" driver, but I don't seem to have it and don't know how/where to get it. Some other people have said the "radeon" driver works, but again I don't have it. Are there any special kernel configurations I need to make, or something else I need to emerge?

This is my first ATi card, my first 64-bit install, and my first time with X.org, so I'm encountering a bit of a learning curve.


The "radeon" driver is part of Xorg, you have it somewhere; but it wont help :) No need to enable kernel drivers for anything since your card is unsupported by the open source drivers (see below). X defaulted to the "vga" driver because it could not identify who your card belonged to driverwise (I suspect lspci reports "unknown chipset" for your card, try Update-pciids, may help, but ether way, X isnt aware of your card yet).

For 1280x1024, you will need to use the "vesa" drivers for X and it should be fine, assunming the x800 supports VESA standards ;)... my old 9600pro needed this. However, for 64bit linux, I recommend ditching ATI as their driver support is just north of non-existant. I switched to nvidia 5950ultra and their 64bit drivers function flawlessly; hopefully you wont be forced into the same expensive corner as ATI forced me. Anyway, to detail:

The config file, xorg.conf, can be found in /etc/X11

edit (nano -w xorg.conf, vi xorg.conf, whatever) and edit the drivers section, replace Driver "vga" with Driver "vesa".

In the "screens" section, add "1280x1024" or whatever AHEAD of "640x480". Change default depth from 8 (bit) to 16, 24 or 32 depending of your needs and you should be right.

Conversely you could use the config program (buggered if I know the command name, xorgcfg or something) and have a prompted configuration.

Just bear in mind you want the "vesa" driver, none of the radeon drivers will work for you AFAIK.

The ati-drivers package provides "fglrx" but it IS NOT available for 64bit. So it wont help you. As far as I understand, ATI have announced no plans to release a 64bit linux driver (I may be wrong) so you wont be able to have accelerated 3D graphics in 64bit linux at all, unless ATI get around to compiling their drivers for amd64. They further make life hard as they do not adequately document their current cards to allow open source drivers to be created.

I am curious why you have such an extreme graphics card for 2D only :) but Im just jealous of your extreme toy. Its unfortunate you didnt search the forums or google first or you would have realised how much ATI spit on 64 bit users of the windows beta and linux... pity, since their cards are quite nice; tho nvidia IMHO do opengl and, hence, linux, better.

I have an MSI k8t neo fsir2 with an amd64 3200+ and have been running 64git gentoo since october last year. I *used* to have a radeon9600pro because I didnt do my homework ; I switched to an nvidia 5950ultra.

Hope this helps.

err!
jak.
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Dreq
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Unfortunatly, I have.. I got my Radeon 9800 256mb card working in 2D quite flawlessly. X -configure generated an errornous xorg.conf file that I simply cleaned up (Weird stuff like my VSync beiung like 80-0 and a second vsync entrying with a value of 238124192 or something).

The ATI Driver petition is 11,000 strong +. I'd suggest signing it, and emailing ATI asking about the 64-bit linux drivers. You know what their response will be, but if we can get 10's of thousands of people to email with linux 64-bit enquire, they'll either give in, or loose millions in sales next year.

Linky:
http://www.petitiononline.com/atipet/petition.html
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tsigo
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:52 am    Post subject: Re: ATi X800 + xorg + AMD64 woes Reply with quote

Quote:
I am curious why you have such an extreme graphics card for 2D only :) but Im just jealous of your extreme toy. Its unfortunate you didnt search the forums or google first or you would have realised how much ATI spit on 64 bit users of the windows beta and linux... pity, since their cards are quite nice; tho nvidia IMHO do opengl and, hence, linux, better.


Fair question. Windows gaming is the only answer. I really only want Linux for development, hence the 2d + dual monitor requirement. This is my first ATi card ever, I've had 4 other nVidias. I'll give ATi this one generation to keep me, and if their Linux support still sucks, well then it's back to nVidia.

Thanks for the other information, I'll have to try it in the next few days and get back to you.


Last edited by tsigo on Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:58 am; edited 1 time in total
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riprjak
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dreq wrote:
Unfortunatly, I have.. I got my Radeon 9800 256mb card working in 2D quite flawlessly. X -configure generated an errornous xorg.conf file that I simply cleaned up (Weird stuff like my VSync beiung like 80-0 and a second vsync entrying with a value of 238124192 or something).

The ATI Driver petition is 11,000 strong +. I'd suggest signing it, and emailing ATI asking about the 64-bit linux drivers. You know what their response will be, but if we can get 10's of thousands of people to email with linux 64-bit enquire, they'll either give in, or loose millions in sales next year.

Linky:
http://www.petitiononline.com/atipet/petition.html


I also had my 9600pro working flawlessly 2D (using vesa driver, radeon driver at the time caused random lockups). Its good to see people trying to change ATIs mind, hope that works for you. When I spoke the their technical support in January I got not just unhelpful but downright rude and insulting responses. I finally gave up in early feb when I needed 3D.

Since it was April 2003 when ATI announced full support for x86_64 chipsets, I felt I gave them more than long enough to live up to their word.

err!
jak

PS : I find linux gaming quite acceptable... I am still fiddling with wine/cedega (shudder, using cedega is almost as bad as using windows itself, I know) and the 32bit compatibility dll's for nvidia opengl to see if I can get it functional on the desk; but I play everything under linux on my laptop... sure, nwn and ut2004 have linux clients available; but counterstrike et al, far cry and doom3 all work fine (doom3 will eventually have a native client too); the laptop has a radeon9700 in it, so I do still own one ati product; it is a 32bit system and even that had teething problems with ati's drivers fscking it up. Its all good now.
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BillyDoc
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:35 pm    Post subject: Take off the gloves . . . Reply with quote

I think it has been long enough to start a new little escalation in this petition thing. I just sent the following to The Inquirer:[color=red]

Hi Mike,

You might want to take a look at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?atipet where 11,500 grumpy Linux users have signed a petition to get ATI off their bloated butts and to work producing the drivers they promised back in April of 2003. Linux drivers, that is, for ATI's graphic cards. The aforementioned 11,500 are promising to give ATI a pass when they open their wallets for their next graphic card purchases. Do you suppose that ATI's stockholders know how management is managing to mangle their customer relations with such monstrously massive multiplicity? Probably not. You should so inform them!

Bill Cushman[/color]

Given the reasonable hypothesis that each of those 11,500 signatories influences 10 others, and that each lost sale costs ATI at least $50 . . . then the stockholders are now loosing close to $5,750,000 and counting.

You might want to spread this message around where those same stockholders might lurk.
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tsigo
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doesn't look like the x800 supports VESA. X launches to a black screen, and even after killing it with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace I can't see the command line, or even Alt+F2 to get a different terminal. I can only ssh to the box and reboot it.
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riprjak
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tsigo wrote:
Doesn't look like the x800 supports VESA. X launches to a black screen, and even after killing it with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace I can't see the command line, or even Alt+F2 to get a different terminal. I can only ssh to the box and reboot it.


:) oops... does the live CD boot up with a framebuffer resolution greater than 640x480?? any pertinent info in the X log??
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tsigo
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

riprjak wrote:
tsigo wrote:
Doesn't look like the x800 supports VESA. X launches to a black screen, and even after killing it with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace I can't see the command line, or even Alt+F2 to get a different terminal. I can only ssh to the box and reboot it.


:) oops... does the live CD boot up with a framebuffer resolution greater than 640x480?? any pertinent info in the X log??


No, I got a repeating error when I tried to boot the LiveCD with framebuffer, don't recall what it was. I had to use the gentoo-nofb kernel. I didn't think to check the X log :oops: Next time.
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kevdoig
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 9:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

just looked on atis site out of interest. They seem to have a linux x800 driver availabel for download. Don't know if its new/working, but might be worth a go?
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tsigo
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 10:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kevdoig wrote:
just looked on atis site out of interest. They seem to have a linux x800 driver availabel for download. Don't know if its new/working, but might be worth a go?


These? Not sure about those. Any indication if they'll work for AMD64?

Edit: Argh, their PDF doc lists the 2.4 kernel as a requirement. :roll:
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kevdoig
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

2.4?? good to see ATI are nice and uptodate with there linux drivers again! lol. Sorry to get your hopes up! Why would they develop a driver that'll only work on the 2.4 kernel when the card was only out after the 2.6 kernel became mainstream?
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riprjak
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tsigo wrote:
kevdoig wrote:
just looked on atis site out of interest. They seem to have a linux x800 driver availabel for download. Don't know if its new/working, but might be worth a go?


These? Not sure about those. Any indication if they'll work for AMD64?

Edit: Argh, their PDF doc lists the 2.4 kernel as a requirement. :roll:


IIRC, ATI always list 2.4 as a requirement; there are patches to build the kernel module against 2.6 (gentoo uses just such a thing)... these drivers do not have 64bit support, they are jsut the latest release of the generic radeon driver for linux; they are, like ALL ati drivers (inexplicably) compiled with i386 target... you gotta assume that the video drivers would benefit from SSE and 3dnow optimised code, wouldn't you??? or at least a more reasonable target, like i586 (I challenge you to find a 386 or 486 mobo that will accept a radeon).

err!
jak.
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Dreq
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2004 12:12 am    Post subject: Re: Take off the gloves . . . Reply with quote

BillyDoc wrote:
You might want to take a look at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?atipet where 11,500 grumpy Linux users have signed a petition to get ATI off their bloated butts and to work producing the drivers they promised back in April of 2003.


Its been two days, and its up to 14,103 signatures now.
Thats 2,600 in two days. Math Time!

Assuming that all ATI users keep to themself and don't tell anyone else, and assuming the petitions grow as it is. And lets assume that each customer WOULD have bought a $150 or better card about a year from now. Thats about 9,100 customers a week, or $1,365,000 worth of post-retail consumer loss a week. Go ati!
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tsigo
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thought I'd offer an update to my situation. I ordered an XFX 6800 GT today from Newegg, and I'm planning to sell the x800 after I get it. Sorry ATi, you lost a customer for the future.
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