Arch Linux

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

***I've tried to update this thread (as well as the Subject) with better information now that I understand more what happened. It was a bit of a mess and it seems that a person can't delete posts they've made? So I had to put a little somthing in each one. If you need anymore info or anything doesn't make sense, please ask, I'd really like to get this solved. Thanks for taking the time to read it.***

Hello all,

I'm running Arch64 on a Dell Inspiron 1721 Laptop, with an ATI "RS690M Radeon X1200 Series" graphics card.

Apparently Catalyst dropped support for my graphics card (that was really great of them, I appreciate it very much, might even send them a thank you letter.....), which is no doubt why it quit working after an update (that's obvious now but at the time I didn't know why it had quit working).

This leaves me with two choices: run the open source drivers or downgrade my system and run a version of Catalyst that still supports my card.

While I would like to have 3D support for desktop effects and such, it is not mandatory. A decent resolution and a working S-Video port are my only requirements.

I have tried the open source drivers, both xf86-video-ati and xf86-video-radeon.

The xf86-video-ati offers good enough resolutions but it doesn't detect my S-Video port on the back of the laptop. It also didn't give very good performance, horrible in fact, with composite effects.

The xf86-video-radeon offers only small, horrible looking resolutions. It doesn't detect my S-Video port either.  I didn't even try this one with composite.

The S-Video port is an absolute must have feature, because hooking it up to the TV to watch movies is one of the laptops primary purposes. So unless I can make the S-Video port work with the xf86-video-ati driver, or get both S-Video and higher resolutions on the xf86-video-radeon then neither are usable candidates for me.

Now the Catalyst driver, when it still supported my card, worked well enough. There was an annoying resolution/virtual desktop issue between the laptop and TV, but it worked with the S-Video port and was satisfactory.

On one hand my preference would be to use the open source drivers so that I can still keep my system up to date, on the other hand I'd prefer to use Catalyst and still have 3D support and such.

So overall I don't care which way it's done so long as it works again.

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 12:27:25)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

First let's look at the xf86-video-ati driver, on which I can't get S-Video recognized:

On the Arch Wiki it says to run

xrandr

and it should show an S-Video output, assuming you have one, which I do.

Here's what I get:

-~- xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1440 x 900, maximum 1440 x 1440
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1440x900       60.1*+
   1280x854       59.9  
   1280x800       59.8  
   1280x720       59.9  
   1152x768       59.8  
   1024x768       60.0     59.9  
   800x600        60.3     59.9  
   640x480        59.9     59.4  
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I do have a VGA port but I do not have a DVI port. And I do have an S-video port which isn't showing up. LVDS is the monitor on the laptop I believe.

So I'm at a loss as to why it isn't showing the S-Video port and how to make it do so.

I also tried to go ahead with the next step (in case it was recognized and just not showing up) and ran:

-~- xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 1
X Error of failed request:  BadRROutput (invalid Output parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  150 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  15 (RRGetOutputProperty)
  Serial number of failed request:  26
  Current serial number in output stream:  26

That didn't work so well either.

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 11:42:18)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

-~-xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr: cannot find output "S-video"

I also tried 'S-Video' instead of 'S-video', just in case, but that doesn't help.

Both

xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 1

and

xrandr --output S-video --set ntsc

are still giving the same errors as in the previous post.

I do have the S-video cable connected from the laptop to the TV while I'm doing this. I also restarted X after hooking up the cable and before trying these commands. As well as hooking up the cable and restarting the computer.

I still have no idea what is wrong or how to get it to detect my S-video port. Anyone have any ideas?

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 11:47:07)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

I installed xf86-video-ati-git from AUR and restarted. I still can't detect the S-video with 'xrandr', I'm getting the same output as before.

Also using System>Preferences>Display (in GNOME), with the S-video cable hooked up to the TV, doesn't help either. Clicking 'Detect Displays' doesn't do anything (on xf86-video-ati or xf86-video-ati-git).

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 11:53:04)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

As for xf86-video-radeonhd:

It starts with a much lower resolution (as mentioned above).

Also xrandr gives:

Screen 0: minimum 800 x 600, current 1152 x 864, maximum 1152 x 864
default connected 1152x864+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1152x864        0.0* 
   1024x768       61.0  
   800x600        61.0

So obviously it isn't detecting my S-video out either (or the VGA for that matter).

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 11:55:51)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

Now concerning the Catalyst driver:

I found 'catalyst-old' and 'catalyst-utils-old' in AUR.

I'm under the impression that they do support my card?

Otherwise I would need to downgrade and get an older version of catalyst to work manually.

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 12:07:36)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

OK, I've managed to downgrade kernel26 and xorg-server and install catalyst-old from AUR. I added fglrx to my modules in /etc/rc.conf, and restarted. No errors, it seems to have loaded fine.

However, Xorg -configure will not work. It gives errors such as:

(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0@0:0:0) found" and "Fatal server error: Caught signal 11. Server aborting"

I used 'aticonfig --initial' to configure my xorg.conf, and then manually added:

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

as instructed in the wiki, and also made sure 'default depth' was at '24'.

Then I try to start kdm with 'sudo /etc/rc.d/kdm start'. The screen goes black for a bit and then returns to the terminal. KDM does start, error free it seems, but I can't see it. I checked all the other virtual terminals as well just in case.

catalyst-old does cover the X1200 best I can tell, is that right? Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 12:23:04)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

I'm attempting to downgrade back to the catalyst drivers that still support my card. I have some old packages in /var/cache/pacman/pkg. I'm running into depedency issues though. Mainly with catalyst-utils, it doesn't seem to want to work with any of the xorg-server packages I have.

What is the best way to downgrade packages? I've never had to do it before.

It seems that if I have to downgrade kernel, xorg, and so on I'll end up needing to downgrade everything on the system? Is there a quick way to install all of the old packages then I wonder? The only thing I can think of would be to delete/move everything from /var/cache/pacman/pkg that was new, so that I would only have to old versions of packages in there and then I could do 'sudo pacman -U *' right? Is there a better way?

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-06-30 07:32:02)

otti

Member

Registered: 2006-12-18

Posts: 64

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

For downgrading packages look here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Downgrade_packages. I use schlunix for downloading the old packages.

As for the s-video out issues, I have no idea. But maybe you find useful informations in the following links:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI#TV_out
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … =806&num=1
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … ci-684461/

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

For downgrading packages look here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Downgrade_packages. I use schlunix for downloading the old packages.

As for the s-video out issues, I have no idea. But maybe you find useful informations in the following links:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI#TV_out
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … =806&num=1
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … ci-684461/

Thanks for the advice on that. I should of replied sooner but I had to remove Arch from the laptop a while back so they could use it right then. But now they're done with it for a little while so I'm going back to trying to get Arch working on it agian.

Does anyone know if the trouble I was having with the open source drivers has been fixed? I realize that's probably not something anyone can answer and I'll have to find out for myself, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Back to the Catalyst driver:

What I'm wondering is if I put a fresh install of Arch64 on the laptop right now how many packages would have to be downgraded? 'kernel26', 'kernel26-firmware', and 'xorg-server' are all I can think of.

I was wondering though if it would be easier to download an older installation disc, core not ftp, which would install an older base system to begin with? Then I could locate older versions of packages not included on core (I have always used the ftp CD so I don't actually no what all the core CD would install?) and install them with 'pacman -U' and have pacman ignore upgrading.... whatever all I need to keep it from upgrading.... and go from there?

I'm just trying to get some suggestions of the best way to go about getting the ATI (read EVIL) card working. I don't need 3D support and don't care if I end up using the open source driver or Catalyst, so long as the S-Video out works.

Thank you for any advice on this.

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 12:18:12)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

I also noticed 'catalyst-leaked' in AUR, but I can't tell for sure what cards it supports.

*Hmm, I can't install it with yaourt. It doesn't fail, yaourt simply can't get it. I went to it's AUR page and clicked the PKGBUILD link but it goes to a blank page.

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 12:25:09)

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

Something I'm having trouble with is finding anywhere to find out what dependencies, and the version of the dependencies, a pacakge needs.

I know for current ones I can find out at archlinux.org. But for older packages where would I find this info?

I found out about ARM and am trying to use it, but I don't fully understand how. I mean I can grab individual packages from it just fine, but how do I determine what snapshot date will have the packages I need?

I'm also trying to find out for sure exactly what kernel, kernel-firmware, xorg-server, catalyst, and catalyst-utils I need to get my card working.

I apologize if I'm missing the obvious but I can't seem to find that information in a straight answer anywhere. Any help, advice, links to info, etc.. would be greatly appreciated so that I can get this laptop running again.

I thought I had everything downgraded far enough last night but either the xorg-server isn't liking the catalyst driver or something of the sort......

I'm trying to look back trough and find exactly what versions of what I have installed right now. I've been through enough different ones that I've lost tracked.

Does anyone have an opinion on how well, or how bad, getting an older core .iso to install a base system and then using ARM repos to get the rest of the packages that I would need would work?

Thank you.

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: Need Help to Downgrade Catalyst for ATI X1200 Graphics Card

I'd like to put my own custom repositorie together that has all of the packages that I need in it. base, base-devel, xorg, kde, kde-extragear, catalyst, catalyst-utils, and of course all the dependencies of those packages/groups.

In which case I would manually download all of said packages and then put a little repositorie together. So deciding what versions of each package I need is the part I'm not having much luck with. I don't have a good idea of where to start. I know that some packages I'll be able to get from the Arch repos and others I'll have to try and get from ARM or schlunix or the like. I'm getting the feeling that I'm being fairly simple minded as to where to find the appropriate info.

***Feeling extra stupid now. Somehow I've been reading over the date in Arch's ATI wiki that plainly states catalyst was dropped from extra in March of '09. Honestly I don't know how. I've read that thing over and over. I knew it was dropped, but didn't see the date. I think when the van comes for me I'll just go quitely....

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-07 16:03:04)