fglrx needs to use 24bit mode, and supports composite now

[Ricky Campbell]

Binary package hint: fglrx-kernel-source

After installing and getting updates, tried to enable the proprietary ATI driver via the "Hardware Drivers" Utility. After rebooting xorg seems to start but the screen goes blank. I cannot switch to a console to check any drivers. The driver utility seems to only add Driver "fglrx" to the xorg.conf .

fglrx-kernel-source 1:8-02+2.6.24.9-8.25 ATI binary kernel module source
xorg-driver-fglrx 1:7.1.0-8-02+2.6.24.9-8.25 Video driver for ATI graphics accelerators

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Please attach the logfile that you get when trying to load fglrx. The one you attached is from the failsafe session which uses vesa.

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

I cannot get that log as the system is unresponsive when fglrx loads. I pulled this logfile by starting into safemode and dropping to a command prompt before Xorg loaded. I thought this would yield the log from my last boot which was into the unresponsive system. Let me know how to get you the proper logfile.

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

OK, system is responsive, I just can't see anything. I got ssh working (which I though I had already installed previously). Attached is the correct Xorg.0.log

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

Here is dmesg output too.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

it still shows the vesa driver..

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

After I use the 'Hardware Drivers' dialog to enable the fglrx driver, it asks to reboot. After the system starts, and is unviewable, the above is the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log vesa module or not.

However, the Xorg.0.log.old file seems to contain the fglrx info. It is attached.

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

I reported Bug #195918, which has been declared a duplicate of this Bug #194963: both about the ATI prop.driver causing no output at all.

I found a *workaround* for this ATI / fglrx / xorg.conf bug:

Short description: use the fglrx xorg.conf of Ubuntu 7.10 on Ubuntu 8.04

Long description:

First, I re-installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my machine, booted it, accepted the installation of the proprietary ATI drivers, rebooted, and (still on Ubuntu 7.10!) got a working ATI / fglrx Xorg. Great. I saved that xorg.conf from Ubuntu 7.10 onto another harddisk (or web or usb stick).

Then I then installed Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5, booted it, accepted the installation of the proprietary ATI drivers, did *not* yet reboot, copied the ubuntu 7.10 xorg.conf onto /etc/X11 of Ubuntu 8.04, and then rebooted. Et voila: I had output! Finally, via the Ubuntu GUI, I changed the screen resolution to something I liked more.

(BTW: after commenting out the Extensions/Composite stuff in xorg.conf, I was able to activate Compiz and the Desktop Cube)

Conclusion: yes, the ATI / fglrx does work on Ubuntu 8.04, but the plain xorg.conf is not enough. Workaround as above. The *solution* for this bug would be a correct xorg.conf, for example the one automagically generated on and by Ubuntu 7.10. But probably a cleaner/sparser xorg.conf (maybe only with Depth 24) would do too.

I've included the functinal xorg.conf, but it has probably little value to other users, as it contains my specific hardware.

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

Good news: I found the solution:

Just add "Defaultdepth 24" to the the part "Section "Screen"" of the xorg.conf generated by Ubuntu for the ATI / fglrx config, and everything works!

So, in xorg.conf generated for fglrx, change

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

to

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
        Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Then restart the X-server by CTRL-ALT-BackSpace.

That's it!

Ubuntu-developers: apparently the ATI prop.driver fglrx needs "Defaultdepth 24" in xorg.conf. Can you let Ubuntu, dexconf or dpkg-reconfigure take care of that? Thanks.

cyberdork33: can you check that this works for you too?

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

I had a futher look at dexconf:

Ubuntu 7.10's dexconf does write a DefaultDepth line, with value $DISPLAY_DEFAULT_DEPTH
In Ubuntu 8.04's dexconf, that line is gone. Well, there *is* a line "DefaultDepth 24", but it's only written if $QEMU_KVM is true, so within QEMU VM's. Not for fglrx.

So, my try was to put "DefaultDepth 24" into Ubuntu 8.04's dexconf, but the generated xorg.conf does not contain any fglrx references. So I guess that's not good and not the way to generate a xorg.conf.

Then I ran "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg", but that generates a xorg.conf with no fglrx references either. BTW I guess the dpkg-reconfigure runs "/var/lib/dpkg/info/xserver-xorg.postinst". Am I correct?

So the question remains: how is /etc/X11/xorg.conf generated for ATI cards and prop.drivers (fglrx)? Does anybody know?

I really would like to have this bug fixed in 8.04 LTS.

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

That's why I included Jockey in the bug, I thought maybe it was altering the xorg.conf.

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

Aha: jockey-gtk launches the prop.driver activation. I didn't know that. Thanks.

The relevant jockey file is probably
/usr/share/jockey/handlers/fglrx.py . That file contains the relevant
key words 'fglrx' and 'glx'. And it does *not* contain a
Screen-Default-Depth-24 line: exactly the behaviour we see.

Oh, and BTW: it writes contain the Composite-0-section. Is there a
reason for Composite-0 in xorg.conf? Because that blocks Compiz, and I
have to remove it manually to get Compiz running.

I had a look at Ubuntu 7.10, but jockey does not exist there. Is
jockey new since Ubuntu 8.04?

As a reference, I had a look at the other jockey handlers:

 sander@ubuntu-804:~$ ll /usr/share/jockey/handlers
total 32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 466 2008-02-19 23:52 b43.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 817 2008-02-22 03:08 b43.pyc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1279 2008-02-19 23:52 fglrx.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1726 2008-02-22 03:08 fglrx.pyc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2317 2008-02-19 23:52 nvidia.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3155 2008-02-22 03:08 nvidia.pyc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1227 2008-02-19 23:52 sl_modem.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1696 2008-02-22 03:08 sl_modem.pyc
sander@ubuntu-804:~$ cd /usr/share/jockey/handlers

sander@ubuntu-804:/usr/share/jockey/handlers$ grep -i Screen *py
nvidia.py: self.xorg_conf.getSections('Screen')[0].defaultdepth = 24
sander@ubuntu-804:/usr/share/jockey/handlers$

So the nvidia.py handler does write the line Screen-DefaultDepth-24:

    def enable_config_hook(self):
        # compiz does not work otherwise
        self.xorg_conf.getSections('Screen')[0].defaultdepth = 24

Interesting. Maybe we can just 'transplant' that code into our
fglrx.py? I'll try that and let you know.

Sander

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

Composite 0 is a hold over from the old fglrx versions that didn't support AIGLX.

I think jockey wasn't named jockey in Gutsy. It was the Restricted Drivers Manager.

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

Good news:

I've added the line "self.xorg_conf.getSections('Screen')[0].defaultdepth = 24" to /usr/share/jockey/handlers/fglrx.py (included), compiled the .py to .pyc, and now 'sudo jockey-gtk' adds the needed line "Defaultdepth 24". So: it works!

I think I will also remove the annoying "Composite 0" stuff, as it blocks Compiz.

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

and here's the compiled /usr/share/jockey/handlers/fglrx.pyc

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

This must be the ultimate fglrx.py:

1) "Defaultdepth 24" is added to the Screen-Section of xorg.conf
AND
2) the unnecessary and unwanted "Composite 0" option is not put into xorg.conf in order to enable Compiz

To compile the .py to .pyc, I did this (note the working directory, and note the *sudo* pyton!):

 sander@ubuntu-804:/usr/share/jockey/handlers$ sudo python
[sudo] password for sander:
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Feb 27 2008, 18:33:09)
[GCC 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu1)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import py_compile
>>> py_compile.compile('fglrx.py')
>>>
sander@ubuntu-804:/usr/share/jockey/handlers$

It works for me. Hopefully for others too.

I will contact the author of fglrx.py what he thinks about my patches.

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

making the edits to my xorg.conf seems to have done it. Compiz works well and all.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Fixed in trunk.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Should make it to hardy alpha-6, since it affects all users of ATi graphics cards.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package jockey - 0.3-0ubuntu1

---------------
jockey (0.3-0ubuntu1) hardy; urgency=low

  * Merge with trunk to update to the 0.3 release. We already had all the new
    features like the KDE interface, so this only imports bug fixes, in
    particular:
    - Update fglrx handler for current upstream version, to actually work
      again at all (DisplayDepth) and declare support for composite. Thanks to
      Sander Jonkes! (LP: #194963)
    - Quiesce backtraces from failed handler instantiation. (LP: #195548)
    - Use regular expressions, not fnmatch for modalias pattern matching,
      since we do not want to treat '[' and ']' specially. (LP: #193521)
    - Port --enable and --disable options from restricted-manager.
      (LP: #181832)
    - Port --check-composite from restricted-manager. (LP: #193978)
  * Fixed Vcs-Bzr field.
  * Remove do-release from this branch, it's only useful for upstream
    developers on trunk and confusing in the package.
  * debian/jockey-common.postinst: Remove --check cache on upgrade from
    << 0.3, since the format changed (much more robust now).

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:48:50 +0100

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

Confirmed working...

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Fixed for ATI mobility radeon x300, thanks!!

[Zartan (mattik-deactivatedaccount)]

mattik@mattik-desktop:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon Xpress Series
OpenGL version string: 2.1.7281 Release
 It's working now in ATI Xpress 1150, thank you :)

[Nemes Ioan Sorin (nemes-sorin)]

Confirm To WORK superb !.

sorin@sorin:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI RADEON 9600 Series
OpenGL version string: 2.1.7281 Release

All OK:
  Compiz, Emerald, FGLRX 3D Acceleration.

[Zartan (mattik-deactivatedaccount)]

In KDE4 there is problem. If I try to change new desktop background, background is going white and I cannot change it back. This problem came after I installed fglrx. Is this problem because of vector graphic of KDE4?

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

This bug fix is done in jockey. So: Is KDE(4) using jockey-gtk? I would think not as jockey-gtk is defined as "GNOME user interface and desktop integration for driver management". Based on this I would say it's a GNOME / Ubuntu package, and not used in KDE / Kubuntu.

Easy check: can you run "sudo jockey-gtk" without explicitly installing jockey first?

Furthermore: jockey is not about desktop backgrounds; it's about enabling proprietary drivers.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

jockey has both gtk and kde frontends, which share the same backend. so the fix should apply to both. KDE4 might break things though.

[Zartan (mattik-deactivatedaccount)]

Beside this I still have problems in logout after enabling fglrx. This screenshot is from my Laptop. Graphics driver is Ati Mobility Radeon X700.

[Zartan (mattik-deactivatedaccount)]

Sander: Yes I can run jockey-gtk

[Zartan (mattik-deactivatedaccount)]

I had these logout problems with kdm only. When I changed to gdm I got logout working. Do I add new bug about logout problems with kdm when fglrx is enabled? And how about this background problem? I want help and I do what you want :)

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

this bug is closed, file a new one against KDE.

[Zartan (mattik-deactivatedaccount)]

On Desktop computer background problem is different. If I try to change some nice background image, I can see it only part of second and after this image is basic blue as the first.

[Ferenc Magyar (garferi)]

I installed the latest Hardy Heron, downloaded from "Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Daily Build" webpage and after I installed the "xorg-driver-fglrx" driver for my ATi X1950 PRO 8x AGP card with the drivers manager, after reboot I got black screen.
In recovery mode I removed the package and reconfigured the xorg.conf with "dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg" command. After this the X started well.
I attach the fglrx xorg.conf
Please help! Thx

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

garfeni, please create a new bug report for this, since it is unrelated to this one (it was fixed 1.5 months ago). Please also attach the version of xorg.conf which was generated by jockey and made your screen go black. Thank you!