hi, I like to know if the drivers for a Radeon hd 4670 AGP card fully soports the card capacity, i.e 2d aceleration, 3d, etc… currently using Suse 12.2, would change to 12.3 if needed. PC is a single CPU p4. 32 bit.
thank you
What do you mean by “fully”?
How does if perform for you under 12.2? … (I get a sneaky suspicion that an “unknown gallium” might be the source reason sponsoring this inquiry)
By ‘fully’ I mean full support of the card features by the driver…
2d accelaration.
3d : opengl, etc…
Hi
There is no legacy proprietary driver for 12.3. I havent struck any issues with the radeon driver, I have glamor and tear-free enabled;
glxinfo
name of display: :0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
....
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS880
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 9.0.2
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL extensions:
/sbin/lspci -nnk
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series] [1002:9712]
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:142c]
Kernel driver in use: radeon
sounds good, and you use the driver that comes with Suse 12.3 ?
Hi
Yes, xf86-video-ati
[ul]
[li]As alluded to by Malcolm, your device is presently only supported by the OSS driver stack. [/li][li]its not a question “by the driver” but “by the drivers” … the driver stack is composed of several pieces … (and while its a little more complicated then this, but) in a nutshell, the key components are:[/li][LIST]
[li] the kernel DRM module (radeon.ko), [/li][li]the userspace xorg DDX driver (the xf86-video-ati package –> provides the radeon_drv.so driver) [/li][li]and the userspace Mesa/DRI driver (which in your case is the r600_dri.so … also known as r600g …r600 being the classes of radeon graphics hardware it covers and the g indicating that it is a gallium type of Mesa driver) [/li][/ul]
[li]2D accel is handled by the radeon DDX, and, for that purpose, it offers you the ability to use either:[/li][ul]
[li]EXA [/li][li]Glamour [/li][/ul]
[li]In regards to this 2D accel, some (Malcolm for example) keeps encouraging folks to use Glamor. I keep encouraging people to choose EXA. My reasons for this are:[/li][ul]
[li]Glamor is new and still buggy [/li][li]Glamor suffers from diagonal tearing [/li][li]Glamor is not feature - full … a point which will be relevant to you in regards to video playback acceleration i.e.currently no Xv support [/li][li]Glamor is slightly slower then EXA for the most part and in some cases horribly more so … though, that said, whether you ever encounter any of those cases, or can detect/precieve such a difference at times when you do, is another discussion [/li][/ul]
[li]as for 3D, its handled by the r600g … this driver is getting better and better all the time… bleeding edge code and the enabling & disabling of certain features (of the driver and the cpu fq governor), by my estimate, now places its OpenGL performance typically within 85-90%, and in some cases above, that of the prop. catylst/fglrx driver stack’s … this is/would be, no doubt, news to most … though there may be variation amongst hardware … r600 covers a broad swath of hardware, the same of which is covered in part by the catylst/fglrx for some (HD5000+) and by the catalyst/fglrx-legacy for the other part (HD2000-HD4000) … given your adapter would require the legacy, and given you can only use that currently under openSUSE 12.2 (because of the xserver and kernel requirements/limitations of the driver), it makes direct comparison a bit impracticable or difficult in your case [/li][li]of course, for that bleeding edge 3D performance, you will need to update your driver stack yourself, or wait till its available in distro in the future (13.1 will contain much, and by 13.2 its likely that most of the current experimental features, which you have to enable manually, will be enabled by default … plus further OpenGL extentions and comliance) [/li][li]speaking of OpenGL features … you can check what your current stack provides via “glxinfo” … the driver in openSUSE 12.2 offers GL 2.1 and GLSL 1.2, whereas IIRC, current is upto 3.1 and 1.3 respectively [/li][li]in terms of video playback acceleration – your board should have an UVD engine, but support for it has only recently become available in the OSS stack (see my posts starting here) … I’d suggest you try the Gears on Gallium distro to test if it works for you (also seethis threadfor more details … which also provides info on how to use it with the catalyst)[/li][ul]
[li]in the mean time, given that your current best playback option* is with Xv, then my comments about Glamor earlier may influence your decison on choice of 2D accel method … * some of the OpenGL rendering options might work well (some like them … I find plain Xv better then them) … you will also have the gallium based state tracker accel options, but they are experimental/buggy at best and won’t be going any further in development any time soon (in face of the recent UVD support) [/li][/ul]
[/LIST]
Thank you for the replies, great tips to keep in mind. Happy to know the drivers will make good use of the card.
The one thing I forgot to address last night was power management … as I just posted in a couple of the other threads, it just got better:
Big code drop today. New PM features will be going into the 3.11 kernel … likely not enabled by default. … suspect that openSUSE 13.1 won’t get that then (it’ll likely get a 3.10.x kernel) …
… I’d suggest you try the Gears on Gallium distro to test if it works for you (also seethis threadfor more details … which also provides info on how to use it with the catalyst)
oops, guess I messed up the link … was supposed to be to this thread/post (and onwards): https://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/multimedia/487987-very-bad-video-experience-amd-c50-radeon-6250-a.html#post2565846
thank you! I’ll soon know, card is on it’s way.
Ah, I didn’t realize earlier that you currently weren’t using the card, which is why I initially wrote:
… the later part refers to the fact that if you open up the sysinfo or infocentre (depending upon which openSUSE version you’re running; 12.2 and 12.3 respectively) it will report an “unknown gallium” in regards to the 3D driver … this is something which has caused some confusion before, and I thought you had seen it and were thereby questioning if the device was actually “fully” supported 
Anyway, good luck with the new device!
I have great expectation on the card, it’s suppose to be very good, or the best AGP card you can get. When I get it I’ll do a clean install.
Well, right now it should (famous last words) work fine … but, in future, with the new features showing up in mainstream, it should be a whole lot better !
that’s what I was hoping, but sadly, it’ll have to wait… the card I ordered was broken by USPS… at least I got a refund.
now to find another one.
I got another card… I installed Suse 12.3 from scratch. Been having some problems, PC getting completly lock. did ask in another thread but it seems to be a video driver issue, except for a rare error been reported about the kernel…
So I like to check on what I have for the drivers…
Glxinfo returns
glxinfo
name of display: :0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile,
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_EXT_visual_info,
GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_OML_swap_method,
GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_INTEL_swap_event
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile,
GLX_ARB_create_context_robustness, GLX_ARB_get_proc_address,
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_visual_info,
GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB,
GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer,
GLX_MESA_multithread_makecurrent, GLX_MESA_swap_control,
GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control, GLX_SGI_make_current_read,
GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample,
GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group,
GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_INTEL_swap_event
GLX version: 1.4
GLX extensions:
GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer,
GLX_MESA_multithread_makecurrent, GLX_MESA_swap_control,
GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control, GLX_SGI_make_current_read,
GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample,
GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group,
GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_INTEL_swap_event
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV730
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 9.0.2
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_multisample, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color,
GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_copy_texture,
GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_subtexture, GL_EXT_texture_object,
GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_texture,
GL_EXT_texture3D, GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip, GL_ARB_point_parameters,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters,
GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_separate_specular_color,
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap,
GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp,
GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_ARB_framebuffer_sRGB, GL_ARB_multitexture,
GL_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB, GL_IBM_multimode_draw_arrays,
GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays,
GL_EXT_secondary_color, GL_EXT_texture_env_add,
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias,
GL_INGR_blend_func_separate, GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_light_max_exponent,
GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_texture_env_combine4,
GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_EXT_framebuffer_object,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_MESA_window_pos,
GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil, GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_depth_texture,
GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_window_pos,
GL_EXT_stencil_two_side, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map, GL_NV_depth_clamp,
GL_NV_fog_distance, GL_APPLE_packed_pixels, GL_APPLE_vertex_array_object,
GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_fragment_program, GL_ARB_fragment_shader,
GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_vertex_shader,
GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATI_texture_float,
GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_MESA_pack_invert,
GL_NV_primitive_restart, GL_ARB_depth_clamp,
GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow, GL_ARB_half_float_pixel,
GL_ARB_occlusion_query2, GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shading_language_100,
GL_ARB_sync, GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object,
GL_ATI_blend_equation_separate, GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate,
GL_OES_read_format, GL_ARB_color_buffer_float, GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object,
GL_ARB_texture_compression_rgtc, GL_ARB_texture_float,
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ATI_texture_compression_3dc,
GL_EXT_packed_float, GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object,
GL_EXT_texture_compression_rgtc, GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_texture_sRGB,
GL_EXT_texture_shared_exponent, GL_ARB_framebuffer_object,
GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit, GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample,
GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil, GL_ARB_vertex_array_object,
GL_ATI_separate_stencil, GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_EXT_draw_buffers2,
GL_EXT_draw_instanced, GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters,
GL_EXT_texture_array, GL_EXT_texture_compression_latc,
GL_EXT_texture_integer, GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode, GL_EXT_timer_query,
GL_OES_EGL_image, GL_MESA_texture_array, GL_ARB_copy_buffer,
GL_ARB_depth_buffer_float, GL_ARB_draw_instanced,
GL_ARB_half_float_vertex, GL_ARB_instanced_arrays,
GL_ARB_map_buffer_range, GL_ARB_texture_rg, GL_ARB_texture_swizzle,
GL_ARB_vertex_array_bgra, GL_EXT_separate_shader_objects,
GL_EXT_texture_swizzle, GL_EXT_vertex_array_bgra,
GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_AMD_conservative_depth,
GL_AMD_draw_buffers_blend, GL_AMD_shader_stencil_export,
GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility, GL_ARB_blend_func_extended, GL_ARB_debug_output,
GL_ARB_draw_buffers_blend, GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex,
GL_ARB_explicit_attrib_location, GL_ARB_fragment_coord_conventions,
GL_ARB_provoking_vertex, GL_ARB_sampler_objects, GL_ARB_seamless_cube_map,
GL_ARB_shader_stencil_export, GL_ARB_shader_texture_lod,
GL_ARB_texture_rgb10_a2ui, GL_ARB_vertex_type_2_10_10_10_rev,
GL_EXT_provoking_vertex, GL_EXT_texture_snorm,
GL_MESA_texture_signed_rgba, GL_NV_texture_barrier, GL_ARB_robustness,
GL_ARB_shader_bit_encoding, GL_ARB_timer_query,
GL_ARB_transform_feedback2, GL_ARB_transform_feedback3,
GL_ARB_base_instance, GL_ARB_conservative_depth, GL_ARB_texture_storage,
GL_ARB_transform_feedback_instanced, GL_EXT_transform_feedback,
GL_ARB_invalidate_subdata
96 GLX Visuals
visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer sr ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a F gb bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0x021 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 . . 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x022 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 . . 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
CUT text here....
144 GLXFBConfigs:
visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer sr ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a F gb bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0x075 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x076 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 . . 0 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 Slow
... CUT text here...
I have 3d, works fine, 2d feel slow on this like scrolling a web page… and sometimes when booting… screen goes black and I have to turn off/on the pc to have a display. Also asked on another thread, all points to video driver.
I can’t say if I have EXA for 2d or Glamour. I know that for 3d I have Galium
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV730
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 9.0.2
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
The GlxGears demo return good fps.
What does your xorg log say? Or how about your dmesg when you have these problems? For the cases where your system freezes and you have to reboot, what are the last messages in your, umm, messages file (/var/log/messages) relevant to the time that you had to reboot?
These are the only lines that got my attention on dmsg and messages.log
scsi 1:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 5
2013-08-08T07:47:44.061765-06:00 linux-1ogx kernel: 11.728098] ACPI Warning: 0x00000828-0x0000082f SystemIO conflicts with Region \GLBC 1 (20120913/utaddress-251)
2013-08-08T07:47:44.061769-06:00 linux-1ogx kernel: 11.728108] ACPI Warning: 0x00000828-0x0000082f SystemIO conflicts with Region \SACT 2 (20120913/utaddress-251)
2013-08-08T07:47:44.061774-06:00 linux-1ogx kernel: 11.728113] ACPI Warning: 0x00000828-0x0000082f SystemIO conflicts with Region \SSTS 3 (20120913/utaddress-251)
2013-08-08T07:47:44.061786-06:00 linux-1ogx kernel: 11.728119] ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native drivers
2013-08-08T07:47:44.790182-06:00 linux-1ogx kdm_config[540]: Multiple occurrences of section [General] in /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc. Consider merging them.
2013-08-08T07:47:44.792263-06:00 linux-1ogx kdm_config[540]: Multiple occurrences of section [Xdmcp] in /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc. Consider merging them.
2013-08-08T07:47:44.792530-06:00 linux-1ogx kdm_config[540]: Multiple occurrences of section [X-*-Core] in /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc. Consider merging them.
2013-08-08T07:47:44.796978-06:00 linux-1ogx kdm_config[540]: Multiple occurrences of section [X-*-Greeter] in /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc. Consider merging them.
2013-08-08T07:47:44.797929-06:00 linux-1ogx kdm_config[540]: Multiple occurrences of key 'UseTheme' in section [X-*-Greeter] of /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc
2013-08-08T07:47:44.804095-06:00 linux-1ogx kdm_config[540]: Multiple occurrences of section [X-:*-Core] in /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc. Consider merging them.
2013-08-08T07:47:44.813639-06:00 linux-1ogx kdm_config[540]: Multiple occurrences of section [X-:0-Core] in /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc. Consider merging them.
2013-08-08T07:47:44.845969-06:00 linux-1ogx xdm[493]: Starting service kdm..done
adn xorg.log has:
ok, happened again… screen goes black while loading… have to turn-off/on to have a display… happens right before the Suse wallpaper loads that appears before the login/pass window.
Files are too large so I put them here:
http://www.planeta3.net/data/xorg_log.txt
http://www.planeta3.net/data/messages.txt
http://www.planeta3.net/data/dmesg.txt
My old Dell Studio 1537 laptop (which I gave away some months ago) had similar symptoms to what you report with your PC’s radeon hardware. In the case of my laptop it was a problem with plymouth and the radeon driver.
The work around was to disable plymouth upon boot.
To test this theory, you could try adding the boot code “plymouth.enable=0” to your appropriate grub boot line (which will disable plymouth upon boot), and see if that removes any occurrences of this problem with the ‘radeon’ driver. If it does not help, then remove that boot code. How you add this boot code will vary, depending on whether you are using ‘legacy grub’ or ‘grub2’.
If you need advice as to how to add the boot code, please advise.
I fear I need to know where to edit it. I found an old thread with a guide pointing to /etc/grud.d and hte file(s) 40_custom (there’s a 41_custom) but those text files don’t have the menu option… do I add that line there ?
**plymouth.enable=0
**