Arch Linux

fettouhi

Member

Registered: 2007-05-07

Posts: 745

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

Well the official 8.11 driver is here and there is xorg 7.4 support now.

Regards

André

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

How about the Kernel 2.6.27 and 2.6.28 support?

I'm running the open-source driver at the moment... got fed up with the Shangai-Shop quality of the proprietary driver.
No, really, it's like you bought it in Shangai Shop, which has a big transparent saying "everything for 2€". Sometimes it works, in most cases it doesn't.

Seriously, if AMD's developers put as much effort in their driver as r300's developers do, ATI would have had the best Linux support out there, and Linux users wouldn't even look at nVidia. Sadly, they don't put 10% of that effort in it. And they're actually PAID for that.

Last edited by Wintershade (2008-11-14 09:04:01)

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Only the best is good enough.

fettouhi

Member

Registered: 2007-05-07

Posts: 745

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

It should work with kernel 2.6.27 because the beta of 8.11 worked with 2.6.27. If it is working with 2.6.28 I don't know but knowing ATI's track record I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work.

Regards

André

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

have you tried the driver? is it any good?

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Only the best is good enough.

fettouhi

Member

Registered: 2007-05-07

Posts: 745

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

Nope not yet.

Regards

André

hpestilence

Member

Registered: 2005-06-20

Posts: 67

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

The 8.11 driver compiled perfectly for me after I enabled Magic Sysrq key in my custom kernel. I think the performance is better, at least everything seems to be a lot more responsive from videos to general 2d window management stuff. If I get a 100% cpu spike it's just a blip instead of a lag.

My System:
Q6600 cpu
MSI P43 Neo3 mobo
4gb OCZ memory
ATI 512mb HD4850 vidcard

Last edited by hpestilence (2008-11-16 03:59:16)

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

Just read the changelog. I think I'll wait for 8.12.

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Only the best is good enough.

Extreme Coder

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 41

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

What did you expect to find in the changelog? "We fixed all issues and bugs within our driver, 150% performance improvements, HD video accelerating for all cards within the driver, free cake and beer for everyone!"
I'm sticking with the OSS radeon driver. My PC has never been so stable or smooth with the fglrx driver

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: ATI Catalyst™ 8.5 Proprietary Linux Display Driver released

As a matter of fact, I did. That's what they're supposed to do. Except the 150% performance improvements on every new version, but everything else - yes, that's what Linux software is supposed to work like. Once you discover a bug or an issue, the next version of your software is supposed to have it fixed. That's what you're paid for.

Being a coder, you should know that. There's no point in releasing the new version of your software if you don't fix the major issues in it.

99% of the "improvements" since the flgrx 8.3 driver are (at least) irrelevant to most users, and all that most of those do is pile up the (already huge) heap of issues and bugs.

Yes, I agree with you about the stability and the performance of the r300. However, the fglrx SHOULD work at least like this driver, and being a proprietary driver, it should be better - for ALL users - not worse. Take a look at nVidia proprietary drivers. Do you remember anyone having issues with it, provided that the user had set up the driver properly? I don't. Same goes for Intel. Sure, there are bugs, but these are minor compared to what ATI drivers deal with.

So, in a nutshell, yes. I did expect to find a single-sentence changelog which would, perhaps in a more formal manner, say exactly what you said in your post.
Sadly, my reaction to a changelog like that wouldn't be very happy or exalted or excited at all. The only reaction I would have had would be "It was about time."

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Only the best is good enough.