Installing ATI drivers on RH8.0

[V-man]

Hi,

My drivers aren't installing properly because I'm not getting hw acceleration.
This is a fresh install of RH 8.0
I have not updated the OS.
I downloaded the 60MB autoinstaller.

Also, I tried with the previous driver. Same issue.
I tried with a very old driver I had on my HDD that I know worked back in the day.
This doesn't do it either so I guess something is wrong on my part.
Maybe I'm not running glrxconfig properly?

This is what it says when I run glxinfo


[root@localhost root]# glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: No
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: VA Linux Systems, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.2 Mesa 3.4.2
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_blend_color,
GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x25 24 tc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x26 24 tc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None
0x27 24 dc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x28 24 dc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None
0x29 8 pc 0 24 0 c y . 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x2a 8 gs 0 24 0 c y . 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None

[jide]

I'm still not knowing how to do that :)

But I found several inconsistencies in your glxinfo outputs:

1. your glx server version is 1.2 and is from SGI whereas your glx client v is 1.3 and from ATI :confused:

2. your Mesa version is very very very old: Mesa 3.4.2.
Maybe you should not use Mesa from your redhat but compile it yourself with the newer versions, this turns out. Then reinstall your latest driver ?
Also make sure there aren't any double GL libraries and headers.

3. DRI seems not enabled (direct rendering: No), check also for that. I just can advice you to see if it's declared in your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file (or xorg.conf).

Hope that helps.

[V-man]

These are the drivers from ATI, so I think
"OpenGL vendor string" should say ATI technologies
and so on, but it seems the installer is broken or I'm doing something wrong. Probably the later.

What is glx and why is there a client and server?

More importantly, is there anything I can do to understand the source of the problem of the installation?

"3. DRI seems not enabled (direct rendering: No), check also for that. I just can advice you to see if it's declared in your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file (or xorg.conf)."

I'll have a look later.

[jide]

They should say ATI technologies or something similar, right.

glx is the layer that goes between X and GL so that you can have an X window that has GL capabilities. It's directly related to hardware acceleration, gives rendering contexts, drawables, function to swap the buffers and so on. Any programs using GL under X must use glx (gtk and qt abilities to do GL are just layers over glx).
Why there is a server and client of glx is directly inherited from how X is architectured: there's an X server, and an X client. Also GL is done is the same way. Theoretically, this means that you can do GL on a computer that doesn't have those capabilities but that's on a network connected to an X server that provides those capabilities (this implicitly disable DRI); however I never tested that.
Maybe other people will be able to give more information (or even correct what I said), or you can find out information on the net I guess.

What you can do to understand the source of the problem is somewhat hard to say from my point of view. I just gave you hints from what I saw from your glxinfo output.
You might check if your kernel supports DRI, if not, recompile it with those functionalities. I also guess it must support agpgart. There's also the kernel and X logs that could help you (take a look in /var/log/***).
Also, did you make a research on previous posts about such kind of problems ?

Also (again), can you tell if the drivers come with a version of Mesa ?

It's just easy for the last point: just check that:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep dri
or
cat /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 | grep dri
(I don't remember well the name of the XF86 config file).

If the line exists and it is not commented (there's not # at the beginning of the line), it's okay.

Hope that helps a bit.

[V-man]

Hi jide,

Thanks for explaining.

I'm sure DRI is supported. I don't know about agpgart. This is RH 8.0 and I'm not an expert on Linux.

As I said, I was able to have GL acceleration a long time ago by installing the drivers made available by ATI. It was easy enough to install. That installation of RH 8 is gone. I did a new install recently and tried the latest drivers made available by ATI. This time, they offer a special auto installer, the file size is 60 MB.
The problem is, it doesn't give GL acceleration.
I installed the old driver that I new worked over them, but these didn't work either.

I am enabling DRI and agpgart and something called dva. I also tried disabling dva.
I'm making GL available to all users.


Also (again), can you tell if the drivers come with a version of Mesa ?I don't know. Maybe ATI's driver doesn't use MESA at all.

I have XF86Config-4 only.

This is stuff I copied and pasted

# ************************************************** ********************
# DRI Section
# ************************************************** ********************
Section "dri"
# 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
EndSection

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

# === disable/enable XAA/DRI ===
Option "no_accel" "no"
Option "no_dri" "no"

[jide]

What's strange to me is that it worked before but not now even with the same old driver.

Is it the same computer (motherboard chipset and graphic card) ?

Try to remove all GL rpms, then all GL libraries and headers (/usr, /usr/X11R6, /usr/local for all include/GL and lib/libGL* headers and libraries).
Then try to reinstall.

Also check that

lsmod | grep agp

gives results.

Finally, do you know that there are 2 versions of ATI drivers for Linux, one that's free and that uses Mesa and DRI (if I remember well) and another proprietary one (that seems not to use DRI and Mesa) ? I've also heard that one works on some cards whereas the other works on other cards, but cannot confirm that they all cover all the cards.

I'm sorry not to be able to help you more.

On my Suse 9.3 ATI's new installer dropped the OpenGL libraries in /usr/lib/firegl (or similar), and they are used only if LD_LIBRARY_PATH points to that directory. Otherwise, MESA software rendering is used. Put something like this in your .profile:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firegl

(This is a problem with applications that access libGL.so with a hardcoded and not customizable path.)

[V-man]

What's strange to me is that it worked before but not now even with the same old driver.Yes, the cpu, motherboard, ram, HDD have been changed.
AthlonXP2800+ (RH8 recognizes it)
Nforce2 400 chipset (I don't know. I asked people on another forum if I had to install chipset drivers but nobody answered)
Vid card is the same : R9500 128MB.
I think RH8 doesn't have it in it's list. I looked in Hat->System Settings->Display
then "Advanced" tab.
Next to
Video card type : Unknown video card
Memory size : 128 megabytes
Driver : fglrx

This was after I installed the new drivers.


Try to remove all GL rpms, then all GL libraries and headers (/usr, /usr/X11R6, /usr/local
for all include/GL and lib/libGL* headers and libraries).Don't know how to uninstall rpms. I'm from a Windows background.

lsmod | grep agp doesn't say anything. It just returns to the prompt again

The drivers are closed source ATI drivers. The open source drivers are for R200 and below.

Hannes,
I have this file in etc called profile (it's not .profile)


# /etc/profile

# System wide environment and startup programs, for login setup
# Functions and aliases go in /etc/bashrc

pathmunge () {
if ! echo $PATH | /bin/egrep -q "(^|:)$1($|:)" ; then
if [ "$2" = "after" ] ; then
PATH=$PATH:$1
else
PATH=$1:$PATH
fi
fi
}

# Path manipulation
if [ `id -u` = 0 ]; then
pathmunge /sbin
pathmunge /usr/sbin
pathmunge /usr/local/sbin
fi

pathmunge /usr/X11R6/bin after

unset pathmunge

# No core files by default
ulimit -S -c 0 > /dev/null 2>&1

USER="`id -un`"
LOGNAME=$USER
MAIL="/var/spool/mail/$USER"

HOSTNAME=`/bin/hostname`
HISTSIZE=1000

if [ -z "$INPUTRC" -a ! -f "$HOME/.inputrc" ]; then
INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
fi

export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE INPUTRC

for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do
if [ -r "$i" ]; then
. $i
fi
done

unset i
### START ATI FGLRX ###
### Automatically modified by ATI Proprietary driver scripts
### Please do not modify between START ATI FGLRX and END ATI FGLRX

if [ $LD_LIBRARY_PATH ]
then
if ! set | grep LD_LIBRARY_PATH | grep /usr/X11R6/lib > /dev/null
then
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/X11R6/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
fi
else
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11R6/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
fi

if [ $LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH ]
then
if ! set | grep LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH | grep /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/ > /dev/null
then
LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=$LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH:/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/
export LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH
fi
else
LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/
export LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH
fi

### END ATI FGLRX ###

if [ $LD_LIBRARY_PATH ]
then
if ! set | grep LD_LIBRARY_PATH | grep /usr/X11R6/lib:/usr/X11R6/lib/modules > /dev/null
then
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/X11R6/lib:/usr/X11R6/lib/modules
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
fi
else
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11R6/lib:/usr/X11R6/lib/modules
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
fi

After messing around a bit more and finally installing the new drivers, glxinfo says
Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".


[root@localhost /]# glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: No
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: VA Linux Systems, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.2 Mesa 3.4.2
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_blend_color,
GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x22 24 tc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x23 24 tc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None And finally, I'll give nVidia a try sometime but I don't fell liek pulling out hw right now.

[Humus]

Are you sure that DRI is compiled into your kernel?
You may want to ask at the Linux forum at Rage3D. There's a lot of accumulated experience there with installation issues.

[jide]

Redhat is no more maintained but for companies and is not free or charge anymore. Now (and since at least 2 years) this is Fedora but looks more like a testing version for the companies product. If nothing works, try to use another distribution (like Debian). Also, try a newer kernel. But only do that if all the things I listed below don't change things at all.

Also, as agp is not a kernel module, it might (and must) be directly compiled inside the kernel.

Something like

cat /boot/config | grep AGP

where config is the file matching your kernel config (it might be /etc/config or /etc/config-2.x.y.z), should returns something. The command:

uname -a

will returns the full name of your kernel, with other things.

Can you show me them ? If there's no AGP, you won't have any accelerated things I guess. The fact that redhat 8 is quiete old might tell the kernel doesn't support your motherboard chipset. Nforce 2 is quiete old too, but I don't know when it has been supported inside kernels and if it has been updated.

Also, for the libraries, the file is /etc/ld.so.conf, try to put the directory at the first line of this file.

Well, also, I was able to easily found nforce 2 drivers for the linux kernel (so surely saying thing chipset is not supported or not very well supported by the free kernel):

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.0-0306.html

Install it, I really advice it even if it's non free.

For uninstalling rpms, it should be (don't remember thought since I do not use rpm anymore) rpm -e package_name.rpm.

Hope that could help things getting better :)

[V-man]

Originally posted by jide:
Redhat is no more maintained but for companies and is not free or charge anymore. Now (and since at least 2 years) this is Fedora but looks more like a testing version for the companies product. If nothing works, try to use another distribution (like Debian). Also, try a newer kernel. But only do that if all the things I listed below don't change things at all.

Also, as agp is not a kernel module, it might (and must) be directly compiled inside the kernel.

Something like

cat /boot/config | grep AGP

where config is the file matching your kernel config (it might be /etc/config or /etc/config-2.x.y.z), should returns something. The command:

uname -a

will returns the full name of your kernel, with other things.

Can you show me them ? If there's no AGP, you won't have any accelerated things I guess. The fact that redhat 8 is quiete old might tell the kernel doesn't support your motherboard chipset. Nforce 2 is quiete old too, but I don't know when it has been supported inside kernels and if it has been updated.

Also, for the libraries, the file is /etc/ld.so.conf, try to put the directory at the first line of this file.

Well, also, I was able to easily found nforce 2 drivers for the linux kernel (so surely saying thing chipset is not supported or not very well supported by the free kernel):

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.0-0306.html

Install it, I really advice it even if it's non free.

For uninstalling rpms, it should be (don't remember thought since I do not use rpm anymore) rpm -e package_name.rpm.

Hope that could help things getting better :) [cat /boot/config | grep AGP]
I have a file in /boot/ called config-2.4.18-14
This gives

CONFIG_AGP=m
CONFIG_AGP_I810=y
CONFIG_AGP_VIA=y
CONFIG_AGP_AMD=y
CONFIG_AGP_SIS=y
CONFIG_AGP_ALI=y
CONFIG_AGP_SWORKS=y

[uname -a]
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.4.18-14 #1 Wed Sep 4 12:13:11 EDT 2002 i686 athlon i386 GLU/Linux

"Install it, I really advice it even if it's non free."

What do you mean by not free?
It was free and I tried it, then I installed the ATI latest drivers but nothing changes. glxinfo returns the same info.



Also, for the libraries, the file is /etc/ld.so.conf, try to put the directory at the first line of this file.I didn't try that. You mean the config file (config-2.4.18-14)?



Are you sure that DRI is compiled into your kernel?I wouldn't know but why would not be compiled?
This is a "workstation" OS so I'm suppose to be able to run games and anything that is 3D.

[jide]

I was advising to install the motherboard chipset drivers. I guess that could help you.

By non-free, I meant this is not the drivers we can find in the linux sources, neither on sourceforge and so on. Those are proprietary drivers just like nvidia graphic card drivers, and one of the ATI graphic card drivers. Your agp seems okay, and I guess the DRI is also enabled (just guess it in your /boot/config file just like for AGP): if it's y or m it's okay, if it's commented this is not. But as you stippled, this must have been activated, default linux distributions do this way generally, but I had to ensure it.

For /etc/ld.so.conf, just put the directory /usr/lib/firegl at the first line of this file.

So, to resume all:

#1: install the nvidia nforce motherboard chipset drivers. I'm pretty sure this is the source of your problem.
#2: install the ATI graphic card drivers (try the proprietary one first).
#3: add /usr/lib/firegl at the first line of /etc/ld.so.conf file.
#4 test again a GL program.

if it doesn't work, remove the ATI drivers, then try the free ATI drivers.

Good luck.

[V-man]

Hi, I didn't have time to try until now but here are the results.

When I execute

cat /boot/config-2.4.18-14 | grep DRI

CONFIG_EVMS_DRIVELINK_PLUGIN=m
CONFIG_WAN_ROUTER_DRIVERS=y
CONFIG_IDEDMA_NEW_DRIVE_LISTINGS=y

#1 I did the install (from the link you gave) and rebooted, so it should be okay.
I did #2

For #3, firegl folder doesn't exist

/etc/ld.so.conf contains the following text

/usr/kerberos/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib
/usr/lib/qt-3.0.5/lib
/usr/lib/sane

There is also a file called ld.sp.cache in the same folder.

I had some problems getting my ATI drivers to work properly. I'm using a Gentoo distribution. Check following link it's also for the Gentoo distribution, but it might be helpfull.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ATI_Drivers

[V-man]

Conrad, I'm glad to hear you had trouble as well.
Yesterday, I tried to install XFree86 4.5.0 (the latest) but after that, I could not start x. The screen would flicker (from the command prompt) and then it says X started to fast, will wait 5 minutes and try again.
So I have to reinstall RH8. Perhaps tomorrow.

[jide]

Could you try with DRM instead of DRI (for cat /boot/config... | grep DRM) ? After a quick search I could be able to see it is called such. Sorry for that bad point.

Installing new XFree should not help you at all.

Also, now that you installed the drivers for your motherboard chipset, can you tell me if it is installed in your modules (lsmod) ?

I'm sorry not being able to help you more. But if the drivers worked with the same graphic cards years ago, I can't know why it shouldn't now, almost if the motherboard drivers are installed.

[druid]

u got to disable drm from the kernel if u want to get ur ati drivers to work.
if u got drm already,dri will be slow if it does work at all.
compile fglrx with current kernel and install.

[V-man]

I reinstalled RH8.0.
This time, I installed the nvidia mother board package first, then an older ATI driver, but glxinfo returns the same output.
Installing the newer ATI driver (8.19.10) also returns the same output.


I'm sorry not being able to help you more. But if the drivers worked with the same graphic cards years ago, I can't know why it shouldn't now, almost if the motherboard drivers are installed.
Remember that the motherboard, ram, cpu, possibly soundcard, network card and HDD have changed as well.
The ATI drivers are probably not installing correctly, but like I said, I'm not a Linux expert.



u got to disable drm from the kernel if u want to get ur ati drivers to work.
if u got drm already,dri will be slow if it does work at all.
compile fglrx with current kernel and install.
Hi, DRI doesn't work. glxinfo says direct rendering = no

I've never compiled a kernel. Do you think it's necessary?

I may try a nvidia card tommorrow. I'm sick so I have time :)

[glBug]

from your lsmod output is obvious that the ATI kernel module is not loaded, the kernel module name
is 'fglrx'. shutdown X, and try manually load the module: 'modprobe fglrx' , and then startx again.

besides your /etc/X11/XF86Conf or /etc/X11/xorg.conf
has to refer to 'fglrx' :


Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "fglrx"
#...
EndSection

#...

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Videocard0"
#...cheers,

h

[glBug]

one thing i forgot: have you looked for error messages in your /var/log/Xorg.0.log [or whatever is the X logfile called] ?

try something like:
grep "fglrx" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
and check for errors.

[V-man]

Yes, I have a line like that in XF86Config-4


# === 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"
# === TV-out Management ===
Option "NoTV" "yes"
Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
Option "TVHSizeAdj" "0"
Option "TVVSizeAdj" "0"
Option "TVHPosAdj" "0"
Option "TVVPosAdj" "0"
Option "TVHStartAdj" "0"
Option "TVColorAdj" "0"
Option "GammaCorrectionI" "0x00000000"
Option "GammaCorrectionII" "0x00000000"
# === OpenGL specific profiles/settings ===
Option "Capabilities" "0x00000000"
# === Video Overlay for the Xv extension ===
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
# === OpenGL Overlay ===
# Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay
# will be disabled automatically
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
# === Center Mode (Laptops only) ===
Option "CenterMode" "off"
# === Pseudo Color Visuals (8-bit visuals) ===
Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "off"
# === QBS Management ===
Option "Stereo" "off"
Option "StereoSyncEnable" "1"
# === FSAA Management ===
Option "FSAAEnable" "no"
Option "FSAAScale" "1"
Option "FSAADisableGamma" "no"
Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos" "no"
Option "FSAAMSPosX0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX5" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY5" "0.000000"
# === Misc Options ===
Option "UseFastTLS" "0"
Option "BlockSignalsOnLock" "on"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
Option "ForceGenericCPU" "no"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0" # vendor=1002, device=4144
Screen 0
EndSection I have files
XFree86.0.log (56 KB)
XFree86.1.log (55 KB)
XFree86.setup.log (912 B, nothing interesting here)

but there isn't any string "fglrx"
The first 2 have a lot of text in them.

I executed modprobe fglrx from the GUI system just to see what will happen


[root@localhost root]# modprobe fglrx
Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.18-14/kernel/drivers/char/drm/fglrx.o will taint the kernel: non-GPL license - Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY
See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules
Module fglrx loaded, with warningsI don't know what the warnings are.

Does the glxinfo mean that some file is not getting installed?

server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: ATI
OpenGL version string: 1.2 Mesa 3.4.2

This doesn't make sense. Why is there SGI, ATI and Mesa here?
Something is not getting done right during the installation and I don't know what it is.

[glBug]

if X is already running loading the "fglrx" kernel module [driver] won't have any effect - that is what you did.

you have to:
1. exit/stop/kill X [if it is already running]
2. load the fglrx kernel module with modprobe
3. start X again

another problem is that your log files do not contain any info about "fglrx" - that is simply wrong,
in other words it means that your configuration of X when starting DOES NOT even look for the driver you want to use [fglrx]. the reason for that might
be there is another XF86Config or XF86Config-4 file on your system that is getting higher priority.

you should be seeing something like this in the X log file:



root@kanji:/home/martin# grep "fglrx" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o
(II) Module fglrx: vendor="FireGL - ATI Technologies Inc."

...

[V-man]

Hi glBug,

I understand things a little better now.
Today, I finally got around to trying this on the same system, but with a Geforce 2 MX.
I read the lengthy 1000 line instructions with FAQ. It was a pain in the ass but it worked.
I edited the XF86config file like they said.

The only missing instruction is that they don't tell you to reboot.

Chromium setup screwed up when I pressed the Launch Chromium button. The system locked. I rebooted and run Chromium setup again and it locked the system again.
I rebooted and this time I just tried to run Chromium itself and nothing happened.

Tux racer is running fine. glxgears is running fine with >1300 FPS

I have no other GL stuff but would like to try Doom3, Quake 2 and 3 sometime :)

I'll try again with ATI later.

[V-man]

I removed the Geforce 2 and installed the Radeon 9500 again.
I run ati-driver-installer-8.18.8-i386.run
In var/log/XFree86.0.log it says

(II) fglrx(0): driver needs XFree86 4.2.x.y with x.y >= 1.1
(II) fglrx(0): detected XFree86 4.2.0.0

There is a bunch of other interesting bits like

(II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o
Not loading .note.GNU-stack

but the only information that actually says what the problem is, is the XFree86 version issue.
How to update XFree86 without screwing up my system?

[glBug]

In the fglrx output a line begining with (II) is an Info msg, (WW) is
a Warning, and (EE) is an Error.

The log output you posted is a bit confusing, they
say a higher version of X is required, but they log it just as a normal Info debug msg. If you want send me the complete XFree86.0.log file and the output of 'lsmod' to hacklberry [AT] hacklberry [DOT] net .

Replacing/Upgrading X depends on the GNU/Linux distribution you use. I for one use Slackware 10.2 + the Dropline
Gnome - so upgrading X is quite trivial, I simply wait till the new version of X is included in the Dropline Gnome, then I uninstall the old version, and install the new one.