ATI radeon driver fglrx not working correctly.

English Hardware
1

Hello

I’m running Opensuse 11.4 on a Dell Inspiron 5010 laptop with an ATI Radeon hd 4250 graphics card. Some time ago I installed the ATI driver using Please_try_again’s atiupgrade script. This worked very well for some time and I was able to play various games although I couldn’t enable desktop effects on KDE 4.8.0.

Since this I’ve updated the kernel which as usual stuffed things up. Generally the display is OK for “normal” use but there isn’t a game that will play with a useable display. I’ve just noticed the thread “don’t update propriatory ATI driver on hd 4000 etc” so I won’t be for the time being.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why the fglrx driver, which is installed and loaded, isn’t working as it was. Is this because of an update of the kernel or could it be something else.

any help would be much appreciated.

2

When you update the kernel you (or the script, I don’t know) have to recompile the driver, which should happen at next boot. For that you need the updated kernel sources also, or it will fail. As far as I’ve read, Yast or the install script should take care of that, but it’s something to check.

If you’re using KDE - by the way, posting your oS version (you did), architecture (you didn’t) and DE (you didn’t) is always conductive to better answers - you may want to check in system settings>desktop effects>advanced if rendering method is set to OpenGL, and not Xrender.

3

Read this post http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/development/programming-scripting/449058-upgrading-ati-driver-atiupgrade-18.html#post2473397 and download atiupgrade 5.0.2 following the link in this post. The version currently in repo installs a driver which doesn’t work with your graphics card (see the sticky thread at the top of this forum). I will update the version in repo as soon as I have tested it with HD Radeon >= 5000.

4

You can still install catalyst 12.4 with the older script (currently the one available in my repo). But you have to explicitely pass this version as argument:

# atiupgrade 12.4

Or you can install 12.6 legacy beta with this version by just typing:

# atiupgrade

Of course you could also use this script to downgrade. Both scripts will work with Catalyst <= 12.4. atiupgrade 5.0.2 (link above) should work with all models, but I haven’t tested it yet with models > 5000. It will install 12.6 legacy on graphic cards < 5000. Otherwise it should install 12.6. If it can not detect the model of your graphics card, it will ask you.

Check if OpenGL is working:

# fglrxinfo
5

You don’t need to worry about that if you’re using atiupgrade. It makes sure that the kernel source matches the running kernel. If they don’t and a new kernel is available, it will ask you if you want to update the kernel and tell you to reboot before compiling the module. If kernel and source match, it won’t install a new kernel - even if there is one. The reason is that you might want to install a driver without having to update the kernel, as long as it is going to work - and the purpose of this script is to make sure that the fglrx module will build, not to update your kernel. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you should not update your kernel. and you probably should. It just mean that atiupgrade will do it (with your confirmation) only if it is necessary - for example if the kernel source are not installed, since any module compilation will fail if you install the latest source (the only available one) without updating the kernel.

6

by the way I’m running Linux 2.6.37.6-0.11-default i686 and i586

I ran aticonfig and had this returned.
#aticonfig --initial=check
Check: Found fglrx section

I did notice when I updated the kernel that the fglrx module was rebuilt and loaded, it loads every time I boot. when I go to system settings > configure desktop everytning is grayed out and I can’t enable desktop effects or open the advanced tab it’s been like this since installing the ATI driver (I can do this with the ubuntu virtual machine rinning on Vmware), I also can’t open the ATI Catalyst Control Centre from kickoff.

Do you think atiupgrade would fix the problems I have or could there be an underlying problem with shared libraries?

7

It would create the symlinks to ATI libGL if they are missing. But what would they be missing? The answer from aticonfig --initial=check is normal. atiupgrade always runs this command at the end to check if it should execute aticonfig --initial. It is only necessary when you install the driver, never when you update it, since fglrx will be already in the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf in this case (unless you deinstall the ATI driver meanwhile). Could we see your /etc/X11/xorg.conf btw? And what’s the output of this command again:


$ fglrxinfo

?

It should output something like that:

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT
OpenGL version string: 3.3.11653 Compatibility Profile Context

What’s the output of this command:

$ modinfo fglrx | grep -v alias

Here’s what I get under 11.4:

$ modinfo fglrx | grep -v alias
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.37.6-0.20-desktop/extra/fglrx.ko
license:        Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY
description:    ATI Fire GL
author:         Fire GL - ATI Research GmbH, Germany
srcversion:     5623388D01F6A0C27CC65E5
depends:        button
vermagic:      **2.6.37.6-0.20**-desktop SMP preempt mod_unload modversions 
parm:           firegl:charp

It looks like you could update your kernel.
The example above is from 11.4 64bit. There might have been issues with the 32bit version … that I can’t remember.

8

Thanks for you help. /etc/X11/xorg.conf reads as follows:-

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “aticonfig Layout”
Screen 0 “aticonfig-Screen[0]-0” 0 0
EndSection

Section “Module”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0”
Option “VendorName” “ATI Proprietary Driver”
Option “ModelName” “Generic Autodetecting Monitor”
Option “DPMS” “true”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “aticonfig-Device[0]-0”
Driver “fglrx”
BusID “PCI:1:5:0”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “aticonfig-Screen[0]-0”
Device “aticonfig-Device[0]-0”
Monitor “aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

I ran # fglrxinfo and got the following output
display: :0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 (3.3.11005 Compatibility Profile Context))

and then did # modinfo fglrx | grep -v alias
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.37.6-0.11-default/extra/fglrx.ko
license: Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY
description: ATI Fire GL
author: Fire GL - ATI Research GmbH, Germany
srcversion: 49F93B9C4695C2D765B83F6
depends: button
vermagic: 2.6.37.6-0.11-default SMP mod_unload modversions 586TSC
parm: firegl:charp

The reason I’ve mentioned shared libraries is that a while ago I updated Crossover office and had angry birds installed which had graphics issues after the update and specifically this file libkdecore.so.4 came up in error messages during the Crossover install as not being found, although the link was there and I assumed it was an issue with Crossover and not the graphics driver, this may have nothing to do with it as the various links etc seemed ok, I never did get to the bottom of this problem and it did make me wonder if an update of the ATI radeon driver would fix it but I left the system as it was.

9

From what I can see, everything looks OK.
Which version of the driver do you have currently installed?

AFAIK, you can not use 12.6 with this graphics card. If it happened to work, the next version certainly won’t. You can use 12.6 legacy beta (and use atiupgrade 5.0.2 to install it) or you can stick with 12.4

12.6 legacy beta on 11.4 (64bit) looks like that:


$ rpm -qa | grep fglrx
fglrx64_xpic_SUSE114-8.97.100.3-1.x86_64

I don’t know if this beta will do anything better for you.

10

I’m not sure which version is there a way to find out?

11

Good point. I just added this info to atiupgrade’s output in version 5.0.3.
See my new post here: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/development/programming-scripting/449058-upgrading-ati-driver-atiupgrade-20.html#post2475905

12

Thanks, sorry to sound a bit thick but I’m always a bit worrier, I had trouble installing the ATI driver until I came across your post last year. What’s at the back of my mind is that my system isn’t working properly because of something other than the ATI Catalyst driver?

Am I right in thinking that if I follow this link http://www.unixversal.com/linux/openSUSE/atiupgrade, copy the whole script into a text editor and make it executable and run it with sh. it will install the ATI driver that works with my hd 4250 graphics card.

13

It’s possible. From what you showed us, I can not see anything wrong (xorg.conf and fglrxinfo look OK).

No. It’s a bash script. It won’t probably work with sh. You have to make it executable and run it but without using “sh”. It should have a higher priority in your PATH than the other version of atiupgrade you have installed … if you still have it. You should overwrite this version - meaning copy the new script in /usr/bin. It will be the easiest IMO. Or you can run the new script - as root - from the current directory with:

# ./atiupgrade

But just copy it in /usr/bin! Reinstalling atiupgrade is not a big deal if you ever needed to use the version in repo - but you won’t since this version currently installs the wrong driver on your model of graphics card.

It should. But I suggest you first type atiupgrade and answer “n” when the script ask you if you want to continue, then copy what you see in your terminal and post it here (just like the two examples here http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/development/programming-scripting/449058-upgrading-ati-driver-atiupgrade-20.html#post2475905.) Also notice that the ATI driver you have at the moment already works with your graphics card. Aren’t you trying to fix something that works? What’s exactly the problem again?

14

the times I notice when there’s a problem is when I run 3d games like smoking guns, penumbra and angry birde (through wine) the graphics output seems to be shot. it’s hard to describe but smokin guns is now unplayable teh graphics output is poor and boxy, penumbra won’t run at all I just get flashing squares all over the screen and on angry birds there are various graphics parts that are missing (by the way I installed angry birds on a vmware machine using wine on kubuntu and it runs ok appart from being slow which is to be expected. All of these worked fine a few months ago and now just don’t, which is why I sort of think it may not be the graphics driver and is another graphics problem. Bit stumped really?

15

I have no idea. I never used wine in my life and I don’t play games. I think your ATI driver is working properly. If you have doubts, you can downgrade to any version any time, as long as it is either available on AMD’s site or you still have the rpm package or the installer script in /usr/share/atiupgrade (if you installed previous versions with atiupgrade). It is normally as simple as typing, for example:

atiupgrade 12.4

and reboot
or

atiupgrade 12.3

and reboot.

or 12.2, 12.1, 11.12, 11.1 etc.

I doubt it will make a difference, but honestly, I don’t know.

16

Hello

I tend to agree with you and don’t think it will make any difference, I haven’t been able to find anyone with a similar problem.

I don’t know if this is at all relevant but, I have two configuration programmes which are AMD Catalyst Control Centre and the same as root.
Neither of thes run where they did after I originally installed the AMD driver, I haven’t changed the default settings, I do tend to try and run things in a GUI if I can. So out of interest I tried running these from a terminal and had the following results. Even though it returned that amdcccle was running there was no GUI, I suspect there is something missing like a shared library or link which may have been removed or broken at some point???

For the AMD Catalyst Control Centre as user with no other output.

$ amdcccle
Segmentation fault

and for the AMD Catalyst Control Centre as root

amdxdg-su -c amdcccle

kdesu(18832)/kdeui (kdelibs): Session bus not found
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)
KCrash: Application ‘kdesu’ crashing…
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/drkonqi from kdeinit
sock_file=/root/.kde4/socket-linux-z93j/kdeinit4__0
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/drkonqi directly
drkonqi(18833)/kdeui (kdelibs): Session bus not found
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)

I then tried

linux-z93j:/home/terry # export $(dbus-launch)
linux-z93j:/home/terry # amdxdg-su -c amdcccle
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
kbuildsycoca4 running…
linux-z93j:/home/terry # kbuildsycoca4 running… At this point I tried opening the control centre in the application launcher.
kbuildsycoca4(19646)/kdecore (services) KServicePrivate::init: The desktop entry file “/usr/share/applications/x-blend.desktop” has Type= “Application” but no Exec line

kbuildsycoca4(19646) KBuildServiceFactory::createEntry: Invalid Service : “/usr/share/applications/x-blend.desktop”
kbuildsycoca4(19646)/kdecore (services) KServicePrivate::init: The desktop entry file “/usr/share/applications/stellarium_user_guide.desktop” has Type= “Application” but no Exec line

kbuildsycoca4(19646) KBuildServiceFactory::createEntry: Invalid Service : “/usr/share/applications/stellarium_user_guide.desktop”
kbuildsycoca4(19646)/kdecore (services) KServicePrivate::init: The desktop entry file “/usr/share/applications/YaST2/groups/apparmor.desktop” has Type= “Application” but no Exec line

kbuildsycoca4(19646) KBuildServiceFactory::createEntry: Invalid Service : “/usr/share/applications/YaST2/groups/apparmor.desktop”
kbuildsycoca4(19646) parseLayoutNode: The menu spec file contains a Layout or DefaultLayout tag without the mandatory Merge tag inside. Please fix your file.

linux-z93j:/home/terry

I’m not sure where this is going or entirely sure what I’m looking for.

17

This is not normal. amdcccle is include in the rpm package built and installed by atiupgrade:

$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/amdcccle
fglrx64_xpic_SUSE114-8.97.100.3-1.x86_64

It is worth downgrading and upgrading this package again in this case. It might fix that problem (or give and error which would explain it).

That’s another problem. You should see a popup asking for your root password.
If you’re using KDE, try kdesu directly:

$ kdesu amdcccle

or try outside of KDE (icewm for example) if you can.

You could have two different problems (it’s not rare).

18

Have a look at this thread about the dbus issue: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/applications/477057-dbus-problem.html.
And try this:

dbus-launch --exit-with-session kdesu amdcccle
19

since my last reply I installed the kernel updates from yast2 and had some problems with this there seemed to be some elements missing and I had some problems whit starting in init 5, I think this may be resolve not but haven’t checked too thoroughly. The Kernel updates don’t seem to have improved anything else.

I have been recieving the root password request but have done su to run the commands as root

I did the following

$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/amdcccle
fglrx_xpic_SUSE114-8.881-1.i586

and

kdesu amdcccle

kdesu(12555)/kdeui (kdelibs): Session bus not found
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)
KCrash: Application ‘kdesu’ crashing…
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/drkonqi from kdeinit
sock_file=/root/.kde4/socket-linux-z93j/kdeinit4__0

dbus-launch --exit-with-session kdesu amdcccle

this returned no output at all.

I’m looking into the dbus problem a bit further.

20

It just starts Catalyst Control Center for me (11.4 64bit) … and I’m using Gnome (but KDE is also installed on that machine, of course).
You seem to have another problem - totally unrelated to the ATI driver (which might just be working fine after all).