I recompiled my 2.6.16.16 Kernel a week or two ago to add intermodule support via the instructions in the HowTo section.  The recompile went off without a hitch, but I still couldn't get direct dri to work.  The base driver and 2D acceleration worked find, but I never did get 3D acceleration working.   I tried everything and eventually had to give up to save my sanity.

I see ATI released a new version of their Linux driver on Wednesday (8.25.18).  Anyone have any luck with that one?

have you disabled dri support, and compiled agp as module? if yes you can also try to remove agp support completely.

kernel 2.6.16.16 and fglrx 8.25.18 working for me  (ati X700)

Yeah, seems that the problems are history now. 2.6.16.16 and fglrx 8.25.18 work fine for me, too (X800 Pro @ XT).

Stock Zenwalk build 2.6.16.16 already supports agp via module.

ATI's Installation instructions still say this:



so I blacklisted agpgart, but I also read  something in 8.25 changelog somewhere that one of the changes in 8.25 is that they removed the internal agp support, (and thus just defer to the kernal module for support).  So, you actually need to do the exact opposite now.  It REQUIRES agp kernal support now.  I finally managed to get dri to work with 8.25 after about 5 hours of intense frustration.  ATI should post a warning that black magic, padded walls, lots of luck, and fierce determination are required to install their drivers.  My next card is going to be from NVidia.  I wouldn't wish ATI driver hell on my worst enemy (or maybe I would ).  All ATI seems to care about is Vista support.  If ATI wants to put all their eggs in Microsoft's basket, I'm going to move my egg and  encourage others to  do so as well.

Did any of you manage to get 8.25 running under the stock kernel?  For me, 8.25 still requires me to boot from a recompiled kernel with the Intermodule mod.

I still can't believe I got it working.  glxgears runs 22X faster now! 

I see 8.26.18 was just released.  Has anyone tried it yet?  I'm curious to know if it will work with the standard Zenwalk kernel, or if you still need to recompile a custom version to get it working.  I sure hope the patch is applied to the next standard zenwalk kernal build so new users don't have to compile their own kerel just to use ATI's drivers, because that just won't happen; most will just move on to the next distro.

I for one don't think the ATi driver should be a critical point... As long as nVidia and ATi continue to provide closed-source drivers, they are the ones to blame, not the linux community. And if you really want 3D acceleration, why is recompiling a kernel then such a critical point? It is a great learning experience... After all, we are not Ubuntu :-).

I just downloaded 8.26.18 and I'm going to try it Till know I didn't need to 3D ATI but now when they released new version I want to test it

Martin

Well, just after reboot the first significant thing is that the resolution looks much better than before installation. My laptop has a bit untypical relation of screen dimensions, but now it looks just like in windows (for example a fotograph of face was very expanded in width before installation of ATI drivers). Maybe I'll have to lower the resolution a bit but maybe I'll get used to it

So, now I'm thinking of some "real" test of 3D acceleration just to see if it really works, but even only this improvement of screen resolution is great

Martin

EDIT: And I did not compile kernel. Maybe it is not necessary anymore.

I tried to run Atlantis screensaver and the motion of whales and sharks still wasn't smooth. Then, when I wasn't able to run gxine I knew that something still isn't working I couldn't run glxgears too. Last two programs were writing this error:

libGL error: failed to open DRM: Operation not permitted
libGL error: reverting to (slow) indirect rendering

I found solution here and now it seems everything finally works like it should Fishes are swimming smoothly, gears are rotating It's great! No kernel recompiling needed

I hope that's all I needed to do

Martin

I just installed version 6.8.0.8.26 of the ATI driver, and guess what?

Now I have no X at all! It says

X version mismatch - detected X.org 7.0, required X.org 6.8
Failed to load module fglrx (module replacement mismatch

So I have to downgrade Xorg

No . You have to toss ATi's garbage .

I am pretty sure there are hacks for ATi on Xorg 6.9...

I've already recompiled my kernel.  The problem is that I'd like to be able to recommend what I use to friends and relatives, and I can tell you, without hesitation, that their eyes would glaze over if I told them they need to recompile their kernel and repeat the process every time a new kernel update is released.

2Endler: Maybe I'm wrong (I did not try to play any 3D game or so yet), but I didn't need to recompile kernel at all and I think the new ATI driver works fine for me. Is it really necessary to recompile kernel? Maybe it's stupid question but I'm quite a newbie regarding this drivers and kernel recompiling stuff.

Martin

Hi guys,

I have success to report.

I think one of the problems was that I was trying to be too smart, just like many of us here.

I have an ATI radeon 9550 (256MB) card.
The following steps were required:-

• Clean install Zenwalk 2.6
• Install kernesource package... Not even sure this was required 
• Download ATI installation utility. I was following the old method and decided that the utility was for noobs. I found ATI has changed the procedure and the software
• Run Utility as root and reboot
• Run aticonfig. Follow the instructions at the end of output.
• That was it.. At this point 3D acceleration is available to root All I had to do was add an "DRI" extra section to xorg.conf to allow ordinary users to run 3D.

I now have 2700+ FPS from glxgears, as opposed to 320 previously!

I could have saved myself like 3/4 days of grief!
Only now will I start to recompile my kernel to my taste.

HTH