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Software - Getting 3d accelleration working with ATI (9250) card

tuxedo - 29.12.2006, 10:26 Uhr
Titel: Getting 3d accelleration working with ATI (9250) card

Does anyone know how to get 3D accelleration to run with 2006-01-RC4, when using a ATI 9250 graphics card?

For example, testing by running 3ddesk, my shell session returns the following error:

Code:

tuxedo@kanotix:~$ 3ddesk

Attempting to start 3ddesktop server.

Daemon started.  Run 3ddesk to activate.

3ddeskd: glXIsDirect failed, no Direct Rendering possible!

3ddeskd: Please configure hardware acceleration.  Exiting.

Server not found after waiting 5 seconds.

Could not find server.

Try starting manually (3ddeskd)

Accellerated 3D effects worked perfectly fine on my earlier 2005-04 Kanotix install, either out-of-the-box, or possibly after having run the driver installation script (install-radeon-debian.sh) which existed on that system and with a same graphics card.

So on my current 2006-01-RC4 I tried running install-fglrx-debian.sh which installed some ATI (fglrx?) driver, but I got the same result as above, which indicates that 3D accelleration appears to be switched off.

Is there an xorg file I could try to modify to manually turn on|off 3D?

The particular chipset is RV280 which as far as I know should not require a proprietary driver.

A screen from my current KInfoCenter indicates that openGL exists on the system, which I believe is what serves the desired 3D effects.

Kano - 29.12.2006, 12:02 Uhr
Titel: RE: Getting 3d accelleration working with ATI (9250) card

You do not need the fglrx driver.

su
OLD_FGLRX=$(COLUMNS=200 dpkg -l|cut -f3 -d' '|grep fglrx)
[ -n "$OLD_FGLRX" ] && dpkg --purge $OLD_FGLRX
cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.1st /etc/X11/xorg.conf
perl -pi -e s/vesa/ati/ /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then reboot.

tuxedo - 30.12.2006, 01:22 Uhr
Titel:

This sounds good but I think there may be an error somewhere in the script because it fails at the following:

Zitat:

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.1

Maybe the script relates to another version of Kanotix?

I firstly tested using a fresh hd-install of 2006-01-RC4, ie. not an update-install, and just now on a 2006-01-RC4 with an up-to-minute dist-upgrade.

After the dist-upgrade a configuration file appears somewhat different

[snip]

My current kde display module shows that the ati driver is in use (see below). I guess that refers to the native driver, ie. not a proprietary one, but that it somehow needs to be enabled for OpenGL acceleration or direct rendering?

Anyone has any ideas how I can try to get 3D running?

tuxedo - 31.12.2006, 08:58 Uhr
Titel:

I found the cause of the problem and it relates to hardware combination of ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA with a Radeon 9250. In case anyone is having trouble getting 3D working here, other similar hardware combinations would suffer the same fate.

It is possible to get 3D working but only after first starting windows and thereafter doing a reboot. I know it sounds obscure, but the board will not have the right settings on boot otherwise because the graphic driver can't acquire "agp" and as the "aperture size" is unknown. This is discussed in detail, including various kernel patches for it, here:
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6350

Does anyone here know exactly how to apply one of these patches into the Kanotix 2005-04 (32-bit) system?

My recommendation to those planning to buy a new board: Avoid ASRock boards at any cost, mainly for the above reason, but also because the onboard sound may produce squeaking outer space noises from time to time depending on what peripherals happens to be in use. This affects not only Linux but also Windows and it can can be solved only by slotting in another sound card so that the board does not recognise the onboard "7.1 channel Superior Quality Audio" advertised on the box. Just remember, avoid those green AsRock boxes!

DeepDayze - 03.01.2007, 04:42 Uhr
Titel:

You should be able to disable the onboard sound in BIOS

tuxedo - 03.01.2007, 11:08 Uhr
Titel:

Yes, turning off sound in the board BIOS settings is just what I did, so that part is already fixed.

Getting 3D to work without first booting XP and then rebooting into Linux remains the tricky part however, which has something do with the board architecture. The real problem is that hardware manufacturers, in this case ASROCK, produces parts that simply do not work well on Linux.

There should exist an independent site that publishes recommendations on what specific hardware to avoid and with reviews what hardware combination have been tried and tested with various Linux features, so that one could simply shop the stuff that is already known to work with Linux. Such a site might also inspire hardware manufacturers to consider Linux compatibility more seriously, or risk getting bad reviews.... not much later, we might find graphic cards, mainboards and other parts being sold in boxes populated not only with the Designed for Windows XP/VISTA and OSX logos, but also with the familiar LINUX pinguin logos.