Slow Graphics in 12.2

[technik733]

Hello, I'm new to linuxforums, but I hope I'm not too much of a noob.

Anyway, I've just installed Windows 7 and Slackware 12.2 on my socket 754 machine, and after some wrestling with the wireless card drivers, I've got networking worked out on it.

But now I've tried to test the drivers, and it seems that when I run Cube that it's using the CPU to render it, which is obviously terribly slow. I've noticed that KDE is also very slow moving things about, and I'm rather perplexed as to why this could be. Compared to my experience with windows, I'm very new to linux, but I know enough to check the drivers with lspci, which produces:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV530 [Radeon X1600]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV530 [Radeon X1600] (Secondary)

It is a Radeon 1600, but it has an AGP bridge chip, and I'm wondering if that could be causing a problem. Also, when KPersonalizer ran the first time I did startx, I chose the lowest performance setting because I wanted it to run fast, but I don't think that'd make every application slow. But I dunno. That aside, I don't know why it wouldn't be working.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
One reason it could running really slow is that your video card doesn't like the driver you are currently using. I'm guessing that you are using the VESA driver and you probably want the ATI driver. Issue this command in a terminal window and post the output here please.

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf |grep Driver

Another reason could be your RAM and system specs. How much RAM do you have and what is the system CPU speed?

[technik733]

It's one of the original AMD 64 3000+ cpus, with 768mb of memory @ 266mhz. I don't think it's too underpowered to run Cube though. =/

I'll check the X11 config file as soon as I get a chance to switch over to the linux install again. I'm moving some large files in windows currently.

[MikeTbob]

It's one of the original AMD 64 3000+ cpus, with 768mb of memory @ 266mhz. I don't think it's too underpowered to run Cube though. =/

I'll check the X11 config file as soon as I get a chance to switch over to the linux install again. I'm moving some large files in windows currently.

It shouldn't be the system specs, I think you have that covered.
I'm offline and online all through the evening, if I don't answer your post some one else should.

[jayd512]

I'm with Mike on the drivers. I would try that first. If you don't make any headway with the ATI driver, let us know.

BTW, Welcome to LinuxForums!

[technik733]

Thank you, and I'm glad to be here. =)

Erm... right now it cannot manage to get into KDE, and I tried sending the error to a text file but opening it now there's nothing in it.

As for the xorg.conf file,

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf|grep Driver

Yeilded:

Driver "kbd"
Driver "mouse"#
Driver "magellan"#
Driver "spaceorb"#
Driver "microtouch"#
Driver "elo2300"
Driver "vesa"

Or

Driver "kbd"
Driver "mouse"
#Driver "magellan"
#Driver "spaceorb"
#Driver "microtouch"
#Driver "elo2300"
Driver "vesa"

I can't tell, since windows notepad didn't like the way it was output.

I am going to try to capture the screen output for the startx error now. Will be back.

EDIT: Alright, I can't seem to be able to get the screen output for the xorg error into a text file, nor can I find the xorg logfile, so I went and took a picture. I apologize for the low quality thereof, but for the time, that's all I could think of besides writing it down verbatim and typing it all up again.

[MikeTbob]

Hmm you seem to have a syntax error or something, you need to post the entire /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

[technik733]

I figured I might need to do that. I'll be right back with it posted.

EDIT: The thing is rather large with all of the comments, so I decided to attach it.

EDIT EDIT: I just noticed that in the title I didn't even mention Slackware. I meant "Slow Graphics in Slackware 12.2", if a mod can change it. Oh wait, I'm in the slackware forum. Doesn't matter then, huh?

[technik733]

Hmm... I was reading through the config file, and wondering if I could change

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "VESA Framebuffer"
    Driver      "vesa"
    #VideoRam    4096
    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

To 'Driver "whatever the video module name is from modprobe"' to fix the slow graphics problem?.

I'll try that tomorrow, and I'm fairly confident that that would solve the speed issue. However, I now I still can't run startx.

[coopstah13]

you need to download and install the ati proprietary video driver from their website, this will alleviate any graphical performance issues you are having