Hi, I am using CentOS4 on i686. Can anyone tell me how to get hardware acceleration to work with a radeon 9000 using xorg and dri (not ATI's proprietary driver) I had it working fine on fc1. thanks Rohan
On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 18:56 +1000, Rohan Walsh wrote:
Hi, I am using CentOS4 on i686. Can anyone tell me how to get hardware acceleration to work with a radeon 9000 using xorg and dri (not ATI's proprietary driver) I had it working fine on fc1.
It *should* work right out of the box ... but I don't have any systems with 9000s on them right now to verify.
Regards Paul
Paul wrote:
On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 18:56 +1000, Rohan Walsh wrote:
Hi, I am using CentOS4 on i686. Can anyone tell me how to get hardware acceleration to work with a radeon 9000 using xorg and dri (not ATI's proprietary driver) I had it working fine on fc1.
It *should* work right out of the box ... but I don't have any systems with 9000s on them right now to verify.
I have different, much older Radeon. Seems that support for some Radeon cards isn't stable with current kernels. Some cards seems to work just fine, with others kernel is crashing all the time. Because of that DRI (needed for HW acceleration) is disabled if you have Radeon card. You may try enabling it and checking if things work for you (if your machines starts crashing or misbehaving, just disable it). Mine happens to work just fine, and even on my old Radeon enabling DRI made huge difference.
Things to check:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf. In the Device section (near the end of file), does it have a line that reads:
Option "DRI"
If not add it. Mine looks something like this (you'll have at least BoardName line different, and my best guess without checking docs is that 9000 uses same driver as 7500, if not Driver line will be different too):
Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "radeon" VendorName "Videocard vendor" BoardName "ATI Radeon 7500" Option "DRI" EndSection
After you save the file, restart X server. The far easiest way is pressing ctrl-alt-backspace. Be warned that this will kill all GUI applications running, so make sure you exit from everything.
Once X server restarts and you login again, check /var/log/Xorg.0.log. Somewhere inthere you should find this four lines (they do not appear one after another in log file, you'll have to search for each separately):
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DRI (II) LoadModule: "radeon" (**) RADEON(0): Option "DRI" (II) RADEON(0): [DRI] installation complete
Also, /sbin/lsmod should show radeon kernel module loaded.
On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 16:25 -0500, Aleksandar Milivojevic wrote:
I have different, much older Radeon.
The R100 (Radeon 7500) and R200 (Radeon 8500) had the most specifications released. From my understanding (was it Alan Cox who told me?), it was the Weather Channel (or NOAA?) that paid Precision Insight to work on the original R100 (Radeon 7500) and, with a little less focus, the R200 (Radeon 8500) DRI driver. The latter R2xx products (especially the "Value" RV2xx like the 9100/9200) have varying support, although the R250 (Radeon 9000) is supposedly one of the better ones (not totally sure about the RV250 Radeon 9000SE, probably same as other RV2xx cards).
For those that don't know, ATI has withheld the 3D specs on the R3xx series (Radeon 9500+), although reverse engineering based on the R2xx is slow moving. I suspect the gap between "current" (proprietary-only) and "legacy" (DRI option) will continue, much like it did after nVidia released its specifications, and even code for XFree 3.3.x, on the NV0x (TNT2/GeForce) before certain IP holders too issue (e.g., Intel, Microsoft, others) and closed up.
Ironically, because ATI has more advanced 2D/motion capabilities in their GPU, they have horded those specifications far more than nVidia, who uses more standard/glued 2D/motion (although some of the GeForce 4 and 6000 series 2D/motion specs are available).
Seems that support for some Radeon cards isn't stable with current kernels.
And people wonder why nVidia produces its own kernel module**, even though the reality is that a binary XFree4/Xorg driver doesn't need it and various kernel interfaces can be used. A lot of it has to do with the reality that there are many good reasons for this -- at least when the kernel interfaces don't change (which has happened a few times ;-).
[ **NOTE: nVidia has opened up the GART (which was largely due to several IP issues, some of Intel's on AGP namely) and now uses the kernel's GART by default. ]
If not add it. Mine looks something like this (you'll have at least BoardName line different, and my best guess without checking docs is that 9000 uses same driver as 7500, if not Driver line will be different too): Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "radeon" VendorName "Videocard vendor" BoardName "ATI Radeon 7500" Option "DRI" EndSection
Now hold on! You're using a _true_ R100 (Radeon 7500) which probably has the _best_ support. From my understanding, that was the "primary deliverable." Everything from there has been an adaptation.
The R200 (Radeon 8500+) cards _are_ very different than R100 (Radeon 7500+) cards from a 3D standpoint (even if the 2D driver is the same "radeon"). The R250 (Radeon 9000) and RV250 (Radeon 9000SE) are even more different.
Bryan J. Smith wrote:
On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 16:25 -0500, Aleksandar Milivojevic wrote:
Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "radeon" VendorName "Videocard vendor" BoardName "ATI Radeon 7500" Option "DRI" EndSection
Now hold on! You're using a _true_ R100 (Radeon 7500) which probably has the _best_ support. From my understanding, that was the "primary deliverable." Everything from there has been an adaptation.
The R200 (Radeon 8500+) cards _are_ very different than R100 (Radeon 7500+) cards from a 3D standpoint (even if the 2D driver is the same "radeon"). The R250 (Radeon 9000) and RV250 (Radeon 9000SE) are even more different.
I haven't told him to copy&paste my config. Just gave him example how it looks like. Anyhow, even with my "best supported" old Radeon, I had to add DRI option by hand. It's currently disabled for all Radeon cards by default. I told him try, see if it works, if it doesn't work you are out of luck. Undo the changes and live without 3D for time being.
On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 17:08 -0500, Aleksandar Milivojevic wrote:
I haven't told him to copy&paste my config. Just gave him example how it looks like. Anyhow, even with my "best supported" old Radeon, I had to add DRI option by hand. It's currently disabled for all Radeon cards by default. I told him try, see if it works, if it doesn't work you are out of luck. Undo the changes and live without 3D for time being.
Sorry, I was referring to Paul's statement ...
"It *should* work right out of the box ... but I don't have any systems with 9000s on them right now to verify."
I accidentally meshed your statements with his. My apologies.
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Aleksandar Milivojevic -
Bryan J. Smith -
Paul -
Rohan Walsh