I think ababkin is on the money. I have been experimenting with this for several days. I have used many different distributions and come to the conclusion that if the .rpm compiles the objects ok, and mesa is still active, then it comes down to the loaded order of the modules (distributions matter little).

Running startx seems to load things in the order it best sees. So like ababkin says, if all you get when you run 'glxinfo' is mesa, not ati:

init 3
modprobe fglrx
(modprobe agpgart?)
startx

This forces the load of fglrx.o before other modules. I now get Radeon 9600 Generic listed which is the further than I have ever been. Tuxracer is now playable.

glxgears kills my system but fgl_glxgears runs.

I still have more research to go, especially since I have no agpgart modules, but as the lads above are saying, I have an nforce motherboard so I have another module to try out tonight.

At the end of this when everyone is happily running, this should all be properly documented and submitted to ATI for inclusion in their docs.

wanna hear a funny thing?

I am starting to work for ATI on Apr 19 in their linux department, as they are expanding it.
And the funny thing is that i am still a linux noob.

If you have nforce mobo, i think you have to install a driver (just d/l from nvidia site)
then you have to make sure that nvidia-agp module loads before fglrx and it will be all dandy.

here is the lines you have to make sure you have in your modprobe.conf:
it will make sure that nvidia-agp loads before the fglrx.
Also make sure that /dev/agpgart is compiled as a module in your kernel, and make sure it loads automatically too.
To load fglrx automatically, add "modprobe fglrx" in your /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file

install fglrx { /sbin/modprobe -k nvidia-agp; } ; /sbin/modprobe --first-time --ignore-install fglrx


Cheers
Alex

Thanks, Alex. You can "represent the people". Nice score for a job there.

Has anyone tried out the ATI Drivers With Red Hat 9? The Kernel I am running is 2.4.20-8.

I tried those steps and only ended up with 2d. No 3d. I can't figure out what I did wrong. Does the ATI drivers support PCI based cards? I have a Radeon 9100
PCI (64 MB) and is running Suse 9 Pro. I also have intel 82815 Onboard AGP card. Please if know don't hesitate to answer.

AFAIK there are no 3d drivers for linux for intel chipsets
And i cannot help you with your PCI solution either, as i only know about AGP based. Try googling for that one
I imagine that the proceedure should be abit different as its not AGP

Alex

Thanks for the reply. I don't think ATI's drivers support PCI hardware acceleration. Right now i'm trying to properly configure XFree86 4.4. It won't seem to start. When i try to start KDE i get "cannot open display message". Does anyone know what that mean. When I installed Xfree 4.4 i had Xfree 4.3 installed, i overwrote everything during the installation. I was wondering if anyone knows the best way to get Xfree 4.4 working. should I install it on a Linux system with no previous version and no desktop environments or should I do an upgrade install. The first option seems good, I might install Suse 9 with no XFree and no desktops, then install the XFree 4.4 binaries i got from their website. All in an attempt to get hardware acceleration for my PCI Radeon card. Keep in mind that I'm new to Linux and if my ideas sound completely insane feel free to tell me so.

If there is/was any confusion, i wanted PCI-X, not PCI. But it's different now.

Anyways, the slowness comes from the drivers ATI makes for linux, which are crap........I tried my old Xtasy GeForce4 MX440 64mb 4xAGP card the other week on Gentoo, got the drivers just by emerging them, played the UT2004 demo and got 80+ FPS with moderately high settings on the Onslaught map!!!!!!!

Basically, it came right down to the drivers and if I don't see a change in ATI's drivers (say, from closed source to open source, or better speed) then I will be purchasing the FX6800 Ultra AGP for my speed needs. I am not quite sure of PCI-X and it's compatibility with linux at the current moment of development, but I know that AGP works well enough and I can wait on PCI-X for another year or so like I am with 64 bit cpus. They just take time for them to become optimal in my eyes, as is the case with the athlon 64 2800+ revisions over the first 3 (3000, 3200, and 3400).

My friend and I laughed our butts off when we saw how well my forever preached by me "crappy old heap of junk" of a video card was whuppin' my brand spankin' new 9800 PRO.... ....for shame ATI, for shame....

its true that ATI's linux drivers suck as of now (FPS wise), but after talking to people who design these drivers there are some reasons and issues that cause the low FPS in the current drivers.
There are new ones thats coming out soon, so stay tuned.
NVIDIA has the lead in linux drivers as they were supporting linux for a long time now, unlike ATI. So things should improve soon.

Alex

I'm hanging out for that. Alex, Are you able to clue us in on how long it may be away or is it to be kept quiet for now?

can't disclose that, sorry


Alex

Hey, I'm sorta a newbie, so this question might be really stupid:

If you're using an ATI card, do you still need the nvidia-agp module to get 3d? And if so, where do I get it?

Thanks for any help.

Manuel

ababkin......get me a job at ATI too!!!!!

Who did you talk to? How did you know they wanted linux people?

I'm still a nOOb too; i fit the bill perfectly!
It'll be like a 10 min commute for me.

manuelkuhs:

You do still need the nvidia-agp module installed and loaded before you launch X
as fglrx needs it.


Phorem:

I still study in UW and got this job as a coop for next 4 mnths (and hopefully fulltime later)




Funny thing about the current drivers: the FPS were sluggish at best on my machine, but are great on my boss' linux box, so it might have to do with the system as a whole (CPU, mobo... deviations) that affects the performance.

Alex

I have a Radeon 9600 and this fix got openGL back and working right on my box, but when running opengl games they seem to be crashing a lot. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.