Unacceptable state of ATI drivers with Gentoo

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

I have set up gentoo several times and I have never had so much trouble setting up X server.

I am unsure if this is the fault of ATI developers, but I have to say support in other distros is far far better:

Ubuntu 8.10 has them from the repository, work out of box.
Debian Lenny does not, but I installed with the binary package from amd.com, worked the first try(catalyst 9.2).
Suse 11.1 has them in repository, worked first try.

My initial installation of gentoo was a breeze, the only problem is with the xorg-server and ati-drivers. It is definitely not straight-forward. I managed to make it work only to find several glitches when running opengl applications.

This is not a flame, it is just that I think something must be done.

d2_racing · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 2:30 pm Post subject:

Hi, can you post this :

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

What kind of problems did you encounter? Since these drivers are closed source and depend on a rapidly changing target, there are limits on what the Gentoo developers can do to make it easier. Each of the distributions you cited ship prepared binary packages, which greatly reduces the number of variations that need to be tested.

On the other hand, I have never had any problems getting the open ATI drivers working on the first try.

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

That is unfortunate. I was hoping for a more obvious failure, along the lines of a program crash or hang. Those are easier to debug than mouse responsiveness issues. Lacking any other options, try booting an Ubuntu/Debian/SuSE kernel with your Gentoo userland. That will let us determine whether the problem is with the ATI kernel module interacting badly with your Gentoo kernel or if the problem is in how the ATI userland libraries are behaving. You may need to rebuild the ATI kernel shim for the other distribution kernel, but hopefully you can get the right shim from the system where the distribution where you tested before.

Also, can you check whether the ATI package you used on the other systems is the same version as the one you installed in Gentoo? nVidia closed drivers tend to be very hit-or-miss, and it would not surprise me if the ATI drivers were as well. If so, jumping from one version to another, even as an upgrade, could be the difference between perfect functionality and a system that regularly panics.

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

I managed somehow to get the driver working with no glitches. Now I still have the crazy mouse behavior.

Since I have the new Xorg-server, I have to configure the device in /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-x11-input.fdi .

The mouse resets to the lower corner of the screen, so if I try to move it, it will move there again. Basically unusable. I will start digging on this issue, but if you guys have a suggestion then it is welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Tadeas · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:54 pm Post subject:

I use this workaround to get the ATI drivers working. I put "fglrx" to VIDEO_CARDS, download the ati-driver-installer from ati.amd.com, put "x11-drivers/ati-driver-XXXXX" to /etc/make.profile/package.provided where XXXXX is the version I've downloaded (8.592 for 9-3) and emerge xorg. Works fine...
However, the installation of either x11-drivers/ati-drivers and the ati-driver-installer from ati.amd.com doesn't work with 2.6.29 yet!

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

After some digging, the problem with the cursor was related to the ut2004 game, so everything is good now.

I think I will keep 8.582 now since it's working and all

What do you do after you put the package in the package.provided file? I copied the ati .run file in portage distfiles directory, but dont know how to start the installation after that.

Tadeas · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject:

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

M · Guru Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 432

I don't think it is wise to use fglrx installer on gentoo, same goes for nvidia installer, I don't have much experience with ati but I did fought fight with them a couple of times. All those binary drivers comes with their own libraries, libGL etc. and gentoo has a very nice interface via eselect to choose which opengl you will use, maybe you will want to try open drivers later and then you must manually clean the chaos that installers left.
Also, gentoo can't do much here, ati drivers are known to be very baaad, I know the taste, been there, and still I am convinced (altough not sure) that devs are done what can be done, gentoo will not edit magicaly your xorg.conf, not force update configs, nobody will compile your kernel (maybe genkernel but I never used the tool). I know for example that nvidia driver eclass will take your pci card id and compare with ids from nvidia docs and suggest you which legacy driver to use and what to mask because there are like 3 legacy driver but there it stops, it is simple to continue and install right version for user but that is YOUR job, that is how gentoo works. I didn't saw something like that in other distros, arch has wiki page that tells you how you can choose the right driver, ubuntu I don't know but I guess it is similar. So gentoo will do stuff for you but just not that stuff...

As I figured ati drivers need just too many magic options, new version fixes bugs but creates even worse bugs etc. open source drivers are maybe not that powerfull for games (not yet) but at least there are no hard locking etc.

pilla · Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:06 am Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Gentoo Chat.
_________________
"I'm just very selective about the reality I choose to accept." -- Calvin

eccerr0r · Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:26 pm Post subject:

The biggest problem with fglrx/nvidia-drivers with Gentoo is that there are too many possible variables, and there's no way for ATI/NVidia to check every single possibility. On other distributions, there are a lot of fixed options that aren't normally changed, and that reduces the search space for issues when making a distribution. Best bet for Gentoo is to avoid these binary kernel modules if you can, else configure it exactly as if it were a Redhat/Debian/Ubuntu/SuSE/... or other more well known distribution.

YMMV.
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Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

Well guys the good news is that it works and it works fast.

The only issue is amdcccle does not work. Gives a segmentation fault message which is not very helpful.

I will dig deeper into the issue later, but if you have this happened to you please let me know of any posible reason. This is 8.582 from portage.

azp · Guru Joined: 16 Nov 2003 Posts: 456 Location: Sweden

Regarding the mouse issue it sounds like a problem I've had in several games for a long time now. It seems to be related to SDL, and I finally solved it by adding:

bunder · Bodhisattva Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 5934

asturm · Developer Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 8936

Hardlocks should stop with KMS soon. Of course not for the binary blobs.

kernelOfTruth · Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:59 am Post subject:

compres · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 37

I can't seem to get amdcccle working.

Do you guys know how to modify the antialias and anisotropic, etc, without this tool?