ATI proprietary driver, OpenGL and KDE4 compositing

[bigdav1178]

I recently upgraded to KDE4 and it has been working well; however, I discovered that it exhibits the same "flickering" when attempting to watch video and trouble with GL screensavers that I found when trying to use Compiz in KDE3. It appears to be a problem with the current ATI driver (ati_8) in the repositories and compositing.

After reading some other posts in the forums, I had found that some people were having luck with the ati_9 driver in the testing section of the repositories (but they had not indicated whether they were using KDE4). I decided to give the testing driver a shot, and it did work at getting rid of the flickering in video , but I've found that it has other (and more serious to me) issues . I noticed that I had a lot of CPU usage while the desktop was idle (nothing open other than the compsiting-enabled desktop and a karamba widget) which I discovered was caused by X - usage was at about 75-80% on one core. I also found that trying to test using glxgears caused that app to hang with a blank screen. I then went on to check the settings within the KDE control center; choosing any of the choices under Look & Feel -> Desktop (such as Desktop Effects, Sceen Saver, etc) would cause the system to more-or-less hang. The mouse cursor showed a busy status, and you could move it around, but nothing could be clicked and nothing ever happen; I had to Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to regain control of the computer. I tried again after a reboot, but still with the same results.

I've decided to revert back to the current (ati_8) driver for now since those issues aren't as severe, but I wanted to know if anyone else is having success with an ATI video card with KDE4 compositing (and if so, how is yours set up). I also wanted to make those issues known that I had with the driver within testing.

My personal setup is ATI Radeon HD 3200 through onboard video (AMD 780 chipset). I am using the "radeonhd/fglrx" driver, which is identified as "ATI Radeon HD 2000 and later"; 3D and translucency are enabled. I have not modified my xorg.conf in any way, it is how XFdrake had configured it; if you'd like me to post it, just let me know.

[tom43]

        Helloooooo, bigdav1178.  I'm running the ATi HD3650 AGP flawlessly. That said, when you make your video card selection in PCC Graphical setup, I believe you have two choices listed as HD2400. I selected the second one to indicate HD. Also, you might want to try a newer kernel. I'm using the 2.6.32.20 , also available in testing. If you choose to do so, there are 4 steps required(for me anyway). The steps in order i used are as follows. Bare with me as I'm not in PCLinOS as I write this.LOL.

1)PCC services and find dkms, it will show it as running. click on it anyway and let it reset.
2) Synaptic repo. and search for: glibc. install it.
3) locate kernel 2.6.32.2 and click on install.
4) locate kernel 2.6.32.2-devel and install it too.
5) last I selected the ati_9x driver.

This procedure worked for me. After it is all done you need to go back into PCC services to activate the ati driver. Upon initial reboot it hung. I just did a restart and watched it install in "verbose" it takes it's sweet time.LOL. Hope this work's.

[bigdav1178]

Well, I reinstalled the testing driver again and attempted using both the radeon/fglrx and radeonhd/fglrx configurations, but both still have the problem of freezing the system up when I try going into the Look & Feel > Desktop choices. (I didn't try glxgears this time.) I did notice that X wasn't running high on CPU cycles this time, so that was apparently something else causing it previously. Another thing I noticed was that the freezing problem was not actually associated with compositing; the problem still existed even after I had disabled compositing.

I did not try out using the testing kernel with the newer driver yet; I'm a bit afraid of breaking something by using it. It's not that hard reverting the system back to the previous video driver, but I'm a little more fearful of having to revert back to the previous kernel in the event that it doesn't work properly. (If this wasn't my regularly used system, I may be more open to trying it out, but I wouldn't want to bork this machine.) If I get a bit more couragous, I may try it then; but as of right now, I'll probably wait for the kernel to be released from testing.

I do find it strange that you are able to use that driver without problems, while it causes the freeze-up for me within the KDE4 KCC - I wouldn't think the kernel would play a part in that; perhaps some other updated library file??? Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it.

For now, I'm back to the ati_8 driver. Any other thoughts / suggestions from anyone?

[bigdav1178]

Tried out the ATI release of their driver (version 10.1) - wow, that was quite an adventure. It ended up crashing kwin, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't get it to clear up. I finally removed the ATI driver and attempted to reinstall the driver from the nonfree repo, but even that didn't want to install properly (it seemed to keep using the xorg driver rather than the proprietary one). After about an hour or so worth of fighting, I did finally get the ati_8 driver working again.

In all my fighting with the system, I did find a setting within the KDE Control Center that allows me to run compositing and still have flicker-free video using the old driver. Within Look & Feel > Desktop > Desktop Effects, I discovered you can change the compositing type under the Advanced tab. Using XRender, rather than OpenGL, I found that compositing will work without causing the video problems I see under OpenGL. The only trade-off I've discovered is that it won't allow me to run the desktop cube, and it appears to make the desktop effects run a little less smoothly / slower.

Still looking for any other suggestions. Until then I may try a few more things - I still don't believe the ATI driver installed right, I might try it again (when I feel like fighting with this thing) - but I believe that will wait for another day.

Also, since the ati_8 driver really only appears to have problems with OpenGL - if anyone has any tips on that, I'd appreciate those suggestions too.