ati drivers half open source

[Angelwinged_Devil]

well here it is, finally amd spanked ati enough for them to get that they needed their drivers fixed. This is a step twards better ati drivers :D.

http://www.linux.com/feature/119049

discuss

[tak]

FTA:
As far as the licensing is concerned, Hester says, "I think with good certainty we know that the 2-D drivers will be a combination of MIT and GPL. We haven't figured out a bunch of things on the 3-D license yet."

So the 2D part will be opensource, the 3D part probably not. As for a step towards better drivers? For the 2D part there are already open source drivers that work pretty well. Since the 3D part likely will remain closed sourced, presumably nothing much will change there. Hopefully they really will release all specs. That could finally make open source 3D drivers by the community possible. Even if they do, it will take a long time till development of the open source version reaches the level of performance the current ATI drivers deliver, if they ever do.

I'll believe better ATI drivers when i see them. The history of crap when it comes to ATI goes waaay back. Always had good hardware, always couldn't code. As long as NVIDIA cards continue to perform on an equal level, i will always buy those.

[Myxir]

I'll believe better ATI drivers when i see them. The history of crap when it comes to ATI goes waaay back. Always had good hardware, always couldn't code. As long as NVIDIA cards continue to perform on an equal level, i will always buy those.
There are already benchmarks for the Beta driver.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=822&num=2

[Angelwinged_Devil]

well if some people prefer ati cards they won't be limited anymore. Nvidia drivers are open source, they realise that their drivers suck so they need to improve them to improve their marketing for real gamers (which is the true reason for why the copmuters are so good they are.) And since nvidias drivers are open source they want to try too.

[Myxir]

And i will prefer ati in the future, too if the driver really are that good like the test says.

[tak]

There are already benchmarks for the Beta driver.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=822&num=2
The benchmark refers to the fglrx driver, whose DRI part is closed source.
Besides, it is available for quite some time already.


well if some people prefer ati cards they won't be limited anymore. Nvidia drivers are open source, they realise that their drivers suck so they need to improve them to improve their marketing for real gamers (which is the true reason for why the copmuters are so good they are.) And since nvidias drivers are open source they want to try too.

NVIDIA drivers, like the fglrx drivers, are not open source. They contain binary parts for the 3D rendering.

[Myxir]

8.41 will come tomorrow:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12784&postcount=51
I'm curious how the performance is really improved. Right now it's... hum.. not THAT good.

Well, I think the opened 2D Part of the driver is a step into the right direction.
€dit:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=825&num=1
There they say that AMD thinks about improving the open source driver. If i remember right the opening of the fglrx is mentioned, too. But i don't think that fglrx will be opened. As far as I know there is "bought code" in it, so it would lead to trouble if the open it.

[NightTwix]

lets wait and see.

[Froste]

Half-open? Like... ajar? Ajar-Source?

[Myxir]

lets wait and see.
Still waiting :cuac:

[Myxir]

yeha 8.41 is out
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5193

[arlick]

yeha 8.41 is out
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5193

thanks man!!! ill try it now and say what happend!!

[Myxir]

omg ffs lol:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12985&postcount=24
... no comment

[arlick]

omg ffs lol:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12985&postcount=24
... no comment

ouch
>.<

well im going to try it... 62% of the download... i have an ati radeon x700 se, may it work :sifflote:

[Myxir]

I try it for my x550 xt, too, but the people in the phoronix forums don't seem to be very happy -.-

[arlick]

I try it for my x550 xt, too, but the people in the phoronix forums don't seem to be very happy -.-

its works fine :metal:

outputs:

_= D of S =_~/Desktop/RO$ glxgears
19737 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3947.207 FPS
19605 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3920.867 FPS
19443 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3888.585 FPS
19663 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3932.585 FPS

_= D of S =_~/Desktop/RO$ fgl_glxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
4308 frames in 5.0 seconds = 861.600 FPS
4435 frames in 5.0 seconds = 887.000 FPS
4449 frames in 5.0 seconds = 889.800 FPS
4409 frames in 5.0 seconds = 881.800 FPS


about 33% better with 3d graphics.

here u can see the outputs with the previous driver:

http://www.regnumonline.com.ar/forum/showpost.php?p=140499&postcount=304

the last code was using version 8.40.4

go to play!! :metal:

[Froste]

glxgears is not a benchmark, you know that

[arlick]

glxgears is not a benchmark, you know that

which is a good benchmark? i only knows glxgears and fgl_gears

[Froste]

doom3 cached time demo for example

[arlick]

doom3 cached time demo for example

i have the doom3 demo.

with this drivers the game goes very bad.
i dont know how to see the fps in it.

[Froste]

/timedemo demo1 usecache

or something like that

[Myxir]

I think i messed something up. I get this error now when running fglrxinfo

fglrxinfo
fglrxinfo: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This happens to every application, regnum as well :p

mcflow@errorkiste:~$ whereis libGL.so.1
libGL.so: /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 /usr/lib/libGL.so

But the lib exists...
Any idea?

[Angelwinged_Devil]

OMG, all I was looking for was opinions, something better came out. Some got their ati problem fixed, well I'm very pleased I playd a tiny bit in this :D good to see your fps owning

oh yeah and myxir, you have to set a variable for that, can't remember how to do it though, I miss linux :(

[arlick]

I think i messed something up. I get this error now when running fglrxinfo

fglrxinfo
fglrxinfo: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This happens to every application, regnum as well :p

mcflow@errorkiste:~$ whereis libGL.so.1
libGL.so: /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 /usr/lib/libGL.so

But the lib exists...
Any idea?

i have this


0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2007-09-12 17:56 libGL.so -> /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1.2
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2007-09-12 17:56 libGL.so.1 -> /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1.2


try doing a simbolic link like:

ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 /us/lib/libGL.so (or where u have it)

in my case i have the files in /usr/lib/xorg/ because im using slackware

[arlick]

_= D of S =_/usr/lib$ ls -las | grep libGL.so
1614 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1648400 2007-08-09 00:29 FGL.renamed.libGL.so.1.2
1618 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1650701 2007-08-08 19:48 FGL.renamed.libGL.so.1.5.070001
14562 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 14896795 2007-08-09 00:18 FGL.renamed.libGL.so.1.5.070100
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2007-09-12 17:56 libGL.so -> /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1.2
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2007-09-12 17:56 libGL.so.1 -> /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1.2
_= D of S =_/usr/lib$ ls -las /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so*
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2007-09-12 17:56 /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so -> /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1.2
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2007-09-12 17:56 /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1 -> /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1.2
16720 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17104118 2007-09-12 17:56 /usr/lib/xorg/libGL.so.1.2


locate libGL.so.1.2

libGL.so.1 must be a symbolic link to libGL.so.1.2
libGL.so must be a symbolic link to libGL.so.1

[Myxir]

Thank you, you're a genious that is fixed...
But now I got a new problem
Xserver won't start when I use fglrx.
the log of xorg tells me that there is no device at pci 1:0:1... I never entered this number anywhere.... it's 1:0:0. It also tells me no screens found. something is wrong.....
I forgot to copy the log when i was in tty1. I made a startx after i made x using vesa.
I think i gonna give it up.
I installed 8.41 the same way I installed 8.40.4 yesterday.

[arlick]

Thank you, you're a genious that is fixed...
But now I got a new problem
Xserver won't start when I use fglrx.
the log of xorg tells me that there is no device at pci 1:0:1... I never entered this number anywhere.... it's 1:0:0. It also tells me no screens found. something is wrong.....
I forgot to copy the log when i was in tty1. I made a startx after i made x using vesa.
I think i gonna give it up.
I installed 8.41 the same way I installed 8.40.4 yesterday.

try doing after install (before install make sure that your X server is down):

aticonfig --initial
aticonfig --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

which distro linux are u using?

reboot and post if u see something wrong at the output of dmesg

[Myxir]

Thanks again,
I did what you said but the same results like before.
xorg.log tells me:
(WW)fglrx: No matching Device section for interface (BUS ID PCI:1:0:1) found
(EE)fgrlx(0) atiddxDri Screeninit failed GPS not been initialised.

I use Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04)

[arlick]

Thanks again,
I did what you said but the same results like before.
xorg.log tells me:
(WW)fglrx: No matching Device section for interface (BUS ID PCI:1:0:1) found
(EE)fgrlx(0) atiddxDri Screeninit failed GPS not been initialised.

I use Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04)

do u have the fglrx module loaded?

see it doing:

lsmod | grep fglrx

if not do this and try again (without rebooting):

modprobe fglrx

[Myxir]

As usually i landed in tty1...
I did
lsmod |grep fglrx
and i had no output.
then i loaded the module with sudo modprobe fglrx
i had no output here too.
Finally i did lsmod |grep fglrx again...
no output too.
lol, doesn't that mean that fglrx is not installed?!
I'll reload the installer tomorrow... maybe there is an error or someting...

[arlick]

As usually i landed in tty1...
I did
lsmod |grep fglrx
and i had no output.
then i loaded the module with sudo modprobe fglrx
i had no output here too.
Finally i did lsmod |grep fglrx again...
no output too.
lol, doesn't that mean that fglrx is not installed?!
I'll reload the installer tomorrow... maybe there is an error or someting...

:S

try more things :P

modprobe -l

this write the full list of modules (invoking | grep fglrx may help :P)

navigate to /usr/shar/ati/ and see if there is an error log in the file fglrx-install.log

:S

u must be sure that u dont have the drm module loaded when install it (rmmod drm, u can reload it with modprobe drm)

i dont know now what more can u do

[Myxir]

Thanks for your help anyway.
The new driver seems not to work with my card.

[DuoMaxwell]

I wouldn't be in such a rush just yet to grab and ATI card, they just released 900+ pages of documentation, barely touching on the 3d stuff, now I've heard that in the comming weeks they'll see what of the 3d stuff they can release to the public s well, but don't count on much to come of it immediatly, it'll take a few weeks/months before the guys at x.org can really start hammering at it to get as much functionality out of the docmentation as they can for ATI cards with the standard x.org drivers.

The holy grail of linux graphics is if they can allow the x.org team to have full access to the 3d parts of the card, we don't really need the video acceleration for video codecs these days with current CPUs but the 3d stuff is impossible for the CPU to do on it's own at any lv that the GPU can.

But this is what I've been waiting for, so soon I can hope to be able to build an all AMD/ATI box just drop in all the parts and know that they will work without hassle.

Now maybe intel will be allowed to do as they used to do and make actual graphics cards. Intel graphics wern't always embeded POS chips, they used to make actual graphics cards that where competitive with other cards out at the time, but it might be interesting to get us out of the 2 horse race of consumer lv graphics cards since every other company has dropped out of it, tho some are still around doing workstation graphics, but those are unacceptable for gaming, too exspensive and often poor gaming support as they're not meant for it.

You aren't going to buy a $4500 Nvidia quadro FX5600 to play Regnum, it's a card meant for ppl that work at companies like Pixar or Dreamworks, and they put 2 of them in their comps lol.