ATI Mobility FireGL V5200

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ATI Mobility FireGL V5200

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

Not supported by the Xorg radeon driver.

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: On Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) with 'splash' on the command line, you cannot switch to VTs. This is a Thinkpad T60. The screen remains graphical, but is very badly garbled. There is no text. X does not reset, and you can switch back to your X session. The solution is to include 'vga=791' or to remove 'splash' from the grub/lilo command line. You don't need to do both. (It's been a few days, so I don't remember where I found this...I just chanced upon this wiki page for the video card I'm trying to get working with xgl/AIGLX and Beryl).

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.

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