Fix for old Ati cards under PCLinuxOS 2011 with the xorg 1.9.5

[AndrzejL]

finally had time to try it

folowed steps except reconfigure video card

added the radeon and modeset lines in the right places

fix worked with some problems

each boot the monitor goes out of sync for 10 seconds more or less, this old crt feels like it is going to break or explode

compiz is working again but it has some problems with some effects, will try to reconfigure them but nothing seems to fix the problems, small details but are there

glxgears is giving this weird numbers

359 frames in 5.0 seconds = 71.605 FPS
372 frames in 5.0 seconds = 74.183 FPS
373 frames in 5.0 seconds = 74.426 FPS

this was before the fix(and before the xorg update numbers were very similar)

3502 frames in 5.0 seconds = 700.356 FPS
3605 frames in 5.0 seconds = 720.805 FPS
3563 frames in 5.0 seconds = 712.499 FPS

google earth is working and was working before

i just tried a game and system died completely, rewriting this reply(lost in the reset)  

if anything more is required, let me know how i can help

Hi T6.

About the out of sync thingy:

During the reboot You will experience a black screen for a few seconds. DON’T PANIC. Soon after that KDE4 should be loaded. The black screen shows up because the radeon module is being modprobed.

I am getting a black screen on the lappys. Have no desktop to try it out here but I suppose it's the same thing that happens here.

You may want to try adding some options to the xorg.conf file.

Like those here posted by Hootiegibbon. Also check Your old xorg.conf - /etc/X11/xorg.conf.oldie and see where there any extra options uses in there that can make a difference.

See if that improves something.

Were You able to start the Compiz before the fix? If not then it means that the fix was successful, well partially. I am not sure about the game. I can only guess... All my games are running fine. Slightly better then before the upgrade.

Andy

[I_can_see_the_light]

Thanks a lot for this!  I'm lucky I found this thread.
I never realized my problem was because the driver didn't load at boot, After following the instructions in your blog I now have the right drivers loaded
And thank you too Tex!

[AndrzejL]

Texstar has implemented a fix for the radeon drivers!

Updated mkintrd and added support for kernel modes i915, radeon and nouveau to be included in the initrd when installing a new kernel.

Andy

[T6]

those fixes were in place a long time ago

will verify that are still in place

just booted system, i am getting massive graphical corruption, i basically don't have cursor

i already logged out and logged in, restarted x server, will have to restart machine

can't take a picture because it looks like a big green square

[AndrzejL]

Fiddle with it till it works...

Andy

[T6]

will check xorg.conf file, if nothing is improved, i will revert back to previous state, no 3d, it was ok like that, right now it is unusable, random artifacts everywhere

[T6]

for some reason none of the special fixes i applied some months age were in place, applied them back, no change, compiz produces weird artifacts at random places

weird enough kwin is working well, slow but well, will keep it testing, if this holds, will keep it until the hardware upgrade

[AndrzejL]

I am glad You found a solution that suits Your needs T6.

I am not using compiz on any of my machines - hence I couldn't test it.

Andy

[aguila]

Andy,

would you think trying something in this direction might fix broken Intel 3D support, too?

Just have no idea where to start.

[AndrzejL]

Andy,

would you think trying something in this direction might fix broken Intel 3D support, too?

Just have no idea where to start.

I bet there is a similar solution. Texstar has amended some packages - check out twitter - to load radeon and i915 - intel driver - so the solution may be on the way.

I can't get my hands on my Intel graphics based machine due to the fact that I have lend it to one of my colleagues who borked his machine and waits for a new one to arrive. This may take a bit but after that I will try wrapping my head around that...

Regards.

Andy

[aguila]

Hi Andy,

Thanks. Will install the latest kernel and see id the i915 is loaded.

[Texstar]

Texstar has implemented a fix for the radeon drivers!

Updated mkintrd and added support for kernel modes i915, radeon and nouveau to be included in the initrd when installing a new kernel.

Andy

Started digging around the kernel modules it appears there are drivers in the kernel so whitelisted them for the initrd.

/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon.ko.gz
/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko.gz

[AndrzejL]

Texstar has implemented a fix for the radeon drivers!

Updated mkintrd and added support for kernel modes i915, radeon and nouveau to be included in the initrd when installing a new kernel.

Andy

Started digging around the kernel modules it appears there are drivers in the kernel so whitelisted them for the initrd.

/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon.ko.gz
/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko.gz

Sounds good to me . Thanks Boss!

Andy

[I_can_see_the_light]

Texstar has implemented a fix for the radeon drivers!

Updated mkintrd and added support for kernel modes i915, radeon and nouveau to be included in the initrd when installing a new kernel.

Andy

Started digging around the kernel modules it appears there are drivers in the kernel so whitelisted them for the initrd.

/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon.ko.gz
/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko.gz

So does that mean that the changes I made to modprobe.preload and modprobe.conf (according to AndrzejL's blog) can be undone and the radeon driver still be loaded at boot with the next kernel upgrade?

EDIT: I'm not impatient or demanding any changes to be made instantly, I'm just curious to know how it's going to be actualized. The solution provided in AndrzejL's blog is working fine.

[mikkl]

Texstar has implemented a fix for the radeon drivers!

Updated mkintrd and added support for kernel modes i915, radeon and nouveau to be included in the initrd when installing a new kernel.

Andy

Started digging around the kernel modules it appears there are drivers in the kernel so whitelisted them for the initrd.

/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon.ko.gz
/lib/modules/2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko.gz

As a user, is there anything I need to do in order to take advantage of this new whitelist?  Will this change be automagically incorporated or do I need to reinstall the kernel or do something at the command line?

TIA,

mikkl