Which Linux distro plays nicest with the 9800XT?

[izibo]

Originally Posted by wallijonn

An article to install the ATI drivers:

http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...p?articleid=22

highly suggest following this, i had some luck with a 9600.

although, i am hopeful that ATI will continue to improve their linux drivers

[Slovak]

Originally Posted by wallijonn

can you boot into safe mode?

log into your root account

or if it just bombs:

# init 3
# cd ..
# cd ..
# /etc/SaX2

Yeah I can get into init 3, been there done that, says it is missing file when I run sax2, sucks too because this was a FTP install, which I honestly don't feel like doing again. Can't I do some sort of emergency restore or repair from root?

[Slovak]

Woot! I got my suse back, did a suse rescue and reran yast, it detected my 9800XT and reconfigured it. At least I now have 2D back, now what to do for 3D?

[Drufuss]

Originally Posted by Slovak

Just to prove a point I ran that anyway, and as I thought itsaid auto configure complete, do I want to save, I chose no and configure, 3D configure says no 3D enabled, I click configure and it says not supported by my card.

There´s the problem i believe.

After "# sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx -b /usr/X11R6/lib/sax/profile/firegl" just set up the 2D options (resolution, refresh rate, monitor) if the auto detected is not what you want.
Don´t touch the 3D settings!!
Save the settings, and after that you enable 3D-support manually by editing the XF86Config.

That should do he trick, at lest it did it for me.

Greetings

Dru

[Slovak]

I understand that, I run it anyway and I DO NOT try to configure anything, but I do check what it is reporting and it says 3D not available or supported, and the only 3D I still get is the Mesa, which sucks, not ATI's 3D which is way better from what I've been told.

[Drufuss]

Originally Posted by Slovak

I understand that, I run it anyway and I DO NOT try to configure anything, but I do check what it is reporting and it says 3D not available or supported, and the only 3D I still get is the Mesa, which sucks, not ATI's 3D which is way better from what I've been told.

SAX says "3D not available" because you can´t enable it via SAX, but by editing the XF86config file. You can/do setup monitor type and resolution.

Greetings

Dru

[Lucas_Maximus]

use xfreecfg -textmode to run a text installer, ( i think I know xorgcfg -textmode works)

sax not working it could probably be reinstalled from ftp.

[Drufuss]

Originally Posted by Lucas_Maximus

use xfreecfg -textmode to run a text installer, ( i think I know xorgcfg -textmode works)

sax not working it could probably be reinstalled from ftp.

Ati suggests to use xfreecfg, but this can also screw up things, for Suse it´s better to follow the suse way.

And SAX is not broken, you just can´t activate 3d for ATI cards via sax (at leasst with Suse)

Greetings

Dru

[Slovak]

Sure I can do that, but all I get is Mesa 3D, which sucks and is as good as no 3D when it only gives me 22fps in full screen and 144fps in windowed. I don't want Mesa if that is all I am going to get.

[wallijonn]

Anandtech's gaming under Linux & installing drivers frustrations:

http://www.anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2229&p=3

Did you notice how much system memory is being used for the video? :eek:

Slavak,

For SUSE they suggest installing the SuSE 9.2-RC3 kernel.

For Ubuntu I downloaded & installed the Debian 'unsupported' ATI drivers & 1 library (dependency) via the Synaptic Package Manager and ran fglrxconfig. It shows it now using OpenGL 1.3.4510.

Believe me when I tell you that Ubuntu was a lot easier to setup than SUSE. But maybe I got lucky because Ubuntu uses the 2.6.8.1-3 kernel by default.

glxgears now shows 4584 frames and 916.800 fps (average). The high was 10903 frames at 2180 fps. I've been able to tweak it up to 12476 frames and 2495 fps. It's nice to see the gears in 3D.

Compare your printout to this:

name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_ATI_pixel_format_float,
GLX_ATI_render_texture
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9800 Pro Generic
OpenGL version string: 1.3.4510 (X4.3.0-3.12.0)
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array,
GL_S3_s3tc, GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_fragment_program,
GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow, GL_ARB_multisample,
GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_shadow,
GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_ARB_vertex_blend, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program,
GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_element_array,
GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap, GL_ATI_fragment_shader, GL_ATI_map_object_buffer,
GL_ATI_separate_stencil, GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3,
GL_ATI_texture_float, GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once,
GL_ATI_vertex_array_object, GL_ATI_vertex_attrib_array_object,
GL_ATI_vertex_streams, GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3,
GL_ATIX_texture_env_route, GL_ATIX_vertex_shader_output_point_size,
GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate,
GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays,
GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters, GL_EXT_rescale_normal,
GL_EXT_secondary_color, GL_EXT_separate_specular_color,
GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_texgen_reflection,
GL_EXT_texture3D, GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc,
GL_EXT_texture_cube_map, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias,
GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object,
GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_EXT_vertex_shader,
GL_HP_occlusion_test, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_blend_square,
GL_NV_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_SGI_color_matrix,
GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp,
GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# File: /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

# **********************************************************************
# DRI Section
# **********************************************************************
# Access to OpenGL ICD is allowed for all users:
Mode 0666
# Access to OpenGL ICD is restricted to a specific user group:
# Group 100 # users
# Mode 0660

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
# Option "omit xfree86-dga"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx" # libglx.a
Load "dri" # libdri.a

RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"

# The module search path. The default path is shown here.
# ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"

Driver "vga"

# BusID "PCI:0:10:0"

# VideoRam 256 hmmm. I have the 128MB/256 version. But it may be reading my agp size which I have set to 256, even though I only have 128 MB video ram.

# Clocks 25.2 28.3

# === ATI device section ===

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Driver "fglrx"
# ### generic DRI settings ###
# === disable PnP Monitor ===
#Option "NoDDC"
# === disable/enable XAA/DRI ===
Option "no_accel" "no"
Option "no_dri" "no"
# === misc DRI settings ===
Option "mtrr" "off" # disable DRI mtrr mapper, driver has its own code for mtrr
# ### FireGL DDX driver module specific settings ###
# === Screen Management ===
Option "DesktopSetup" "0x00000000"
Option "MonitorLayout" "AUTO, AUTO"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "off"
Option "HSync2" "unspecified"
Option "VRefresh2" "unspecified"
Option "ScreenOverlap" "0"

# === OpenGL specific profiles/settings ===
Option "Capabilities" "0x00008800"
# === Video Overlay for the Xv extension ===
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "on"
Option "CenterMode" "off"
# === Pseudo Color Visuals (8-bit visuals) ===
Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "on"
# === FSAA Management ===
Option "FSAAEnable" "yes"
Option "FSAAScale" "6"
Option "FSAADisableGamma" "no"
Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos" "yes"

# === Misc Options ===
Option "UseFastTLS" "0"
Option "BlockSignalsOnLock" "on"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "yes"
Option "ForceGenericCPU" "no"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0" # vendor=1002, device=4e48
Screen 0

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe I configured it for 6X FSAA. I'll be changing it to 4X.


.

[Slovak]

Funny you should post about Ubuntu wallijonn, I had no isea you posted this until just this morning, and last night downloaded the ubuntu live cd. I plan on installing it OVER top of my suse installation, if I can figure out how to do that as my disk space is rather limited now until I get another hard drive(hopefully by next weekend!) I am currently sharing windows 2k and linux on the same drive.

[wallijonn]

Just don't select the "use whole disk" option when it suggests it. You'll have to manually select the old SUSE partition for it to overwrite. This is the hardest part of the Ubuntu install. If you are used to SUSE where you go into the cutomise option and know how to delete all the partitions then do a back button depress to accept their partitoning you shouldn't have problems. The reason why you manually delete it is so that resiserfs is completely deleted as Ubuntu uses the ext3 fs (ext2 with journalling). It also uses the i386 kernel with i586 or i686 optimisations.

The fun starts with your setting everything to your liking. While KDE uses single click opening GNOME uses double click (you can set it for single click). If you are used to a file browser look you'll have to enable that as it doesn't use that view style by default.

Ubuntu isn't perefect, there are still a few bugs being worked out. Nor does it have every app. under the Sun; it compiles a set of apps. which the Ubuntu team thinks most people are most likely to use, like Firefox, GIMP, OpenOffice and Evoultion. Firefox has a few quirks which shouldn't detract from its usefulness. (For the most part Firefox is made to work on MS machines; Linux uses a different architecture, so certain extensions may not work correctly ,even though you have used older extrension versions).

btw, make absolutely sure that you copy the XF86Config-4 to your home directory before you start messing around with fglrxconfig. If things really get screwed up and X Windows doesn't start up (all you'll see is a black screen with '#') you can 'sudo cp XF86Config-4 \etc\X11' then 'sudo shutdown -r now'.


.

[Drufuss]

Okay, you convinced me.

Now where can i get this UBUNTU Linux? I´ll try that too.

Where is it?

Grettings

Dru

[Slovak]

Right here http://www.ubuntulinux.org/