Radeon 7000-9700 DRI CVS Install Guide

phelan · Last edited by phelan on Wed Mar 05, 2003 9:54 am; edited 4 times in total

This guide describes how to get and compile the newest DRI code responsible for 3D acceleration in XFree. This can speed up performance, resolve problems or bring up new problems!

Only do the follwing if you feel happy with testing-stage software!

Of course you have to change the paths according to your system and you need root-rights.

1. Emerge XFree 4.3

If you haven't already done so.

2. Download and compile the sources
First of all, make sure you have compiled AGP Support either into the Kernel or, even better, as a module.

Look at this guide:
http://dri.sourceforge.net/doc/DRIcompile.html

Most gentoo-people can start off with topic 6.
Follow the guide until you reach 8.3.
There I had to use 'make World' instead of the more complicated lines given.

We'll leave the guide now.
When it finished we need to compile the kernel-module:
cd ~/DRI-CVS/build/xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/os-support/linux/drm/kernel
make -f Makefile.linux radeon.o
cp radeon.o /lib/modules/2.4.19-gentoo-r10/kernel/drivers/char/drm/

3. Install the new drivers
(First you may want to backup the files we replace. This is not covered here)

cd ~/DRI-CVS/build/xc/exports/lib/modules/

cp dri/r200_dri.so /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/
cp drivers/atimisc_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/
cp drivers/radeon_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/
cp extensions/libdri.a /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/
cp linux/libdrm.a /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/linux/

4. Configuration
Add these lines to your "Module" Section in /etc/X11/XF86Config if they're not already there.

Load "glx"
Load "dri"

For better performance you can add these lines to the "Device" section:

Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "EnablePageFlip"

But beware of the "EnablePageFlip" option. I've read it can cause crashes, although it has never done for me.

5. Final Steps
Go to a console and shut down XFree:

/etc/init.d/xdm stop

Now we clean up and get the new modules ready. Execute:

update-modules
modprobe -r radeon

Finally, start XFree again:

/etc/init.d/xdm start

xlyz · Veteran Joined: 27 Oct 2002 Posts: 1470 Location: Italy

tv out works with them?

and winex?

Lovechild · Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:08 pm Post subject:

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.. with a little adaptation I made this hint work for my Radeon 7500 as well, just needed different drivers, and now DRI works in XFree 4.3pre, which it hasn't done before..

So, you earned worshipping points my friend.. I can now play UT again, and now about 15% faster (according to glxgears).

phelan · Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2003 10:26 am Post subject:

xlyz · Veteran Joined: 27 Oct 2002 Posts: 1470 Location: Italy

vibidoo · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2002 Posts: 409

I have follow your tips and now I have DRI initialized very well with my Radeon 9000 ( r250) :lol:

But what about Glx ??

I emerged tuxracer for FPS testing and each time I get this error

Bloke2k · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Dec 2002 Posts: 84

Hmm I have a small question on this one, it says get to 8.1 in the guide and then leave it and follow the rest of this post, but do you still have to do the ln -s blah bla etc first?

I almost have this working but X just gives me a blank screen when I try to start it

I am using the Radeon 7200 does this make a difference ?

phelan · Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 7:03 pm Post subject:

phelan · Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 7:16 pm Post subject:

vibidoo · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2002 Posts: 409

rikkus · n00b Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 3

Go into the checkout of XFree you made (DRI-CVS) and find
glx.h. Update it to version 1.12 using:
cvs up -r 1.12 glx.h

Now copy that over the one in the installed X11, then:
cvs up -A glx.h
to get it back to its original version.

This will give you a glx.h which works for e.g. tuxracer.

Rik

rikkus · n00b Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 3

To clear up any confusion about which options need selecting
in the 'Character devices' section of the kernel config:

[img:742d252790]http://rikkus.info/tmp/kernconf.png[/img:742d252790]

AMD agpgart support selected, because that's what I have.
Note that DRI is selected but no DRM-related stuff is.
Also note that agpgart support is built as a module.

Jkay · Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2003 3:45 am Post subject:

hm.

I followed these instructions to the letter, for a Radeon 8500, including the menuconfig shown here.

The radeon module is full of unresolved symbols tho and will not load at startup, and manually.

rikkus · n00b Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 3

phelan · Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2003 10:09 am Post subject:

Everybody already running the drivers should notice that I updated section 4 of the guide with some performance-rising options for your XF86Config. (Of course, no recompiling is needed)

That 'flipping' stuff pushed my glxgears score up another 30%!

Currently, I'm thinking about making an eBuild for this guide. But assuming that the DRI people will resume releasing snapshots when XFree 4.3.0 is out it would become obsolete...

zeb · Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 10:21 pm Post subject:

I tried this tip for my radeon 7200, copying radeon_dri instead of r200_dri. I can start X, but when starting glxgears or glxinfo I get this error:

john_ · n00b Joined: 23 Feb 2003 Posts: 10

I did what you said, and it worked. But I loaded up quake3 to test it out (Native, not threw wine(x)) And I get a _little_ better preformance then I did before which wasn't good to start with. Maybe 3 or 4 FPS @ 640 after DRI. I dunno if this is related to this forum/thread but it tells me to do "set +r_SoftwareGL 1" when I exec it. And when I don't do that it syas that OpenGL can't be opened or isn't there. (I dunno the exact because im in windows now) Could that be a problem. I run a Radeon 8500 /w the DRI drivers. glxgears works pretty good. I get about 100fps off of that (is that good?) Anyways I dunnpo why I am getting such crappy preformance out of my card.
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Sastraxi · Apprentice Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 258

Most people get in the thousands (I get about 7000-8000 with r9500 pro), so obviously it isn't working. Did you put the Load "glx" and Load "dri" lines in there?

john_ · n00b Joined: 23 Feb 2003 Posts: 10

Yeah they are in my XF config.
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LinuxDocc · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 11:32 am Post subject:

i have had the same problem .... it is very easy add this to your XF86Config

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

(look at the end of XF86Config there is it, remove the # )

Restart the x server and then you have hardware 3D :-)

LinuxDoc

thing_q3 · n00b Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 48 Location: Zurich

I'm getting the following errors when i try to startx after the install:

Italy's Chicken · n00b Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 10

phelan · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 9:13 am Post subject:

[/quote]my guess is the radeon module is for version 4.0.1. so how can we recompile it for 4.3.0?[/quote]

Have you done the last three lines of step two?

You also have to remember, that not every code you get from CVS has to be fully functional so trying it a week later or so can resolve some problems!

thing_q3 · n00b Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 48 Location: Zurich

I went the emerge xfree-drm route, and everything's working fine now, i get about 2600 f/s on glxgears.
I think the problem may have been that I just had the lastest stable xfree from the emerge tree (4.1 maybe?), rather than the newest one (4.3), which is what the cvs repository would be geared towards (?). Thanks anyway for your help!
_________________
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again. -- F. P. Jones
and...
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment. -- Unknown

ZephidZebra · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:05 pm Post subject: Radeon 7500

Hi,

I have Radeon 7500 and it does not work

Ref: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=46780

plz help me, hate using vesa... :/
_________________
My system:
AMD ThunderBird 1333@1400Mhz
256 NoName DDR Ram
40GB Seagate harddrive
Pure Gentoo LINUX!
Radeon 7500 128DDR
help me at: