Arch Linux

jimtb

Member

Registered: 2009-12-04

Posts: 2

Ati Radeon X1950 problems

Hi everybody,

After using arch linux on my EEE PC for some months, I decided it to also install it on my desktop. I followed the wiki instructions but even from the first boot things started going wrong.

The first problem was a black screen in every boot. This was solved easily by disabling Kernel Mode Setting(added nomodeset in menu.lst).

However, after installing X(and KDE), more issues appeared. When desktop effects are enabled artifacts appear on the screen, mainly when moving windows.

To make matters worse the Xserver constantly crashes(when opening konqueror for example) and sometimes the system just freezes(this happened multiple times when trying to switch from kdm to TTY1). The Xorg.0.log contains pages of unreadable text after a crash.

I would have given up if I wasn't sure that my card can work just fine with the radeon driver. My graphics card used to work almost perfectly in Ubuntu for almost one year so I believe I'm doing something wrong.

The card is ATI X1950 Pro(r570).

Thank you in advance for any help!

Last edited by jimtb (2009-12-04 08:36:09)

miau

Member

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 202

Re: Ati Radeon X1950 problems

Which ATI driver are you using? You could try kernel 2.6.32 by compiling it yourself it has many improvements for Radeon Cards and KMS with ATI cards.

jimtb

Member

Registered: 2009-12-04

Posts: 2

Re: Ati Radeon X1950 problems

I'm using radeon.

It didn't work. I compiled 2.6.32 but if I leave modesetting enabled the system freezes when proccessing UDev events.

Moreover, these entries appear in Xorg.0.log:
(II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supported.
(WW) RADEON(0): [agp] AGP not available
(WW) RADEON(0): Direct rendering disabled
(EE) RADEON(0): [agp] AGP failed to intiallize. Disabling the DRI.

glxinfo says I have direct rendering but I can't enable compositing at all using the new kernel.

Last edited by jimtb (2009-12-04 13:44:16)