Problems with fglrx

Known Troubles and Solutions

No hardware acceleration

If the ATI driver works only without the hardware acceleration, take into consideration that fglrx_dri.so was linked against libstdc++.so.5 which may not be present if your system uses gcc-3.4.

To fix this, compile gcc-3.3.5 and copy libstdc++.so.5* to /usr/lib and update the dynamic linker cache via # ldconfig.

Another possible cause for broken hardware acceleration (2D and 3D) is the radeonfb framebuffer: Switching to vesafb or vesafb-tng is reported to solve the problem on some systems. Also it has proven helpful to not perform # modprobe fglrx after boot but to have the module loaded via /etc/modules.autoload/kernel2.x at boottime instead.

Troubles using software suspend

When the computer resumes from suspend, X only displays a garbled image and the computer is frozen. The problem is acknowledged in ATI's release notes and in knowledge base entry 737-218. Driver version 8.19.10 has "initial support for Suspend and Resume".

Using vbetool to save/restore the video card state before/after suspend solved this for some people. If you use Software Suspend 2 (suspend2) scripts, you can simply uncomment EnableVbetool yes in /etc/hibernate/hibernate.conf.

tested with the following configurations

model	distro	kernel	fglrx	PM	success	comments
T42	SUSE 9.3	2.6.11	8.14.13	swsusp	yes
T41p	???	2.6.14	8.19.10	suspend2 2.2-rc9	yes	needs a small patch
T42p	Debian	2.6.10	Debian packaged	suspend2	yes
T43	???	2.6.12-rc6	8.14.13	suspend2	no	works if fglrx kernel driver not loaded
T43	FC3	2.6.14.1	8.19.10	suspend2 2.2-rc9	yes	needs a small patch
R50p	???	???	8.19.10	swsusp	yes

Troubles with large RAM

Version 8.14.13 (and probably earlier versions) of the driver does not seem to be able to cope with large amounts of RAM: with 512 MB it works, with 1.5 GB it crashes the machine as soon as X is started. The problem is present only if the fglrx kernel module is loaded, but independently of whether (CONFIG_HIGHMEM) is enabled.

Version 8.16.20 seems to fix the problem.

A workaround is to limit RAM by adding the mem=864m kernel parameter.

Display switching

The switching between internal and external display doesn't work, because the driver blocks messing around with the chipset via ACPI. If you want to use this feature (i.e. during presentations), you should use the VESA server instead (experienced with a R52, Kernel 2.6.11, xorg 6.8.2, fglrx 8.16.20).

Patches

The following patches might be needed for certain versions of fglrx.

• for kernel >= 2.6.13 Missing verify_area bug

V 8.8.25

• for kernels >= 2.6.10
• For kernels >= 2.6.11-rc1

Beta Testing

The fglrx developers are looking for T Series users to take part in their beta program.

If interested, plese contact mtippett (at) ati.com.