ATI radeon 3D problems SOLVED

[nptolman]

OK. I installed Linux Mint 6 Felicia main edition. (turns out I like the main interface better than KDE)
I opened 'Hardware Drivers' and enabled the "ATI/AMD propietary FGLRX graphics driver"
Restarted
I then tried 'Planet Penguin Racer' to try the 3D graphics and it crashed the computer.
I then turned off the 'Visual Effects' in Appearance Preferences.
I can now play for less than a minute before the computer freezes.
What is my next step in getting my 3D graphics working?
What am I missing?

Code: Select all

 lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 651 Host (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge (AGP)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS962 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AS [Radeon 9550]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AS [Radeon 9550] (Secondary)

My mother board has built in video and it looks like it is the same as my AGP card. Will this be a problem?
It also sounds like this mighhht be a buffer problem because I can use 3D graphics for a very short time. Could this be a video setting in BIOS?
I am just really trying to get this to work. My wife wants to play WoW and we cannot play together till I get my 3D graphics working.

Thanks for the help.

[remoulder]

If you've installed the ATI drivers (fglrx) then you should adjust the settings via the Catalyst Configuration program.

[nptolman]

I went into Catalyst and changed the graphics settings to the lowest settings. I can now get farther into Google earth but it will still freeze the computer.
How do I verify that I have the latest version and that everything is installed and set up correctly?

[remoulder]

I assume your monitor is plugged into the AGP card, in that case you should disable the onboard video in the BIOS.

[nptolman]

I do not have the option to disable the on board video in BIOS.
i have tried playing with the settings in BIOS and in catalyst and it still freezes my computer.
Just getting very frustrated with this. I really want this to work.
Is there a different distro. of Linux that handles the graphics cards better, or would I have the same problem in all of them?

[remoulder]

I do not have the option to disable the on board video in BIOS

I'm surprised there isn't, maybe a jumper on the system board?

A question though, if the onboard graphics is the same, why do you need the AGP card? You could try plugging into the onboard video to see if you have the same problem?

The other things you might check is whether you have the right AGP mode and aperture size set correctly in the BIOS.

Is there a different distro. of Linux that handles the graphics cards better, or would I have the same problem in all of them?

I was wondering why you were installing Mint 6 when we are now on Mint 8? It's possible the newer version might not have the same problem due to newer drivers assuming it's not hardware related. As for others there are many but Fedora and SUSE are perhaps the main alternatives to the 'buntus/mints.

[nptolman]

Thank you for the thoughts.
I will pull up the mother board manual and check how to disable the on board video.
I had to load Mint 6 because 7 and 8 do not support my video card. ATI dropped support for those cards last year.
I tried getting it to work in 8 and everything pointed to having to revert to 6.
I am not sure about the on board video, I will look at the spacs and try to figure it out. But the AGP card has its own 128 meg memory. I think it is better to use the AGP card so I am not using the RAM to run the graphics. Does that make sense or am I missing something?
Thanks again, I have a few more things to try now.

[remoulder]

I had to load Mint 6 because 7 and 8 do not support my video card. ATI dropped support for those cards last year.

It is not correct to say mints 7 & 8 do not support your card, they do through the open source radeon driver which incidentally is the same in mint 6. The only difference is that in mint 6 you can load the ATI proprietary driver which may offer slightly more performance but to be honest the radeon driver and DRI support has improved a great deal recently and there is little to choose between them, especially for older cards such as yours. You will have the same issue with another version of linux I think as most distros have probably moved to the newer xorg which is where the problem with the ATI drivers comes in.

I think it is better to use the AGP card so I am not using the RAM to run the graphics. Does that make sense or am I missing something?/quote]

Yes you are right in not wanting to use system ram for video, though it depends on how much you have whether it's going to make much difference overall.

[nptolman]

OK,
I reinstalled linux mint 8 with the AGP card removed, to try the onboard video.
It worked but the video was extremely slow.
I just put the ATI card back in and now need to load the drivers for it.
I believe I need the ATI Catalyst drivers.
Is it best to install these from the package manager, or download them directly from the ATI web page and manually install them?
Google earth and tux racer are both working without crashing but WOW gave me an error. (I guess getting WOW to work is a completely different issue though.)
So what are the best drivers and how do I make sure I have the latest greatest video drivers working for me?
Do I need to uninstall any video drivers to get things to work right?

Thanks for all the help.

(I am glad to be back in linux mint 8 main edition. I very much prefer the interface. i can see why it is among the top 10 distro's)

[remoulder]

I believe I need the ATI Catalyst drivers.

I thought you understood that you cannot install the ATI drivers in mint 8! You have to use the opensource radeon driver which is the default. Isn't that why you installed mint 6 initially?

See http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=31845, http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=35808 and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

[nptolman]

You are correct. I got confused. Too much reading.
Things are working for the most part.
Google earth works, just acts a little funny.
Tuxracer works fine.
Diablo 2 works better using the 2D renderer instead of the 3D renderer. With the 3D one it runs very slow and choppy.
Still trying to get WOW to work. Just does not want to install, then does not want to update. Arg. But that is a different issue.
Linux Mint 8 (despite its little quarks) is a great OS. Thanks guys. Keep up the good work.