kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

[piro133a]

hey guys. Kubuntu seems to work flawlessly now that i have a cd to install from (instead of installing through windows). There is only one problem: i cannot get my mobility radeon 9000 to work. I tried running some of the widgets included and i get an error "opengl shaders not supported". I know my card supports opengl shaders! I have tried installing the ati drivers with envyng...my screen stopped working on reboot. I uninstalled those drivers.
I dont know what im supposed to install, or how. could someone please help me step by step..point me towards a good post?
here is some info i have grasped from some other posts.
lspci grep ati:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 01)


fglrxinfo shows this:
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa Project
OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.4)

xorg.conf:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

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

Section "Module"
Load "dri"
Load "GLcore"
EndSection

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

[andybleaden]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

You will need to install the fglrx driver

Via the konsole using this command

sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx

But before you do read the guide here:

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubu...allation_Guide

[piro133a]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

this is where i have problems with conflicting information.......I dont believe fglrx supports my mobility 9000.? so i am supposed to use the open source drivers. According to one guide i was supposed to completely remove fglrx and then edit the xorg.conf file to use the "ati" driver as a radeon 9600. Whenever i tried removing fglrx then editing the xorg file i would wind up getting an error that would cause me to be stuck in console mode..no gui (after restart). am i supposed to load restricted drivers? where is the restricted driver manager in kubuntu 9.04 if that is the case?

[claydoh]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver has lots of info, but for most of us it has too much info :/

You definitely need to use the open source driver, which should be automatically used unless you installed the fglrx driver.

I would suggest either simply deleting your xorg.conf, or generating a new 'clean' one:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xorg.conf

this will create a clean xorg.conf, and will use the open source driver by default.
Do note that xorg.conf has very little in it these days as most of the info is determined by autodetecting your card and selecting the driver automagically. But you can still tweak some settings in the file even if it is mostly empty.

Installing fglrx modifies xorg with settings it needs so I have found that often simply changing the driver line does not work

You might still be able to just remove the extra stuff from your current xorg:
delete the whole "Module" section and delete the

 Driver  "vesa"

line, which I think gets you fully back to a 'clean' xorg

You don't need the restricted driver tool, as you are not using any restricted drivers

[kubicle]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

As mentioned, fglrx doesn't support older ati cards (I think support for r2xx chips was dropped in 2006)...Anyway, the open source driver should work rather well.

I have the same graphics chip on a few thinkpads, and these are the relevant driver and option lines I use in my xorg.conf (not all options are necessary, as the values are the defaults, I've put them there to remind me of the options:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Driver		"ati"
	Option		"DRI"			"true"
	Option 		"ColorTiling" 		"on"
	Option		"DynamicClocks"		"on"
	Option		"RenderAccel"		"true"
	Option 		"AccelMethod" 		"EXA"
	Option		"AccelDFS"		"true"
	Option 		"EnablePageFlip" 	"on"
	Option		"FBTexPercent"		"0"
	Option 		"MigrationHeuristic"	"always"
	Option		"EXAOptimizeMigration"	"true"
	Option 		"EnableDepthMoves" 	"true"
EndSection

I've also installed 'driconf' to enable hyperZ that seems to give a decent performance boost (at least it did when I last checked)

[Guest]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

I have the same graphics chip on a few thinkpads, and these are the relevant driver and option lines I use in my xorg.conf (not all options are necessary, as the values are the defaults, I've put them there to remind me of the options:

Thanks for the tip! I've got the chipset on a Dell D600. I tried your configurations and the tool and it brought my frame rate up from 800 to 1200! Everything is MUCH smoother and all of the shadows, animations, etc., work flawlessly.

Thanks again!

[kbunt]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

Does Compiz work for you? I am just wondering. Or whatever desktop effects is available when 'on?'

If you have desktop effects on in 9.10, Ubuntu, I get a hard lock up with that video card which is in my Thinkpad T41.

I tried Kubuntu 9.10 Live CD and everything was fine. I was going to use Gnome/Ubuntu on my Thinkpad only because I thought things would be smoother but it sounds like your laptop is fine with Kubuntu?

Dell 600/610s often have the ATI mobility radeon 9000 and many T40 series Thinkpads have them, too.

Edit: I tested on Kubuntu 9.10 Live CD and there is a lockup as soon as you enable Compiz. The screen goes black and the mouse pointer (white) is frozen.

[andybleaden]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

nope ...never got it going on my works laptop which is the same but did get it going on my dell inspiron 530n

however I can get the kwin desktop effects working now...strange

[kbunt]

Re: kubuntu 9.04 ATI mobility radeon 9000 fglrx? envy? what?

Not really strange. That Dell has a Nvidia GeForce 8300 GS (I believe), a more modern video card.

But, users with laptops/desktops with the older ATI RV250 chipsets get screwed and can't use desktop effects of any kind. Not that I care but there is no support for it.