quidam - ATI Support Please - I'll Help If Needed

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DasFox
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Iscritto: 04/18/2010

quidam, I'm Xgates on the Freenode IRC server, I was in your chat room talking to you about my laptop running an ATI 3200HD chip and getting the screen tearing.

With what you explained to me I don't know if it's possible to eventually correct the screen tearing in Trisquel, since you mentioned the Radeon drivers are in the kernel not in X.

But if you think there are ways to improve this, then I'd be more then happy to test this out with you, to hopefully improve ATI support in Trisquel.

I really think you made a great distro and I'd like to use it, I juse need better ATI support for some of the work I do.

THANKS :)

quidam

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Iscritto: 12/22/2004

> With what you explained to me I don't know if it's possible to
> eventually correct the screen tearing in Trisquel, since you
> mentioned the Radeon drivers are in the kernel not in X.

In fact there is one piece for each, we do not include the kernel part
since it contains a required non-free firmware blob.

> But if you think there are ways to improve this, then I'd be more
> then happy to test this out with you, to hopefully improve ATI
> support in Trisquel.

The only way FOR US to improve it is to make the kernel driver work
without the blob. And as far as I know after talking with the AMD/ATI
linux driver director, it can be done but would only work for old cards.

But of course, it's ATI's duty to fix this problem.

DasFox
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Iscritto: 04/18/2010

When you say it's ATI's duty, I'm talking about the Xorg driver.

You don't think there can be anything done to improve this?

What is wrong with the Xorg Radeon driver that is suppose to work?

Here's is Xorg's link to this driver.

http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon

THANKS

AndrewT

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Iscritto: 12/28/2009

What's wrong is that the radeon driver needs the nonfree kernel module for its important functions, and we can not reproduce the functionality of that module without ATI's support. ATI made that module nonfree on purpose, and the Linux kernel maintainers made the awful decision of accepting their proprietary, DRM-laden module.

DasFox
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Iscritto: 04/18/2010

You know, I came into using Linux to have freedom and for a long time I use to think that all Linux was free and then as the years went by I realized this is not true and I really think it's crap that someone like Linus would lock us into having problems like this.

So the question is, how do we change and improve this?

THANKS

AndrewT

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Iscritto: 12/28/2009

Indeed, we have all been as upset as you about the spinelessness of Linus.

The only way to improve this is to reject ATI's and NVIDIA's proprietary stance and insist that they release their drivers as free software. I think it's acceptable to use them in some emergency scenarios, but in general, if our community does not stand up to this, these problems will continue and get worse.

DasFox
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Iscritto: 04/18/2010

Reject all of this how, so this really makes an impact? I've been into Linux distros for 10 years and since that time I've hardly seen things improve.

Distros like Ubuntu that have advanced Linux have done so in the realm of popularity and hardware support, but all in the name it seems towards proprietary, not open-source.

AndrewT

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Iscritto: 12/28/2009

Please call it GNU/Linux, not just Linux. Linus gets enough credit for this system as it is. :)

I can't predict the future, but I can tell you that unless there is a significant movement to resist attempts by companies to impose proprietary software on our operating system, further development in the direction of free software is hopeless. I do not want to be a part of the problem.

I can't give three cheers for Canonical's policies, but with Ubuntu they have proven to many people that GNU/Linux as a platform can compete with Windows and Mac on every level, and indeed surpass them in many ways. That is a huge contribution to our community.

flop

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Iscritto: 02/16/2009

What sort of functionality is required exactly, 3D? quidam mentions that it could be possible to make it work without the blob but that it would only work with older cards. The thing is that mine is a Mobility Radeon HD 3400 which I understand is a newer model than DasFox's one and seems to work fine, Dual head support included -I suppose it has no 3D, though not sure-.

DasFox
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Iscritto: 04/18/2010

I just want to be able to watch videos without screen tearing and a little bit better graphical quality because also with the X drivers videos tend to have a more pixelated look to them, not as clean looking at times, meaning you can see pixles on the video appear, sometimes just a few and then at other times depending on the video in bigger blotches.

THANKS

flop

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Iscritto: 02/16/2009

But, do you observe those problems in the whole of the screen or only on the window of the video player (that is, just on the film)? What player are you using? Just in case it helps, try other players. I have observed that Totem works better with xine backend on large videos, and Dragon Player works much better than Totem (it does not get stuck when you move forward or backwards, for example). You may try Dragon Player and see if it makes some difference.

DasFox
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Iscritto: 04/18/2010

The tearing is in the video on the screen, this is a known problem that has existed for a number of years with X and ATI.

I thought it was actually a problem fixed in Xorg without the need for the radeon kernel blob.

I've never heard of the Dragon Player but I'll give it a go.

THANKS