[Solved] Complications after installing Radeon HD drivers

[Scaredplant]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the forums and after some months using Debian, I decided to migrate to Mint 13 Cinnamon.

So far everything is good, the only problem is that open-source Ati drivers have poor quality of graphics. So I downloaded AMD's Omega drivers from their site and installed them. While they are working in general, I've noticed that some things had changed:

• Console's resolution is lower than before.
• The same thing happens with boot-screen.
• Also I think that Cinnamon runs slower, but maybe it's my idea.

The first 2 happen in every Ubuntu-based distro I try. I don't know why.

My hardware is:
Laptop with AMD Radeon HD 6250, dual-core ATI processor, 1 GHz each, 1366x768 LCD-screen, 2 GB DDR3 memory and 500 GB HDD hard drive.


P.S.
Execuse me for my English, if there are mistakes. Any edit for orthographical corrections is appreciated.

[richyrich]

Have you tried the tested ATI drivers that are available from the Drivers Manager program that comes pre-installed in Mint ? Why not ?

[Scaredplant]

Because, after using it 2-3 times, I've concluded that it causes the same problems and worse than these I mentioned.

[Mark Phelps]

So far everything is good, the only problem is that open-source Ati drivers have poor quality of graphics.

Really?? I have used both the open source and proprietary drivers with a AMD R7 240x card -- and the "quality of graphics" is the same with both -- same resolutions, same degree of sharpness, same colors.

Are you trying to do 3D gaming? Because that will produce a serious difference in the graphics quality between the drivers.

[Scaredplant]

Yes, pretty much. Actually, I use heavy window compositors like Compiz and Kwin and some effects don't look nice with open-source drivers. To be certain, every WM seems to run better, except Cinnamon, which as I mentioned, appears to be slower.

[niowluka]

Really?? I have used both the open source and proprietary drivers with a AMD R7 240x card -- and the "quality of graphics" is the same with both -- same resolutions, same degree of sharpness, same colors.

With my R7 260X they didn't (artefacts on text, e.g. black rectangle instead of a letter). I think it may be luck of the draw / depend on your hardware configuration.

I've noticed that some things had changed:

Console's resolution is lower than before.
The same thing happens with boot-screen.
Also I think that Cinnamon runs slower, but maybe it's my idea.

Lower console and splash resolution is due to the fact Catalyst does not work with kernel mode setting, so you will have to live with it, I'm afraid. As for performance, provide hard evidence, and then we can investigate

And well done with Omega, I couldn't get it to work on my system (would go into infinite loop and I had to SSH to reboot the damned thing). Running on 14.9 atm.

[Scaredplant]

It's difficult to describe it: Window movement, menu opening, Cinnamon-effects; the whole desktop seems to run slower. I hope I was informative

[Scaredplant]

And well done with Omega, I couldn't get it to work on my system (would go into infinite loop and I had to SSH to reboot the damned thing). Running on 14.9 atm.

I agree. It requires a little digging in order to find a good, instructive article and also a bit of improvisation.

Try this tutorial:
http://www.yourownlinux.com/2014/04/how ... linux.html.

P.S. How did you manage to run the Linux kernel itself? It sounds a bit utopic to me.

[niowluka]

P.S. How did you manage to run the Linux kernel itself? It sounds a bit utopic to me.

To me too, I don't quite understand what you mean ?

[Scaredplant]

Oops, sorry, I wasn't clear enough. Nothing important, I was just asking from curiosity; I saw in your signature that you run Mint 17 and vanilla Linux and I was a bit surprised. I didn't know that it is possible to run the kernel itself.

[niowluka]

Oops, sorry, I wasn't clear enough. Nothing important, I was just asking from curiosity; I saw in your signature that you run Mint 17 and vanilla Linux and I was a bit surprised. I didn't know that it is possible to run the kernel itself.*

We are drifting off topic, so pm me if you'd like more info:

Vanilla just means I'm not using the kernel from Mint repos (or Ubuntu or any other), but the one downloaded directly from https://www.kernel.org/ and compiled on my box. It's not as 'utopic' as it sounds.

* It is actually possible to run kernel by itself, but it's of little use other than debugging or development.

[Scaredplant]

OK, I think I understood. I believe It is usefull if you want to create a distro from scratch. Isn't it?

Back to our topic,now, what can I do to make Cinnamon run faster?

[niowluka]

OK, I think I understood. I believe It is usefull if you want to create a distro from scratch. Isn't it?

Not necessarily. Bear in mind the default kernel is configured to work with multitude of hardware configurations. By using own kernel you can streamline it, i.e. temove unnecessary features and drivers, and tweak it to take full advantage of your hardware. While still using Mint as an OS.
You need distinguish between OS (i.e. distro) and kernel.

Back to our topic,now, what can I do to make Cinnamon run faster?

Let's see if there is anything fundamentally wrong. Post output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gxx

Cinnamon is on the heavier side, in terms of resource requirements, although with your specs it should still be OK. If it 'feels' slow, then you may need to consider MATE ot Xfce...

[Scaredplant]

OK, I think I understood. I believe It is usefull if you want to create a distro from scratch. Isn't it?

Not necessarily. Bear in mind the default kernel is configured to work with multitude of hardware configurations. By using own kernel you can streamline it, i.e. temove unnecessary features and drivers, and tweak it to take full advantage of your hardware. While still using Mint as an OS.
You need distinguish between OS (i.e. distro) and kernel.

OK, I'll keep that in mind. Just for the record, I know the difference between the kernel and the userland. I thought that you installed the kernel seperately that's why I asked.

[Scaredplant]

That's the output:

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Wrestler [Radeon HD 6250] bus-ID: 00:01.0 
           X.Org: 1.11.3 driver: fglrx Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 6250 Graphics GLX Version: 4.4.13283 - CPC 14.501.1003 Direct Rendering: Yes

By the way, I've installed Mate and as I posted before, it runs like a charm.

[niowluka]

Not sure to be honest. I had run Cinnamon 16 on similar hardware, although on NVIDIA rather than Radeon, and it ran OK. I mean it wasn't flying, but it wasn't sluggish either. I can't see anything obviously wrong, but it's certainly not the fastest set up, so Cinnamon might be that little bit too much.

[Scaredplant]

OK, I used some guides online to make Mint faster. I think it works better now.

[Scaredplant]

I had run Cinnamon 16 on similar hardware, although on NVIDIA rather than Radeon, and it ran OK. I mean it wasn't flying, but it wasn't sluggish either.

Weird, NVIDIA's usually are fast graphic cards.