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    How to tell which vid driver is in use?

    Running Kubuntu 64 Karmic. ATI Radeon 4830. Just installed the Catalyst 9.9 from AMD's website.

    How can I tell for sure what driver X is using? Sure, the xorg.conf says "fglrx", but if thats true... scrolling webpages is horridly slow and wasn't like this 20 mins ago before installing 9.9. I don't know what version or driver I was running before this.

    So, how can I tell if x.org is really running fglrx or if it dropped back to some vesa driver?

    Code:
    clickwir@ruger10-22:~$ glxinfo
    name of display: :0.0
    X Error of failed request: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
     Major opcode of failed request: 156 (GLX)
     Minor opcode of failed request: 19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
     Serial number of failed request: 14
     Current serial number in output stream: 14
    
    clickwir@ruger10-22:~$ lspci | grep VGA
    01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV770 LE [Radeon HD 4800 Series]
    
    clickwir@ruger10-22:~$ uname -a
    Linux ruger10-22 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:05:01 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
    https://www.linuxcounter.net/user/267216

    #2
    Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

    Still working on this. After some searching, someone suggested seeing what JOCKEY says. So I ran: kdesudo jockey-kde

    It tells me "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system." In the top section it only has one driver listed: "ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver" and has a green dot next to it. However, at the bottom it shows another green dot but says "This driver is activated but not currently in use."
    https://www.linuxcounter.net/user/267216

    Comment


      #3
      Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

      You can check /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see which video driver X loaded. For instance in my case it's loading the intel driver (see below). You can see further information in this log as well about various module output during X loading.

      Code:
      (II) LoadModule: "intel"
      (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//intel_drv.so
      (II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
          compiled for 1.6.4, module version = 2.9.0
          Module class: X.Org Video Driver
          ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 5.0
      (II) intel: Driver for Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets: i810,
          i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM/855GM, 865G, 915G,
          E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM, Pineview G,
          965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33, GM45,
          4 Series, G45/G43, Q45/Q43, G41, B43, Clarkdale, Arrandale

      Comment


        #4
        Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

        Well... things are odd.

        It does look like fglrx is loading according to that.

        Code:
        (II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
        (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//fglrx_drv.so
        (II) Module fglrx: vendor="FireGL - ATI Technologies Inc."
        	compiled for 1.4.99.906, module version = 8.65.4
        	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
        However, composting is not working. Any attempt to enable just puts it back to disabled. Scrolling webpages in Firefox is awful. Every one time I scroll down it slowly redraws the contents... yet Konqueror seems to scroll the same page just fine. GLXinfo still gives some errors.

        Doesn't seem right.
        https://www.linuxcounter.net/user/267216

        Comment


          #5
          Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

          I had what might be a similar problem. I observed slow rendering of some web pages in both Firefox and Konqueror. At first I suspected my network configuration but that never panned out from my command-line testing. In the end I attributed the slowness to something in the video subsystem.
          linux && bash = "the future"

          Comment


            #6
            Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

            OK, anyone know why the FGLRX 9.9 driver from ATI's website would have such horrible 2D performance? I've used it before (not 9.9) on Jaunty with no issues like this.
            https://www.linuxcounter.net/user/267216

            Comment


              #7
              Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

              I switched my xorg.con from Driver "fglrx" to Driver "ati" and 2D performance seems much better, for now.

              Any idea why the fglrx would be slower?

              I'm going to try the "radeon" driver next and see how that does.
              https://www.linuxcounter.net/user/267216

              Comment


                #8
                Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

                wow I just can't win.

                Tried the "radeon" driver as per this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

                Basically I changed from "ati" to "radeon" but I also tested with the following:

                Code:
                Section "Device"
                    Identifier   "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon 9600"
                    Driver     "radeon"
                    Option     "AccelMethod"  "XAA" #either XAA or EXA. "XAA" is the default and safe choice
                    Option     "EnablePageFlip" "true" #only works with accelmethod "XAA"
                    Option     "TripleBuffer"  "true" #This *might* help if you use something like Beryl and have slow video playback.
                    Option     "DynamicClocks" "on"  #This is for laptop users, it saves energy when in battery mode.
                    BusID      "PCI:1:0:0"       #must match your lspci output
                EndSection
                I didn't see a difference with all the extra options. Still no glxinfo or glxgears, just errors.

                So, I figure I'll see what the official Ubuntu fglrx driver can do. I read something that the ATI version doesn't work with the newer X.org version yet, I think. So I....

                Code:
                sudo apt-get remove xorg-driver-fglrx && sudo apt-get autoremove
                sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
                That (should) remove the driver from ATI that I installed and installs the Ubuntu fglrx driver.

                Success.... kinda. Ok, so it boots. And I get X up fine. And I can scroll pages fine. 2D performance seems fine. /var/log/Xorg.0.log confirms it's loaded.

                Code:
                (II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
                (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//fglrx_drv.so
                (II) Module fglrx: vendor="FireGL - ATI Technologies Inc."
                	compiled for 1.4.99.906, module version = 8.66.10
                	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
                So all is good right? All execpt the damn watermark logo over the bottom right of my screen.

                "AMD TESTING USE ONLY UNSUPPORTED HARDWARE"

                WTF... I just can't win. This driver gives me the performance that seems to work right. GLX works... I'll bet composting works too... nope. Ok, well mostly everything is fine. I'd be ok with no composting if I could just get that watermark out of there. *facepalm*

                Gleaning some info from this page: http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showp...&postcount=265

                It looks like dpkg backed up my /etc/ati/control file to /etc/ati/control.dpkg-bak and the same with /etc/ati/signature to /etc/ati/signature.dpkg-bak. So a quick...

                Code:
                cd /etc/ati && sudo cp control.dpkg-bak control && sudo cp signature.dpkg-bak signature
                and things should be right as rain... now just for composting.
                https://www.linuxcounter.net/user/267216

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

                  @clickwir: i have similar problem
                  did you come up with any solution?
                  asus A52N
                  Dual boot: Kubuntu 11.10 64bit, Ubuntu 11.10 64bit
                  AMD Athlon II 64 X2 | 4 GB DDR3 RAM | ATI Radeon HD 4200
                  windoze free since 2009 12 16 (Vijay din= Victory day)

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

                    All the problems I was having were fixed by updating Kubuntu with the latest updates and installing the latest driver from AMD's website. 10.1 I think is the latest as of right now. Composting is working again and it's beautiful.
                    https://www.linuxcounter.net/user/267216

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: How to tell which vid driver is in use?

                      i am the only one who has not noticed this issue on my system. the catalast driver has been working steady since i have started to use it (last year..). pehaps i missed the affected version of the driver.
                      Mark Your Solved Issues [SOLVED]
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