To start off I’ll cover the basics. I’m running openSUSE 11.1 64-bit with an ATi Radeon HD4670 (ATI RV730). I just bought two Acer G215H LCD’s (nothing fancy, I just needed a dual monitor setup).
My first questions is, are the fglrx drivers the only drivers that can handle a multiple monitor setup with Xinerama enabled (multi-display dual monitor setup)? The reason I ask is because I’m having some problems with them (I’m actually having slight problems with the radeonhd drivers as well but more on that later).
Automated Install on 10.8
I first tried installing the latest Catalyst drivers (version 10.8). I installed them using the automatic installation (I didn’t generate a specific package and I didn’t install it in yast2 from the repo). It installed without any problems and afterwards I ran the config:
/usr/bin/aticonfig –initial=dual-head
and then rebooted. The system did not boot into the GUI. So I logged in as myself and then with superuser rights ran sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx. Sax2 started to run then came back with the following:
xc: sorry could not start configuration server
xc: for details refer to the log file:
/var/log/SaX.log
xc: abort
Here is what I found in the log. There is a lot more, but I though this was the area that was important
(EE) fglrx(0): atiddxDriScreenInit failed, GPS not been initialized.
(WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************
(WW) fglrx(0): * DRI initialization failed! *
(WW) fglrx(0): * (maybe driver kernel module missing or bad) *
(WW) fglrx(0): * 2D acceleraton available (MMIO) *
(WW) fglrx(0): * no 3D acceleration available *
(WW) fglrx(0): *************************************************
(II) fglrx(0): FBADPhys: 0xf00000000 FBMappedSize: 0x10000000
(II) fglrx(0): FBMM initialized for area (0,0)-(1920,8191)
(II) fglrx(0): FBMM auto alloc for area (0,0)-(1920,1920) (front color buffer - assumption)
(II) fglrx(0): Largest offscreen area available: 1920 x 6271
(==) fglrx(0): Backing store disabled
(II) Loading extension FGLRXEXTENSION
() Option “dpms”
(**) fglrx(0): DPMS enabled
(II) fglrx(0): Initialized in-driver Xinerama extension
(WW) fglrx(0): Textured Video not supported without DRI enabled.
(II) LoadModule: “glesx”
(II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//glesx.so
(II) Module glesx: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.4.99.906, module version = 1.0.0
(II) Loading extension GLESX
(II) fglrx(0): GLESX enableFlags = 512
(II) fglrx(0): Acceleration enabled
(II) LoadModule: "amdxmm"
(II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//amdxmm.so
(II) Module amdxmm: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.4.99.906, module version = 1.0.0
(EE) fglrx(0): XMM failed to open CMMQS connection.
(II) fglrx(0): XMM failed to initialize!
(II) fglrx(0): Enable composite support successfully
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "VideoOverlay" is not used
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "FSAAEnable" is not used
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "FSAAScale" is not used
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" is not used
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "CalcAlgorithm" is not used
(WW) fglrx(0): Option "PreferredMode" is not used
(==) fglrx(0): Silken mouse enabled
(==) fglrx(0): Using HW cursor of display infrastructure!
(II) fglrx(0): Disabling in-server RandR and enabling in-driver RandR 1.2.
Backtrace:
0: /usr/sbin/xw(xf86SigHandler+0x65) [0x489be5]
1: /lib64/libc.so.6 [0x7f45fe05e6e0]
2: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//drivers/fglrx_drv.so(atiddxDisplayViewportCallbackSetMode+0x6d8) [0x7f45fc7fd888]
3: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//drivers/fglrx_drv.so(amd_xserver15_xf86CrtcSetMode+0x26d) [0x7f45fcbbbc3d]
4: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//drivers/fglrx_drv.so(amd_xserver15_xf86SetDesiredModes+0x185) [0x7f45fcbbd965]
5: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//drivers/fglrx_drv.so(amd_xf86SetDesiredModes+0xd) [0x7f45fc80317d]
6: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//drivers/fglrx_drv.so(atiddxDisplayScrnInit+0xa7) [0x7f45fc7f9bc7]
7: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//drivers/fglrx_drv.so(atiddxScreenInit+0x802) [0x7f45fc7d5d82]
8: /usr/sbin/xw(AddScreen+0x1c9) [0x431d29]
9: /usr/sbin/xw(InitOutput+0x241) [0x467591]
10: /usr/sbin/xw(main+0x286) [0x4324c6]
11: /lib64/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0x7f45fe04a586]
12: /usr/sbin/xw [0x431a79]
**Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting
(EE) fglrx(0): firegl_SetSuspendResumeState FAILED -9.**
]
I then tried to switch back to the radeonhd drivers but sax2 just hangs and doesn’t do anything. It looks like it starts the X server but I just get a blank white screen and after that nothing happens. I can still switch into the other command line interfaces, but nothing appears in the GUI. When I try running startx I get the same error that is in the log:
Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting
(EE) fglrx(0): firegl_SetSuspendResumeState FAILED -9
giving up
xinit: Connection refused (errno 111): unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error
Installed From Repository
From there I uninstalled the ati drivers and rebooted and the GUI came back up. At this point I checked which drivers I was using and it looks like it switched back to the radeonhd drivers.
After this I tried installing the fglrx drivers from the repository (www2.ati.com/suse/11.1). Again the installation looks like it was successful. However, when I reboot I get the same problem as above.
Automated Install on 10.6
From here I uninstalled the drivers (from yast2) and thought that maybe there’s something unstable with the 10.8 drivers so I downloaded the 10.6 drivers and installed them using the automated install (again – I didn’t generate a package and I didn’t install from yast2). The install was again (big surprise) successful. So I again ran the /usr/bin/aticonfig –initial=dual-head and then rebooted. To my great surprise the GUI came up.
At this point I though GREAT! I don’t mind using previous drivers. So I setup my dual monitor display (which worked fine), but after everything was setup I noticed that dragging windows and scrolling (particularly in web browsers) is extremely slow… painfully slow… way past the point of usable. I’ve researched this problem a bit but not found anything that fixes it. I’ve seen a lot of this type of problem related to compiz, so I completely uninstalled that from yast, but to be honest with you I think that made things worse, it’s definitely not any better.
Problems with radeonhd Drivers
I uninstalled the 10.6 drivers and the browser lag/slowness issue went away, as I thought it would. So from here I tried just using the radeonhd drivers to setup my dual monitor display but when I do this through sax2 (accessed it through yast) everything looks like it works and the system tells me to reboot for the changes to take affect, but after I reboot everything is the same. I can only get a cloned display to work without the fglrx drivers.
So in a nutshell here are my problems (I know I have lots of problems :))
– The fglrx 10.8 drivers I downloaded from ati’s website as well as the drivers I got from the repo don’t work and I can’t get into the GUI when these are installed
- Does anyone know why this is or how to fix it?
– The fglrx 10.6 drivers work, but I have the browser lag/slowness issue which I can’t work in. This is the only drivers I’ve gotten to work with my multi-display dual monitor setup - Does anyone know how to fix this problem (the lag/slowness problem)?
– When I completely abandon ati and use the driver’s packaged with openSUSE I can’t get my dual monitor display to work. But I don’t have the browser lag/slowness issue. - I’d like to take full advantage of my graphics card and use the ati driver and have 3D support, but if it comes down to it that I have to use the radeon or, more likely, the radeonhd drivers I’m okay with that as long as I can get my multi-display dual monitor setup correctly.
As a side note I’ve reinstalled compiz. Let me know if you need anything else from me. I’ve tried to explain the process I’ve gone through in as detailed, yet understandable way as possible. Sorry if I missed something obvious. Also I’m not a very experienced Linux user so if you could explain exactly what you need from me it would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Josh