AMD 8.42.x driver with AIGLX almost here

[cornelius]

Let me be the first to give the great news to ATI users :)

EDIT: The AMD 8.42.x driver will be released soon and will have AIGLX support. I saw a review of this driver on Phoronix on Oct. 17th. But Phoronix apparently pulled down the article until the driver is actually released, so I removed the link. Anyways, the new driver should be coming out soon (the article had Oct 18th as the date).

EDIT2: Michael Larabel (beta tester of the driver from Phoronix) wrote on Oct. 18th: "Meanwhile, AMD's October Linux driver -- the much anticipated fglrx 8.42.x -- should be out within a couple of days."

So it should be close now. The wait (which was longer than a year) is almost over.

EDIT3: It's here! Check the review (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=887&num=1) out.

Say goodbye to Xgl :)

[adamk]

If anyone reads the article, please note the date... For most of the world it's not yet the 18th. The driver is not actually out.

Adam

[Eck]

Wow! Guess it's coming tomorrow then. Don't upgrade to the 2.6.23 Kernel though! No support for that yet.

That's terrific news though. Now there will actually be 2 major players in the Linux Videocard market. My ATI Radeon x850PRO has been sitting in a box since I moved to Linux because games were playing just at disgusting low frame rates with a working fglrx 3D driver and needed XGL for Compiz/Beryl (though that worked very well).

I won't be running to replace my NVidia GeForce 6600GT AGP cards but it's nice to know I can use the ATI card and get equivalent performance and features. And it makes ATI back in the ball game for purchasers of new videocards for Linux users.

[mzw!!]

I can't believe it's here already (or almost)!!! I'm almost crying.... soooo excited yoohoo

[davim]

Finaly I will be able to use my wacom tablet on my labtop :)
I'm starting to regain trust on ATI/AMD.

[MrDuck]

Oh my! C'mon I'm soo loooking forward to this :P Still nothing on ati website :o

[Quattro]

it's the 19th already and we have still to see the driver...
if they keep normal working hours the new driver won't be available at least until Monday :'(

[gummybearx]

arg, does anyone know if this driver will support the mobile chipsets (i.e. x1400), or am i going to have to keep waiting?

[cornelius]

arg, does anyone know if this driver will support the mobile chipsets (i.e. x1400), or am i going to have to keep waiting?

It should support the x1xx series. There is a forum thread about this upcoming driver here:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5422

[gummybearx]

god im so happy i could pee myself!

[mzw!!]

oh man I can't wait longer... I check this post every 5 minutes!!! and the ati web, and the phoronix forums... I'm getting crazy!!! :D

[mfolnovic]

oh man I can't wait longer... I check this post every 5 minutes!!! and the ati web, and the phoronix forums... I'm getting crazy!!! :D

try to relax xD

[mzw!!]

try to relax xD
I should do that... not good for my heart hehe.:o

[zedDB]

I hope they release it this week at least... :(

[zedDB]

It's upon us now :)
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=887&num=1

I haven't tried them out yet though...

[mfolnovic]

oh yea, I'm so happy :D

[cornelius]

Yep, it's here!

If you run into problems, be sure to check the phoronix forum thread out:
http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5947

[davim]

wow! finaly :)

[mzw!!]

yeeee, running ATI fglrx with AIGLX, compiz-fusion, and dual-head!!!! at last!!!

[davim]

could someone point out a good howto to install this new driver on Ubuntu Gutsy??

[cornelius]

could someone point out a good howto to install this new driver on Ubuntu Gutsy??
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Gutsy_Installation_Guide

For compiz, you'll need to modify /usr/bin/compiz and add fglrx to the driver whitelist.

[Forlong]

For compiz, you'll need to modify /usr/bin/compiz and add fglrx to the driver whitelist.
Skipping the checks is enough. See 12. here (http://forlong.blogage.de/article/2007/10/23/fglrx-8423---finally-with-AIGLX-support)
You won't even need to be root to do that.

[nicosaturno]

someone has these warnings on the Xorg log?

.....
(WW) AIGLX: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0x6c,
......

can't get AIGLX to work with this new drivers :(

[mfolnovic]

I have those errors, but aiglx works without any problems (cube is a little slow...)

[adamk]

Those warnings are nothing to worry about. In fact, that line suggests that AIGLX is getting enabled in your server.

What makes you think you can't get AIGLX to work?

Adam

[nicosaturno]

I've successfully run AIGLX, and I'm sure about it, cause compiz show the splash screen perfectly...but then I've got a lot of artifacts which makes my system unusable.

to run compiz, I just run this command (on a running X):

killall kwin
LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1 compiz --replace ccp &
emerald --replace

I have to run compiz with different options to use it with AIGLX?

this is fglrxinfo results
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI RADEON 9600 Series
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6958 Release

really thanks,
Nico

PS
what about xorg.conf? In particular what modules I have to enable and to disable under Section "Module"?

[adamk]

Your drivers appear to be setup fine, and if compiz is running, the AIGLX and Composite are enabled and your xorg.conf file is fine.

Can you grab a screenshot of the artifacts you're getting?

Adam

[nicosaturno]

thanks adamk for your interest, but i've managed to get it working.
The problem was in my xorg.cong and not in compiz or ati drivers.

I just add this
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
under Section "Device"

I think this was the problem, but I've disabled other options in xorg.conf that I used with Xgl...I'm going to make some tests and maybe find other things to disable :D

thanks anyway ;D

[adamk]

Ahhh, it didn't even occur to me that the fglrx driver would need that option. Thanks for letting me know.

Adam

[nicosaturno]

btw I found the real fglrx option which doesn't work with AIGLX (but works with XGL cause I've used it since today without problem) and it's

Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "on"

this option causes a lot of artifacts...bye and thanks

[davim]

I used to have artefacts but setting the maximum opacity for any window to 99 solves it :S

[cyberorg]

Here is another ATI 8.42 guide for openSUSE (http://dev.compiz-fusion.org/~cyberorg/2007/10/24/ati-8433-on-opensuse-the-hard-way)

[davim]

Forlong your howto worked just fine :)

[davim]

Is it just me or this new drivers are really slow, speciality for video playback :(

[nicosaturno]

for me too AIGLX is really slow..but it's the first implementation in this driver, so I hope the new version will be faster.

[mfolnovic]

for me it's fast :)