Gentoo HOWTO ATI Drivers

Introduction

This guide should help you install and configure the proprietry graphics drivers from ATI. This guide applies for ALL versions of fglrx - it was made before the (rather dramatic) 8.8.25 January 05 release, but it is maintained such that all versions should work.

• Note: If you are using an 3rd party Graphics Card (ASUS ...), but with ATI chipset, you should read getting Asus X850XT working with the official ATI Drivers

• Note: If you are using an ATI 7500 Mobility (or such card that isn't supported by the ati-drivers) this HOWTO will not help. Instead use the ATI kernel drivers. See also: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2137276.html#2137276

• Note: Nvidia's driver support for Linux is at the moment better than ATI's.

• Note: for ATI cards up to the X850 there are free DRI drivers available. For cards up to the Radeon 9250 they are stable and support lots of features. With cards from 9500 to X850 they do not yet support all the features that the non-free ATI drivers support. See the DRI wiki at http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ for further information about the free drivers.

[ edit]

Kernel Configuration

Get into menuconfig (cd /usr/src/your-kernel && make menuconfig) and check the following:

Linux Kernel Configuration: ATI Drivers

Loadable Module Support ---> [*] Enable loadable module support [*] Module unloading Processor type and features ---> [*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support Device Drivers ---> Character Devices ---> <M> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support) <M> Your_AGP_Chipset_Here [ ] Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support) Graphics support ---> [ ] Support for framebuffer devices Kernel Hacking ---> [ ] Kernel debugging

Sync your kernel menuconfig with the selected portions posted here.

Please be aware that -mm and -rc(1,2,3,4,...) kernels often break fglrx due to unexpected changes in syntax, etc. If you want to use ati-drivers, use the stock gentoo-sources or at the very least, a STABLE 2.4 or 2.6 kernel!

Don't forget to compile, install, and reboot into the kernel. Directions for this are beyond the scope of this file; if you need help recompiling the kernel, click here.

I have a Radeon 9500/9600 (not sure which) in a Dell Inspiron 8600 and was able to compile support for the framebuffer devices. I used the vesa-tng framebuffer device for getting fbsplash to work. I am running kernel 2.6.14-gentoo-r2. The program 'fglrxinfo' reports that I am getting 3D hardware acceleration.

[ edit]

Grabbing a Driver Set

For installation it will be easier to drop out of X to a command prompt. Do this using whatever command your Window Manager uses. Log out of your session, press CTRL-ALT-F1 to get into the tty console, log in as root and stop xdm.

# /etc/init.d/xdm stop

To use ati-drivers, xorg-x11 should be compiled without the dlloader use flag. Check if it enabled or not.

# equery uses xorg-x11

If it is on, you should recompile xorg-x11 with -dlloader.

Next, get the latest set of drivers though portage. Getting the latest drivers will probably mean unmasking them as well as their dependencies (namely `eselect').

echo "app-admin/eselect" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
echo "app-admin/eselect-opengl" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
echo "x11-drivers/ati-drivers" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
echo "x11-apps/ati-drivers-extra" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

Now let's install the drivers. ati-drivers-extra is a control panel for the driver you probably won't use; you can leave that part out if you want, but for completeness we mention it here.

$ su -
# emerge -av ati-drivers ati-drivers-extra

The next step is to load the kernel module and switch to the ATi OpenGL subsytem:

# modprobe fglrx
# eselect opengl set ati

(very important!)(opengl-update is deprecated, don't use it)

Configure X:

# fglrxconfig

If for some reason this command doesn't work (the script isn't found), then try manually executing the script from its default location (back up your existing xorg.conf first, though:

# /opt/ati/bin/fglrxconfig

Now, let's get back into X.

$ startx

Open up a command prompt and run:

$ /opt/ati/bin/fglrxinfo

If the OpenGL vendor string says "ATI Technologies," then congrats! You've got the drivers working and hardware acceleration going great. If not...read on...

[ edit]

Troubleshooting

[ edit]

Config Files

By default, the driver uses the Internal AGPGART. Sometimes the internal one doesn't work, and you will have to use the one provided with the kernel. Search your xorg.conf for the line that has the option "UseInternalAGPGART." Simply change the "yes" to "no."

File: xorg.conf

Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"

Now simply add the modules to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.x where x is your kernel version.

Add the following (ORDER IS VERY IMPORTANT);

File: /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.x

agpgart intel-agp # change intel-agp to your chipset. eg: via-agp, nvidia-agp sis-agp. fglrx

Finally, run

modules-update

Then you can reboot and everything should work. If you have are having problems, check dmesg and /var/log/Xorg.0.log for more info.

[ edit]

Unable to modprobe fglrx

If the module cannot be loaded ("operation not permitted"), check if the kernel Direct Rendendering Manager (Device Drivers -> Character devices -> Direct Rendering Manager) is enabled. If so: Disable and recompile :-)

[ edit]

Blank screen or monitor turning off after startx

Versions of ati-drivers >= 8.16.20 have an issue with this that's easily corrected by inserting:

File: xorg.conf

Option "ForceMonitors" "notv"

in the device section of xorg.conf (discussed here: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=103028)

Check if you have a non-DDC monitor connected via VGA/HD15 connector. If so change your xorg.conf:

File: xorg.conf

# Option "DesktopSetup" "0x00000000" Option "MonitorLayout" "NONE, CRT" Option "IgnoreEDID" "off" Option "HSync2" "30-85" Option "VRefresh2" "50-160" # Option "ScreenOverlap" "0"

where HSync2 and VRefresh2 are your monitor parameters.

Also, try changing the MonitorLayout option. The default is "AUTO, AUTO", which is to say X will attempt to autodetect what kind of monitor you've got on the first and second display heads. This can theoretically fail (though I have never observed it). Try changing it around a bit. For example, if you have an LCD and no secondary monitor, change the line to read:

File: xorg.conf

Option "MonitorLayout" "TMDS, NONE"

if you have a CRT, simply replace "TMDS" with "CRT".

[ edit]

Crashes on startup

If you are unable to use any 3d applications and get this error instead:

FGLTexMgr: open of shared memory object failed (Function not implemented)
__FGLTexMgrCreateObject: __FGLTexMgrSHMmalloc failed!!!
fglX11AllocateManagedSurface: __FGLTexMgrCreateObject failed!!
FGLTexMgr: open of shared memory object failed (Function not implemented)
__FGLTexMgrCreateObject: __FGLTexMgrSHMmalloc failed!!!
fglX11AllocateManagedSurface: __FGLTexMgrCreateObject failed!!
FGLTexMgr: open of shared memory object failed (Function not implemented)
__FGLTexMgrCreateObject: __FGLTexMgrSHMmalloc failed!!!

Then you do not have tmpfs mounted on /dev/shm, which the driver requires. To mount this, add to following line to /etc/fstab (if it isn't there already):

File: /etc/fstab

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

Then just do a:

mount /dev/shm

If the drivers still crap out on you, or for example you get a black screen on X init, try going into your system BIOS and change graphics-related stuff around. Believe it or not, for me my 9800 gives a black screen on X init if I have the AGP Aperture set at anything other than 128MB. I don't know what causes this, and I don't care; I'm just relating to you how I overcame my problem ;)

Also, whenever you update your compiler, you must recompile your kernel otherwise you won't be able to insert the fglrx module. Note that recompiling your kernel means you must also unmerge/emerge ati-drivers!

[ edit]

AMD64 Issues

If you get this error: fglrx: Unknown symbol register_ioctl32_conversion fglrx: Unknown symbol unregister_ioctl32_conversion

A patch is available to fix driver issues with AMD64 at http://www.credibleinstitution.org/matt/firegl_public.patch

There is a forum posting on the issue: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-397969-highlight-ati+rc300.html

[ edit]

See Also

• ATi Unofficial Bugzilla (occasionally monitored by ATi personnel)
• Check out user Wedge_'s excellent ATI Radeon FAQ here
• HOWTO Dual Monitors

Retrieved from " http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ATI_Drivers"