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Graphics Software Hardware Linux

ATi Drivers for Linux that Work? 132

Posted by Cliff from the what-have-you-done-in-this-situation dept.
James F. Hitchens asks: "I used to run Red-Hat Enterprise vs.3, just recently I switched to fedora core 3. The reason for my change was because I could not get my ATi Radeon 9600 All in Wonder to work. I hoped that Fedora was a little more advanced in the area of 3D acceleration (so I could play Unreal Tournament 2004 and Tux-racer). Yet again it was not to be, ne worke pas. Can anyone tell me what I need to do to make this work? The drivers that ATi supplies on their website are, in short, crap."
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ATi Drivers for Linux that Work? More

ATi Drivers for Linux that Work?

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  • Buy an nvidia card (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jpmkm ( 160526 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @05:15AM (#11123601) Homepage
    That's what I had to do. No amount of distribution switching is going to help. It's all the same stuff underneath. Ati's drivers are worthless, plain and simple. NVidia's drivers are awesome. Hell, an old ti4200 or something will probably perform better than the best ati card simply because of driver differences.

    • Re:Buy an nvidia card (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Curtman ( 556920 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @05:30AM (#11123636)
      For anyone who prefers a free driver, nvidia isn't even an option. The open source ATI driver is very good, and Xorg CVS now has Gatos for ATI All In Wonder cards merged in. ATI should be putting big resources behind Xorg, because its reputation in the Linux/FOSS community hinges on the fate of that driver.

      With the willingness of the Xorg team to finally address some of the issues people have been bitching about all these years, ATI has an opportunity to be the leader in Linux graphics drivers again. We need to point this out to ATI very loudly, and invitingly. These ATI are teh suxxors stories don't help one bit.

      • Re:Buy an nvidia card (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Ibn al-Hazardous ( 83553 ) <filip@bl u e t u r t le.nu> on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:16AM (#11123714) Homepage
        He didn't exactly say "ATI are teh suxxors". He said that performance of the ATI drivers are not up to par. I assume he speaks of 3D performance - 'cause if he does, he's very right. Why can't we say what's obvious? Because you are afraid we'll miff someone with a big ego?

        As for Nvidia drivers not being free, well ATI drivers for cards later than 9200 (IIRC), that have any 3D support, are not free either. And they will never be, because there is intellectual property in them that doesn't belong to ATI (says ATI). So, this guy will use a non-free driver no matter what.

        If he would want both 3D and the AllInWonder features - he will have to alternate between different drivers (ie he will have to restart X). That's ATI's support for you.

        I have recently been shopping for a video card - and I was very tempted by a 9600AiW; but when I got a hang of the problems - it turned out that the MSI5900XT was a much better buy, since I run Linux exclusively.
        • He didn't exactly say "ATI are teh suxxors"

          I was referring to the headline. Pardon me, it said they are crap, not suxxors.

          ATI drivers for cards later than 9200 (IIRC), that have any 3D support, are not free either. And they will never be

          See the R300 driver effort [sourceforge.net] here.

          If he would want both 3D and the AllInWonder features - he will have to alternate between different drivers

          Or he'd buy an older card. Thats what ATI doesn't see, the many of us who just don't upgrade because the driver won'
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • The headline? It says: "ATI drivers for Linux that Work?"

            And you concluded: "Or he'd buy an older card. Thats what ATI doesn't see, the many of us who just don't upgrade because the driver won't work."

            So you said the same thing yourself.

            What I don't like is the attitude that we should tread easy, lest we offend someone with a too big ego. We are the customers; ATI should tread easy lest they offend us!

            As for open drivers, ATI boast with their support for open source drivers for their older hardware. Tha

            • Re:Buy an nvidia card (Score:3, Informative)

              by Curtman ( 556920 )
              So you said the same thing yourself.

              I'm talking about the free driver. The story is talking about the ATI binary driver.

              Even with this older hardware using OSS drivers, I couldn't come up with how I should be able to have 3D-acceleration (Utah-GLX) and video capture (Gatos)

              Well thats probably because Utah-GLX isn't what you want. DRI [sourceforge.net] is, and its included with Xorg. And you can use Gatos and DRI at the same time.
              • So, if I want a card with both 3D-acceleration and video-in; my option is buying an old ATI card on a fleamarket - or buying a recent Nvidia card where the binary and OSS drivers can cooperate.

                And you claim that there is something about this situation that works? That there is something about this situation worth perpetuating by not offending those who work on the binary drivers telling them the truth?

                Or do you mean that it is the binary drivers for recent ATI cards that work? Those drivers which lets an
                • And you claim that there is something about this situation that works?

                  Apparently so, because the complaint here is:

                  • I hoped that Fedora was a little more advanced in the area of 3D acceleration (so I could play Unreal Tournament 2004 and Tux-racer)


                  I can play Tuxracer and UT2004 just fine.
                  • Why, that's grand. Then you have what you want already. Why can't you let us bitch and moan about the real problems we have?

                    Remember that my problem is that you are afraid we'll miff someone at ATI with a big ego, and because of that you chastise people who complain about real problems. (The latest ATI performing poorly compared to an old Nvidia, having to restart X switching between features etc.)

                    I don't know what model you have, but the poster is not satisfied with that of his 9600AiW. Have you complete
                    • Why can't you let us bitch and moan about the real problems we have?

                      Because you're being stupid about it. From the fool who submitted this that is switching distro's only to expect the same drivers to operate differently, to those that are posting messages in this thread that don't even reflect reality.

                      The binary drivers are a non-issue. It would be more productive to talk about all the great things that are happining with the free driver, and hopefully convince ATI to get back into funding its dev
                    • The binary drivers are not a non-issue. I have described exactly what are the issues with the binary drivers. We are not being stupid about it; we actually expect hardware we pay for to work. Not work as perfectly as it does in a Windows environment, not to be as easy to install. But you yourself have commented that only old hardware has working support (in free drivers). Everybody is not a hardware developer; and unless we buy old hardware - the hardware we buy is not adequately supported. (As in video-in,
                    • I have described exactly what are the issues with the binary drivers.

                      No you haven't. I don't know how anyone sees the benefits of free/open software in GNU/Linux, and then supports companies that don't give out hardware documentation, and don't do anything to help free software developers.

                      You know what you're getting when you go buy the latest and greatest hardware. Don't buy it if it's not adequately supported. I don't.
      • I never said Ati sucks; I said their drivers suck. When I said "Ati's drivers", I thought it was pretty clear I was referring to drivers from Ati, hence the apostrophe indicating possession. I wasn't talking about free drivers or anything else. I was only talking about drivers from the companies themselves.
        • Have a look at
          http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=133148&cid =11127916

          Or feel free to hunt me down on Rage3D, and contact me on one of the IM systems referred to my account there.
        • ATI cards are horrible. I say it again. It's absolutely trash! I have fried 3 ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB this year due to the fan just dying. That's a record. I run open cased, no overclocking with a 600-watt powersupply. If it wasn't for the RMAs and double warranty, I would have lost $$$. Again, go Nvidia. I had a Geforce2 which lasted 3 years. ATI needs to learn how to NOT bundle a $300 card with a $2 plastic fan.

      • Well, some of us aren't Free freaks or anything like that, we just like to use free (as in beer) software that is stable and not laden with spyware/nagware/etc. For someone who is planning on not using Windows (even for gaming), reading the Hardware HOWTO at tldp.org [tldp.org], checking various discussion [linuxjunior.org] forums [justlinux.com] and other [linuxquestions.org] resources [google.com], and then buying a nVidia card based on the number of questions/problems/complaints from other users would be the smart thing to do.
      • For anyone who actully gives a crap about performance and feature support, free drivers aren't an option and never will be thanks to patent issues.

        For example, the reason UT2K3 only worked with NVidia cards for quite a while (until the binary ATI drivers were released) was because to achieve acceptable quality/performance, UT2K3's developers HAD to use S3 Texture Compression, which is patented and the patent licenses ATi and NV have don't allow them to include S3TC support in open-source drivers. That's j
      • Let me help you a bit with ATI and my experiences.

        http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8555&cid=664 19 3
        http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3338&cid=13 871 33

        That was a couple of years ago. Get an nvidia or don't bother.
        • Let me help you a bit with ATI and my experiences.

          What a horrible example. A Rage128 driver was developed with funding from ATI for XFree86 v4, and that driver was later extended to support Radeon cards. Thats exactly the kind of thing they should get back to doing, and something that nVidia never has been interested in. Its why we have a decent free ATI driver now, and none for nvidia.
          • What a horrible example. A Rage128 driver was developed with funding from ATI for XFree86 v4, and that driver was later extended to support Radeon cards. Thats exactly the kind of thing they should get back to doing, and something that nVidia never has been interested in. Its why we have a decent free ATI driver now, and none for nvidia.

            A decent free ATI driver?? Have you ever used it? Rage128 3d support took forever to get. By the time it was complete people had moved on to the next generation of cards.
    • BTW, next time someone asks if Linux is ready for the home user's desktop, I'm pasting a link to this post. "Tough luck, buy another video card," in my opinion, does not constitute "ready for the desktop."
      • I had an old gamepad around here that windowsXP didn't like. So, is windows ready for the desktop?
        • Absolutely not! I have several other pieces of hardware that simply don't have Windows XP drivers at all, and the _vast_ majority of the hardware that I own doesn't have drivers built in to Windows XP. You instead have to download it from a slew of websites.

          So no, by that guy's reasoning, Windows XP has a long way to go before it is ready for the desktop. :)
      • The difference is that I don't blame Linux for this problem. I blame ATI for their complete and utter inability to produce drivers that are highly compatible and easy to install without significant hassle. Part of it is that ATI offers no installation program. Part of it is that it dstributes exclusively in RPM. And part of it is that ATI's test machine is completely unknown (there seems to be no modern version of Linux that ATI supports without trouble).

        Windows would be just as useless if you had to

    • If 3D games aren't the center of your entire existance, then ATI nudges ahead for Free Software operating systems, simply because the XFree86/Xorg drivers for ATI it are better than the drivers for NVidia.

      I used to have an NVidia card but I had to give it up precisely because the drivers were proprietary. When your video driver will not let you upgrade your operating system or X11 server, there is something seriously wrong. Under FreeBSD I had precisely this problem. While I do appreciate their support of
  • ATI's drivers have been like this forever, even after they introduced the bi-monthly releases.
    In a couple of recent interviews, however, they said the next drivers, due for release sometime this month, are going to be tagged Catalyst aswell, whatever that means. But I'm expecting somewhat bigger improvements compared to the last couple of drivers we've had, and that's pretty much the last of my hopes.
    • From what I heard, they're completely rewriting OpenGL support (at least for Windows).

      • Re:New drivers sometime this month (Score:4, Insightful)

        by AllUsernamesAreGone ( 688381 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @02:32PM (#11125227)
        It needs it. A while ago I bought a 9800 and openGL performance was so poor under linux (after the half a day and two kernel recompiles it took me to get the drivers to work at all) that it was slower than the GF Ti4600 it replaced. It was so bad that the 9800 was sold on and I put the Ti4600 back in. My last upgrade was to a GF 6800GT, I'm not going to touch ATI again until they make using their drivers as simple as NVidia's

        sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-XXXX-pkg1.run

        and I get remotely decent performance from their driver and opengl implementation. Shame really, ATI hardware is good, they just seem to hire muppets to write the software for them :/
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I agree (Score:5, Informative)

    by DarkDust ( 239124 ) * <marc@darkdust.net> on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:19AM (#11123717) Homepage
    I've got a PC with Radeon at work, and in the last two years I've tried three times to get the ATi drivers to work with hardware 3D... I've never managed to get it run.

    In contrast, I've never had any problems with nVidia's drivers... not on my TNT2, not on my GeForce 1 and not on the GeForce WhatEver that a friend of mine has. nVidia does a very good job with their drivers, IMHO. I'm not that happy thay they're closed source at least but they Just Work (tm).

    This is why I won't ever buy a ATi card. They treat Linux users as third class citizens, unfortunately...

    • Re:I agree (Score:3, Informative)

      by turgid ( 580780 )
      The best graphics card I ever bought was my Creative Labs nVidia TNT2 Ultra, almost exactly 5 years ago. It's still running, in my second PC, minus 2 or 3 blades on the cooling fan. It's in a K6-2/500 on a TMC TI5VGF motherboard with 512M RAM and Linux 2.4.x running a fairly recent nVidia binary driver.

      18 months ago I tried a cheap, no-name GeForce MX440 in that machine which had terrible image quality. It was very fast in comparison (CPU usage went to 0% on 3d stuff :-) and Quake III was achieving 3x the f

      • a similar thing happens to me with my nvidia card. I once did a strace on X when it was taking all that CPU and found that it was spewing sigalarm()'s. I would also submit a bug report, except that it would read: Sometimes when doing 3d accelerated stuff, or just any time, something will go wrong, the system will lock up, X will start using all the CPU, and I have to kill it from a remote ssh." Which is about as helpful as "It doesn't work.

        • Re:I agree (Score:2, Insightful)

          by turgid ( 580780 )
          Which is about as helpful as "It doesn't work.

          Quite. Having open source drivers has something to be said for it.

        • I found that I could replicate this quite reliably by starting freevo (http://freevo.org) from rc.local (freevo is a window manager so it automatically starts X for you)
  • Their windows drivers have never been very good either. If you are using windows, I suggest you use the omegadrivers http://www.omegadrivers.net/ [omegadrivers.net]. But even then, you still have to update bi-monthly, which is crazy. And all of your old setting are reset after every update.

    I've been playing with the TV software and it has barely changed since about 5 years ago. (And it worked better then...) Anybody out there know of an open source TV tuner software package that works with ATI cards (and Windows)?

    ATI's
    • I use an external VCR for a tuner, run the signal into my TV card's video-in port, and the sound into the aux port on my sound card. Maybe you could find a TV tuner package that will function enough to let you view the video-in. Thats what I do.
      • It's interesting. Sometimes it works brilliantly, I can even pause TV. But other times, it completely crashes, plays the wrong audio for a channel.

        I've got a VCR hooked up, but it's a pain to have to use two different remotes for audio and video. It's not that I can't watch TV, it just that I need to reboot after a few hours of it. I was just hoping there was something better out there. Plus, I'd rather be able to record on my computer than using a VCR. What's the point in buying the card if you can'
    • Any capture/TV viewing program with works with WDM drivers (i.e. any reasonably modern program) will with with your card. (I am assuming it is an All-in-Wonder)

      If you want a program for TV viewing/PVR functions, SnapStream or BeyondTV should work for you.

      No, it isn't open-source.. but then again most people don't really need a standalone program to WATCH TV on their computer, since most people are interested in recording it (of which the GPL'd Virtual VCR will do excellently).

  • Rage3D (Score:5, Informative)

    by HRbnjR ( 12398 ) <chris@hubick.com> on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:53AM (#11123778) Homepage
    The best forum to read/ask this topic is at Rage3D [rage3d.com].

    They have howto's, patches, and some ATI dev's even post there.
  • Sold it and bought an nVidia card.
  • If you look around at the specifications you'll find that virtually all laptops use ATI video chipsets - and of course we have no option to change them. HP, Compaq, Dell, IBM, all of them carry the ATI curse.

    It's possible to buy an IBM Thinkpad with Linux preinstalled so if anybody who has one of these machines is reading this, what drivers have IBM installed ?

    Ed Almos
    Budapest, Hungary
    • FWIW I've got a Packard-Bell iGo 6208 with an ATI mobility card running perfectly.

      I've been running *nix flavors exlusivly for over a year, and my card has worked with all of them. I don't play games, but 3D screensavers (that would hitch on some distributions straight out of the box) work perfectly.
    • You aren't always stuck. When I bought my Dell Inspiron 8600, there were 3 options for the video card. The cheaper two were nvidia and the high end card was an ATI. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying enough attention and I ordered the ATI card. I have been regretting that ever since. Keep your eyes open and you can avoid this crap from ATI.

  • Buy a matrox card (Score:3, Informative)

    by keesh ( 202812 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @07:10AM (#11123820) Homepage
    Matrox cards (at least, most of them) are actually properly supported under Linux, complete with vendor-supplied open source drivers. Sure, the 3d performance sucks, but they're better than ATI or nVidia offerings for 2d.
  • A 9200 Mobility came in my Acer Aspire 2100 (i think thats the model) and is pretty shit hot. It will even play Doom3, although it is just on the border of reasonable. 9200 was the last version with OSS 3D acceleration.

    Having said all of this I can't actually vouch for the 3D performance in Linux, I run Xinerama and 3D + Dual Screen don't work together (Infact Xinerama, pretty much is a PITA full stop so picky to set up etc), I boot to XP for gaming, which is the only option for faster cards than the 9200

  • Tips on getting ATI drivers to work (Score:4, Informative)

    by manjunaths ( 83313 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @08:38AM (#11123972)

    I got my ATI 9600 radeon pro working with the 2.6.x kernels. Here is a short procedure of how I go about it.
    1. First install the rpm based drivers. Now if you look under /lib/modules, you will see the ATI drivers directory fglrx/. Go to the build_mod/ directory and do a ./make.sh.

    2. Now it should autodetect the existence of 2.6.x drivers and it will do some stuff. cd back to fglrx directory and do your usual ./make_install.

    3. After this cd to your kernel directory where fglrx.ko is installed and delete it.

    4. Then cd to /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x and delete everything except the Makefile.
    I do a
    rm -f *.o *.ko *.GCC3 *.c *.h

    5. Now do a make in the 2.6.x directory.

    6. Copy the fglrx.ko to the kernel directory where fglrx.ko was there.

    7. Now run your fglrxconfig or whatever to create the XF86Config-4.

    8. I have a nforce based chipset, so I enable the nforce motherboard drivers during kernel compilation and set this option on in my XF86Config.

    Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
    I have an AMD so I need to switch off mtrr

    Option "mtrr" "off"

    9. Now try a X, remember you need a dri enabled kernel and you need to have enabled dri in your xf86config.

    If you look in your /var/log/XFree86.0.log, it should say DRI initialization successful. I have used this procedure to get acceleration working at both work (firegl card) and home (radeon 9600). Both on intel and nforce chipsets. But you may need a little more hacking around to get it working.
    And for all those people who say nvidia chips are better. Once you get the ATI drivers working, they are a good competition to nvidia. In fact ATI had things like quad buffer opengl stereo on X, which was why I switched. Also I don't have a vaccum cleaner running inside my box.

    If you (or anybody) get it working please reply to this post, so I can write a feedback report on the ATI website.

    Good luck.
    Hope this helps.

  • I wonder if... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @08:48AM (#11123989) Homepage Journal
    We had a discussion at my place of work that I'd like to let the /. peanut gallery review:

    Currently, there is much discussion about the meaning of the IBM sell-off of its PC division. One of the current conjectures is that IBM might be preparing to release a low-cost PowerPC based machine for home use.

    Now, if that is the case, I could see IBM going to both ATI and nVidia and saying:
    OK, Sparky, here's the deal: we need a good video chip for our systems. That chip needs to have a Free driver for Linux - binary is not acceptable as the system will be PPC.


    Now, our buddies over at Apple also want in on this action, so this chip would have to have accelerated 3D that was worth a damn, as well as other features to make Aqua run well - and we are working on the same sort of things with Xorg.

    So, this can go down one of three ways:
    1. We could spend the millions to design our own GPU, using strained silicon on insulator, low-K dielectrics, and copper interconnects, and blow you out of the water.
    2. You release the specs on your chip, and we will help you remove/replace any IPR you don't own in the drivers. AND, we would offer to fab your chips for you, using SSOI, low-K, and copper. Your chips get a performance boost and power reduction, we get what we want, and everybody is happy.
    3. OR, we could go to your competitors and make them the same offer.

    So, which shall it be?


    Now, the question is, how likely is this?
    • Honestly, it sounds and feels like a wet dream and nothing more.

      Sure IBM is a heavyweight that can basically get its way. Sure I can understand the rationale behind the symbiotic relationship with Linux.

      But what you suggest is either completely out-of-character for IBM or a major revolution.

      If "low-cost" means "value niche," I'd say that you're crazy; IBM doesn't do both low cost and low volume at the same time. And if you really meant "mainstream," then IBM had better understand that they are having to
    • Pronlems with that:
      • If Apple was involved, why would IBM be asking for Linux compatibility?
      • Developing a new 3D chip from scratch would be slow and unprofitable, and the chip would still probably be inferior to AVI/NVidia's.
      • ATI and NVidia have no viable competitors.
      • A Radeon 9200 (with existing open drivers) is more than sufficient to run Aqua or whatever Linux eye candy you'd want.

      • ATI and NVidia have no viable competitors.

        but there used to be, Matrox [matrox.com] used to be the best thing to have ever come down the pipe! I'm still using a G400Max Dual-VGA card [matrox.com]. Everything was done in heardware, it was great, but now you can't dream of touching their current cards.

        A little bit of poking around revealed [yahoo.com] that they are shrinking, -15% Revenue reduction, -30% empolyee reduction. And Revenue of just over $89 Million; it is privatley held and owned by the chairmen and president of the company.

        Now if

    • OK, Sparky, here's the deal: we need a good video chip for our systems. That chip needs to have a Free driver for Linux - binary is not acceptable as the system will be PPC.

      I'd think that it's much more likely that IBM would collaborate to "port" the existing drivers to their new (ppc) platform. Even if there was no g5 to point at I wouldn't think it'd be such a gigantic effort.
    • Robert X. Cringley has an interesting theory on IBM's recent PC sell-off here [pbs.org] and here [pbs.org].

      It's convoluted and mad enough to be the truth...

  • Playing games at work! Does your boss know about this?

  • What I did.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by WhatAmIDoingHere ( 742870 ) * <sexwithanimals@gmail.com> on Saturday December 18, 2004 @09:22AM (#11124045) Homepage
    I was wondering how to get the most out of my 9800 AIW PRO, so I installed Windows and the latest Cats and everything just works.

    Interesting.
    • This is funny, in a way, but it's also extremely true.

      When you've got IP that somebody doesn't want to release, the company will only pay for driver development where they'll have the most use -- in Windows. ATI will suffer very little monetary loss from not supporting Linux, and barring turning over the IP to the OSS community, they may have to spend more than their potential profits to bring their drivers to Linux.

      Free software works better with Linux and other Free systems (c.f. Cygwin's difficulty in
  • No matter how good the OSS drivers get, they will never be up to par with Nvidia or ATI's offering because of the closed source nature of the work they do.

    Is X.org going to make it easier to install the binary drivers for Linux? I used to have an Nvidia card (TNT 2) and after getting a Radeon 9500, I found that while its more work (I grew frustrated and never bothered to install ATI's) they are longer and more arduous of a process than Windows (and prob MAC) binary drivers.

    I'm not a Linux noob but I don't
    • Nvidia driver installation isn't that hard - you just run a script as root and hit yes a few times. OK, you might need your kernel source installed, but then if you don't like messing with stuff you probably did an "everything" install anyway. p.s. I did this just a couple of days ago - my stupid cheap FX5200 doesn't work with the default FC2 drivers so X doesn't start. So I tried www.nvidia.com in lynx and found they'd set up the site so text-mode browsers can get to the linux/BSD graphics drivers really
    • Actually, my ATI drivers come WITH Xorg, so I don't have to worry about installing anything additional.
  • www.xig.com offers what I have found to be the ONLY fully functional ATI Driver I have found that works great with Tux Racer and every other 3D OpenGL app that I have thrown at it. It is called their Summit Series. It can be trial(25 or so minutes maximum) installed on nearly any linux kernel 2.4 and up. The MAJOR DOWNSIDE is that it's full install is $39-$89USD, only the Gold and Platinum have OpenGL. It essentially replaces the current running XFree or Xorg server and runs it's own. Just thought I'd off

  • Getting fglrx rpms to work is a little tricky (they DO work, if you try hard enough--and you don't have Xorg 6.8.1). However, getting 64-bit 3d support is impossible.

    I recently switched to gentoo AMD64 and I don't see any reason to go back. Even if the performance benefits for natively compiled applications are minimal, 64-bit is the way to go, in my opinion. I emailed ATI complaining for their lack of 64-bit drivers. NVidia has provided 64bit drivers for a long time. We'll see... Guess my Radeon 9800 Pr

    • any probs with the gentoo switch? i've got a early AMD with radeon 9200 se, but don't use it for graphics.

      odd, as that is it's strong point.

      otta the dvd install with gentoo 2004.?

      packrat2

      • any probs with the gentoo switch? i've got a early AMD with radeon 9200 se, but don't use it for graphics.

        Well, I've been using slackware for quite a long time, so it didn't seem particularly hard. I'm still not quite used to the gentoo way of doing things (e.g. etc-update, rc-update and other "automatic" tools). Anyway, the installation is straightforward and I did copy many of my previous config scripts (firewall, xorg.conf etc) from my previous install so it did not take much time to configure.

        My

        • as suspected with gentoo. only 512 megs ram here, not a prob. The big problem is an erratic power supplies that put 'interesting' bugs in places not usually suspected.

          win lasts about an hour before the drive gets eaten. Mandrake 10.1, about 6 minutes.

          rh9, me. lockups are common. rebooting x usally ( but not always) gets ya out of it.

          and yes, i have a 18000-25000 volt(?) surge whatis. doesn't help much, works as an nice on/off switch thou.

          slackware? Naw, not yet. Still use rh9 with a seperate

  • FC Drivers (Score:5, Informative)

    by mtippett ( 110279 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @11:20PM (#11127916) Homepage
    Okay, I am involved in the Linux Development at ATI. We have drivers which will be released shortly that will support XOrg 6.8, AMD64 and GLSL.

    We have worked with the guys at Livna for drivers for FC2 - and are ready to go with FC3, once the new drivers are released.

    Some links for those who care...

    http://bugzilla.livna.org/show_bug.cgi?id=308
    http://bugzilla.livna.org/show_bug.cgi?id=296

    And through Fedorafaq.org

    http://www.fedorafaq.org/#radeon

    All I can say, is watch this space.

  • Unhappy with the current state of ATI's Linux drivers? Add to the ~20,000 signitures already found on this online petition [petitiononline.com]

  • Step 1: Get a Matrox card.
    Step 2: Install any operating system you want, any version, any distro.
    I don't mean just relatively mainstream ones like Linux, either.
    Step 3: It Just Works. No, really, it actually does just work.

    Seriously, Matrox cards are good stuff. They maybe don't have all the flashy
    features that excite the everything-must-be-overclocked-including-my-sound c ard
    crowd, but they're very solid, well-specified, and compatible with everything
    that will even think about running on PC
  • Yeah, maybe they can start on that once they get some Windows drivers that work.
  • It seems ATI has no problem abandoning the older hardware on windows, so I don't see them putting much effort into supporting hardware period in linux.

    I just picked up a used ATI Rage II/PCI to add TV-in features to my PC, and discovered that it's not supporting in anything newer than Windows ME.

    NVidia and others at least seems to support older cards a little better in newer OS's, and of course they've traditionally supported the alternate OS's (linux et al) better and longer than ATI.

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