FGLRX look out thread

[Melcar]

Plan to update this thread with the official monthly driver releases for fglrx. Today the 9.11 was released.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.42〈=E nglish

Distro specific install guides:
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page

And the bug tracking site:
http://ati.cchtml.com/
... help out and submit whatever bugs you find, and give a helping hand to other users if you can. The devs. do read those posts, so it's not like you would be wasting your time.

Also, a link to everyones favorite AMD fansite :
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/index.php
Great forum to look for answers for all ATI related issues.

[sc30317]

Sweet, hopefully this will help out those with ATI cards

[Melcar]

Catalyst 8.5

The most noticeable addition is the extra 3D options in CCC. Added are custom AA filters (not as many as in the Windows driver, but it's something), option to change mipmap detail level, and Catalyst AI.
The driver has also added several device IDs, which should mean that it has better compatibility with recent chips:

  FGL_ASIC_ID(0x9440), // RV770 (RV770 9440)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x9442), // RV770 (RV770 9442)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x9446), // RV770 (RV770 9446)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x944A), // M98 (M98 944A)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x944B), // M98 (M98 944B)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x944E), // RV770 (RV770 944E)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x945A), // M98 (M98 945A)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x945B), // M98 (M98 945B)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x946A), // M98 (M98 946A)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x946B), // M98 (M98 946B)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x947A), // M98 (M98 947A)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x947B), // M98 (M98 947B)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x9517), // ATI Radeon HD 3690 (RV670 9517)
    FGL_ASIC_ID(0x9519), // FireStream 9170 (RV670 9519)

Notice the RV770 IDs.

2.6.25 support has been added to the driver, as well as the packaging scripts being updated.
Problems that are still present (the ones that I have noticed at least) are slow scrolling with FF and Compiz while smooth scrolling is on, video tearing on Xv and OpenGL renderings (this problem seems to only affect a few people).

[mkdir]

Originally Posted by Melcar

video tearing on Xv

[Melcar]

The signed driver should be up on ATI's site now, so if you recently installed this release and got the annoying "Testing Use Only" watermark on the corner of your screen, download a new copy and reinstall.

[Melcar]

New driver release; see first post.

Since my HD2900 died, I have not been able to fully test the driver. The last revision I was able to test was the last one right before the final driver release. That beta revision had some neat fixes like no more blinking with Xv/OpenGL when running Compiz in the background as long as the app. is in fullscreen, and no more needing to re-install the driver when updating kernels (the module copies automatically when a new kernel is loaded). However, it also suffered from a serious OpenGL problem where apps. will seg. fault and/or run incredibly slow, as well as a problem with CCC that caused apps. to seg. fault if you did any changes (changing AA for example). I have no idea if those problems were fixed for the final release, but feedback in Phoronix seems positive so far.

Edit: Seems that none of the problems with 3D that I reported in the last beta revision got addressed. Guess it was too late in the release cycle. However, they don't seem to affect everyone, so you may luck out. The "no more blinking with Compiz" makes this revision almost worth it despite the issues.

[Melcar]

Update. 8.7 was released today. The driver is not on ATI's site as I write this, but Phoronix has a link to the download.
Nothing too interesting in this release. Just a few fixes for bugs introduced in the last release, like OGL screensavers locking you out of your session, and some added support for devices and distros. Aside from that nothing much. A little secret thought *whisper* if all goes well, Overdrive should make it in the next release, as well a basic Crossfire support for a few select devices *whisper*

[Melcar]

Check OP for update.

A few minor, non-critical bugfixes. Wine is still unusable, however. Tearing with Xv has not gone away either, although that seems to be more of an issue with TexturedVideo (VideoOverlay + gstreamer does not seem to suffer from tearing).
The biggest additions in this release are AdaptiveAA, Overdrive, and Crossfire. Both of these last features are limited for now, however; Crossfire only works on rv770 and r700 (only two devices are supported at the moment, so no 2xHD4870X2 love for now), and Overdrive only works on r6xx and later cards. Both of these features rely on the command line, but a GUI should be arriving in the next few release.

[Melcar]

Update.

Nothing new with this one, except that Wine finally works... well, you can at least run it this time (no checkboard of doom).

[Melcar]

8.10 has been released. Have been busy with newer betas so I haven't had a change to test this release, but since the beta had nothing interesting going on, I will assume that this release is uninteresting also. No 2.6.27 or xserver 1.5 support with this particular release yet (that I know off), but if your distro is in a rather "vanilla" state you shouldn't have problems.