[ubuntu-uk] Bloomin' ATI and Linux....

[Seif Attar]

On Tue, 2009-04-28 at 17:41 +0100, Seif Attar wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-04-28 at 11:59 +0100, Chris Rowson wrote:
> > 
> > On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk> wrote:
> >         Seif Attar wrote:
> >         > I have a laptop with an ATI 200m xpress video card, I tried
> >         upgrading to
> >         > Jaunty, but before the upgrade I got a message the my
> >         hardware will not
> >         > work on Jaunty (I had mixed feelings of disappointment and
> >         happiness
> >         > that it actually warned me!), so the fglrx drivers won't
> >         work, but how
> >         > will this affect me? i don't care much about 3d stuff, so I
> >         am willing
> >         > to give that up, but will my resolution be correct? and what
> >         about XV
> >         > video? has anyone here had any experience with this?
> >         >
> >         > I was shocked that ATI dropped support for this card, as
> >         Imust don't
> >         > consider my laptop old (well yeah, I boSection 2ught it 3 years ago,
> >         but i still
> >         > think of it as new and up to spec :)
> >         >
> >         > Peace,
> >         > Seif
> >         >
> >         >
> >         
> >         
> >          From what I understand, it is supported at least for 2D
> >         graphics so
> >         you'll still be able to use the machine and it should display
> >         at the
> >         correct resolution but you won't be able to use anything like
> >         Compiz so
> >         you won't get fancy effects or wobbly windows.
> >         
> >         I do agree that it's not very good of ATI/AMD to leave their
> >         customers
> >         in the lurch like this.  I have a couple of ATI graphics cards
> >         that
> >         luckily are still supported (just) by the fglrx drivers or by
> >         the open
> >         source drivers but I would certainly give it some more thought
> >         when
> >         choosing another card.  I know NVidia aren't that great for
> >         support
> >         (closed source drivers etc) but on the other hand they still
> >         do have
> >         drivers which support back to the TNT2 and Geforce 256 cards
> >         (I have a
> >         couple of these kicking around still, and even an old Voodoo
> >         4).
> >         
> >         I personally think that AMD should at least support their
> >         older cards
> >         (I'm not expecting all the latest features, just basic
> >         support) until
> >         the community can get the open source drivers up to scratch,
> >         although I
> >         guess their argument is that they have released the
> >         documentation to the
> >         community to assist in writing the drivers (which NVidia on
> >         the other
> >         hand haven't done).
> >         
> >         Rob
> >         
> > 
> > I'm using an ATI Radeon X1200 which is supported under the Open Source
> > driver. 3D acceleration exists but is a bit rubbish. That said
> > however, basic compiz effects do work reasonably well. 
> > 
> > I believe your card (like mine) is no longer supported by the
> > proprietary fglrx drivers. I'm not sure if it is supported by the Open
> > Source ATI drivers, but you pop in a copy of Jaunty and find out ;-)
> > 
> > Chris
> 
> 
> hehe, I had thought about that, and used the usb creator to create a
> jaunty usb disk, only to relaize that the laptop doesn't boot from usb!
> will burn a CD once I'm home and post the results. My main concern is Xv
> and skype (skype needs XV for the webcam).

OK, so I did some more searching for my card, most people were
complaining about compiz not working, and wanting to revert, so, while
still running intrepid I followed this (just in case):

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver

tried the open source driver in Intrepid, compiz works with minimal
effects, Xv video works better than the fglrx (I can now have both
compiz and Xv), if I enable wobbly windows, the system freezes when I
move them, but I was happy with the result.

In fact the open source driver for my needs is better than the fglrx, I
didn't have compiz turned on before, because it doesn't work with XV
video on fglrx driver for my card (ATI Xpress 200M)! upgraded to jaunty,
and (ok, if i have a video playing and I rotate the cube, the video gets
messed)now I have compiz (minimal) most effects work for me, even the
cube, only noticed wobbly windows freezing the machine.

I am happy! :) considering upgrading my mythtv machine, I guess it
depends on the weather this weekend!

Seif
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 197 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-uk/attachments/20090501/5ba54e26/attachment.pgp