ATI Mobility FireGL V5200

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Revision as of 14:10, 27 July 2008 by Akw (Talk | contribs) (Proprietary ATI driver)
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This is an ATI video adapter

Features

  • Chipset: ATI M56 - Similar to Radeon X1600
  • PCI ID: 1002:71c4
  • PCI Express x16
  • 256 MB GDDR3-SDRAM video memory

Linux X.Org driver

Initial support included in the stable branch of the Xorg radeon driver (2D only). XVideo acceleration and 3D support are still under development but should be available within 2008. Ubuntu 8.04 uses this driver by default.

It is also supported by the radeonhd driver. A Debian package already exists in the experimental branch. 3d is still under development. There is also a Gentoo ebuild recently added to the tree (x11-drivers/xf86-video-radeonhd), which seems to be working without any problems.

ThinkPad LCD

Display on the internal LCD works as long as you set the monitor settings correctly. Changing the driver from "ati" to "vesa" in xorg.conf will start X but with a lower resolution than expected.

Full resolution can be achieved when all modelines are removed and mode 1600x1200 with depth 24 is selected.

External VGA port

Yes

SVideo port

No

DVI port

No (yes on Docking Station, working with fglrx driver

Proprietary ATI driver

Proprietary fglrx driver works since version 8.25.18, version 8.24.8 works by adding "ChipID 0x71c5" to the xorg.conf "Device" statement and fooling it into thinking it's a X1600 mobility (do this only as a last resort or if you're sure you have an older driver; it is fatal to version 8.25.18).

The new driver 8.25.18 seems to support the card, see https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1643 (successfully tested with the provided autorun installation script on OpenSuSE 10.1, T60p with 15" display).

(K)ubuntu 6.06 comes with this driver and it works out of the box. However, it seems to have problems with VT Switching (Alt+Fn). Instead of switching to a console, X resets and goes back to the log in screen (This doesn't happen when using the vesa driver). The switching issue might be resolvable by setting ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true in /etc/default/acpi-support, but it doesn't seem to help on all systems.

NOTE!
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Also, the pointer gets garbled sometimes in X, but this is only a minor annoyance. Dual Head (Xinerama) also works with this driver, but don't use KDE control center to enable it (use the ATi tool or edit xorg.conf manually)

I have a feeling that this card gets in the way when trying to suspend to RAM (resuming with a complete blank screen, lights are blinking, but that's it), but this can also be caused by other means.

Proprietary ATI driver on Ubuntu Feisty

I had a hard time getting resume from suspend-to-ram to work with Feisty on a Thinkpad T60p. When resuming, the screen just went black with X hanging.

It works like this:

  1. In /etc/acpi/sleep.sh, as second line, add the line sudo chvt 1. This forces a switch to the text console before standby.
  2. Likewise, in add to the very end of the file /etc/acpi/resume.sh the line sudo chvt 7.
  3. Finally, the perhaps most important change goes into /etc/default/acpi-support. Change the line POST_VIDEO=true to read POST_VIDEO=. This was the point when it started working on my system.
NOTE: Step 3. above was the only change I needed to make. YMMV. --Brian E. Finley 23:26, 30 March 2007 (CEST)
NOTE: With only Step 3. above, my T60p would not even suspend when docked. Step 3. above was sufficient to make resume work for me when my laptop was not in its docking station. However, when I subsequently docked the machine I saw something I thought was banished with my upgrade to a 2.6.20 kernel: it uncermoniously powered off the instant it was docked, almost as though someone threw a hardware switch. --Dave Abrahams Thu Apr 12 11:18:22 EDT 2007
UPDATE: The problems mentioned above related to docking seem to happen when I use the gnome-power-manager applet menu but not when I use the suspend function in the window that results from clicking the "Log Out Button" applet. When I use the latter, suspend-to-RAM seems to work right, consistently. I'm following up with Ubuntu on this point. --Dave Abrahams Thu Apr 19 11:53 GMT 2007
NOTE: Editing /etc/acpi/sleep.sh and /etc/acpi/resume.sh is not necessary, as there is an option in /etc/default/acpi-support for that very feature: Just set the commented out DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true, and it will do the console switch suggested automatically. --Webograph 12:43, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
NOTE: I also had success doing nothing more than setting POST_VIDEO=false (step 3). Using a T60p (2007-83U) with fglrx 8.3 (8.47.3-3~bpo40 from Debian's etch-backports) --Steve Ihde 31 May 2008

For completeness, here are the complete settings of this file:

  1. ACPI_SLEEP=true
  2. ACPI_HIBERNATE=true
  3. ACPI_SLEEP_MODE=mem
  4. MODULES=""
  5. MODULE_WHITELIST=""
  6. SAVE_VBE_STATE=true
  7. VBE_STATE=/var/lib/acpi_support/vbestate
  8. POST_VIDEO=
  9. USE_DPMS=true
  10. # RADEON_LIGHT=true
  11. # DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true
  12. HIBERNATE_MODE=shutdown
  13. LOCK_SCREEN=true
  14. # DISABLE_DMA=true
  15. # RESET_DRIVE=true
  16. STOP_SERVICES="mysql "
  17. RESTART_IRDA=false
  18. ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true

Point 11 may eventually replace the chvt settings above, but I didn't try.

Ubuntu Hardy

Suspend/hibernate seems to work in Hardy with latest Catalyst driver out of box (no need to edit any conf files!). The only confusing thing is that it goes to sleep and hibernate pretty fast, but it takes a long time to resume from both, especially from hibernate. The first impression that it hangs, but it's not.

Linux kernel Framebuffer driver

Supported by the vesafb-tng project, but requires the boot parameter video=vesafb:nocrtc.

Alternatively, you may use classic vesafb with vga=838 for a 1400x1050 screen with 32 bit color depth.

NOTE!
The fglrx driver may cause distortion/corruption of the framebuffer after use at high resolutions, making the text difficult to read.

ThinkPads this chip may be found in