The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

hcaulfield · 2012-02-10 17:57:03

ChemBro wrote:

@hcaulfield: What do you mean by "light gaming", because the 4250 is a weak card.

Yes, I know its a weak card, however I don't really have any money (or the desire) to upgrade to something better at the moment. Gaming isn't my first priority, so when I bought it, I wasn't too concerned with its power. I was hoping to be able to play Starcraft 2 or something more simple like that.

snack wrote:

Catalyst just works fine for me for dayly usage. I have a Mobility HD 3470, I use KDE and it's been a long time since my last problem with Catalyst (mainly thanks to the great work of Vi0l0). Give Catalyst a shot before saying it is no good, it will also perform much better than open driver in games for sure.

achilleas.k wrote:

I'll agree the proprietary driver has its issues, but there are good reasons to use it other than gaming. I don't game and I use it because it has much lower power consumption (and idle temperature). Give it a try.

Perhaps I was slightly mislead (or I misunderstood) the Beginner's Guide. The beginner's guide suggests that the open source card is better than the proprietary driver, so that was the driver that I installed. However, you two are saying that the proprietary is better for normal computer usage and games. Normal computer usage is my first priority, as my intention for this computer was to learn more about Linux (and computers in general), and games were simply an aside I was hoping to be able to do. Well, since you two are both saying the proprietary driver is better, I will give it a shot. I just had never tried it because of the beginner's guide, but perhaps it has improved since it was written.

achilleas.k · 2012-02-10 18:00:46

Well in my view, the open source driver is better in that it is hassle free. The catalyst driver might need some configuration for certain cases, or it may cause some problems for certain configurations. But if you invest a bit of time in getting everything to work (e.g., I have Xorg 1.10 instead of the latest) then I think you'll be happy with the results.

Since you said you intend to learn more about Linux, there's no better way than trying out different configurations, breaking them and then fixing them

snack · 2012-02-10 18:01:06

hcaulfield wrote:

Perhaps I was slightly mislead (or I misunderstood) the Beginner's Guide. The beginner's guide suggests that the open source card is better than the proprietary driver, so that was the driver that I installed. However, you two are saying that the proprietary is better for normal computer usage and games. Normal computer usage is my first priority, as my intention for this computer was to learn more about Linux (and computers in general), and games were simply an aside I was hoping to be able to do. Well, since you two are both saying the proprietary driver is better, I will give it a shot. I just had never tried it because of the beginner's guide, but perhaps it has improved since it was written.

I'm not saying it is better, just that I'm happy with it. It is for sure much better for performances and power save (which is very important for me on my laptop), it is probably worse in preventing headaches...
Just try it and if you are satisfied then keep using it; otherwise step back to open driver. It's your choice.

hcaulfield · 2012-02-10 18:08:07

Okay, thanks for the responses! I appreciate it. I will give it a try and if worst comes to worst, I will just uninstall it and use the open source driver. Besides it could save me some money if it doesn't require me to buy Windows to play some games.

GERGE · 2012-02-10 18:21:44

It's perfermance is better. For example I can't watch (meaning it is not as... liquid as it should be) 1080p videos on Crunchyroll with open-source driver, my hardware is more than enough but open-source driver uses massive amounts of CPU compared to what Catalyst does. With Catalyst, there is no such problem with 1080p Crunchyroll streams. Gaming is already given, no need to talk about it. The way open-source driver is better is how it works with X. Proprietary drivers are sometimes problematic it that regard. Think of them like high speed cars racing on highways, while there is traffic. It plays well with the hardware, but not so well with the software.

Take a look at these: http://i.imgur.com/bGb9Y.png http://i.imgur.com/BnKO4.png (And they say AMD does no work on Linux drivers. There were completely crap compared to Nvidia once, look at them now)

Last edited by GERGE (2012-02-10 18:26:48)

achilleas.k · 2012-02-10 18:25:38

Wow, Gnome shell really flies!!!

ChemBro · 2012-02-10 22:02:34

hcaulfield wrote:

I was hoping to be able to play Starcraft 2 or something more simple like that.

:-D

Well, Starcraft 2 is a really demanding game. This game has really nothing to do with "light gaming". More the opposite.

hcaulfield · 2012-02-12 06:59:30

ChemBro wrote:

Well, Starcraft 2 is a really demanding game. This game has really nothing to do with "light gaming". More the opposite.

Haha, well I guess I assumed it wasn't! This graphics card is really the only lacking thing on my system, so I think that I should be able to play it. But maybe I assumed wrong, I suppose I will find out, once I get to buying it.

GERGE · 2012-02-12 09:06:54

It is just about enough in Windows but as far as know Wine performance of SC2 is worse then native performance. You might play at lowest settings.

ChemBro · 2012-02-12 10:24:38

GERGE wrote:

It is just about enough in Windows but as far as know Wine performance of SC2 is worse then native performance. You might play at lowest settings.

I don't think so. I have a 4650, which is a much better card (because x2xx radeon cards are really slow) and StarCraft 2 in Wine is for me unplayable. I can play the game, as long as there is not much action...

hcaulfield · 2012-02-12 20:49:26

Oh, well thanks for the responses, I suppose I may have to buy a new card now haha.

EDIT: For anyone who understands cards, could I play like the humble indie bundle games or maybe like minecraft? To tell the truth I don't understand graphics card notations at all.

Last edited by hcaulfield (2012-02-13 05:09:19)

Unia · 2012-02-13 19:56:32

Could the issue that I'm having here, be related to a missing library in catalyst-utils? https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p1057273

cdprincipe · 2012-02-14 09:07:12

sagattarii wrote:

Default archlinux and http://catalyst.apocalypsus.net/repo/catalyst/$arch repos.
X.Org X Server 1.11.4
Linux 3.2.2-1-ARCH x86_64
KDE 4.8.0-1
No OpenGL does not work under kwin, created default Xorg.conf with "sudo aticonfig --initial".
XRender works, but slow.
Also glxgears and glxinfo dont work:
glxgears
X Error of failed request:  BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  139 (ATIFGLEXTENSION)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  66 ()
  Serial number of failed request:  13
  Current serial number in output stream:  13
New installed KDE with a fresh user. Upgraded from

Use the Xorg 1.10 repository. Solve any issue.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AT … positories

Foks · 2012-02-15 16:41:15

I have solved the OpenGL issue by building package from scratch (with makepkg) and reinstalling it. I think the problem had caused by my attempt to build Catalyst just after kernel update (without reboot).

Maybe this can help someone.

safrax · 2012-02-18 16:45:43

I'm using Cinnamon 1.3 with Catalyst 12.1 and xorg-server 1.11. Two monitors, each 1680x1050 setup as a giant desktop using amdcccle. Every few minutes the entire display corrupts. If I wiggle the mouse or do something that causes "damage" to a window forcing a redraw the corruption goes away. I've set CLUTTER_VBLANK=none in my ~/.xprofile as well. Anyone have any ideas on how to make this corruption stop? It never happened under KDE.

andy123 · 2012-02-18 17:01:37

@Vi0L0
Could you please update the xorg110 repo to xorg 1.10.6?
http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announ … 01816.html

goofy03 · 2012-02-20 21:10:43

Since a very long time i cant get the full refresh rate on my ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Serie External HDMI output with Prolite B2712HDS at Xorg startup (always get 30hz and need to switch everytime to 60hz with xrandr).

And no problem in DVI or with opensource drivers and if i unplug/plug HDMI the good refresh rate is detected. One time i get something working with a long xorg.conf tweak but not very usable because i work in many locations with too differents displays.

Today i've find a solution… Tada !
Add to my /usr/share/config/kdm/Xsetup:

xrandr --output DFP1 --auto

Ok, next annoying bug Youtube video flash in full screen …

I try everything in /etc/adobe/mms.cfg try without success. I now i can use HTML5 version but Youtube videos integrated in other site stay in flash…
Doh! and Flash working like a charm with opensource ati drivers and no more video random glitch on gimp, libreoffice interface on resizing (ok perhaps it's Oxygen-gtk ).

And I dont have talk about webgl acceleration i lost every hope to see it before dying …

I wait some progress in power management because i must always use profile "low" or i can not heard my mp3 anymore and bye bye catalyst …
Vi0L0, I'm sorry for your great work i know it's not your fault.

Who said linux is not ready for the desktop ?

k_ibou · 2012-02-21 19:26:46

Hi folks!!! I'm worry about this

The Costs of Supporting Legacy Hardware

How this going to affect those who use catalyst and kwin?

thank for the reply

Vi0L0 · 2012-02-21 22:25:15

andy123 wrote:

@Vi0L0
Could you please update the xorg110 repo to xorg 1.10.6?
http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announ … 01816.html

Were you able to compile it? Cuz i guess it's impossible to achieve, at least not without a patch - it's because a file which is inlcuded into glxcmds.c (particulary glxcmds.h) is missing.
I was searching for it in 1.10.4 but theres no such file there, i also took this file from 1.11 branch but wasn't able to compile with it (guess functions declariations differ).
Don't have much time to search for the solution, though.

k_ibou wrote:

Hi folks!!! I'm worry about this
The Costs of Supporting Legacy Hardware
How this going to affect those who use catalyst and kwin?

This would mean that there will be no kwin support in catalyst for 3, 6 or more months.

Last edited by Vi0L0 (2012-02-21 22:29:00)

Mr.Elendig · 2012-02-21 22:45:39

Would not be the first time that have happened, so I would not worry too much about it. >_>

Maki · 2012-02-22 00:02:27

Vi0L0 wrote:

andy123 wrote:
@Vi0L0
Could you please update the xorg110 repo to xorg 1.10.6?
http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announ … 01816.html
Were you able to compile it? Cuz i guess it's impossible to achieve, at least not without a patch - it's because a file which is inlcuded into glxcmds.c (particulary glxcmds.h) is missing.
I was searching for it in 1.10.4 but theres no such file there, i also took this file from 1.11 branch but wasn't able to compile with it (guess functions declariations differ).
Don't have much time to search for the solution, though.
k_ibou wrote:
Hi folks!!! I'm worry about this
The Costs of Supporting Legacy Hardware
How this going to affect those who use catalyst and kwin?
This would mean that there will be no kwin support in catalyst for 3, 6 or more months.

Kwin compositing support , kwin should work fine

k_ibou · 2012-02-22 15:44:19

Thanks for the input

Vi0L0 wrote:

This would mean that there will be no kwin support in catalyst for 3, 6 or more months.

That's my case, should I move on to xf86-video-ati?

Mr.Elendig wrote:

Would not be the first time that have happened

for my actually it's the first time So I just wanna be sure what to do with this because I'm pretty happy with catalyst driver

Vi0L0 · 2012-02-22 17:44:55

k_ibou wrote:

Thanks for the input
Vi0L0 wrote:
This would mean that there will be no kwin support in catalyst for 3, 6 or more months.
That's my case, should I move on to xf86-video-ati?

Wait and see what will happen.

k_ibou wrote:

Mr.Elendig wrote:
Would not be the first time that have happened
for my actually it's the first time So I just wanna be sure what to do with this because I'm pretty happy with catalyst driver

Same here. Although i would pick up radeon if only it's power management was better. Still my hd4850 is darn noisy when using it.
There's some working solution here: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6944416.html (last time i tested patch succesfully on kernel 3.3 rc3), but with it desktop isn't that snappy sweetly quick.
So after all still catalyst is better for me... and that's kinda sad actually.

marcoz87 · 2012-02-23 22:58:08

Hello everybody.
Today i've upgraded catalyst-total from 11.12 to 12.1.
The problem is that now my computer doesn't work well, infact i hear the fan spinning very fast, which is a typical problem of when im using opensource drivers
instead of fglrx.

in Xorg.0.log seems that is missing the right module to load and of course this is the output of fgrlxinfo

X Error of failed request:  BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  136 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
  Serial number of failed request:  15
  Current serial number in output stream:  15

i don't know if i made some mistakes during the upgrade, i just installed it with yaourt..
thanks if somebody can help me, im going mad!

edit: I forget to say that im using kernel 3.2.6-2-ARCH

here some output

[marc@arch ~]$ grep '(EE)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[    35.520] (EE) fglrx(0): PPLIB: PP_Initialize() failed.
[    35.558] (EE) fglrx(0): incompatible kernel module detected - HW accelerated OpenGL will not work
[    35.946] (EE) fglrx(0): XMM failed to open CMMQS connection.(EE) fglrx(0): 
[    35.946] (EE) fglrx(0): XMM failed to initialize

and

[marc@arch ~]$ grep '(WW)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[    34.109] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/" does not exist.
[    34.165] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/".
[    34.166] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/".
[    34.167] (WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
[    34.739] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fglrx
[    34.840] (WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0@1:0:1) found
[    35.160] (WW) fglrx(0): board is an unknown third party board, chipset is supported
[    35.558] (WW) fglrx(1): Quitting screen 1 -- no monitor specified.
[    35.558] (WW) fglrx(0): Kernel Module version does *not* match driver.
[    35.558] (WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************************
[    35.558] (WW) fglrx(0): * DRI initialization failed                               *
[    35.558] (WW) fglrx(0): * kernel module (fglrx.ko) may be missing or incompatible *
[    35.558] (WW) fglrx(0): * 2D and 3D acceleration disabled                         *
[    35.559] (WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************************
[    35.630] (WW) fglrx(0): Textured Video not supported without DRI enabled.
[    35.946] (WW) fglrx(0): No XV video playback available

Edit2: ok it seems i've found the problem:

[marc@arch ~]$ dmesg |grep fglrx
[    0.742750] fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.
[    0.811808] [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 3763 MBytes.
[    0.812231] [fglrx]   vendor: 1002 device: 9553 count: 1
[    0.812894] [fglrx] ioport: bar 1, base 0x2000, size: 0x100
[    0.813192] [fglrx] Kernel PAT support is enabled
[    0.813212] [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.92.6 [Nov  9 2011] with 1 minors
[   42.598752] fglrx_pci 0000:01:00.0: irq 49 for MSI/MSI-X
[   42.599273] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 844
[   42.599335] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 845
[   42.599403] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 846
[   42.599519] [fglrx] IRQ 49 Enabled
[   43.006424] [fglrx:firegl_cmmqs_BIOSControl] *ERROR* CMMQS BIOS Control: CMMQS handle is not valid.
[   43.006428] [fglrx:firegl_bios_control] *ERROR* CMMQS BIOS Control is failed: firegl_bios_control

the version of the driver that's loading is 11.12.
So i've removed catalyst-total
and

# rm -rf /etc/ati

but when i've reinstalled again catalyst-total 12.1 it keeps loading the old drivers.
My question is how to completely remove the old drivers?!

Last edited by marcoz87 (2012-02-24 13:43:29)

Foks · 2012-02-24 17:49:26

Try to rebuild the package completely (makepkg -f) and then reinstall it.

Arch Linux

#3676 2012-02-10 17:57:03

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3677 2012-02-10 18:00:46

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3678 2012-02-10 18:01:06

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3679 2012-02-10 18:08:07

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3680 2012-02-10 18:21:44

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3681 2012-02-10 18:25:38

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3682 2012-02-10 22:02:34

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3683 2012-02-12 06:59:30

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3684 2012-02-12 09:06:54

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3685 2012-02-12 10:24:38

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3686 2012-02-12 20:49:26

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3687 2012-02-13 19:56:32

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3688 2012-02-14 09:07:12

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3689 2012-02-15 16:41:15

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3690 2012-02-18 16:45:43

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3691 2012-02-18 17:01:37

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3692 2012-02-20 21:10:43

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3693 2012-02-21 19:26:46

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3694 2012-02-21 22:25:15

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3695 2012-02-21 22:45:39

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3696 2012-02-22 00:02:27

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3697 2012-02-22 15:44:19

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3698 2012-02-22 17:44:55

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3699 2012-02-23 22:58:08

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

#3700 2012-02-24 17:49:26

Re: The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill

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