doc/en/ati-faq.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/ati-faq.xml,v 1.45 2007/11/29 08:02:20 nightmorph Exp $ -->
<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">

<guide link="/doc/en/ati-faq.xml">
<title>Gentoo Linux ATI FAQ</title>

<author title="Author">
  <mail link="lu_zero@gentoo.org">Luca Barbato</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="peesh@gentoo.org">Jorge Paulo</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">Tiemo Kieft</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="nightmorph@gentoo.org">Joshua Saddler</mail>
</author>

<abstract>
This FAQ should help users avoid some common installation and configuration
issues related to DRI and X11 for ATI boards.
</abstract>

<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
<license/>

<version>1.7</version>
<date>2008-07-06</date>

<chapter>
<title>Hardware Support</title>
<section>
<title>Is my ATI board supported?</title>
<body>

<p>
Many ATI boards (but not all) are supported by <uri
link="http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/xorg">xorg-x11</uri>, at least for the
2D accelerated features. The 3D support is provided either by xorg-x11, or by
ATI's <uri
link="http://mirror.ati.com/support/drivers/linux/radeon-linux.html">closed
source drivers</uri>.
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>GPU</th>
  <th>Common Name</th>
  <th>Support</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>Rage128</ti>
  <ti>Rage128</ti>
  <ti>xorg</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>R100</ti>
  <ti>Radeon7xxx, Radeon64</ti>
  <ti>xorg</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>R200, R250, R280</ti>
  <ti>Radeon8500, Radeon9000, Radeon9200</ti>
  <ti>xorg, ATI DRI</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>R300, R400</ti>
  <ti>Radeon 9500 - x850</ti>
  <ti>xorg, ATI DRI</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>R500</ti>
  <ti>Radeon X1300 and higher</ti>
  <ti>ATI DRI, xorg (since xf86-video-ati 6.9)</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>R600</ti>
  <ti>Radeon HD 2000 series</ti>
  <ti>ATI DRI, xorg (since xf86-video-ati 6.9)</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>RV670</ti>
  <ti>Radeon HD 3000 series</ti>
  <ti>ATI DRI, xorg (since xf86-video-ati 6.9)</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>RV770</ti>
  <ti>Radeon HD 4000 series</ti>
  <ti>ATI DRI (since catalyst 8.6), xorg support in progress</ti>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  I have an All-In-Wonder/Vivo board.  Are the multimedia features supported?
</title>
<body>

<p>
The board's multimedia features are supported by <uri
link="http://gatos.sf.net">the GATOS project</uri>. These drivers have been
merged into the Xorg tree. You don't need to use anything special;
<c>x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati</c> will work just fine.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>I'm not using an x86-based architecture.  What are my options?</title>
<body>

<p>
X11 support on the PPC or Alpha platforms is quite similar to x86 X11 support.
However, ATI's closed source drivers are not supported on the PPC or Alpha, so
you cannot use the 3D features of the R300 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). If
you have such a board and want it supported by X11, contact <uri
link="http://www.ati.com">ATI</uri> and ask them to release the specifications
for your system's GPU. The closed source driver for the AMD64 was released, so
AMD64 users can now enjoy the same features as x86 users.
</p>

<impo>
To enable agpgart support for certain AMD64 chip sets, you have to disable
support for the K8 IOMMU.
</impo>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>I have a laptop.  Is my ATI Mobility model supported?</title>
<body>

<p>
It should be, but you may have a configuration issue due to the OEM PCI id that
such chips may have. In most cases, you may have to write the configuration
file yourself or use the <c>xorgconfig</c> utility.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Installation</title>
<section>
<title>Packages</title>
<body>

<p>
There are two ways of getting drivers for your ATI card:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>The <c>xorg-x11</c> ebuild provides the X11 implementation</li>
    <li>
    The <c>ati-drivers</c> ebuild provides the ATI closed source X drivers and
    kernel modules
  </li>
</ul>

<p>
If you want to use ATI's <e>internal</e> agpgart support instead of the Linux
kernel one, the agpgart driver and the chip set specific driver (in your kernel
configuration) must be built as modules or not at all.
</p>

<note>
Please read the <uri link="/doc/en/dri-howto.xml">Hardware Acceleration
Guide</uri> for more information on installing drivers for your ATI graphics
card.
</note>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Configuration</title>
<body>

<p>
The use of <c>xorgcfg</c> or <c>xorgconfig</c> to generate the
<path>xorg.conf</path> configuration file is suggested. Alternatively, you may
use the Xorg auto configuration option:
</p>

<pre caption="Autoconfiguring X">
# <i>X -configure</i>
</pre>

<p>
For more information on how to get a basic <c>xorg.conf</c> configuration file,
please refer to the <uri link="/doc/en/xorg-config.xml">Gentoo X Server
HowTo</uri>.
</p>

<note>
You can use <c>aticonfig</c> if you have installed the <c>ati-drivers</c>
package.
</note>

<impo>
PPC users could use the <c>Xorgautoconfig</c> stand-alone configuration tool by
emerging the <c>Xorgautoconfig</c> ebuild, but isn't required.
</impo>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Switching to OpenGL</title>
<body>

<p>
Once X is installed, configured, and running, it can use the ATI OpenGL
libraries:
</p>

<pre caption="Running eselect">
# <i>eselect opengl set ati</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>More Resources</title>
<section>
<body>

<p>
Please read the <uri link="/doc/en/dri-howto.xml">Hardware Acceleration
Guide</uri> for more information on configuring your ATI graphics card.
</p>

<p>
More information on Gentoo Linux and the ATI Radeon binary drivers can be found
on the <uri
link="http://odin.prohosting.com/wedge01/gentoo-radeon-faq.html">Wedge
Unofficial Gentoo ATI Radeon FAQ</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
</guide>
1	peesh	1.1	<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
2	nightmorph	1.46	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/ati-faq.xml,v 1.45 2007/11/29 08:02:20 nightmorph Exp $ -->
3	peesh	1.1	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
4
5			<guide link="/doc/en/ati-faq.xml">
6	swift	1.23	<title>Gentoo Linux ATI FAQ</title>
7	swift	1.22
8	swift	1.7	<author title="Author">
9			<mail link="lu_zero@gentoo.org">Luca Barbato</mail>
10	peesh	1.1	</author>
11	swift	1.7	<author title="Editor">
12			<mail link="peesh@gentoo.org">Jorge Paulo</mail>
13	peesh	1.1	</author>
14	swift	1.7	<author title="Editor">
15			<mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">Tiemo Kieft</mail>
16	blubber	1.5	</author>
17	nightmorph	1.44	<author title="Editor">
18			<mail link="nightmorph@gentoo.org">Joshua Saddler</mail>
19			</author>
20	peesh	1.1
21	swift	1.7	<abstract>
22			This FAQ should help users avoid some common installation and configuration
23	swift	1.29	issues related to DRI and X11 for ATI boards.
24	swift	1.7	</abstract>
25	peesh	1.1
26	fox2mike	1.32	<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
27			<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
28	swift	1.3	<license/>
29
30	nightmorph	1.46	<version>1.7</version>
31			<date>2008-07-06</date>
32	peesh	1.1
33			<chapter>
34			<title>Hardware Support</title>
35			<section>
36	peesh	1.2	<title>Is my ATI board supported?</title>
37	peesh	1.1	<body>
38	swift	1.7
39			<p>
40	fox2mike	1.32	Many ATI boards (but not all) are supported by <uri
41	nightmorph	1.43	link="http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/xorg">xorg-x11</uri>, at least for the
42			2D accelerated features. The 3D support is provided either by xorg-x11, or by
43	fox2mike	1.32	ATI's <uri
44	swift	1.28	link="http://mirror.ati.com/support/drivers/linux/radeon-linux.html">closed
45			source drivers</uri>.
46	peesh	1.1	</p>
47
48			<table>
49	swift	1.7	<tr>
50			<th>GPU</th>
51			<th>Common Name</th>
52			<th>Support</th>
53			</tr>
54			<tr>
55	swift	1.29	<ti>Rage128</ti>
56	swift	1.7	<ti>Rage128</ti>
57	nightmorph	1.43	<ti>xorg</ti>
58	swift	1.7	</tr>
59			<tr>
60	swift	1.29	<ti>R100</ti>
61	swift	1.7	<ti>Radeon7xxx, Radeon64</ti>
62	nightmorph	1.43	<ti>xorg</ti>
63	swift	1.7	</tr>
64			<tr>
65	swift	1.29	<ti>R200, R250, R280</ti>
66	swift	1.13	<ti>Radeon8500, Radeon9000, Radeon9200</ti>
67	nightmorph	1.43	<ti>xorg, ATI DRI</ti>
68	swift	1.7	</tr>
69			<tr>
70	jkt	1.42	<ti>R300, R400</ti>
71	nightmorph	1.43	<ti>Radeon 9500 - x850</ti>
72			<ti>xorg, ATI DRI</ti>
73	swift	1.7	</tr>
74	jkt	1.42	<tr>
75	nightmorph	1.43	<ti>R500</ti>
76			<ti>Radeon X1300 and higher</ti>
77	nightmorph	1.46	<ti>ATI DRI, xorg (since xf86-video-ati 6.9)</ti>
78	jkt	1.42	</tr>
79	nightmorph	1.43	<tr>
80			<ti>R600</ti>
81			<ti>Radeon HD 2000 series</ti>
82	nightmorph	1.46	<ti>ATI DRI, xorg (since xf86-video-ati 6.9)</ti>
83	nightmorph	1.45	</tr>
84			<tr>
85			<ti>RV670</ti>
86			<ti>Radeon HD 3000 series</ti>
87	nightmorph	1.46	<ti>ATI DRI, xorg (since xf86-video-ati 6.9)</ti>
88			</tr>
89			<tr>
90			<ti>RV770</ti>
91			<ti>Radeon HD 4000 series</ti>
92			<ti>ATI DRI (since catalyst 8.6), xorg support in progress</ti>
93	nightmorph	1.43	</tr>
94	peesh	1.1	</table>
95
96			</body>
97			</section>
98			<section>
99	swift	1.7	<title>
100	swift	1.22	I have an All-In-Wonder/Vivo board. Are the multimedia features supported?
101	swift	1.7	</title>
102	peesh	1.1	<body>
103	swift	1.7
104			<p>
105	neysx	1.40	The board's multimedia features are supported by <uri
106	nightmorph	1.44	link="http://gatos.sf.net">the GATOS project</uri>. These drivers have been
107			merged into the Xorg tree. You don't need to use anything special;
108			<c>x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati</c> will work just fine.
109	swift	1.7	</p>
110
111	peesh	1.1	</body>
112			</section>
113			<section>
114	swift	1.28	<title>I'm not using an x86-based architecture. What are my options?</title>
115	peesh	1.1	<body>
116	swift	1.7
117			<p>
118	swift	1.28	X11 support on the PPC or Alpha platforms is quite similar to x86 X11 support.
119			However, ATI's closed source drivers are not supported on the PPC or Alpha, so
120			you cannot use the 3D features of the R300 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). If
121	neysx	1.40	you have such a board and want it supported by X11, contact <uri
122			link="http://www.ati.com">ATI</uri> and ask them to release the specifications
123			for your system's GPU. The closed source driver for the AMD64 was released, so
124			AMD64 users can now enjoy the same features as x86 users.
125	swift	1.7	</p>
126
127	lu_zero	1.19	<impo>
128	neysx	1.40	To enable agpgart support for certain AMD64 chip sets, you have to disable
129	swift	1.28	support for the K8 IOMMU.
130	lu_zero	1.19	</impo>
131
132	peesh	1.1	</body>
133			</section>
134			<section>
135	swift	1.28	<title>I have a laptop. Is my ATI Mobility model supported?</title>
136	peesh	1.1	<body>
137	swift	1.7
138			<p>
139	neysx	1.40	It should be, but you may have a configuration issue due to the OEM PCI id that
140			such chips may have. In most cases, you may have to write the configuration
141			file yourself or use the <c>xorgconfig</c> utility.
142	peesh	1.1	</p>
143
144			</body>
145			</section>
146			</chapter>
147
148			<chapter>
149			<title>Installation</title>
150			<section>
151			<title>Packages</title>
152			<body>
153	swift	1.7
154	nightmorph	1.43	<p>
155			There are two ways of getting drivers for your ATI card:
156			</p>
157
158	swift	1.17	<ul>
159	swift	1.22	<li>The <c>xorg-x11</c> ebuild provides the X11 implementation</li>
160	nightmorph	1.43	<li>
161	neysx	1.40	The <c>ati-drivers</c> ebuild provides the ATI closed source X drivers and
162	nightmorph	1.43	kernel modules
163	swift	1.22	</li>
164	swift	1.17	</ul>
165	swift	1.7
166	swift	1.21	<p>
167			If you want to use ATI's <e>internal</e> agpgart support instead of the Linux
168	swift	1.23	kernel one, the agpgart driver and the chip set specific driver (in your kernel
169	swift	1.21	configuration) must be built as modules or not at all.
170			</p>
171	swift	1.7
172	nightmorph	1.43	<note>
173			Please read the <uri link="/doc/en/dri-howto.xml">Hardware Acceleration
174			Guide</uri> for more information on installing drivers for your ATI graphics
175			card.
176			</note>
177	swift	1.7
178	peesh	1.1	</body>
179			</section>
180			<section>
181			<title>Configuration</title>
182			<body>
183	swift	1.7
184			<p>
185	neysx	1.40	The use of <c>xorgcfg</c> or <c>xorgconfig</c> to generate the
186			<path>xorg.conf</path> configuration file is suggested. Alternatively, you may
187			use the Xorg auto configuration option:
188	swift	1.7	</p>
189
190	lu_zero	1.10	<pre caption="Autoconfiguring X">
191	blubber	1.5	# <i>X -configure</i>
192	peesh	1.1	</pre>
193	swift	1.7
194			<p>
195	lu_zero	1.9	For more information on how to get a basic <c>xorg.conf</c> configuration file,
196	fox2mike	1.35	please refer to the <uri link="/doc/en/xorg-config.xml">Gentoo X Server
197			HowTo</uri>.
198	swift	1.7	</p>
199
200			<note>
201	neysx	1.39	You can use <c>aticonfig</c> if you have installed the <c>ati-drivers</c>
202	swift	1.28	package.
203	swift	1.7	</note>
204
205			<impo>
206	fox2mike	1.31	PPC users could use the <c>Xorgautoconfig</c> stand-alone configuration tool by
207			emerging the <c>Xorgautoconfig</c> ebuild, but isn't required.
208	swift	1.7	</impo>
209
210	peesh	1.1	</body>
211			</section>
212	nightmorph	1.36	<section>
213			<title>Switching to OpenGL</title>
214			<body>
215
216			<p>
217			Once X is installed, configured, and running, it can use the ATI OpenGL
218			libraries:
219			</p>
220
221	nightmorph	1.37	<pre caption="Running eselect">
222			# <i>eselect opengl set ati</i>
223	nightmorph	1.36	</pre>
224
225			</body>
226			</section>
227	peesh	1.1	</chapter>
228	swift	1.30	<chapter>
229			<title>More Resources</title>
230			<section>
231			<body>
232
233			<p>
234	nightmorph	1.38	Please read the <uri link="/doc/en/dri-howto.xml">Hardware Acceleration
235			Guide</uri> for more information on configuring your ATI graphics card.
236			</p>
237
238			<p>
239	swift	1.30	More information on Gentoo Linux and the ATI Radeon binary drivers can be found
240			on the <uri
241			link="http://odin.prohosting.com/wedge01/gentoo-radeon-faq.html">Wedge
242			Unofficial Gentoo ATI Radeon FAQ</uri>.
243			</p>
244
245			</body>
246			</section>
247			</chapter>
248	peesh	1.1	</guide>