Fluxbox + fglrx Performance Issues

[lynks]

Hi all, I recently updated my Lenny-x64 system, breaking the fglrx drivers (this is quite a well documented failure) I fixed this by updating to Squeeze.

Now my fglrx drivers seem to be 'working' (in that gdm runs without spitting out 'no devices found' as it has done in the past when the drivers were broken) but I'm getting really terrible performance in fluxbox!

Just scrolling down this form to see the 'submit' button took about 10 seconds.

Below is my hopefully quite simple xorg.conf file. I'm feeling a bit out of my depth, not sure how to diagnose exactly which driver my card is running on or if there were any errors loading it up...

Thanks for any responses

[lynks]

A little more info;

output from fglrxinfo:

$fglrxinfo
X Error of failed request: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
  Major opcode of failed request: 136 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request: 19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
  Serial number of failed request: 15
  Current serial number in output stream: 15

and some troubling output I found in /var/log/gdm:

(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0@1:0:1) found
FATAL: Module fglrx not found.
(EE) fglrx(0): ACPI: DRM connection failed

perhaps I havent got fglrx working as well as I'd thought! Im confused though as if I comment out the Driver selction line in xorg.conf, gdm wont start - it complains that my Virtual (dual monitor) resolution is too high for VEGA - does this not suggest that it is at least using fglrx enough to give me a dual-screen?

[fanderal]

Is the 'firmware-linux' pkg installed?

[lynks]

it is now, i have to apologise I'm not at all experienced when it comes to installing things past past dpkg -i, I read something about needing to recompile the kernel if I am installing a driver.

Do I need to do something along those lines for fglrx?

thanks fro the reply.

[fanderal]

Everyone's inexperienced when they start something new. What caught my eye was the "10 seconds" just to scroll down a page... BTDT

The problem may be that xorg.conf wasn't configured for fglrx. Try this:

1. Open a terminal and enter (stops the GUI and drops you to the console):

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

2. Create a xorg.conf for fglrx (current xorg.conf will be autosaved):

sudo aticonfig --initial

3. Restart gdm or X

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

or

startx

[lynks]

# aticonfig --initial
Found fglrx primary device section
Using /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Saving back-up to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.fglrx-0

No changes to xorg.conf as far as I can see.

gdm logs still contain;

FATAL: Module fglrx not found.

There is a discrepancy between a BusID I have noticed in the gdm logs;

(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section found for instance (BusID PCI:0@1:0:1) found.

whereas xorg.conf contains;

BusID "PCI:01:00:0"

however I think these might be the two heads for my card, as if I change xorg.conf to 1 from 0, gdm doesnt start and complains about not being able to have a device section for BusID 0

[fanderal]

'FATAL: fglrx not found' means the module wasn't loaded or isn't available. First see if you can load the module:

 sudo modprobe fglrx

If the module isn't available, you need to build one. Open a terminal and as root, cd to /usr/source/fglrx. To compile the module:

 # m-a a-i fglrx

If successful, drop to the console, load the module then re-run

 aticonfig --initial

Restart gdm.

[lynks]

Thanks so much, that worked!

I did follow (blindly) a tutorial that I remember contained this process of installing the module, but I think it got mixed up in the dist-upgrade (I went through a stage of having LOADS of broken dependencies and ended up having to use dpkg --force a few times)

Thanks again, looks like I need to learn more about modules and packages.

[fanderal]

Glad you got it working, and you're welcome.

One of the nicer things about Linux (besides Fluxbox ) is not having to reboot the computer every time something's installed or edited.