fglrx ati drivers 8.42 on OpenSuse 10.3 and Compiz-Fusion : Working!

Update

I have finally manage to make the fglrx 8.42.3 ATI drivres works with compiz-fusion! 

Here is what I done :

• Download the driver from ATI
  ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run
• Put it in a folder and set it as executable
  chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run)
• Do your updates specially if there are some kernel updates (as you may know, you have to rebuild your fglrx module each time the kernel change or update)
• If you have already installed the fglrx driver go in Yast and remove it
• In Yast, install GCC and kernel sources
• Reboot
• If you are in KDE or GNome, go to init 3 and work as root
• Save your xorg.conf file. I will use a move here because I want to create a fresh version of xorg.conf
  mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old
• Create a brand new xorg.conf file using
  sax2 -a
• Once the file is created, run sax2 and save the current configuration.
•  Now, install the driver without build the rpm, simply execute
  ./ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run
• Follow the install procedure
•  Once done, update the xorg.conf file but DO NOT use sax2. For some reasons, sax2 seems to think that my monitor is an ATI and my video car is still a VESA FRAMEBUFFER. To update xorg, use
  aticonfig –initial –input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf –force
  Note : use – – (double dash) in front of ‘initial’, ‘input’ and ‘force’
• Once done, reboot
• Check during the boot if fglrx is listed
• Once logged, open a terminal window and use fglrxinfo to test if your ATI card is correctly listed
• Test also glxgears or fglrx_gears to see if all is working correctly. You can also use glxinfo to see if all is correct.
• If all is correct, then open xorg.conf file and add : Section “ServerFlags”
                Option “AllowMouseOpenFail” “on”
                Option “IgnoreABI” “on”
                Option “AIGLX” “true”
  EndSection
  …
  Section “Extensions
                Option “DAMAGE” “true”
                Option “Composite” “true”
  EndSectionNote : I am not sure be I think you can use Option “Composite” “true” or ”Option “Composite” “enable”
  
• Also check if dri is also listed in the Modules section (Load “dri”)
• Save and reboot
• Install compuiz using this 1 click install. If you have already installed it, then just continue que following process
• Then in a terminal,
  mv /usr/lib/libIndirectGL.so.1 /usr/lib/libIndirectGL.so.1.old
• Open /usr/lib/compiz-manager and add fglrx driver in the whitelist
  WHITELIST=”fglrx nvidia intel ati radeon i810″
• Reboot or restart kde (rcxdm restart ) and it should work!

Tada!.

I have test to much the perfomances but it seems to be find on my configuration. I will post more infos as soon as I can.
Hope that this article could help

Ref: I have use most of the procedure here

My configuration is :

• Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
• Athlon 3000 (core Barton)
• 2 Go Ram
• ATI X1950 Pro AGP 512 Mo
• Promise SATA Controller

Update

• I found that trying to browse the Internet using Firefox or Konqueror is really slow  (using scroll bars) .
• I have tested the ‘aticonfig –ovt’ Xv trick but I haven’t see any improvements. I have to play a little with it to see if it can speed up the system.
• Any video played flickers everytime, really anoying …

Fix

• For the video flicker issue, it seems that the only trick is to disable compiz.
• For the slow scroll problem in Firefox or Konqueror, it seems that the effects should be desactivated.

So it seems that the fglrx 8.42.3 drivers works fine .. if you are not using compiz ;-). Well, I will google and test a little more and see if it can do better than than.

If you have any tips to could fix the flicker problem or the slow navigation in Firefox or Konqueror, feel free to comment here.

Filed under: Linux, 8.42, ati, compiz-fusion, Linux, opensuse 10.3, working