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**sithlord48** · Nov 09, 2009, 05:02 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

you can get the older version of the ati driver still from ati (idk if it will work on karmic)
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...2&lang=English

i have installed on a few machines w/ ati cards, those covered by the Open driver usually just work. i have not accually have to config one,

as for you xorg.conf if you remove your options do you get an improvment (i suspose they were what you added after stock didn't work) after you remove the options try at add

Driver "ati" (or Driver "radeon") so that your xorg looks like this

Originally posted by new xorg.conf

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "ati"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

not to say that your options won't work, but you do seam to be missing the driver part of your device area

**Snowhog** · Nov 09, 2009, 05:05 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

No such thing as XAA. Should be, per you link, EXA .

**bailout** · Nov 09, 2009, 05:18 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

Semi solved myself. By adding an extra return to the file above it booted up from that xorg.conf.

Still getting high cpu for xorg especially with composting on but with it off it the delay doesn't seem as bad. Will try some experimenting with the xorg options as typically for linux there are several versions being proposed on the net and I don't think anybody posting them and certainly not me actually understand what these 'fixes' really does

sithlord48, Saw you postted while I was typing my reply above. The device section I put in was just copied from a post I saw on the ubuntu forums. There are a few posts there offering similar solutions but all slightly different options and no explanation. I will just try them and see which is best.

Everything works on my card with the open driver but it just has these annoying delays and high cpu use.

Snowhog, It seems both XAA and EXA exist - I think one is the newer method. The 'solutions' I have seen recomend both (not at the same time) so I think I will have to do some experimenting.

thanks

**fireman300** · Nov 09, 2009, 09:14 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

bailout,

I noticed the same thing, karmic has no xorg.conf. When you created one did you put it in /etc/X11 folder like normal? Did you have to make changes to any other files to point it in the right direction? Did you try

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

?

I'm interested to see what the eventual solution will be, the lag and cpu usage is a little ridiculous even on a somewhat older (but not outdated) machine.

FWIW perhaps this is something that should be put into a tutorial type thing when a solution is determined.

**bailout** · Nov 10, 2009, 05:40 AM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

fireman300, I just followed Claydoh's instructions in the post I liked to in the op. I copied his example and then copied the device settings from posts I had found about the 9800 in place of Claydoh's device section. It works but the file seems to need a blank line at the end.

I have tried a couple of different versions so far with mixed results. The one in the op gave a bit better performance with desktop effects turned off. Resizing windows was smoother. The second version was actually worse than the default open drivers.

I agree the performance is ridiculous. What makes it so annoying is that it seems to be a regression. I like what I have seen of kubuntu 9.10 so far but this problem is so annoying that if I can't find a fix I may try ubuntu or restore my ubuntu 9.04 install. Unfortunately I doubt whether support for older cards is likely to be improved.

btw the threads I am trying to follow are these.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...54#post7235254
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...light=ati+9800
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...light=ati+9800

**Rog131** · Nov 10, 2009, 02:53 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

Here with the Ati Radeon 9600 XT (AGP).

The > Jaunty Feedback has:

WARNING

* Post known issues here
* There are reports of the open source ATI drivers being very slow.
o Be sure to not have Virtual size set to high and try with XAA instead of EXA; fixes it in some cases.
...

With the Karmic the QtCurve theme for the GTK applications is making the desktop sticky - there is high CPU load when moving/resizing the GTK/QtCurve windows.

The solution at here was to make the xorg.conf with the "XAA". The xorg.conf at here:

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AR [Radeon 9600]"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Option "AccelMethod" "xaa"
Option "DRI" "on
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "VX2235wm"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AR [Radeon 9600]"
Monitor "VX2235wm"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x1440" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x640" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

The xorg log is coming clean:

Code:

grep "(EE)" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

but there are few warnings:

Code:

grep "(WW)" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
(WW) RADEON(0): DRI init changed memory map, adjusting ...
(WW) RADEON(0): MC_FB_LOCATION was: 0xb7ffb000 is: 0xb7ffb000
(WW) RADEON(0): MC_AGP_LOCATION was: 0xffffffc0 is: 0xd1ffd000

The plasma desktop speed is ok for an old hardware.

There could be a small improvement with the Qt 4.6. > What's New in Qt 4.6:

Performance Optimizations

As always, Qt continuously strive to optimize its performance. For this release, we have:

* Rewritten the QGraphicsView rendering algorithm.
* Made QPixmapCache support efficient Key datastructure.
* Reduced overhead in QNetworkAccessManager.
* Added the QContiguousCache class, which provides efficient caching of contiguous data.
* Added support for hardware-accelerated rendering through OpenVG

I tried the Qt 4.6 (tecnical preview) with the Karmic before the "Final" and it seemed snappy.

**bailout** · Nov 10, 2009, 04:58 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

Rog131, thanks for the extra info. I am suffering tweaking fatigue at the moment and have gone back to default. There is a thread on the ubuntu forums about another problem with ati drivers and someone from the development team has contributed and seems keen to have bugs filed so I will probably collate my experiences and file a bug.

I don't know whether it is a problem that can be fixed by driver tweaking or whether it is with the way kwin works.

**fireman300** · Nov 10, 2009, 08:13 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

I did a little playing around tonight with my xorg.conf I have a working example that seems to have greatly increased performance (I can run effects again!!

) Below is my config. Thanks to everybody for helping specifically bailout and tormod -> on the ubuntu forums.

Oh and just to put it out there, the dpkg command i previous asked about does absolutely nothing.

Code:

Section "Device"
 Identifier	"ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AR [Radeon 9600]"
 Driver 	"ati"
 BusID 	"PCI:1:0:0"
 Option 	"AccelMethod" "EXA"
 Option 	"AGPSize" "128"
 Option 	"DRI" "on"
 Option 	"ColorTiling"    "on"
 Option 	"RenderAccel"   "true"
 Option 	"AccelDFS"   "true"
 Option 	"EnablePageFlip"          "on"
 Option 	"FBTexPercent"   "0"
 Option 	"EXAOptimizeMigration"  "true"
 Option 	"EnableDepthMoves"  "true"
 Option 	"AGPMode"      "8"
 Option 	"MigrationHeuristic"  "always"
 #Option	"MigrationHeuristic"  "greedy"
 #Option	"MigrationHeuristic"  "smart"
 #Option	"AGPFastWrite"    "yes"
 #Option	"MergedFB"   "true"
 #Option	"DepthBits"   "16"
 #Option	"DynamicClocks"   "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier  "Dell 17FP"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier  "Default Screen"
  Device   "ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AR [Radeon 9600]"
  Monitor   "Dell 17FP"
  DefaultDepth  32
  SubSection "Display"
   Modes   "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
EndSection

**bailout** · Nov 12, 2009, 08:32 AM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

Good to hear you have made progress. Your xorg.conf has a lot of options, did you find a resource that explained them or how to decide which ones to try? So far I have just been copying ones of threads with no real idea of what they do or whether they are relevant. The threads I listed had setups specifically for my card (9800pro) but when I tried them I couldn't run effects at all or performance was much worse.

I have just been trying options individually with odd results. "AGPSize" "128" was recomended on ubuntu forums but effects wouldn't run at all for me, similarly with Option "AGPMode" "8" or "4".

There are also some options in the advanced tab of the desktop effects screen in system settings that deal with the kwin renderer and textures etc.

**fireman300** · Feb 17, 2010, 08:43 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

Well I figured I'd give everybody a final update. Currently the only solution that I have found to fix the problem with X has been to disable the dynamic frequency changes that my motherboard makes (dynamic over clocking and a cool and quiet feature). It would seem that when the board turns down the processor speed to save energy and make things quieter it is slowing it down too far and causing programs like X to lag.

Can anybody else confirm that this helps?

**bailout** · Feb 26, 2010, 01:07 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

fireman, I have givn up on mine tbh. I have installed openbox and run a kde/openbox session. It still gives high cpu usage for xorg if I look at system monitor but it isn't noticeable in normal usage.

I am certain it is a problem with kwin/kde4 and xorg for the older ati cards. Ubuntu 9.10 runs fine from a live cd using the same drivers and xorg so it must be the way kde4 operates. I did look at the phoronix forum and got the impression that there wasn't a lot of interest in improving the drivers for such old cards. I also never got much interest on the kde forums.

I think the card is just too old for a kde4 system.

**Melcar** · Feb 26, 2010, 09:12 PM

Re: Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

It's not that there isn't any interest, but rather that most of the work is happening in Gallium. R6/7xx chips got a lot of love in mesa because those chips are widely popular and there is an interest in having a well performing mesa driver with these chips. Once everything starts moving to Gallium, the older ATI chips will have better support as far as 3D acceleration is concerned.
One of my boxes is running a 9800pro, with a 2.2GHz AthlonXP and 1GB of RAM. Runs KDE4 with OpenGL effects very well with the default Karmic drivers.

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Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

Help needed with xorg.conf and graphics driver

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