Difference between revisions of "Fglrx"
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== Status == | == Status == | ||
− | Current version: 8. | + | Current version: 8.41.7 ( 10th September 2007). |
Major changes: | Major changes: | ||
+ | * 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 [http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=804&num=1 Phoronix]) | * 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]) | ||
* 8.39.4: 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. | * 8.39.4: 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. |
Revision as of 15:44, 16 September 2007
ATI fglrx driverThis is a proprietary Linux binary-only driver for ATI graphic chips with support for 3D acceleration. Also see opensource driver with 3D support |
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 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
- For stock Fedora kernels:
- 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
- For stock Fedora kernels:
- 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 ati-fglrx
(kernel module for 2.6.15-ARCH)# pacman -S ati-fglrx-archck
(kernel module for 2.6.15-archck)# pacman -S ati-fglrx-utils
(xorg7 stuff and tools)
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: 8.41.7 ( 10th September 2007). Major changes:
- 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).
- 8.33.6: X.Org 7.2 support, kernel 2.6.19 support, some fixes in the installer, 2 more bugfixes. Resume from suspend works if you make sure you have set "VbetoolPost no" and "EnableVbetool no" in your suspend to ram hibernate conf (/etc/hibernate/ram.conf on ubuntu/debian).
- 8.32.5: support for X1650, X.Org 7.2 RC2 support, bugfixes. Suspend-to-ram is broken with specific cards, *no* 2.6.19 support (see fglrx patches section).
- 8.31.5: no new features, only bugfixes. Of note, for some users, this version breaks suspend-to-ram and suspend-to-disk.
- 8.30.3: no new features, only bugfixes
- 8.29.6: Linux 2.6.18 support, dropped support for Radeon 8500/9000/9100/9200/9250 (both, mobile and normal versions)
- 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
- 8.27.10: X.org 7.1 support, Fedora Core package support
- 8.26.18: support for dynamically attached DFPs and Thermal Event Power Management (both via daemon), minor bug fixes
- 8.25.18: Xorg 7.0 support, FireGLâ„¢V5xxx/V7xxx support, Dynamic Display Management, fixed a lot of critical bugs.
- 8.24.8: support for X1300, X1400, X1600, X1800 (generic and mobility) and 3D accelerated video playback on Avivo
- 8.23.7: support for X850 and X800, OpenGL 2.0 Enhancement, FSAA for some chips
- 8.22.5: added kernel 2.6.15 support -- patch no longer required
- 8.21.7: initial OpenGL 2.0 support
- 8.20.8: fixed resume issues, fixed compile problems with kernels 2.6.13 and 2.6.14
- 8.19.10: has added suspend / resume and dynamic GPU power management support. Using vbetool no longer required.
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 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.
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 current fglrx drivers (as of 8.29.6) you must disable composite to get 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
# === 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.
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:
- ATI Mobility FireGL 9000
- ATI Mobility FireGL T2
- ATI Mobility FireGL V3200
- ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
- ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
- ATI Mobility Radeon X300
- ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200M
- ATI Mobility Radeon X600
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
- ATI Mobility FireGL V5200
ThinkPads that are NOT supported by fglrx
Unsupported chips, as found in select IBM ThinkPads:
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.