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General discussion

fglrx DRI

Aug 28, 2004 5:39AM PDT

I've been beating at getting direct rendering working on my radeon mobility 9600 notebook by using ATI's fglrx driver. It seems I've had some success as my Xorg.0.log file indicates (see below):

Release Date: 18 December 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.7
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.21-14.ELsmp i686 [ELF]
Current Operating System: Linux HARPO 2.6.5-1.358custom #7 SMP Fri Aug 27 06:49:14 EDT 2004 i686
Build Date: 07 May 2004
Build Host: tweety.build.redhat.com

glrx(0): Option "TVColorAdj" "0"
(**) fglrx(0): Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "off"
(**) fglrx(0): Qbs disabled
(==) fglrx(0): RGB weight 888
(II) fglrx(0): Using 8 bits per RGB (8 bit DAC)
(**) fglrx(0): Gamma Correction for I is 0x00000000
(**) fglrx(0): Gamma Correction for II is 0x00000000
(==) fglrx(0): Buffer Tiling is ON
(II) Loading sub module "int10"
(II) LoadModule: "int10"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/linux/libint10.a
(II) Module int10: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
II) fglrx(0): [drm] texture shared area handle = 0x4c052000
(II) fglrx(0): shared FSAAScale=1
(II) fglrx(0): DRI initialization successfull!
(II) fglrx(0): FBADPhys: 0xd0000000 FBMappedSize: 0x007ac000
(II) fglrx(0): FBMM initialized for area (0,0)-(1408,142Cool
(II) fglrx(0): FBMM auto alloc for area (0,0)-(1408,1050) (front color buffer - assumption)
(==) fglrx(0): Backing store disabled
(==) fglrx(0): Silken mouse enabled
(II) fglrx(0): Using hardware cursor (scanline 1056)
(II) fglrx(0): Largest offscreen area available: 1408 x 364

Note that near the end of the logfile (about 8 lines up from the end) it says "DRI initialization successful!".
The thing is, this log was generated after logging out of X and then attempting to startx again. However although the log indicates success, trying to restart the GUI fails with a blank screen and a totally unresponsive system. Can't ALT-fN to another screen or anything. The log file that is generated when I reboot and startx initially follows:


) fglrx(0): Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
(**) fglrx(0): Option "DesktopSetup" "0x00000000"
(**) fglrx(0): Option "MonitorLayout" "AUTO, AUTO"
(**) fglrx(0): Option "HSync2" "unspecified"
(**) fglrx(0): Option "VRefresh2" "unspecified"
(**) fg fglrx(0): [drm] unmapping 8192 bytes of SAREA 0x438fd000 at 0xf6df4000
(WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************
(WW) fglrx(0): * DRI initialization failed! *
(WW) fglrx(0): * (maybe driver kernel module missing or bad) *
(WW) fglrx(0): * 2D acceleraton available (MMIO) *
(WW) fglrx(0): * no 3D acceleration available *
(WW) fglrx(0): ********************************************* *
(II) fglrx(0): FBADPhys: 0xd0000000 FBMappedSize: 0x08000000
(II) fglrx(0): FBMM initialized for area (0,0)-(1408,8191)
(II) fglrx(0): FBMM auto alloc for area (0,0)-(1408,1050) (front color buffer - assumption)
(==) fglrx(0): Backing store disabled
(==) fglrx(0): Silken mouse enabled
(II) fglrx(0): Using hardware cursor (scanline 1050)
(II) fglrx(0): Largest offscreen area available: 1408 x 7138
(**) Option "dpms"
(**) fglrx(0): DPMS enabled
(II) fgitializing built-in extension RENDER
(II) Initializing built-in extension RANDR
(**) Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
(**) Mouse1: Device: "/dev/input/mice"
(**) Mouse1: Protocol: "PS/2"
(**) Option "CorePointer"
(**) Mouse1: Core Pointer
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
(==) Mouse1: Emulate3Buttons, Emulate3Timeout: 50
(==) Mouse1: Buttons: 3
(II) Keyboard "Keyboard1" handled by legacy driver
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Mouse1" (type: MOUSE)
(II) Mouse1: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
SetClientVersion: 0 8


As you can see DRI initialization fails. I do get the GUI but obviously no direct rendering. I think I'm really close to getting the fglrx driver to work but have run out of ideas as to why X won't restart and locks up the system. Is there anything in the logfiles that is a tipoff or that I can grep for that might be useful info?
The logs here are truncated as they are very long. I can prvide the entire file(s) if it would be useful.

I'm running FC2 with the stock smp kernel recompiled to turn off DRM and agpgart compiled as a module as was suggested on another forum.

Discussion is locked

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fglrx DRI
Mar 13, 2005 5:03AM PST

Open up your /etc/X11/XF86Config and make sure there is no DEPTH of 16 listed in any of the DISPLAY SUBSECTIONs under the SCREEN SECTION as 16 bit color depth is not supported by fglrx drivers as far as i can tell, causes the driver to crash on my system, and causes a black screen when dri trys to change into a 16 bit color depth. you might want to look at the configuration of the game that uses dri and make sure its not trying to go into 16 bit color depth mode. hope that helps. Here is what my Screen Section looks like, and works for me:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

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Fglrx
Jun 25, 2005 5:39AM PDT

I finally got 3d acceration working on my notebook (ATI mobility 9600) and it's FAST! However a side effect seems to be that when logging out of X (I boot to init 3 normally) I lose the display. It actually seems as if the backlight goes out but that's beside the point. Point is I lose the display. Sometimes I can just "startx" and go back into X, other times NADA. I tried using xdm and it did seem to work insofar as not losing the display but it's not always consistent and when I log out of X it's because I want the CLI. Any ideas why the display gets trashed? I tried disabling acpi and read Xorg.log but that log doesn't cover what happens when you log out of X, only what's going on when X is starting up. Is there a log file that might have useful info about what is happening when logging out of X? I can't even reboot or shutdown gracefully when this happens.

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What's the fix for "dri initialization failed"?
Jun 30, 2005 6:09PM PDT

Hello,

I get the same error message on my radeon 9800 pro. Great that you got it working, could you please tell me what you did to get that far?

Paul

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This seemed to work for me- your mileage may vary...
Jul 4, 2005 3:04PM PDT

I'm using fglrx_6_8_0-8.14.13-1.i386.rpm and after installation ( using rpm --force -ivh .... ) take all defaults in fglrxconfig. I had a library problem. It seems there was a NV driver or lib that X was trying to load. In addition, I discovered the fglrx driver would fail to load because the kernel I was using had drm compiled in instead of compiled as a module. fglrx has it's own drm so you don't want to load the kernel drm module and when drm is compiled into the kernel there is no way to unload it. I went to a stock kernel (2.6.11-1.35_FC3smp) which has drm compiled as a module instead of being part of the kernel. I'm supposing you've tried lots of stuff but don't forget load "dri" and load "glx" in Section "Module" of you xorg.conf file. I took me 6 or 7 mos. of on/off beating to finally get things right. Kind of ridiculous that it's not easier. I might've read something about drm problems due to compiled in drm but in all the flogging I'd done I may have neglected to take note. Spent alot of time at the DRI project reading but could never get their stuff to work at all so I went back to ATI after a few months for their offering and ultimately got it working. The only problem now is that when leaving X and going back to the cli the video goes out. Not all the time, just most of the time. I had been passing vga=775 to the kernel at bootup because my notebook has a 1400x1050 screen and I prefer the higher res at the cli (I boot to init 3 by default). That would load the vesa framebuffer driver automatically. Now I'm not passing the vga=775 option to the kernel at bootup and instead load the radeonfb module (modprobe radeonfb) from the /etc/rc.local file. The screen goes to hi-res framebuffer mode in init 3 instantly and tends not to shell the video when leaving X gracefully (logout instead of ctl-alt-bkspc) but, strangely, only after spending considerable time in X. Odd but I can deal with it. 3D really isn't a must for me, not being a serious gamer, but what's the use of having a high performance video subsystem if you can't get it working? LOL

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RE: This seemed to work for me- your mileage may vary...
Aug 5, 2005 3:18AM PDT

Could you please elaborate on how you made sure that your NV driver/lib didn't load?

Also, what are all the ATI-specific kernel tweaks you needed to make in order to get your card to work? Thanks.