Black screen at startup with ATI drivers

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#1

Ever since I installed OpenSuse 11.1 64bit I have a block I cannot seem to get past which I’d really love to be able to fix. I’m still pretty new to Linux and may not understand everything but here it goes:

I have an ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 video card, for which I installed the latest official drivers from the ATI support page. I got the .run file, executed it and waited for everything to install.

Once it has I ran “sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx” as root which is what most websites said I must do. However that does not initialize the correct drivers when Linux starts which causes many things such as OpenGL and 3D to not work. As I posted in another topic about OpenGL, attempting to run “glxgears” now returns the following error:

mircea@linux-wdzw:~> glxgears
X Error of failed request:  BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  143 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
  Serial number of failed request:  14
  Current serial number in output stream:  14
mircea@linux-wdzw:~>

Afterward I tried running “aticonfig --initial” which is where my problem comes: This command configures my file correctly but once I restart OpenSuse I get a blank screen at startup although my monitor is still turned on (green led). If not I get some sort of screen corruption… I see some purple stretched pieces of the console at startup but nothing on the screen moves. The only way I can repair it is by booting OpenSuse in failsafe mode and running “sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx” again, but if I leave it configured by that command then fglrx doesn’t get loaded and nothing works.

What must I do to get the latest fglrx drivers for my ATI card model working and all 3D and desktop effects working as well without getting the black screen or corrupted image when I start OpenSuse? Is there any way? Any help would be appreciated.

#2

I was getting the same error message as you until I ran the commands in this post. Works perfectly after that.

#3

I’ve tried just that but no change, the issue is still the same :frowning: I ran these commands as root after “sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx” was the last one:

rm /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so #wer
ln -s /usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so
aticonfig --initial

What else can I try to do? If that matters any, this is my xorg.conf file. And before I forget, I use a single monitor only, so no dual-head.

#4

^^
That’s all you need to do. You don’t even need the aticonfig --initial and I’m not sure why they added the #wer at the end of the first line.

The idea is that even though you’re using a 64 bit system, X tries to load the 32 bit driver, which doesn’t work. If you remove the 32 bit driver and replace it with a link to the 64 bit version, the correct driver is loaded. Just be sure you logout or restart afterwards to reload the graphics driver. My guess is you’re missing the reload part.

#5

I too would try it without the aticonfig --initial. I think that tells it to look for the 32 bit drivers again.

#6

I tried that but still no luck. I left X configured by the “sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx” command so it could boot again, then ran “rm /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so” and “ln -s /usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so” and restarted the computer, logged back into root but 3D is still broken. glxgears returns the same error while OpenGL still refuses to initialize :\

#7

For ATI cards, the correct command is

fgl_glxgears

If you just need your desktop back, from init 3 logged in as root run

sax2 -r -m 0=radeon

I would hold off on using the ATI driver in 11.1 for now. It still looks kinda buggy to me.

If you’re curious about Open GL info run

fglrxinfo
#8

Both commands return the same error message.

linux-wdzw:~ # fgl_glxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
X Error of failed request:  BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  143 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
  Serial number of failed request:  14
  Current serial number in output stream:  14
linux-wdzw:~ # fglrxinfo
X Error of failed request:  BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  143 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
  Serial number of failed request:  14
  Current serial number in output stream:  14
linux-wdzw:~ #

As for the latest official ATI drivers, I heard they are buggy but what else can I use that works correctly?