A new linux driver from ATI has been released. Also, in their release notes they note the problem with 2D graphics being corrupted in Xwindows and describe how to fix it.

It seems to be a kernel problem with 2.6. The release version of Knoppmyth as I write this does not have that kernel, but I know the alpha release does. So if anyone in the future has that problem, be sure to read the release notes for how to solve it.

I downloaded the ATI mobility drivers from the dell web site for the dell laptop I am using as a front end. Following the instructions on the first post (apt-get; alien; dpkg), but I cannot find any file named "fglrxconfig" or "fglrxinfo" on my system.

I downloaded them from Dell instead of ATI, because ATI does not post drivers for the "mobility" cards -- they refer you to the laptop manufacturers web site.

My goal is to get the s-video out on the laptop working. Does any have any thoughts / ideas on what the problem might be?

My thought would be to use the files from ati, if the drivers from ati do not support your chipset then I doubt that any will. I know they are missing support for some of the common IGP's like the 3x0 series and if that's what you have you are probably SOL. there are open source drivers, but they dont' support the tvout. However most of the other products like many of the mobility products and the 9x00 series IGP are supported by the ati drivers and should work with tvout.

I find it virtually impossible to believe that dell wrote linux ati drivers for anything that the official ones don't support.

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Xsecrets

Xsecrets:

Thanks for the quick reply. My understanding is that dell actually gets the driver from ATI and then configures it for use in their laptops.

Looking at the dell site, it appears that my laptop is using the M3 chipset -- extract of info from dell website is below. It looks like I have 3 choices from the ATI website: Raedeon, fireGL & "motherboards with ATI graphics". Do you have any idea/guess as to which of these would be the best bet for the M3 chip set? I'm inclined to try the Raedeon version, but thought I'd ask in case you have any ideas on this. Thanks!

Marc


Device ATI Mobility 3 / Mobility 4
Category Video Drivers

Driver

ATI Mobility 3 / Mobility 4, v. 7.0, A00
Release Date: 01/18/2001
Description: This rpm installs correct XF86config-4 file for portable LCD panel that can do 1024x768 with ATI Rage Mobility M3 chipset. XFree86 4.0.1 is required.

It really doesn't matter which ones you use. they all take you to the same driver (well the firegl has some older versions on it's page too) I would go to that driver look in the documentation, and see if your chipset is supported. They have a fairly long list now.

this document has the list of supported cards/chipsets.

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Xsecrets

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm out of luck. I got the following error when the laptop tried to start X:

(EE) No devices detected

Fatal server error:
no screens found.

I suspect my chip-set / adaptor isn't supported. Sigh...

i get the same 100% exact error... i've reinstalled KnoppMythR5A16.iso
over 20 times now to no avail...

and YES, i've downloaded the lastest ATI linux driver, did the alien thing, and the works...

the card i have was purchased via newegg and the model is:

SAPPHIRE 100112 Radeon 9250 128MB DDR PCI Video Card - OEM

initial install of knoppmyth works fine with the card, but upon installation
and reconfiguration of fglrconfig, both the monitor and tv dont work when rebooted.

do you need more info/logs from me to help me out?

I've tried the alien thing with the ati drivers for my laptop and never had success. You really should have listened to the hundreds of posts on this forum saying stay away from ati. I imagine google is going to be your only hope. searching for those errors with debian.

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Xsecrets

HEY! ATI USERS!!!

We need a good Radeon TV-Out "How-To write up for the wiki. Please make specific card recommendations too so people have a decent shot of duplicating your results...

Thanks!

too much of a headache. i chucked my ATI card (brand new 9250!) and
went to purchase a new nvidia mx4000 today (cheap - $29.99) and
life is so much better now. NEVER will i ever purchase another ATI card
again in my entire life.

Every geek should have a spares bin! Consider this a contribution to you own. Mine just recently acquired a good inexpensive ethernet card...

Ahw, they've got their place. My desktop box at home uses one (a 9200 or 9200SE) as does my machine at work (definitely a 9200SE which just replaced a 7000 which died of heat exhaustion) and they're both nice and crisp for 2D graphics, and a breeze to set up under Linux. TV-Out was a nonstarter last time I tried it, but that's just a blemish on the otherwise solid driver support.

I don't know if this will help
I use kanotix , my video card is a 9200se
So far I have got tv out working in that I have a clone of my monitor on the TV
the problem that I have is that when playing any sort of movie all I get is a small square (blue) inside of the desktop i.e the screen looks normal except where the movie is playing
I have 3D working fine

I used the script that was suggested in the kanotix forum (http://forum.kanotix.net/)
and it worked
You may be able to get some info or help there

Any ideas about the movie part not working?

means that display does not have xv support. Same with nvidia if you are runnig a clone display only one of them will have xv suport. if you remove the monitor and boot with just the tvout then it may clear up that problem.

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Xsecrets

thanks Xsecrets for the reply

I have not tried it yet i'm still on the net
anyway i just looked up xv in synaptic and found a program there that was not installed, due to dependency probs.

do I need it?

(xv explanation is : An image viewer and manipulator for the X Window System.
The xv program displays images in the GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PBM, PGM, PPM,
X11 bitmap, Utah Raster Toolkit RLE, PDS/VICAR, Sun Rasterfile, BMP,
PCX, PNG, IRIS RGB, XPM, Targa, XWD, possibly PostScript, and PM formats
on workstations and terminals running the X11 Window System.)

Thanks again

Sorry I didn't even realize that the debian repositories still had xv (the image program) seems like last time I looked for it I couldn't find it. In this case xv == X video acceleration, and it is dependant on your video driver. the vesa drivers do not provide it, but most card specific drivers do, however I don't think I've heard of any drivers that can provide xv on both monitor and tv at the same time.

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Xsecrets