How to replace Radeonhd with Radeon driver ?

Hello everybody

I’m new openSuse user, and I loved its stability and usability :slight_smile:

But I’ve the tearing issue when I play video clips or movies using the Radeonhd driver, and I red that the Radeon driver had finally solved this problem in their latest 1.3 version.

Now, I want to try the Radeon driver and test if it works or not, what should I do (step by step).

More Info about my system:
Fresh opensuse 11.2 x86_64
AMD Turion X2 Ultra
ATI Mobility Radeon 3450

I’ve already tried the fglrx (Catalyst 9.11) driver and it did not work properly with 2D or video output.

Thanks in ADVANCE :slight_smile:

As of openSUSE-11.2, Novell/SuSE-GmbH have started to move in the direction of the xorg approach to remove the need for an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

However if such an xorg.conf file is created, it will still be recognized, and if you create and configure such a file, it should force your graphics to use the driver you specify.

I assume that if you were unsuccessful in your proprietary ATI driver install, that you removed any files with “fglrx” in the file name? If not, please do so.

Then reboot your PC to run level 3 (when the grub boot menu appears with the boot selections of openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.5-0.1, Failsafe – openSUSE 11.2, etc … leave the selection the same, but press “3” (no quotes) so that “3” appears in the options line). Then press < enter > and boot to run level 3 (an ascii/text login). Log in as a regular user.

Then switch users to administrator by typing “su” (no quotes - enter root password). Backup and move any /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with:

mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.mybackup

and then run sax2

sax2 -r -m 0=radeon

and if sax2 was successful, reboot with

shutdown -r now

and this time do NOT boot to run level 3.

If it does not work, restore your previous /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, or if you had no such file, then delete any new file you may have created.

As to whether the “radeon” driver will work, and as to whether you have the needed X11 update so as to have the updated driver that you refer to installed, I have no idea.

Everything went OK :), but how can I know that I’m using radeon now ?

I’m not certain … try this command:

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard

and see what it says for Driver :slight_smile:

Also type:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep river

and how to replace radeon driver with no driver ?
is it really as simple as removing /etc/X11/xorg.conf ?

currently running xserver with automatic configure
without xorg.conf file, which attempts to load the
closed source module “fglrx” which isnt there and
display is oke, but glxgears and tulip dont run.

also want to try the radeon driver as said here and
if needed switch back to automatic configure.

and how to replace radeon driver with no driver ?
is it really as simple as removing /etc/X11/xorg.conf ?

Removing (or renaming) xorg.conf will cause Xorg to autodetect and load the driver it thinks is appropriate for your system.

To load the the radeon driver, follow the advice oldcpu has already provided (using sax2 command at runlevel 3).

currently running xserver with automatic configure
without xorg.conf file, which attempts to load the
closed source module “fglrx” which isnt there and
display is oke, but glxgears and tulip dont run.

You can get a list of hardware and associated drivers via this command

/sbin/lspci -kv