Erez, The latest versions of Ubuntu, as well as Fedora and OpenSuSE 11.x use the latest Xorg server which *does not* need the /etc/xorg.conf file. Everything regarding the card is being done automatically (probing etc), so when you install Fedora 10 for example, you won't find this file.
I assume that ATI tools do try to find this file, do a bit of parsing and modifying it. Since its not there, I suggest you re-create it with your distribution specific tools. "X --configure" creates a really messy file. Try to create a file with a settings for the open source driver, and then feed this to the atitool. It's really not the sweatiest land here in NVidia world. I'm using a Windows XP machine here for some tests with Geforce 8500 1GB RAM and I'm testing some VMWare stuff. I spent a whole day to find something which is so simple with ATI: When a program sits on another non-primary monitor, when you make it full screen, it should be full screen on *that* monitor (VMWare full screen, not maximized window) and *not* on primary monitor. ATI have this function working for years in windows and guess what? not possible in NVidia's "twinview" mode. You can use the nView crappy stuff, but still vmware insists open full screen on primary monitor. So it really depends who develops your Linux driver. nVidia, Although not opening their driver's source code, is really trying to put any feature that their cards have to be supported under Linux. CUDA, PurePlay, Twinview etc - all suported under Linux these days with 1 driver and easy install. ATI - a total nightmare on Linux, specially for the latest distributions. Hetz On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 9:23 AM, Erez D <erez0...@gmail.com> wrote: > > If you arg thinking of buying a new graphic card, and want to choose ati.... > i wouldn't recommend that. > > > Although oficially ati has "catalyst" drivers for their new cards - it > didn't work on mine (which is supported) > > > i have recently bought a new computer. my old one had nvidia , and my new has > ati 4550 passive. > > on nvidia, as i recall. if i didn't have distribution specific drivers, i > could install the binary one. > picking it was easy. there was only one to pick from. > i installed it, and it worked. > on ubuntu, there was a distribuition speceific driver and it worked out of > the box > > in ati - i had to choose from a list of around 20. neither had 4550 as an > option. i chose the one marked as 'X550' > i installed the driver, it didn't tell me if it was the right driver or not. > rebooting as they asked, and running X, i got a distorted screen with > horizontal lines on it. > > i erased /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and tried installing the driver again. when i > ran "aticonfig --initial" it refused as i had no xorg.conf > i tried 'X -configure' (which worked before i installed the driver), but it > failed with sig 11. > and now i do not have X, to find how to uninstall it ... > > it was good i had a backup of my xorg.conf (with the opensource driver) > > ati gave a link to where to send bug reports. i followed the link just to > find a page full of information which didn't have any place to put a bug > report on. > after nevigating for some time i found where i can fill a bug report. but i > have to register first. i had to fill in many fields like what version of > their catalyst driver i was using (and of-course the version which i > downloaded the same day from their site wasn't there). > in the end i filed a bug report and went to bed. > > A day later i got an email: just press this link and login, and you will find > an answer > i loged-in -> again many detailes, neither relevant. > i pressed the link again. this time one link was relevant - it was an answer > to my bug report and it was: > quoting: "Although we have drivers for Linux posted on the ATI website, we do > not provide technical support for driver or multimedia issues in Linux > directly. " > > so i say again. i wouldn't recomend buying from ATI. > from now on. no ati neither amd for me. > > (with nvidia i used twinview and tv-out. i hope the opensource ati driver > supports this ...) > > > cheers, > erez. > > -- Skepticism is the lazy person's default position. my blog (hebrew): http://benhamo.org ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to linux-il-requ...@cs.huji.ac.il with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail linux-il-requ...@cs.huji.ac.il
