Issues with Newly defined ATI legacy Cards

English Hardware
1

This thread is just for those with newly defined ATI legacy cards. As our issues seem to be a little different since we are no-longer supported in the new 11.2 by ATI.

The following products have been moved to the legacy software support structure (including Mobile and All-in-Wonder Variants):

  • ATI Radeon 9500 Series
  • ATI Radeon 9550 Series
  • ATI Radeon 9600 Series
  • ATI Radeon 9700 Series
  • ATI Radeon 9800 Series
  • ATI Radeon X300 Series
  • ATI Radeon X550 Series
  • ATI Radeon X600 Series
  • ATI Radeon X700 Series
  • ATI Radeon X800 Series
  • ATI Radeon X850 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1050 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1200 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1250 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1300 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1400 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1550 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1600 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1650 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1800 Series
  • ATI Radeon X1900 Series
  • ATI Radeon Xpress Series (Xpress200)
  • ATI Radeon X2100 Series

source: Catalyst 9.4 - cchtml.com

In few words: If you have a DirectX9 video card you are screwed up

Source

2

Here are the fix options that have done nothing.

x Originally Posted by oldcpu View Post

* sax2 -r -m 0=ati #dependant on hardware
* sax2 -r -m 0=radeon #dependant on hardware
* sax2 -r -m 0=radeonhd #dependant on hardware

Of course this one works sax2 -r -m 0=vesa, but so many other issues with video, and web browsing. Xine dies after a small amount of video is played to many dropped frames.

The fglrx driver doesn’t support us anymore in the new kernel and will not compile in 11.2. If you try the 9-10 proprietary driver it will compile but will brake the system for kde4.

These are my finding so far. Has anyone got an xpress 200 working yet?

3

ATI Radeon X600 Series

No one seems to be talking about what will happen with these card other than to say where out of luck.

4

Forgot to mention that I get a black screen of death if I start in anything but safe mode.

5

bad news on the xpress200 good news for other xpress series
users.

This command seems to be working for other xpress series cards

sax2 -r -m 0=ati

It doesn’t for my mobile express 200 card Sax2 crashes after you press save.

Read this forums posts11.2 Blackscreen resolved … - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums

manual setup of xorg.conf does not make a difference, still get intermittent
black screen startups.

xorg.0.log files have lots in them, but nothing shouts at me like “here’s
the problem!” :slight_smile:

I currently have the default display and window managers set to xfce,
instead of kdm amd kde4, just to rule out kde. No difference.

I am now running without any /etc/X11/xorg.conf* files (moved them to
another folder) and X11 starts, but not consistently.

Thinking of trying the 9.3 proprietary drivers, but not tonight.
Apparently, 9.3 is the latest that supports the 200 series, among many
others. I also thought I saw mention that 9.3 is too old to support the 11.2
kernel, but others seem to have it running. Hope to try this tomorrow all
being well.

I am more and more inclined to think it’s an X11 7.4 in conjunction with the
kernel type of problem, but no evidence to support that yet.

This Guy claims to have read that others have the 9-3 driver working, I would love to know how. That would give us a good chance at a fix for the xpress 200.

6

Another thread with a similar subject, and also with some ideas: About Ati Radeon not working on opensuse 11.2 and compiz - openSUSE Forums

7

megabooks, wrt proprietary ATI drivers, you may have better luck in raising your concerns about ATI hardware support on the phoronix forum, which maintains a very much unofficial forum for ATI graphic hardware, where the phoronix folks claim the ATI developers do read their forum: AMD/ATI Linux - Phoronix Forums

… I seriously doubt an ATI developers (and also doubt any open source graphic card developers for ATI cards) read our forum.

8 
Sax2 -r -m 0=ati

At first I thought it hadn’t work then I restart the next morning and even safe mode failed to load the kdm. So I login and used startx, well that worked but the sound card fail(everything else worked however.)

Then I remember what some pore soul had said about login into then starting the system as root from init 3 working. (bad idea but it made me think)

This gave me and idea start the kdm from init 3 and login as normal user.

Well this seem to work as long as I su the kdm it starts I get sound and full graphics including 3d. (using normal user account not root to login)

Try it after you run that command and let me know what happens.

9

I am wondering if oldcpu has one of the newly defined legacy card based on this post of his. If so hows it working. Also how are the intel gpu’s work I have large numbers of these card I would like to upgrade to 11.2. But they are all in production machines at this time. So I haven’t had the time to test 11.2 on them yet. My friends say it’s good on there Toshiba laptops so I am just looking to correlate that fact.

My openSUSE-11.2 is appearing better by the day. I sorted an X not start problem, and sorted an sftp speed problem. None of them having anything to do with 11.2 per se. There are still a few more things I am pondering about 11.2, and the jury is still out for me (as to whether this is the best openSUSE version yet) but I have to say I am leaning to a view point that 11.2 may indeed be the best openSUSE yet for the hardware on our family PCs (3 with nVidia graphic hardware, 2 with old Intel graphic hardware, 1 with new ATI graphic hardware, and 1 with older ATI graphic hardware).

10

The PC in question is my wife’s and it runs winXP 95% of the time. My wife typically only boots to openSUSE when she wants to play videos, as she has been totally confused by the mass of various codecs for Windoze (some that work, some that don’t, and everyone swears by a different codec pack - so she refuses to install anything in such a confusing situation). So I have codecs on her Linux and it “just works” for multimedia.

But to get back to the question, her PC is a 32-bit Sempron 2600 with 1GB RAM, and the graphic card is an ATI RV280 (which I believe is the equivalent of a Radeon 9200 Pro), and she has a 32-bit openSUSE-11.2 with KDE-4.3.1 running on that PC. When I typed “usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard” it indicated her PC is using the “radeon” (openGL) driver. Her PC has NO /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. X windows “just work” with KDE-4.3.1 and no special desktop effects. However special desktop effects do not work, as they introduce unpleasant artifacts. So she has special desktop effects disabled. I note under openSUSE-11.1 with the radeon openGL driver that special desktop effects did work, so there has been a negative regression in the driver functionality.

11

Tried what you said with same results but what has me excited is that I tried old cpu’s command and found something interesting.

#hwinfo --gfxcard
24: PCI 105.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
  [Created at pci.318]
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1002_5955
  Unique ID: ul7N.lmNEbt8azKB
  Parent ID: vSkL.dQFUNbiC_g9
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:05.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:05.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)"
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"
  Device: pci 0x5955 "Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)"
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
  SubDevice: pci 0x30a4
  Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (rw,prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x9000-0x9fff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xb0100000-0xb010ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xb0120000-0xb013ffff (ro,prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 17 (175600 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d00005955sv0000103Csd000030A4bc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: **radeon**
  Driver Info #1:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: **fglrx**
    3D Support: yes
    Extensions: dri
  Config Status: **cfg=no**, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #24

Two different drivers are loaded it would seem. But maybe I am just miss reading the output.

O Thanks oldcpu I had forgotten that command. Never again its going in google notes.

If you have a list of such keepers lay it one us, I am always forgetting useful commands probably because opensuse just tends to work. Thats the one thing about the other distro I use before I converted, to get stuff working you got plenty of practice on the command prompt.

12

J100 I have to say I have restarted twice and this fix seems to be holding.


First run this command in init 3 mode
 
Sax2 -r -m 0=ati

Restart and do the following

Start system in init 3

su 

enter kdm and hit return

Then login normally everything seems to work doing it this way.
The question is why?

No one should post this as a fix until we know more about the whys of what is making it work. Testing only!

13

Do you still get “radeon” and “fglrx” when running

hwinfo --gfxcard

after having specified “ati” in the xorg.conf via the sax2 command?

14

To start this is a fresh install so the fglrx came with. I haven’t install the proprietary driver just in case you might be wondering.

Yes I still get both and hear is freshly run clipping of the command hwinfo.

Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: radeon
  Driver Info #1:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: fglrx
    3D Support: yes
    Extensions: dri
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)

Also took the time to go and look at the xorg.conf and here is what I found.

Section “Device”
BoardName “Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)”
Driver “ati”
Identifier “Device[0]”
VendorName “ATI”
EndSection

Here is the full xorg.conf file

/…/

SaX generated X11 config file

Created on: 2009-11-17T22:50:55-0800.

Version: 8.1

Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005

Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users&gt;

Automatically generated by [SaX2] (8.1)

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

Section “Files”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/local”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/URW”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Speedo”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/PEX”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/kwintv”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/truetype”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/CID”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/xtest”
FontPath “/opt/kde3/share/fonts”
InputDevices “/dev/gpmdata”
InputDevices “/dev/input/mice”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “dri”
Load “dbe”
Load “extmod”
Load “glx”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AllowMouseOpenFail” “on”
Option “ZapWarning” “on”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”

Driver “kbd” will be disabled unless ‘Option “AutoAddDevices” “off”’

is set in “ServerFlags” section.

Driver “kbd”
Identifier “Keyboard[0]”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
Option “XkbModel” “microsoftpro”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”

Driver “mouse” will be disabled unless ‘Option “AutoAddDevices” “off”’

is set in “ServerFlags” section.

Driver “mouse”
Identifier “Mouse[1]”
Option “Buttons” “5”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Name” “SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad”
Option “Protocol” “explorerps/2”
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
DisplaySize 330 210
HorizSync 30-62
Identifier “Monitor[0]”
ModelName “LGPHILIPSLCD LCD MONITOR”
Option “DPMS”
Option “PreferredMode” “1280x800”
VendorName “LPL”
VertRefresh 43-60
UseModes “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[0]”
Modeline “1280x800” 83.46 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828
Modeline “1280x800” 69.75 1280 1328 1360 1440 800 803 809 823 +HSync -Vsync
EndSection

Section “Device”
BoardName “Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)”
Driver “ati”
Identifier “Device[0]”
VendorName “ATI”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1280x800”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1280x800”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1280x800”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280x800”
EndSubSection
Device “Device[0]”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
Screen “Screen[0]”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Group “video”
Mode 0660
EndSection

I am completely perplexed on this one.

15

I just remember that I tried the sax2 -r -m 0=radeon once before could that be why its there.

The last command run was sax2 -r -m 0=ati, shouldn’t that have remove all other edits. I removed all the xorg.conf* files from X11 before I ran sax2 -r -m 0=ati so this xorg.conf was generated by sax2 -r -m 0=ati.

Anyway hope this info helps.

16

With sax2 is there a way to remove a driver from use. So far I haven’t found such a switch to use with it.

17

The sax2 utility will generate /etc/X11/xorg.conf. So delete this file as necessary. (Many users will not need this file anyway, as Xorg will autoload the correct driver based on graphics hardware). An extra consideration with openSUSE 11.2 is that it may be necessary to blacklist an unwanted graphics driver, although that should only be necessary if there is a conflict between proprietary and open source drivers being present.

18

Think that is exactly what I have here look and see what you think.

hwinfo --gfxcard
24: PCI 105.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
[Created at pci.318]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1002_5955
Unique ID: ul7N.lmNEbt8azKB
Parent ID: vSkL.dQFUNbiC_g9
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:05.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:01:05.0
Hardware Class: graphics card
Model: “ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)”
Vendor: pci 0x1002 “ATI Technologies Inc”
Device: pci 0x5955 “Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)”
SubVendor: pci 0x103c “Hewlett-Packard Company”
SubDevice: pci 0x30a4
Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (rw,prefetchable)
I/O Ports: 0x9000-0x9fff (rw)
Memory Range: 0xb0100000-0xb010ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xb0120000-0xb013ffff (ro,prefetchable,disabled)
IRQ: 17 (1293 events)
I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
Module Alias: “pci:v00001002d00005955sv0000103Csd000030A4bc03sc00i00”
Driver Info #0:
XFree86 v4 Server Module: radeon
Driver Info #1:
XFree86 v4 Server Module: fglrx(shouldn’t work)
3D Support: yes
Extensions: dri
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #24

I think I need to remove the fglrx driver as by all I am reading it no longer supports xpress 200 chipsets as they have been move to legacy support. Correct me if I am wrong but I think the reading said something about it not supporting the new xorg for legacy cards.

19

On openSUSE-11.1, on my Dell Studio 1537 laptop with the ATI Radeon 3450HD graphic hardware, dependent on the kernel version, and dependent on the ATI proprietary graphic driver, I found the installation of the fglrx rpm would actually prevent both the VESA driver and the open source graphic driver from functioning. But that was only true some of the time and not all the time.

Hence in the threads where I tried to help, I recommended users remove the fglrx rpm (before trying to use the VESA or open source driver or before installing a new proprietary driver), as it can cause problems with using the vesa or openGL driver (and a newer fglrx driver).

Note - that laptop currently has openSUSE-11.1 on it with the proprietary ATI graphic driver.

20

That is good to know I have been waiting to find out if something like that could happen. I thought it might be possible that the two would conflict even when users where saying that the xorg.conf chooses the driver. They made it sound like the other driver just sat there minding its own business. That would explain why the system would sometime boot up right. A few times only but it happened.

Well its of to kill the fglrx then, whats the worst that could happen. rotfl!

A user also said that I might be able to improve video playback by setting it to regular in xorg.conf. They thought it might be set to opengl.