Configuring an ATi card using YUM and the LIVNA Repository

by bobjensen — last modified Jan 30, 2008 03:46 AM

Contributors: Scott Glaser AKA Sonar_Guy, daMaestro

— filed under: Video Solutions

There are now ATi driver RPMs provided by rpm.livna.org that are designed especially for Fedora. If you're using yum, and you're using our suggested yum configuration, you should be able to install the drivers easily.

Applicable to Fedora Versions

Fedora Core 5+

Requirements

Your yum configuration must be configured per this HOWTO.

Fedora Core 5+

Doing the work

Open a Terminal.
Type:
```
su -c 'yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx kmod-fglrx glx-utils' 
```
That installs the ATi driver and kernel module for your current kernel.
Log out of your current session.
Once the X-server restarts, log back in.

Troubleshooting

How to Test

Log back in and verify that the kernel module is functioning properly by opening a terminal window and running the following command:
```
su -c 'glxinfo | grep direct' 
```
If the response is "direct rendering: Yes" you are good to go. If not, a reboot may be required for the full effect of the module to be realized on some machines.

Make sure you are actually using the fglrx libGL.so. Check against the following output:

Note: /usr/lib64 for x86_64 users.

Correct:

ldd /usr/bin/glxinfo | grep libGL
         libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/fglrx/libGL.so.1 (0x00548000)
         libGLU.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGLU.so.1 (0x00110000)

Incorrect:

ldd /usr/bin/glxinfo | grep libGL
         libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 (0x003c4000)
         libGLU.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGLU.so.1 (0x004e4000)

Common Problems and Fixes

If su --login -c 'glxinfo | grep direct' displays a message similar to the following:

X Error of failed request:  GLXBadContext
   Major opcode of failed request:  143 (GLX)
   Minor opcode of failed request:  5 (X_GLXMakeCurrent)
   Serial number of failed request:  17
   Current serial number in output stream:  17

And you have an AMD64 processor you will need add iommu=off to the kernel line in your /etc/grub.conf as shown below:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.16-1.2111_FC5 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet iommu=off

If you have an Intel Motherboard you may need to add the following below the Driver "fglrx" line in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
```
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
```

If the module loads (`modprobe fglrx` works) yet `glxinfo|grep direct` still does not show direct rendering, you might have to disable composite and aiglx (fedora core 6):
```
Section "Extensions"
        Option  "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option  "AIGLX" "off"
EndSection
```
If your screen flashes while you are on battery, it is due to ATi acpi scripts. The solution, delete them:

Note: These will have to be deleted after each package update.
```
rm /etc/acpi/actions/ati-powermode.sh /etc/acpi/events/a-ac-aticonfig.conf /etc/acpi/events/a-lid-aticonfig.conf
```
If you have an old xorg.conf, reset it with the following and then reboot:

Note: The livna fglrx packages work well with a fresh xorg.conf
```
system-config-display --reconfig --noui && reboot
```

Get AIGLX Supported!

It is time to get ATi on the ball to get AIGLX support done. Please, send them feedback and request this feature... or buy nVidia and Intel hardware!

http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=508&type=web

More Information

If you encounter a bug in the ATi driver, please visit the ATi Driver Page!
If you have packaging issues (not driver issues) you can file a bug report at Livna Bugzilla.

Disclaimer

We test this stuff on our own machines, really we do. But you may run into problems, if you do, come to #fedora on freenode.net

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