fglrx-driver: Driver forces large virtual size

[Alexander Pokluda]

I have been having problems with my video driver ever since I upgraded to Hardy Heron and have had to use a "GNOME Failsafe" session ever since and occasionally try to fix this problem. I have a ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 in a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop (about 2 years old).

The open source "ati" driver works, but the performance is very poor. If try and enable the propriety ATI driver from the Restricted Drivers Manager, after rebooting the display flickers several times and eventually goes into "low graphics mode". I am able to select the the "fglrx" proprietary driver and the correct resolution by clicking "Configure ...", but the settings do not seem to take effect after rebooting. I recently installed the proprietary driver by downloading it directly from the ATI website. After installing this driver, I experience the same problem described in this Debian bug report:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=459852

No matter what resolution I specify in the xorg.conf file, the login screen displays correctly but has a resolution of 2560x800 (I can move my mouse off the right side of the screen). If I log in normally, the display is all messed up and looks a bit like a checker board. If I take a screenshot and save it, the screenshot looks normal and has a resolution of 2560x800. If I login using "GNOME Failsafe Mode", the first dialog box that says failsafe mode is to fix problem with your desktop is only half on my screen (since the screen has a resolution of 2560x800) but displays correctly. After GNOME loads, the desktop has the correct resolution of 1280x800, which is the maximum resolution my laptop display supports.

I would appreciate any advice and I can provide more technical details upon request!

ATI Proprietary Driver Version: 8.51.3

alex@alex-laptop:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.1
Release: 8.04

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Good day xanderp123,

I've just uploaded a new 8.543 version of -fglrx to Intrepid which now should work with xserver 1.5. Would you mind testing this new version and reporting back whether this issue is still present? If it is, it would be helpful if you could (re-)post your Xorg.0.log from running with this version. Thanks ahead of time.

If you don't have Intrepid installed on your system, you can test this by booting an Intrepid LiveCD (available from cdimage.ubuntu.com), using either the -vesa or -ati driver, then update to the latest version of Ubuntu, install fglrx, and then logout and back in. Your /var/log/Xorg.0.log will confirm whether you've loaded FGLRX successfully.

If you find any new issues, please report them as separate bugs. You can use the tool `ubuntu-bug fglrx-installer` which will gather the necessary files and create the launchpad report for you to fill in more easily.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.