Ubuntu

New install of Ub. on laptop w/ATI mob. radeon 9000. Do I need driver?

Asked by leopard

I am brand spankin new to Ubuntu (and Linux in general). I just installed the latest 8.04 on an older P4 2.53Ghz laptop with a ATI mobility Radeon 9000 video. The screen and graphics look to be working fine. Do I need or would I benefit with a ATI driver for this chipset?

Thanks!

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Selene ToyKeeper
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Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper) said : 		#1

Short answer: if it already does the things you want it to do, then don't bother with a different driver.

Longer answer: Support for ATI cards in general varies lately. Ever since AMD bought ATI, they've been working to open up specs and drivers, and the open-source drivers have been improving quickly. However, the general focus is on newer cards, and the older models like the radeon 9000 don't always get as much attention as they might need.

While looking for more details, I found that the support for that card is complicated. For example, some people got 3D to work but broke video overlays, or vice-versa. It saw several indications that the fglrx driver may not support older cards in new versions, and that the open-source drivers actually work better. So, I'd stick with what you've got now unless you run into problems.

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leopard (ksavoie) said : 		#2

Thanks for the input Scott.
Where would I look (or what would I search for) to find an appropriate open-source driver for this ATI Mobility 9000 chip set?
I am very green with Linux and don't want to be willy-nilly installing anything incompatible that could easily trash something that I don't yet have the skilz to reverse out of.

Thanks

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Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper) said : 		#3

You may already be using the open driver. You can find out which driver you are using now by looking at /var/log/Xorg.0.log. For example:

> grep drivers /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//ati_drv.so
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//radeon_drv.so

This should either say something like the above (which means you have the open-source driver), or it should say something about fglrx (proprietary driver).

Are you having any actual problems with it? If so, could you provide details? Specifically, what model of notebook is it? What does "lspci | grep VGA" say? What do you want it to do, and what does it do instead?

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leopard (ksavoie) said : 		#4

Thanks Scott,

It looks like I am already using the open-source driver. I am not experiencing any anomaly that I would consider detrimental I just didn't know/understand how to check what was installed as the driver.

Here is what I am experiencing.
1) I can not change the screen resolution. No matter what I set it at it stays at native resolution. I don't mind native but my wife says it's way too small. The selections stick in the drop downs and screen blanks momentarily when changed but resolution doesn't change.
2) I can not control screen brightness via applet (or any other means I know of) slider has no effect
3) I wanted to use Compiz/Fusion but I read it is not supported on such an old card. I did find a hack that enabled it and it seems to work satisfactorily with the exception that (when enabled) vertical scrolling (eg web page) grinds to a crawl which forces me to disable it. Other than that the bling seems to work. Is there a way to change a setting so as to not effect scrolling?

My laptop is a Sager 5600D 2.53GHz P4 1Gb RAM. ATI Radeon Mobility 9000. 15" SXGA

Thanks for any input

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Best Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper) said : 		#5

Thanks for the info. Here's what I can tell you about each item...

1) Resolution. You may only have one size enabled. To find out, run "grep Modes /etc/X11/xorg.conf". It should say something like:

  Modes "1400x1050" "1280x960" "1024x768" "800x600"

If only one size is listed, you can add more by reconfiguring Xorg. Copy your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to a backup somewhere, then reconfigure it with "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg". There should be a screen where you can select multiple resolutions to enable. (if it doesn't ask that, you may need to reconfigure debconf first, and tell it to ask more questions)

Once you have multiple sizes listed, you *might* be able to change resolution by holding Ctrl and Alt, then pressing keypad-plus or keypad-minus. (on a notebook, you'll probably need to hold the Fn key to get keypad +/-) This changes the resolution, but not the desktop size, so you'll scroll around inside a desktop larger than the screen.

Or, you may be able to use xrandr to change the screen resolution, assuming it's not broken on that card. Run "xrandr" by itself to get a list of resolutions it thinks it can use. Then changing screen sizes is something like "xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1024x768".

If it doesn't change size, you may be able to get some data on what's happening. Run "tail -f /var/log/Xorg.0.log" in a terminal, then try to change the screen size (via menu, Ctrl-Alt-+, or xrandr). The terminal may print some clues about why it failed.

Of course, it's possible that this stuff just isn't working on that card at the moment. You're probably better off simply increasing the font sizes on your wife's account.

2) Screen brightness often only works via the notebook's built-in controls. Most models have a couple keys which increase/decrease the brightness if pressed while holding the Fn key. On most models I've seen, this is completely independent of the OS, and the OS has no way to change it or even notice that it changed. Does your notebook have such keys, and do they work?

It looks like other Sager models use Fn-F8 and Fn-F9 to change brightness, but I don't see any info online about your model.

3) Compiz... is probably more trouble than it's worth. It's kind of nice as bling, if you have hardware with good drivers, but I'd recommend leaving it off for now. When some of the dust settles from AMD buying ATI, the drivers should improve. If you'd like to help with that process, you could file a bug about the scrolling issue (or find a bug and add a "me too"). It would at least help remind the driver maintainers to give some attention to your video chipset.

This has some hints on this sort of bug: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/AtiDriver

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leopard (ksavoie) said : 		#6

Smokes :-) Scott, thanks for all you input.
You seem to know allot about Ubuntu. I'd call this post answered. THANKS!

You wouldn't mind looking at my other post (https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/31345) and give me your 2 cents would ya?

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leopard (ksavoie) said : 		#7

Thanks Scott Scriven, that solved my question.