ATI drivers < 9.6 for 2.6.29

[Franchute13]

Why the 8.620-r10 version of ATI for 2.6.29 is no longer in the repository?
Is only the 9.6 for 2.6.29. The 9.6 does not work for x200m.

Sorry for my english

[Fitzcarraldo]

Like me, your model of AMD ATI GPU was last supported by version 9.3 of the closed-source Catalyst driver (a.k.a fglrx driver), which is now obsolete. You can see this by reading the AMD release notes for versions 9.3 and 9.4 respectively:

AMD ATI Catalyst 9.3 for Linux Release Notes

AMD ATI Catalyst 9.4 for Linux Release Notes

You will need to change from the closed-source fglrx driver (the package x11-drivers/ati-drivers) to one of the open-source drivers, either the Radeon driver (x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati) or the RadeonHD driver (x11-drivers/xf86-video-radeonhd). I could not get the SL 4.1 LiveDVD to boot with the RadeonHD driver (presing F5 and appending xdriver=radeonhd or xdriver=radeonHD to the kernel boot line) so the Radeon driver was the only viable solution (xdriver=radeon) for me. If you've already got SL installed on your HDD then you need to ensure you have either of the open-source drivers installed and you need to change your xorg.conf file (change the "fglrx" to "radeon" or radeonhd" accordingly). You will also need to switch off Compiz, which you can do by right-clicking on the fusion icon and selecting Select Window Manager > KWin (or Metacity if you use GNOME), or by editing the file /home/<your username>/.config/compiz/fusion-icon (you can use e.g. the nano editor from the command line) and changing it from this:

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[compiz options]
indirect rendering = true
loose binding = false

[window manager]
active wm = compiz

to this:

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[compiz options]
indirect rendering = true
loose binding = false

[window manager]
active wm = kwin

(Specify metacity instead of kwin if you're using GNOME.)

You will also need to do the following as the root user:

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# eselect opengl list
Available OpenGL implementations:
  [1]   xorg-x11
  [2]   ati *
# eselect opengl set xorg-x11
Switching to xorg-x11 OpenGL interface... done
# aiglx-setup disable
Working...
Disabling AIGLX system wide...
Done
#

Once you have done all the above, you can reboot.

As for the reasons why the earlier versions of fglrx drivers no longer work, it's a long story. If you have nothing better to do you can read several threads in the SL forums about it (just a couple are the threads "Input not supported" and AMD Unsupported hardware watermark). The fglrx driver is tied closely to the version of kernel and version of X.Org software, so I wouldn't waste your time trying to get the Catalyst 9.3 or earlier versions working with the latest kernel and X.Org. Basically, we have to make do with the open-source drivers for these older models of ATI GPU. These open-source drivers are under active development (you can read more by Googling). See also the X.Org Wiki for details of the two drivers:

X.Org Foundation - radeon driver

X.Org Foundation - radeonhd driver

[sjieke]

The fglrx driver is tied closely to the version of kernel and version of X.Org software, so I wouldn't waste your time trying to get the Catalyst 9.3 or earlier versions working with the latest kernel and X.Org

I got Catalyst 9.3 working wit kernel 2.6.29 without any problems for may ATI X300 card.
The only thing I needed to do was use portage instead of entropy

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emerge -av1 =x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593-r10

And editing xorg.conf and the opengl settings as Fitzcarraldo has explained (but to fglrx and ati).
I also needed to mask the ati-drivers in entropy otherwise it wants to update them to new versions.

Everything works, but maybe I just got lucky

The reason that I tried the fglrx driver is that with the open-source radeon driver (radeonhd didn't work at all) I was unable to get my screen in the correct resolution. I have a 1280x1024 17 inch, setting it to 1024x768 worked but I prefer the native resolution. If I did set it to 1280x1024 my screen displayed "1600x1200 out of range".
But I will get a new (actually my dad's old) screen. Its a 19 inch with the same resolution (1280x1024), but better contrast and such. Maybe I should try the radeon driver again with that screen...
My video card only has DVI out and I used a converter to connect my screen with VGA. Maybe thats the reason the resolution got messed up? Could it be? The new screen will be connected directly with a DVI cable, so maybe another reason to try the open source driver again...

Fitzcarraldo, do you experience a performance difference between the legacy fglrx driver and the opensource radeon driver?

[Fitzcarraldo]

I got Catalyst 9.3 working wit kernel 2.6.29 without any problems for may ATI X300 card.
The only thing I needed to do was use portage instead of entropy

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emerge -av1 =x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593-r10

And editing xorg.conf and the opengl settings as Fitzcarraldo has explained (but to fglrx and ati).
I also needed to mask the ati-drivers in entropy otherwise it wants to update them to new versions.

Everything works, but maybe I just got lucky

Well, I did too originally, but then, as I explained in one of the threads I linked to in my earlier post, lxnay made some changes to the x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593-r10 ebuild in the SL overlay and it did not work any more when I rebuilt it with the 2.6.29 kernel on my laptop. So it seems like some people are lucky, depending on the specific hardware. I also tried various ebuilds from the main Portage tree, but could also not get them to work with the 2.6.29 SL kernel, so in the end I installed the open-source Radeon driver.

Fitzcarraldo, do you experience a performance difference between the legacy fglrx driver and the opensource radeon driver?

Yes, I do. The closed-source driver was much more responsive for video playback. I cannot play videos in full-screen mode with the Radeon driver as there is too much tearing of the image and it is slow. Also, there is some corruption of images with the Radeon driver; for example in Open Office if I open a window (to select the Preferences, or to change text Format, or whatever) the image in the window is corrupted and mostly unreadable. But overall the open-source dirver is usable, although I also miss not being able to use Compiz any more. I am looking forward to buying a new laptop in a few months -- my existing one needs replacing anyway after nearly 3 years of very heavy professional and home use -- and getting a GPU that I can use the closed-source driver again.

[sjieke]

Thanks for the response.
As the performance is better, I will keep the closed-source driver for as long as I'm one of the lucky persons and it keeps working

[Fitzcarraldo]

Good news: I've just discovered how to get Compiz working with the open-source Radeon driver. I found out in the Compiz Forums. I needed to add the line Option "XAANoOffScreenPixmaps" "true" to the "Device" section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. That's it. Oh, and I also did:

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# aiglx-setup enable     
Working...                               
Enabling AIGLX system wide...
Done
# exit
exit
$ fusion-icon &

and selected Compiz as the window manager.

Video is better under Compiz than without it.

So I'm happier with the open-source Radeon driver now, even if it's not as good as the closed-source fglrx driver.

EDIT: Things are getting even better: there are some other parameters than can be added to xorg.conf that improve performance further. I have added a couple more already and will experiment further, but performance is good. I'll post my xorg.conf in a few days when I've tried some more parameters. Full screen video is now working nicely, so I'm now feeling even happier with the open-source Radeon driver.

[sjieke]

Good to know that the performance of the open-source driver can be improved.

Once you're finished experimenting I will try the open-source driver with the tweaks. If performance is good I will be glad to stick with it, as I'm currently afraid that sooner or later a kernel update will break the legacy closed-source driver I'm currently using...

[Franchute13]

Hi.

I try emerge.

1) emerge --sync
2)emerge -av1 =x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593-r10
the result
"emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy "=x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593-r10"."


try
emerge -av1 =x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593

but the 8.593 don' t support kenel 2.6.29...


Now I am using the Radeon, but hangs on a random
this error XORG.LOG

[mi] mieqEnequeue: out-of-order valuator event; dropping.
[mi] EQ overflowing. The server is probably stuck in an infinite loop.



Thank

[Fitzcarraldo]

I try emerge.

1) emerge --sync
2)emerge -av1 =x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593-r10
the result
"emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy "=x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.593-r10"."

That's probably because you didn't do:

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layman -S

after the first step. The ebuild ati-drivers-8.593-r10 is in the Sabayon overlay, not the main Portage tree, so you need to sync with the Sabayon overlay ebuild repository.

[Franchute13]

Thanks, it works well.

Now, I have another problem.
In dmseg comes this:

[fglrx:firegl_find_any_map] *ERROR* Invalid map handle!<3>[fglrx:drm_vm_open] *ERROR* map not found -> inconsistent kernel data!!! vma_start:0xacc01000,handle:0xc0000000