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vap0rtranz
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 123
Location: USA, Earth, Sol, Milk Way, ...
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 Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:01 pm Post subject: xorg update broke fglrx |
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I decided to finally update xorg-x11 from 6.8 to 7.x and now X fails to start with the common error:
| Code: | (EE) No drivers available.
Fatal server error:
no screens found |
X had loaded fglrx via ati-drivers-8.12.x against a gentoo-2.6.12 kernel and 3D accel worked. I've updated xorg, ati-drivers, and kernel in failed attempts to fix this. 
There's been a lot of discussion about ati-drivers issues after upgrading xorg (as noted below) and I've trudged through the forum (and my own recollection of fixes that worked in the past) but no luck this time. It basically sounds like this is a puzzle of versions that work together, so which are working for you guys? Specifically, if you use fglrx with working 3D, what's your:
1) kernel -
2) xorg-server -
3) xorg-x11 -
4) ati-drivers -
Right now, I'm at:
1) gentoo-2.6.20 - was 2.6.12 and essentially kept the same config, literally the same for Character Devices section
2) 1.2 - don't know what was working previously 
3) 7.1 - tried 7.2; was working with 6.8
4) 8.37.6 - tried older drivers like 8.27 and 8.30.3 but these fail to build ... 
I have noticed one thing that might be odd. fglrx is not automatically loaded when X fails to start. But I can't recall if the 2.6.12 kernel loaded it on demand for X ... eitherway both kernels autoload my intel-agp and agpgart.
Similar threads that don't fix it.
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Last edited by vap0rtranz on Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:50 am; edited 1 time in total |
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RayDude
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Joined: 29 May 2004
Posts: 2060
Location: San Jose, CA
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| Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:11 pm Post subject: Re: xorg update broke fglrx |
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| vap0rtranz wrote: | I decided to finally update xorg-x11 from 6.8 to 7.x and now X fails to start with the common error:
| Code: | (EE) No drivers available.
Fatal server error:
no screens found |
X had loaded fglrx via ati-drivers-8.12.x against a gentoo-2.6.12 kernel and 3D accel worked. I've updated xorg, ati-drivers, and kernel in failed attempts to fix this.
There's been a lot of discussion about ati-drivers issues after upgrading xorg (as noted below) and I've trudged through the forum (and my own recollection of fixes that worked in the past) but no luck this time. It basically sounds like this is a puzzle of versions that work together, so which are working for you guys? Specifically, if you use fglrx with working 3D, what's your:
1) kernel -
2) xorg-server -
3) xorg-x11 -
4) ati-drivers -
Right now, I'm at:
1) gentoo-2.6.20 - was 2.6.12 and essentially kept the same config, literally the same for Character Devices section
2) 1.2 - don't know what was working previously
3) 7.1 - tried 7.2
4) 8.37.6 - tried older drivers like 8.27 and 8.30.3
I have noticed one thing that might be odd. fglrx is not automatically loaded when X fails to start. But I can't recall if the 2.6.12 kernel loaded it on demand for X ... eitherway both kernels autoload my intel-agp and agpgart.
Similar threads that don't fix it.
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New drivers don't work with old cards. And old drivers don't work with new kernels (without a patch). I found the patch somewhere on google to get my old laptop working but have since replaced it and put XP back on it for my daughter's games.
Your best bet, as long as you don't need 3D acceleration is to use the open source drivers. There are howtos for the open source drivers out there (I think there's one at gentoo-wiki.com. The open source drivers are about as buggy as ATI's binaries but they are open and they are better supported.
For anything older than a 9700pro I believe the only ATI binary driver that works is: ati-drivers-8.27.10-r1.ebuild and it requires the patch I was talking about. Its just a define or something simple like that.
There is hope, though, AMD has promised to make better drivers for ATI cards. Lets hope they follow through with it and support legacy cards.
Or if you have the inclination, go buy an NVidia card. At this time, ATI linux drivers suck.
Raydude
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vap0rtranz
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 123
Location: USA, Earth, Sol, Milk Way, ...
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| Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | New drivers don't work with old cards. |
So downgrade the ati-drivers ...
| Quote: | | And old drivers don't work with new kernels (without a patch) |
... or not. Eitherway the kernel was NOT the change that caused this problem. An emerge xorg-x11 started the problem.
| Quote: | | There are howtos for the open source drivers ... |
Obviously. I can "see" this thread because I reverted to the radeon driver.
| Quote: | | For anything older than a 9700pro I believe the only ATI binary driver that works is: ati-drivers-8.27.10-r1.ebuild |
aahhhh ... is there some doc that talks about which versions support which cards?
| Quote: | | Or if you have the inclination, go buy an NVidia card |
If only laptops were like desktops. 
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RayDude
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Joined: 29 May 2004
Posts: 2060
Location: San Jose, CA
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| Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:31 am Post subject: |
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| vap0rtranz wrote: |
aahhhh ... is there some doc that talks about which versions support which cards?
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Not that I know of...
I found out via trial and error.
Dumb question, did you set your video card in make.conf?
| Code: | | VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx" |
Raydude
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vap0rtranz
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 123
Location: USA, Earth, Sol, Milk Way, ...
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| Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Code: | | VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx vesa" |
I've yanked out vesa and vesa-tng from the kernel just incase the new ati-drivers didn't like it. The old ones had no problem with a splashscreen at bootup and on the console while using fglrx in X.
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vap0rtranz
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 123
Location: USA, Earth, Sol, Milk Way, ...
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| Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:43 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Not that I know of... I found out via trial and error. |
I found the cards supported on AMD/ATI's website by reading the Release Notes of previous drivers. It says that I have to use <=8.28.8
UPDATE
2) I've downgraded xorg-server to 1.1.1 and still no luck ... had to re-emerge all the input devices too to get it working with radeon again
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RayDude
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Joined: 29 May 2004
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Location: San Jose, CA
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| Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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| vap0rtranz wrote: | | Quote: | | Not that I know of... I found out via trial and error. |
I found the cards supported on AMD/ATI's website by reading the Release Notes of previous drivers. It says that I have to use <=8.28.8
UPDATE
2) I've downgraded xorg-server to 1.1.1 and still no luck ... had to re-emerge all the input devices too to get it working with radeon again |
If I remember correctly you have to go to a really old xorg to use that driver...
I think its before 'xorg-server' was a separate package.
Raydude.
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vap0rtranz
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 123
Location: USA, Earth, Sol, Milk Way, ...
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| Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I think its before 'xorg-server' was a separate package. |
aahhhh. Well this all makes more and more sense now.
I've switched to radeon and x11-drm. glxgears is giving some decent ~1500 fps and one of the reasons why I originally used ATI's binary drivers was for performance. So I think the best solution for older, ATI cards -- like anything <r300 -- might be dropping (our previous use of) ati-drivers and fglrx.
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RayDude
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| Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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| vap0rtranz wrote: | | Quote: | | I think its before 'xorg-server' was a separate package. |
aahhhh. Well this all makes more and more sense now.
I've switched to radeon and x11-drm. glxgears is giving some decent ~1500 fps and one of the reasons why I originally used ATI's binary drivers was for performance. So I think the best solution for older, ATI cards -- like anything <r300 -- might be dropping (our previous use of) ati-drivers and fglrx. |
Repeat after me: ATI sucks for not supporting older cards, for having crappy drivers, and for generally doing stuff to piss off the linux community.
That's one of the reasons I bought a new laptop, and why I was so very choosy in what I got. AMD, NVidia...
Raydude
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