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#1 2010-09-21 23:40:43

GriFF3nG
Member
Registered: 2008-11-05
Posts: 18

[SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Hello everyone, I just recently picked up an older Dell Latitude C800 from Craigslist and have installed Arch on it. My problem is 3D performance is really bad. When I try to load Chromium it sort of flashes the screen and scrolls real slow. So I'm guessing the 3D acceleration from the driver I installed is not working. Below is some info:

[griff3n@arch ~]$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility M4 AGP

[griff3n@arch ~]$ glxgears
199 frames in 5.0 seconds = 39.690 FPS

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "X.org Configured"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "dri2"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "dri"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "record"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "auto"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "ShadowFB"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DefaultRefresh"            # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ModeSetClearScreen"        # [<bool>]
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "vesa"
        VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
        BoardName   "Rage Mobility M4 AGP"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     1
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     4
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     8
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     15
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     16
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'll post whatever you guys need me to, but I thought these would be the main things to look at. Thanks,

GriFF

Last edited by GriFF3nG (2010-09-24 00:41:14)

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#2 2010-09-21 23:47:27

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Driver      "vesa"

Seems you're using vesa driver, no wonder everything is sluggish. Check the wiki to see your options for ATI card drivers.

Please, use [code ] tags for formatting code listings https://bbs.archlinux.org/help.php#bbcode

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#3 2010-09-21 23:54:47

GriFF3nG
Member
Registered: 2008-11-05
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

karol wrote:

Driver      "vesa"

Seems you're using vesa driver, no wonder everything is sluggish. Check the wiki to see your options for ATI card drivers.

Please, use [code ] tags for formatting code listings https://bbs.archlinux.org/help.php#bbcode


Thanks karo, the tags were exactly what I was looking for. I tried changing the driver, and X wouldnt load for me. Going to a more basic xorg.conf and gonna see what happens. THANKS!

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#4 2010-09-22 00:06:17

GriFF3nG
Member
Registered: 2008-11-05
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

deleted

Last edited by GriFF3nG (2010-09-22 00:07:28)

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#5 2010-09-22 00:08:01

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Did you install the driver or did you just change the xorg.conf?

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#6 2010-09-22 00:20:47

GriFF3nG
Member
Registered: 2008-11-05
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

karol wrote:

Did you install the driver or did you just change the xorg.conf?


I did install the driver. Just tried reinstalling it and still no go. If I build the xorg.conf with "Xorg -configure", then I get a working X. If I  try to build it myself it gets fatal errors. If I use the built xorg.conf and just change the driver to "radeon", then I get fatal errors.

Last edited by GriFF3nG (2010-09-22 00:21:10)

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#7 2010-09-22 00:46:46

anonymous_user
Member
Registered: 2009-08-28
Posts: 3,059

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Try installing xf86-video-r128 and use that driver.

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#8 2010-09-22 00:58:14

GriFF3nG
Member
Registered: 2008-11-05
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

anonymous_user wrote:

Try installing xf86-video-r128 and use that driver.

Video performance has increased SIGNIFICANTLY with these drivers, problem is the screen is unreadable. Looks like this guys screen.

http://www.baltimoremick.com/blog/2008/ … th-ubuntu/

Going to try his xorg.conf

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#9 2010-09-22 01:23:57

GriFF3nG
Member
Registered: 2008-11-05
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Ok, so I can get the server to run by altering a couple of options in xorg.conf. I changed all the options below but performance is still shot.

Section "Device"
Identifier  "ATI Technologies, Inc. Rage Mobility M4 (AGP)"
Driver    "r128"
BusID      "PCI:1:0:0"
Option    "AGPMode"  "4"
Option    "AGPSize"  "32"
Option    "EnablePageFlip"  "true"
Option    "Display"  "BIOS"
Option    "SWCursor"        "true"
Option   "CCEusecTimeout" "20000"
EndSection

I'll have a messed up screen that performs great with the above settings. As soon as i change the options below, the screen is normal, but the performance goes to hell. Any ideas?

Section "Monitor"
Identifier  "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync   31-82
VertRefresh     40-110
EndSection

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#10 2010-09-22 15:14:39

ConnorBehan
Package Maintainer (PM)
From: Long Island NY
Registered: 2007-07-05
Posts: 1,359
Website

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

I don't know what half those options mean but the issues I initially had with r128 concerned video memory. I had to explicity set 1024x768 resolution at 16bpp to get DRI. I have an M3 not an M4 so you can probably go higher, but it's worth a try.


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Great things come in tar.xz packages.

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#11 2010-09-22 17:12:04

tom5760
Member
From: Philadelphia, PA, USA
Registered: 2006-02-05
Posts: 283
Website

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Have you tried running without an Xorg.conf?  Xorg can be pretty decent at auto-detecting things.

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#12 2010-09-22 20:11:50

xaber
Member
Registered: 2010-09-20
Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Yes, I was also wondering why did you use a custom xorg.conf. I'm runnin an ati card without xorg.conf with no issues at all.
Btw, whihc driver had you installed before trying the ones Anonymous suggested you? Personally, I am using the xf86-video-ati open ones. No problem at all!

P.s.: Hey Anonymous! What a surprise! You are here as well too? Are you too a !# and Arch dualist? I'm honored to be side by side with you again! wink I started posting in the international forum only the last days! But I've been using Arch for some weeks right now, with great delight! wink

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#13 2010-09-22 20:29:24

devadittya
Member
From: Bangalore
Registered: 2009-11-16
Posts: 127
Website

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

GriFF3nG
Welcome to Arch. I have an ATI card as well, and it blowed with the open source drivers. If you are fine with the idea, you can try the proprietary ATI Catalyst drivers. It's working for me, and most people (with minor glitches).

Please see the following links:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI_Catalyst
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57084&p=1

This is going to be all the information you'd need. Feel free to PM me if you need any help.

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#14 2010-09-22 22:27:54

anonymous_user
Member
Registered: 2009-08-28
Posts: 3,059

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

xaber wrote:

P.s.: Hey Anonymous! What a surprise! You are here as well too? Are you too a !# and Arch dualist?

Well I do have Statler running in a VM if that counts smile

Also devadittya, I don't think the Catalyst drivers will work for a Rage Mobility chipset.

Last edited by anonymous_user (2010-09-22 22:30:41)

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#15 2010-09-23 00:51:37

ConnorBehan
Package Maintainer (PM)
From: Long Island NY
Registered: 2007-07-05
Posts: 1,359
Website

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

anonymous_user wrote:

Also devadittya, I don't think the Catalyst drivers will work for a Rage Mobility chipset.

Yes, don't listen to suggestions that you should use Catalyst or xf86-video-ati. You *must* use xf86-video-r128 (or something worse like vesa).


6EA3 F3F3 B908 2632 A9CB E931 D53A 0445 B47A 0DAB
Great things come in tar.xz packages.

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#16 2010-09-23 09:25:29

devadittya
Member
From: Bangalore
Registered: 2009-11-16
Posts: 127
Website

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Yes, I just checked. Ignore my advice, Catalyst (and xf86-video-ati) does NOT work with Rage Mobility.

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#17 2010-09-24 00:40:49

GriFF3nG
Member
Registered: 2008-11-05
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

Thanks for all the advice guys. I found out that this laptop has a TON of problems with linux video. I was able to get it working by hitting Fn+F7 which changes the resolution of the monitor. Thanks again for all the help, this is the main reason why I always come back to Arch when I need to tickle my *nix bone.

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#18 2010-09-24 12:07:22

xaber
Member
Registered: 2010-09-20
Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED]Terrible Video Performance on ATI Rage Mobility Card

But, in the end, which driver did you use?

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