So I installed 64 bit 13.2 (with KDE). Everything seems to work except the mouse.
When I move it across the screen, the screen icon seems to lag. This makes it difficult
to click on anything since where I’m pointing is always a bit off. Also, if I try to drag a box,
the box doesn’t move until a bit after I complete the drag at which point the box
jumps to the new location. Very disconcerting. I checked the mouse settings in
the desktop settings against a 13.1 system I have and they are identical.
What kind of mouse. ie how is it connected
Your basic $15 mouse – Logitech optical mouse, three buttons, of which the
middle button is also a roller. Plugs into a USB port on the computer. It works
fine when I boot in my current OpenSuse 13.1 32 bit system. It goes wonky
when I boot in a 13.2 64 bit system on a different disk.
To me, this sounds like a graphics problem. It is what happens when the graphics driver is having to do everything by changing bit maps, and cannot always keep up.
Maybe you should tell us something about your display adapter.
OK –
But “do something with my display adapter” is not very meaningful. I have a dual monitor
system. Each monitor is driven by a different source – one by the on-the-motherboard
(radeon) video and the other by an add-on (radeon) card. The computer is relatively old
(5 years or so) so none of this is cutting edge stuff.
Which brings me to a different question — previously I had a xorg.conf file which set
up the peripherals (ie the mouse) as well as the two video sources/montiors/Xinerama
display. That works fine on my 13.1 system.
With 13.2, the Xinerama display comes up properly without an xorg.conf file. The fact
that I have two radeon videos, samsung monitors, etc shows up in the Xorg.0.log file apparrently
without my doing anything. Is this all defined when I created the operating system, when I
boot the computer, or when I log in? And can the options be changed as they can with an xorg.conf file?
xorg.conf or the files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d still allow you to tweak settings
The hardware is found at boot. The management is just better then in days past.
Ok there really should not be a problem with a generic USB mouse. So did you try installing the propritary AMD driver??I assume you are using the default radeon driver.
Well, I looked…
In my 13.1 system (which is 32 bit, by the way), I specify the “radeon” driver for
both video cards in xorg.conf.
In the 13.2 system (which is 64 bit), I find the following line in Xorg.0.log:
83010.041] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so
which I assume is the same driver (except 64 bit).
If I want to use the generic AMD driver, how do I load it and/or how do I force
the system to load it at boot time?
Radeon is the generic open source driver there is no need normally to set it in xorg.conf. It should be selected by default if you have not installed any other driver. I am suggesting that you install the propritary AMD driver. It may give you better response particularly with two monitors.
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:AMD_fglrx
Since you moved from 32 to 64 bit I assume you did not attempt an upgrade but did a new install.
Yes – I have two system disks I can swap in/out – one is my 13.1 32 bit (working) system
and the other is the 13.2 64 bit which I built from scratch as a test of whether or not I would
permanently change to 64 bit. As I mentioned, the 64 bit system is loading the radeon driver
at boot.
If I install the AMD driver, will the system automatically use it in preference to the radeon at the
next boot or do I have to force something??
If you do an install it will use it without any other attention. Just follow the instruction on the page I referenced
OK – so I installed fglrx and rebooted. And sure enough, the mouse problems
have gone away. Would be great except that…
The system now ignores my second video card. On boot it apparently creates a
new xorg.conf file with only one screen/monitor combination using fglrx.
So, I put my old xorg.conf into /etc/X11, changed the drivers for both cards from “radeon”
to “fglrx” and rebooted again – and X dies with a No Screens errror.
One step forward, one step backwards.
You shouldn’t have replaced the xorg.conf but instead launched cccle and adjusted the monitor setup from there.
OK – couple of other things…
-
I said that when I used my own xorg.conf and changed the drivers to
fglrx, (see following line from my xorg.cong)Driver “fglrx”
That X complained that there were no screens, but looking at Xorg.0.log, I see that
before it complained about the screens, it had said that it couldn’t find fglrx as a driver.
Clearly, that’s the more fundamental problem. Without my xorg.conf, I find the following
line in Xorg.0.conf22.614] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so
so it knows how to find the driver when it starts without my xorg,conf.
-
I tried running cccle – doesn;t recognize the command.
You should not need a Xorg.conf file. Set the monitors up in the desktop(s).
You’ll need to install the Catalyst Control Center from YAST then - although from what I remember about the fglrx drivers, it should be installed as part of the package.
I’ll just leave someone else to help you on it, I just remember adjusting the desktops with cccle on a multi-monitor setup a while back.
OK – “set the monitors up in the desktop(s)” sounds good, as does the next suggestion,
but what do I actually need to do to accomplish this task?
That message means that it is trying to load the driver. It doesn’t mean that it actually can load it.
Apparently it can not load it, as Xorg didn’t start after forcing fglrx.
Did you actually install the fglrx driver? It is not installed automatically.
What does this say?
rpm -qa | grep -i fglrx
Also please specify what actual graphics card(s) you have.
If your mouse problem is fixed now, it would indicate that it’s a problem with the radeon driver.
If you installed fglrx and it is not working, you are using a generic driver like fbdev or vesa now, which “fixed” the problem but is not preferable of course.
Posting the whole Xorg log might help in giving further advise.
- I tried running cccle – doesn;t recognize the command.
See above. You probably do not have fglrx installed I think, otherwise the command should at least be recognized.
Which desktop??
I’m afraid I use NVIDIA thus don’t know about AMD config programs.
If Desktop is KDE the setup is in Configure desktop - display and monitor. Don’t know any other desktop at least for such a config.
So here is are the three items that were requested – there is
a problem with the third.
- Result of rpm -qa | grep -i fglrx
fglrx64_graphics_SUSE132-14.301.1001-99.x86_64
fglrx64_opencl_SUSE132-14.301.1001-99.x86_64
fglrx64_amdcccle_SUSE132-14.301.1001-99.x86_64
fglrx64_core_SUSE132-14.301.1001-99.x86_64
fglrx64_xpic_SUSE132-14.301.1001-99.x86_64
- Which video cards? This the device sections from the xorg.conf
I am currently using for 32 bit 13.1. This seems to work fine.
Section “Device”
Identifier “HD4200”
Driver “radeon”
VendorName “ATI Technologies Inc”
BoardName “Cedar [Radeon HD4200]”
BusID “PCI:1:5:0”
EndSection
Section “Device”
Identifier “HD5450”
Driver “radeon”
VendorName “ATI Technologies Inc”
BoardName “Cedar [Radeon HD5450]”
BusID “PCI:4:0:0”
EndSection
- The Xorg.0.log file. While there seem to be some funnies here that I don’t
understand, I am not permitted to attach a file and if I put it in-line I exceed
the character count (by a factor of two) and I can’t post the resulting text.
Can I e-mail it somewhere? Or should I just post it in thirds?
This looks good. You should be able to run amdcccle then at least. Whether it starts or not is different question though. 
- Which video cards? This the device sections from the xorg.conf
I am currently using for 32 bit 13.1. This seems to work fine.
Section “Device”
Identifier “HD4200”
Driver “radeon”
VendorName “ATI Technologies Inc”
BoardName “Cedar [Radeon HD4200]”
BusID “PCI:1:5:0”
EndSection
I suppose here lies the problem.
The fglrx driver does not support a Radeon HD4200 any more, only HD5000 and up.
And the legacy driver which would support it doesn’t work on current (or even not so current any more) Xorg or kernel versions.
- The Xorg.0.log file. While there seem to be some funnies here that I don’t
understand, I am not permitted to attach a file and if I put it in-line I exceed
the character count (by a factor of two) and I can’t post the resulting text.
Can I e-mail it somewhere? Or should I just post it in thirds?
Upload it to http://susepaste.org or similar and post a link.
But as to above, I’d just recommend to remove the fglrx driver again, as it won’t work.
Or replace the older card with a newer one.
To be sure though, I’d suggest posting the output of “/sbin/lspci” as well.
The stuff in the xorg.conf are just names. It doesn’t really tell what hardware you really have.