Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
On Sat, 15 Mar 2003 09:59 am, Adrian Golumbovici wrote: 1. The problem is that the module from ATI doesn't load if agpgart is not loaded, or am I mistaken and there was some other strange reason for my X server failing?!? 2. Do you have the agpgart loaded? The agpgart module is not loaded on my system 3. Does your system have a nforce2 chipset? No, I chose to use the VIA chipset - one weird driver is enough pour moi!!! (from next post) Almost forgot. Did you manage to install the drivers with the XFree86 4.3.0? nope - I'm still on 4.2.1 What errors are showing up in /var/log/XFree86.0.log? the (WW), (EE), (??) and the final error?? -- john in sydney Mandrake Linux 9.0, Kernel version: 2.4.19-24mdk OpenPGP key available on www.keyserver.net 1024D/3E4A902F B38A AB0F 8658 D9E1 4900 3050 08FA D4FA 3E4A 902F Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
Ummm, the tarball and source rpm have huge binareis embedded within. The purpose of the source is to provide a wrapper for compiling as a kernel module, else they would be building binaries for EVERY new kernel issued. 3 more quick questions: 1. Would the agpgart not loading be solved if I could force the mobo to run in AGP 2.0 mode? If yeah, does anyone know how to do that? Does disabling AGP 8x support in bios make the mobo fall back to agp 2.0 mode? 2. Does anyone know if decompiling the nvidia drivers is possible and if the resulted code would help in implementing support in the standard agpgart for the nforce2 chipset? 3. How come both ATI and NVIDIA provide their own AGP support in the drivers?!? I always thought that the agpgart was working based on mobo chipsets and not on what the card is and can do... :/ Am I missing something here?!? Best regards, Adrian Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
On Wednesday 12 March 2003 10:47 pm, Adrian Golumbovici wrote: Funny stuff which I don't really understand is that in installer I could select my radeon, and XFree86 4.3.0 with hardware acceleration with no prob and the test would show the X screen in my chosen resolution and colors, but after reboot X doesn't start anymore with the classical error that no screens were found. Is anything different in the X screen showed during the config test in installer and the way X starts normally?!? I would expect that if my hardware combination isn't supported, then also the test inside the configuration part of the installer would choke too... :/ Best regards, Adrian - Original Message - From: civileme [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 8:25 PM Subject: Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!? On Wednesday 12 March 2003 09:21 am, Adrian Golumbovici wrote: Hi mates, I managed to solve my crash problem with the A7V8X and 1GB of mem by changing it against a A7N8X :). Easiest sollution ever (but expensive tho :) ). Anyway, my problem now is that I am sick of running my Radeon as : Vesa. Till now agpgart doesn't want to load on this board (nforce2 chipset) even with agp_try_unsupported=1 and nvidia provides no driver for its agp beside the nvagp module in the drivers for their graphics cards. Since I have an ATI card I am not sure how to make it work in a better mode than vesa on my mainboard. I read a lot of things on the net and I can shorten the long story to the following: 1. Some suggesting to try to install the NVIDIA rpm and then use the nvagp module with the ATI card. No answer from the original poster if it worked. :/ 2. The current kernel agpgart module lacks the description for this card and though some people offered to write the driver provided someone can help with collecting the needed info, the post was left in the air, so no news there... 3. Some reported they managed to run their Radeon 9700 Pro as pci and not AGP on this type of motherboard, but also no details provided upon how to do that?!? PCI is a lot better than vesa anyway, but have no clue how to do that. They said they got 320fps in glxgears. 4. Some said that AGP is needed just to do some texture loading(?!? whatever that is), but if the card has enough memory on the card (radeon 9700 Pro comes with 128MB) you don't absolutely need it and that you can run it as PCI (again?!? but again no clue how?!?) and works just fine (just a tad slower than if ran in AGP on other motherboards where agpgart support exists. I am as clueless as a baby in a topless bar :) about how to get the best out of my card under linux. I really want to try some gaming under linux, but with vesa mode and Mesagl I can go smoke a cigar till next frame comes on the screen Please help. Best regards, Adrian Well the truth is that the ATi boards are very poorly supported in linux, largely because tech info is so hard to get out of ATi, so drivers usually run a few generations behind the current ATi board models. Recently ATi has shown some interest in providing drivers ... If they would open the source, things would be much easier for all concerned. Civileme --- - Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com The installer runs without strict rules about the video, but the server proper does NOT. That means there is some sort of screen sort-of working and that it can be displayed during installation. When the server checks with strictness, errors are found which would cause screen crashes or other nasty events so it refuses to set up the device. The proper solution is time; however, I think you will also discover that the ability of that NForce chipset is quite pleasant to the eye and relatively high performance. Potentially, those NForce chipsets are the fastest of all if they ever get the enhancements in hardware and the drivers completely straight. The bandwidth involved is for mostly communication between north and south bridge of the chipset where the video is built-in (potentially very very fast) and it is the equivalent of a Geforce card. I have had great experiences with the A7N266-VM, though of course the driver is binary-only and the kernel is thereby tainted with an unknown, if you want 3D acceleration. But the Radeon drivers eventually work. It is just a huge job to reverse-engineer from a company as close-mouthed as ATi. The 9700 will probably be supported by a later version of XFree. Civileme Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
civileme schrieb: On Wednesday 12 March 2003 10:47 pm, Adrian Golumbovici wrote: Funny stuff which I don't really understand is that in installer I could select my radeon, and XFree86 4.3.0 with hardware acceleration with no prob and the test would show the X screen in my chosen resolution and colors, but after reboot X doesn't start anymore with the classical error that no screens were found. Is anything different in the X screen showed during the config test in installer and the way X starts normally?!? I would expect that if my hardware combination isn't supported, then also the test inside the configuration part of the installer would choke too... :/ Best regards, Adrian - Original Message - From: civileme [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 8:25 PM Subject: Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!? On Wednesday 12 March 2003 09:21 am, Adrian Golumbovici wrote: Hi mates, I managed to solve my crash problem with the A7V8X and 1GB of mem by changing it against a A7N8X :). Easiest sollution ever (but expensive tho :) ). Anyway, my problem now is that I am sick of running my Radeon as : Vesa. Till now agpgart doesn't want to load on this board (nforce2 chipset) even with agp_try_unsupported=1 and nvidia provides no driver for its agp beside the nvagp module in the drivers for their graphics cards. Since I have an ATI card I am not sure how to make it work in a better mode than vesa on my mainboard. I read a lot of things on the net and I can shorten the long story to the following: 1. Some suggesting to try to install the NVIDIA rpm and then use the nvagp module with the ATI card. No answer from the original poster if it worked. :/ 2. The current kernel agpgart module lacks the description for this card and though some people offered to write the driver provided someone can help with collecting the needed info, the post was left in the air, so no news there... 3. Some reported they managed to run their Radeon 9700 Pro as pci and not AGP on this type of motherboard, but also no details provided upon how to do that?!? PCI is a lot better than vesa anyway, but have no clue how to do that. They said they got 320fps in glxgears. 4. Some said that AGP is needed just to do some texture loading(?!? whatever that is), but if the card has enough memory on the card (radeon 9700 Pro comes with 128MB) you don't absolutely need it and that you can run it as PCI (again?!? but again no clue how?!?) and works just fine (just a tad slower than if ran in AGP on other motherboards where agpgart support exists. I am as clueless as a baby in a topless bar :) about how to get the best out of my card under linux. I really want to try some gaming under linux, but with vesa mode and Mesagl I can go smoke a cigar till next frame comes on the screen Please help. Best regards, Adrian Well the truth is that the ATi boards are very poorly supported in linux, largely because tech info is so hard to get out of ATi, so drivers usually run a few generations behind the current ATi board models. Recently ATi has shown some interest in providing drivers ... If they would open the source, things would be much easier for all concerned. Civileme --- - Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com The installer runs without strict rules about the video, but the server proper does NOT. That means there is some sort of screen sort-of working and that it can be displayed during installation. When the server checks with strictness, errors are found which would cause screen crashes or other nasty events so it refuses to set up the device. The proper solution is time; however, I think you will also discover that the ability of that NForce chipset is quite pleasant to the eye and relatively high performance. Potentially, those NForce chipsets are the fastest of all if they ever get the enhancements in hardware and the drivers completely straight. The bandwidth involved is for mostly communication between north and south bridge of the chipset where the video is built-in (potentially very very fast) and it is the equivalent of a Geforce card. I have had great experiences with the A7N266-VM, though of course the driver is binary-only and the kernel is thereby tainted with an unknown, if you want 3D acceleration. But the Radeon drivers eventually work. It is just a huge job to reverse-engineer from a company as close-mouthed
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
On Thursday 13 March 2003 11:39 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A few questions tho... XFree86 4.3.0 is supposed to support the Radeon 9700 (to what extent... I couldn't find any info on their site). I think the agpgart might be the prob. I am wondering if the agpgart module supports at least the nforce (not the nforce2) chipset. If I am not mistaken it doesn't though it has been on the market for quite a while now. That is probably due to the lack of support from nvidia. I am thinking of helping reverse engineering the AGP part of the board so we could have support also for nforce2, but I dunno how to do that. I am a programmer myself but never went that deep in linux stuff. I would need all the help I can get on this matter. You are correct, it is the 3D stuff that is not well upported. I understand ATi is trying to do some drivers, but that seems a recent effort and they will need to understand the software engineering process for linux well enough to accomplish it, which may take a few failed efforts. Second question would be: Is there any chance to tell XFree 86 not to do those strict tests anymore? The system on which the problem is, is my play station so I am not that sad if linux gets trashed in the process (I can always reinstall and start all over again). OK yes there is a way. One method is examining DrakX/XFdrake code to find the differences between that and the standard XFree Server... A somewhat simpler solution that might have the same effect is examining the XF86Config-4 file in /etc/X11/ and removing all unwanted modes/screens since it may be one of those that is causing the problem. Any chance of finding usefull stuff in implementing the agpgart for this board from the NVIDIA_kernel sources which builds the NVAGP? I've seen they provide a tarball and sorce rpm for unsupported linux versions, and their NVAGP is supposed to work with the nforce2... Ummm, the tarball and source rpm have huge binareis embedded within. The purpose of the source is to provide a wrapper for compiling as a kernel module, else they would be building binaries for EVERY new kernel issued. Best regards, Adrian Good luck, Civileme Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 07:39 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Funny stuff which I don't really understand is that in installer I could select my radeon, and XFree86 4.3.0 with hardware acceleration with no prob and the test would show the X screen in my chosen resolution and colors, but after reboot X doesn't start anymore with the classical error that no screens were found. Is anything different in the X screen showed during the config test in installer and the way X starts normally?!? I would expect that if my hardware combination isn't supported, then also the test inside the configuration part of the installer would choke too... :/ Best regards, Adrian - Original Message - From: civileme [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 8:25 PM Subject: Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!? On Wednesday 12 March 2003 09:21 am, Adrian Golumbovici wrote: Hi mates, I managed to solve my crash problem with the A7V8X and 1GB of mem by changing it against a A7N8X :). Easiest sollution ever (but expensive tho :) ). Anyway, my problem now is that I am sick of running my Radeon as : Vesa. Till now agpgart doesn't want to load on this board (nforce2 chipset) even with agp_try_unsupported=1 and nvidia provides no driver for its agp beside the nvagp module in the drivers for their graphics cards. Since I have an ATI card I am not sure how to make it work in a better mode than vesa on my mainboard. I read a lot of things on the net and I can shorten the long story to the following: 1. Some suggesting to try to install the NVIDIA rpm and then use the nvagp module with the ATI card. No answer from the original poster if it worked. :/ 2. The current kernel agpgart module lacks the description for this card and though some people offered to write the driver provided someone can help with collecting the needed info, the post was left in the air, so no news there... 3. Some reported they managed to run their Radeon 9700 Pro as pci and not AGP on this type of motherboard, but also no details provided upon how to do that?!? PCI is a lot better than vesa anyway, but have no clue how to do that. They said they got 320fps in glxgears. 4. Some said that AGP is needed just to do some texture loading(?!? whatever that is), but if the card has enough memory on the card (radeon 9700 Pro comes with 128MB) you don't absolutely need it and that you can run it as PCI (again?!? but again no clue how?!?) and works just fine (just a tad slower than if ran in AGP on other motherboards where agpgart support exists. I am as clueless as a baby in a topless bar :) about how to get the best out of my card under linux. I really want to try some gaming under linux, but with vesa mode and Mesagl I can go smoke a cigar till next frame comes on the screen Please help. Best regards, Adrian Well the truth is that the ATi boards are very poorly supported in linux, largely because tech info is so hard to get out of ATi, so drivers usually run a few generations behind the current ATi board models. Recently ATi has shown some interest in providing drivers ... If they would open the source, things would be much easier for all concerned. Civileme Righty ho, time to post I've come late to the thread, but not the issue - I posted not so long ago about using the Radeon 9000 board under MDK. Here's what partially works for me: 1.Backup your current /etc/X11/XF86-Config 4 to .org 2. Download the ATI Linux drivers 3. Install them, using --force if necessary, as per their instructions (AFAICT this is needed to overwrite the existing libGLcore stuff) 4. Run their version of XFConfig (all as per instructions) to generate an initial config file - don't start X Windows yet!!! 5. Munge the .org file with the new file - things like font paths, mice, monitors etc. In fact, I ended up just using the graphics section, and matching the screen identifier: ** # Any number of graphics device sections may be present # Standard VGA Device: Section Device Identifier Standard VGA VendorName Unknown BoardName Unknown # The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override # the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified. #Chipset
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
Righty ho, time to post I've come late to the thread, but not the issue - I posted not so long ago about using the Radeon 9000 board under MDK. Here's what partially works for me: 1.Backup your current /etc/X11/XF86-Config 4 to .org 2. Download the ATI Linux drivers 3. Install them, using --force if necessary, as per their instructions (AFAICT this is needed to overwrite the existing libGLcore stuff) 4. Run their version of XFConfig (all as per instructions) to generate an initial config file - don't start X Windows yet!!! 5. Munge the .org file with the new file - things like font paths, mice, monitors etc. In fact, I ended up just using the graphics section, and matching the screen identifier: ** # Any number of graphics device sections may be present # Standard VGA Device: Section Device Identifier Standard VGA VendorName Unknown BoardName Unknown # The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override # the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified. #Chipset generic # The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver # modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver # module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line # indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section. Driver vga # The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices # this section is intended for. When this line isn't present, a device # section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI # devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not # normally be included unless there is more than one video device # installed. #BusID PCI:0:10:0 #VideoRam256 #Clocks 25.2 28.3 EndSection # === ATI device section === Section Device Identifier ATI Graphics Adapter Driver fglrx # === disable PnP Monitor === #Option NoDDC # === disable/enable XAA/DRI === Option no_accel no Option no_dri no # === Fire GL DDX driver module specific settings === # === Screen Management === Option DesktopSetup 0x Option Display2 0 Option HSync2 unspecified Option VRefresh2 unspecified Option GammaCorrectionI 0x Option GammaCorrectionII 0x # === OpenGL specific profiles/settings === Option Capabilities 0x # === Video Overlay for the Xv extension === Option VideoOverlay on # === OpenGL Overlay === # Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay # will be disabled automatically Option OpenGLOverlay on BusID PCI:1:0:0# vendor=1002, device=496e Screen 0 EndSection 4. Note that I had to change the BusID above to PCI 1:0:0, as it originally configured the Digital port (1:0:1, AFAIR) - resulting in no video 5. GLX gears is now at 1800-2000fps!!! 6. I have one remaining issue - on logout from X, the console is messed up - I can just make out multiple repeated columns of the prompt, wishy-washied all down the screen, like TV snow. Same when I switch to another vt. Maybe Civileme or odd can help out here (Hint...) Anyway, good luck. Let me know if you need any more help Not sure about your nVIDIA stuff, though ... Thx for the info. Can you give me some more info on the following points please: 1. The problem is that the module from ATI doesn't load if agpgart is not loaded, or am I mistaken and there was some other strange reason for my X server failing?!? 2. Do you have the agpgart loaded? 3. Does your system have a nforce2 chipset? Best regards, Adrian Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
I've come late to the thread, but not the issue - I posted not so long ago about using the Radeon 9000 board under MDK. Here's what partially works for me: ... SNIP ... Almost forgot. Did you manage to install the drivers with the XFree86 4.3.0? It seems to refuse to load the module with the current version of XFree86 which comes with ML 9.1. Any way to trick the ATI module to load despite the newer version of XFree86? It was at least trying to load with 4.2.99 and I can't imagine that so much has changed between 4.2.99 and 4.3.0 that it is no longer compatible... Best regards, Adrian Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
[expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
Hi mates, I managed to solve my crash problem with the A7V8X and 1GB of mem by changing it against a A7N8X :). Easiest sollution ever (but expensive tho :) ). Anyway, my problem now is that I am sick of running my Radeon as Vesa. Till now agpgart doesn't want to load on this board (nforce2 chipset) even with agp_try_unsupported=1 and nvidia provides no driver for its agp beside the nvagp module in the drivers for their graphics cards. Since I have an ATI card I am not sure how to make it work in a better mode than vesa on my mainboard. I read a lot of things on the net and I can shorten the long story to the following: 1. Some suggesting to try to install the NVIDIA rpm and then use the nvagp module with the ATI card. No answer from the original poster if it worked. :/ 2. The current kernel agpgart module lacks the description for this card and though some people offered to write the driver provided someone can help with collecting the needed info, the post was left in the air, so no news there... 3. Some reported they managed to run their Radeon 9700 Pro as pci and not AGP on this type of motherboard, but also no details provided upon how to do that?!? PCI is a lot better than vesa anyway, but have no clue how to do that. They said they got 320fps in glxgears. 4. Some said that AGP is needed just to do some texture loading(?!? whatever that is), but if the card has enough memory on the card (radeon 9700 Pro comes with 128MB) you don't absolutely need it and that you can run it as PCI (again?!? but again no clue how?!?) and works just fine (just a tad slower than if ran in AGP on other motherboards where agpgart support exists. I am as clueless as a baby in a topless bar :) about how to get the best out of my card under linux. I really want to try some gaming under linux, but with vesa mode and Mesagl I can go smoke a cigar till next frame comes on the screen Please help. Best regards, Adrian Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!?
Funny stuff which I don't really understand is that in installer I could select my radeon, and XFree86 4.3.0 with hardware acceleration with no prob and the test would show the X screen in my chosen resolution and colors, but after reboot X doesn't start anymore with the classical error that no screens were found. Is anything different in the X screen showed during the config test in installer and the way X starts normally?!? I would expect that if my hardware combination isn't supported, then also the test inside the configuration part of the installer would choke too... :/ Best regards, Adrian - Original Message - From: civileme [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 8:25 PM Subject: Re: [expert] A7N8X and Radeon 9700 Pro under ML 9.1?!? On Wednesday 12 March 2003 09:21 am, Adrian Golumbovici wrote: Hi mates, I managed to solve my crash problem with the A7V8X and 1GB of mem by changing it against a A7N8X :). Easiest sollution ever (but expensive tho :) ). Anyway, my problem now is that I am sick of running my Radeon as : Vesa. Till now agpgart doesn't want to load on this board (nforce2 chipset) even with agp_try_unsupported=1 and nvidia provides no driver for its agp beside the nvagp module in the drivers for their graphics cards. Since I have an ATI card I am not sure how to make it work in a better mode than vesa on my mainboard. I read a lot of things on the net and I can shorten the long story to the following: 1. Some suggesting to try to install the NVIDIA rpm and then use the nvagp module with the ATI card. No answer from the original poster if it worked. :/ 2. The current kernel agpgart module lacks the description for this card and though some people offered to write the driver provided someone can help with collecting the needed info, the post was left in the air, so no news there... 3. Some reported they managed to run their Radeon 9700 Pro as pci and not AGP on this type of motherboard, but also no details provided upon how to do that?!? PCI is a lot better than vesa anyway, but have no clue how to do that. They said they got 320fps in glxgears. 4. Some said that AGP is needed just to do some texture loading(?!? whatever that is), but if the card has enough memory on the card (radeon 9700 Pro comes with 128MB) you don't absolutely need it and that you can run it as PCI (again?!? but again no clue how?!?) and works just fine (just a tad slower than if ran in AGP on other motherboards where agpgart support exists. I am as clueless as a baby in a topless bar :) about how to get the best out of my card under linux. I really want to try some gaming under linux, but with vesa mode and Mesagl I can go smoke a cigar till next frame comes on the screen Please help. Best regards, Adrian Well the truth is that the ATi boards are very poorly supported in linux, largely because tech info is so hard to get out of ATi, so drivers usually run a few generations behind the current ATi board models. Recently ATi has shown some interest in providing drivers ... If they would open the source, things would be much easier for all concerned. Civileme Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
