radeon R350 Radeon 9800

[nadir]

I don't get compiz running (no biggie, but still ) and with xfwm all is a bit wonky.
I can offer this:

$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]
$ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: Yes
$ lsmod | grep ati
cpufreq_conservative 13598 0
$ lsmod | grep radeon
radeon 641550 2
ttm 46672 1 radeon
drm_kms_helper 26501 1 radeon
drm 128416 4 drm_kms_helper,ttm,radeon
i2c_algo_bit 12706 1 radeon
i2c_core 18989 5 i2c_i801,i2c_algo_bit,drm,drm_kms_helper,radeon
power_supply 13283 1 radeon
$ compiz --replace
compiz (core) - Fatal: Software rendering detected.
compiz (core) - Error: Failed to manage screen: 0
compiz (core) - Fatal: No manageable screens found on display :0.0

Launching fallback window manager

I got no idea about radeon at all (most of my machines are intel, one is with nvidia, but it's so old that i am happy that it logs into the GUI at all). I searched the web, but did not find much info what to do.
The German Ubunut wiki says it should support 3D.
(accept as is?, use the non-free whatever-ya-call-it ? creating an xorg.conf, if yes: someone has got a radeon one to offer? )

[cynwulf]

Code: Select all

glxinfo | grep render

Is more useful

You will need to install firmware-linux-nonfree

Reboot and it should all work.

[nadir]

Yes, it was that easy.
Thanks.
I wish the wiki would have been that clear.

btw: 2 answers, 5 views, case closed. that is what i call effective working.

[Beewolf]

Checking for direct rendering used to be a way to tell if you had hardware accelerated rendering, but swrast has been able to do direct rendering for ages. It's an outdated piece of advice that's dead determined to stay alive.

[huggybear]

Checking for direct rendering used to be a way to tell if you had hardware accelerated rendering, but swrast has been able to do direct rendering for ages. It's an outdated piece of advice that's dead determined to stay alive.

swrast kind of sounds like software rasterizer? Correct me if I'm wrong. If it really is what I think, then this might not be good 3D that you could use for proper gaming. Maybe it'd be enough for simple compositing though. Am I right?

[cynwulf]

Checking for direct rendering used to be a way to tell if you had hardware accelerated rendering, but swrast has been able to do direct rendering for ages. It's an outdated piece of advice that's dead determined to stay alive.

swrast kind of sounds like software rasterizer? Correct me if I'm wrong. If it really is what I think, then this might not be good 3D that you could use for proper gaming. Maybe it'd be enough for simple compositing though. Am I right?

In theory swrast should be usable for 3D, but considering most compositing effects are more than simple 3D polygon rendering it's pretty useless, which is why compositors tend to check for it and fail if it's detected.

[huggybear]

Thanks. Is there a way to check whether swrast is on?

[cynwulf]

Code: Select all

glxinfo | grep render

That should show whether the software rasterizer is in use. Generally you shouldn't see it if the correct video driver is loaded.

[huggybear]

So, if direct rendering isn't available, it will say whether it uses software rasterizer? Sorry if I'm annoying, but for me it says yes, so I wonder what happens if it doesn't.

[nadir]

while i hate to run non-free (and i fear kelsoo, who will give me the business for it... )i got to admit:
the gui rawks on this 8 - 9 year old machine. Everything is smooth as silk. Never have experienced anything close to that on any of my machines.
I think i will give s3d another try...

ups: i changed the subject. Sorry. Go on where you have been (rastaman, i think...)