The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

Vi0L0 · 2011-12-07 17:23:31

MartyTM wrote:

Speaking of downgrading, is it possible with arch to keep on a certain kernel and Xorg. I have specified the xorg group and linux and linux-headers in the pacman ignorepkg sections as Xorg 1.10, Catalyst 11.11, and linux 3.1.x are so rock-solid stable on my system I don't want to change a thing with them. Is this safe to do? I don't have any extra modules outside of the kernel installed on my system so as long as linux and the headers are back no problems should be caused there right?

Yes, this should be safe, but i guess that noone can actually guarantee you that.

I'm just not sure is this a good step - you will gain stability (although you can't be sure that newer releases would be less stable) but loose all the good things that incoming kernel and catalyst will serve.
Some time ago phoronix was writing about catalyst 11.12 - the article was telling mainly about this bug report: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issue … ?id=101225, and the words of chromium developer kbr:

kbr wrote:

AMD has provided us a beta Linux driver of version 8.92 for testing and it is looking very good from a robustness and compatibility standpoint. We should stop blacklisting AMD drivers on Linux starting at this version.

Uff... finally! Really good news.
The other good news is that OpenCL is finally getting more AMD's attention - catalyst 11.11 is already implementing opencl libraries, but in the day of catalyst's 11.12 premiere also fresh AMD's SDK (stream) will be announced, so all the fun will start out from 11.12. If you will combine those facts with the other important fact that AMD is paying some money for new opencl code you can get a better look at this whole opencl case.

Also if you will look at the kernel's releases you will notice that some good things are always coming into it, ie. in 3.2 you can already see "optimised assembler code paths accelerate SHA1 and speed up the Blowfish and Twofish encryption algorithms" - in some cases performance gain is pretty huge (like 30-40%) + ie. 3.2 fixes "a cache problem found in AMD's latest processors and includes new and extended drivers for Intel CPUs" + it got many other improvements.
:-)

Edit: so i believe the best thing to do in your case is to umm...:
1. before kernel/catalyst/xserver update make your own local repository which will contain all stable software + remove ignored packages from the blacklist;
2. update and check is it good enought;
3. if it's good - leave it and be happy, if it's a crap - downgrade packages into versions from your local repo + bring back the blacklist and be happy :-)

Last edited by Vi0L0 (2011-12-07 17:32:45)

MartyTM · 2011-12-07 19:24:51

@Vi0l0
First off, thanks for both the great quality Catalyst packages and repositories. I really thought when I came to Arch that rolling along with ATI Catalyst would be more trouble than anything else but the packages and repositories have really made installation of the drivers and maintaining them nearly fool-proof.

I was also not aware of how many new features that 11.12 is supposed to have. Once that is released I will have to see if it'll make sense to upgrade. As for the kernel, my system has been pretty much fully supported since at least 2.6.35 so as of right now I am pretty happy. I do really like the local repository idea though, and I think I might try to set something like that up for future upgrades. The openCL feature does seem like something that would make me upgrade though...

securitybreach · 2011-12-07 20:51:11

For some reason whenever I am watching a video using mplayer or vlc and I scroll on a webpage, the playback skips some and the audio goes out of sync. Here are the plugins I am using with mplayer-vaapi:

╔═ comhack@Cerberus 02:45 PM 
╚═══ ~-> cat .mplayer/config
# Write your default config options here!
vo=vaapi:gl
va=vaapi
ao=alsa,

Here is my ATI System configuration report: http://pastebin.com/fjk7J5VH

I am also using the newest version of catalyst-total:

╔═ comhack@Cerberus 02:50 PM 
╚═══ ~-> pacman -Qi catalyst-total | grep Version
Version        : 11.11-3

BTW I am using Xmonad with a Radeon HD 6790 running 3 monitors.

Last edited by securitybreach (2011-12-07 21:00:31)

ChemBro · 2011-12-07 21:42:14

Bhran wrote:

ChemBro wrote:
Bhran wrote:
Quick question:
I have an ATi Radeon Xpress 1250 and I use Gnome 3, what drivers should I use?
Your only option is the open-source driver radeon/ati and it is in your case the best option, even if you could use Catalyst (which you cannot, because it doesn't support your card).
System Information reports Gallium 0.4 on ATI RS690, is that ok?

Sounds fine to me.

securitybreach · 2011-12-08 16:10:35

securitybreach wrote:

For some reason whenever I am watching a video using mplayer or vlc and I scroll on a webpage, the playback skips some and the audio goes out of sync. Here are the plugins I am using with mplayer-vaapi:
╔═ comhack@Cerberus 02:45 PM 
╚═══ ~-> cat .mplayer/config
# Write your default config options here!
vo=vaapi:gl
va=vaapi
ao=alsa,
Here is my ATI System configuration report: http://pastebin.com/fjk7J5VH
I am also using the newest version of catalyst-total:
╔═ comhack@Cerberus 02:50 PM 
╚═══ ~-> pacman -Qi catalyst-total | grep Version
Version        : 11.11-3
BTW I am using Xmonad with a Radeon HD 6790 running 3 monitors.

I ended up reinstalling catalyst-total and it seemed to fix the stuttering issue.

Spoke too soon

Last edited by securitybreach (2011-12-08 16:11:40)

crshbndct · 2011-12-08 19:31:57

@MartyTM: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AT … positories I just use this repo for Xorg1.10. It never prompts me to upgrade or tells me there is a newer version. Working great for me, with 11.11

zanardi84 · 2011-12-09 08:16:22

Hi,
I have serious problems with my HD 5770 on desk.
Last week I tried to install new arch system. Got "fatal error inserting.. " when tried to install fglrx driver from catalyst repo... kernel 3.1.x issue? Anyway, when I started KDM my screen was full of arctifacts..rectangular mouse cursor :S
So tried to ignore kernel upgrades blacklisting "linux" in ignore list section in pacman.conf file after new installation.
I kept 3.0-arch kernel and installed fglrx from catalyst.. no fatal error, but nothing changed. Arctifacts.
Also tried with AUR catalyst package, but no result.

Note: I generated xorg.conf using aticonfig --initial and everything was fine (no error messages or warnings). My Radeon is ok because I'm using it on win7 and Ubuntu. I need fglrx for power saving.

What can I do?

unformatt · 2011-12-10 00:25:56

I have a laptop with open source ati drivers installed, using gnome desktop. When I plug a secondary monitor, it adds the display just fine, but when I unplug the display, I have to go to displays app so that applications running on secondary monitor appear in the first one. Is this a bug? As I think, apps in secondary monitor should go to the primary desktop after unpluging it.

achilleas.k · 2011-12-10 12:06:10

unformatt wrote:

I have a laptop with open source ati drivers installed, using gnome desktop. When I plug a secondary monitor, it adds the display just fine, but when I unplug the display, I have to go to displays app so that applications running on secondary monitor appear in the first one. Is this a bug? As I think, apps in secondary monitor should go to the primary desktop after unpluging it.

I had the same behaviour, with the small difference that I had to also go to the display settings to enable the secondary monitor. I always considered the requirement to manually change the setting to be reasonable.
Can't say if this is how it's supposed to be though, maybe someone can confirm?

unformatt · 2011-12-11 19:56:40

With nouveau drivers it works as expected. where can this issue be reported?

Vi0L0 · 2011-12-11 23:00:00

unformatt wrote:

With nouveau drivers it works as expected. where can this issue be reported?

Here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org

securitybreach · 2011-12-12 18:53:41

So am I the only one witnessing audio going out of sync on all videos players when I scroll on both Firefox and Iron (Chrome)? The audio also goes out of sync when I switch windows. I am running Xmonad with a Radeon HD 6790 running catalyst-total current. Any ideas as this is getting really annoying.

Last edited by securitybreach (2011-12-12 18:55:30)

Neije · 2011-12-13 07:10:42

Well this is so weir behaviour ...
Just like this :
1) I would check all the logs after launching the programs into a console session to see any possible weird message.
2) swap window manager to be sure it comes (or not) from Xmonad
3) could it simply a configuration mistake of chrome and/or firefox with the scrolling ?
4) do the same with the open source driver to be sure it does not come from ATI.

securitybreach · 2011-12-13 08:00:17

Thanks :-)

I will try out what you suggested although I cannot use the OpenSource driver as my card is not well supported yet (Radeon HD 6790). I think some of the problems with the open source driver are due to the fact that I use the DisplayPort plus the 2 DVI ports to power my 3 monitors. I tried using the open source driver on a couple of distros just to test it out and every single distro would only displayed screen "trash" with the default open source driver. There may be a way of getting my card and all 3 ports working on the OS driver but I have yet to figure it out. Here is my atisysteminfo-report.txt if it helps: https://github.com/securitybreach/Cerbe … report.txt

Last edited by securitybreach (2011-12-13 08:01:23)

Vi0L0 · 2011-12-13 17:07:10

Thanks to Radioactiveman who informed that the new catalyst 11.12 is available.

Soon i will test and upload it, let me just finish my "home work" ...

securitybreach · 2011-12-13 17:30:54

Thanks a lot Vi0L0!!

Radioactiveman · 2011-12-13 17:35:03

No problem Vi0L0,

I've already updated to 11.12 but experience a bug with xfce-terminal since version 11.11.
The problem is I don't know which program/driver is the problem.
If I maximize the window of xfce-terminal, the bottom xfce-panel will get corrupted like shown in the screenshot.
This does not occur with other terminal emulators (tested gnome-terminal).
Enabling the XFCE compositor also works to prevent this bug.
What could be the cause? Catalyst, xfce-terminal or the XFCE window manager?
And is someone able to reproduce it?

EDIT: found out that it's only reproduceable if the resolution is >= 1440x900 or >= 1400x1050 (therefore no problem on my laptop).

Last edited by Radioactiveman (2011-12-13 19:28:52)

scullder · 2011-12-13 20:42:37

No improvement, it crashes when using xv video output...

ChemBro · 2011-12-13 21:42:29

scullder wrote:

No improvement, it crashes when using xv video output...

That is a known bug. Besides, why don't you use opengl video output anyway?

EDIT: Also AMD usually fixes bugs in 3 month cycles, because of their developement cycle (I know, it is stupid).

Last edited by ChemBro (2011-12-13 21:43:34)

szebenyib · 2011-12-13 21:54:43

Has anybody tried it with the gnome-shell? Still flickering?

//I don't have too much time (to spend half a day with trial and error + backup is not possible for at least a week) to experiment here and I need my system, therefore any kind of preliminary information would be welcome before upgrading.

scullder · 2011-12-13 22:28:28

ChemBro wrote:

scullder wrote:
No improvement, it crashes when using xv video output...
That is a known bug. Besides, why don't you use opengl video output anyway?

Because it's slower on my laptop and out of sync with sound with vlc. Also I'm using kde / phonon and I'm not always able to choose the video output (try to view a video in gwenview...)

ChemBro wrote:

EDIT: Also AMD usually fixes bugs in 3 month cycles, because of their developement cycle (I know, it is stupid).

Ok, so it will be in January or February... There is no excuse, the quality of catalyst drivers is just very low... It looks like they release a random snapshot of their vcs every month and they don't have a basic test suite.

Unia · 2011-12-13 22:35:03

szebenyib wrote:

Has anybody tried it with the gnome-shell? Still flickering?
//I don't have too much time (to spend half a day with trial and error + backup is not possible for at least a week) to experiment here and I need my system, therefore any kind of preliminary information would be welcome before upgrading.

I just have, on Ubuntu tho. Still flickering when going in and out of Activities... also moving windows laggs more than with the previous version. Gah I'm so frustrated! Why can't they just fix this? It's an ongoing issue for 6 months now...

cdprincipe · 2011-12-15 01:56:31

Catalyst 11.12 + Xorg 1.11 = shit
Catalyst 11,12 + Xorg 1.10 = paradise

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AT … positories

#nano /etc/pacman.conf

[xorg110]
Server = http://catalyst.apocalypsus.net/repo/xorg110/$arch

from tty2

#/etc/rc.d/kdm stop OR /etc/rc.d/gdm stop OR ...
#pacman -Suu
#reboot

read the wiki

Last edited by cdprincipe (2011-12-15 02:05:02)

securitybreach · 2011-12-15 04:41:14

cdprincipe wrote:

Catalyst 11.12 + Xorg 1.11 = shit
Catalyst 11,12 + Xorg 1.10 = paradise
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AT … positories
#nano /etc/pacman.conf
[xorg110]
Server = http://catalyst.apocalypsus.net/repo/xorg110/$arch
from tty2
#/etc/rc.d/kdm stop OR /etc/rc.d/gdm stop OR ...
#pacman -Suu
#reboot
read the wiki

Thanks a lot, everything is working perfectly now. I previously had the xorg110 repos enabled untill the new a version of 1.11 was reported working. I do not know why I did not think of reverting the version of xorg.

Thanks so much for mentioning it.

Last edited by securitybreach (2011-12-15 05:13:06)

achilleas.k · 2011-12-15 12:43:23

I've been in the same boat as cdprincipe btw. Xorg 1.10 + Catalyst 11.11 for the last month and now Catalyst 11.12 and everything is fine. As soon as I try X 1.11 everything just goes to hell.

Arch Linux

#3501 2011-12-07 17:23:31

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3502 2011-12-07 19:24:51

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3503 2011-12-07 20:51:11

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3504 2011-12-07 21:42:14

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3505 2011-12-08 16:10:35

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3506 2011-12-08 19:31:57

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3507 2011-12-09 08:16:22

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3508 2011-12-10 00:25:56

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3509 2011-12-10 12:06:10

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3510 2011-12-11 19:56:40

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3511 2011-12-11 23:00:00

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3512 2011-12-12 18:53:41

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3513 2011-12-13 07:10:42

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3514 2011-12-13 08:00:17

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3515 2011-12-13 17:07:10

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3516 2011-12-13 17:30:54

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3517 2011-12-13 17:35:03

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3518 2011-12-13 20:42:37

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3519 2011-12-13 21:42:29

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3520 2011-12-13 21:54:43

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3521 2011-12-13 22:28:28

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3522 2011-12-13 22:35:03

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3523 2011-12-15 01:56:31

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3524 2011-12-15 04:41:14

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3525 2011-12-15 12:43:23

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

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