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<!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>

<abstract>
This FAQ should help users avoid some common installation and configuration
issues related to DRI and x11 for ATI boards.
</abstract>

<license/>

<version>1.0.11</version>
<date>2005-06-28</date>

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

<p>
Almost every ATI board is 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 <uri 
link="http://dri.sf.net">the DRI project</uri>, which is already present inside 
the xorg-x11, or by closed source drivers <uri 
link="http://mirror.ati.com/support/drivers/linux/radeon-linux.html">
provided</uri> by ATI.
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>GPU</th>
  <th>Common Name</th>
  <th>Support</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>rage128</ti>
  <ti>Rage128</ti>
  <ti>xorg DRI</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>r100</ti>
  <ti>Radeon7xxx, Radeon64</ti>
  <ti>xorg DRI</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>r200, r250, r280</ti>
  <ti>Radeon8500, Radeon9000, Radeon9200</ti>
  <ti>xorg DRI, ATI DRI</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>r300, following</ti>
  <ti>Radeon 9500 - x800</ti>
  <ti>xorg 2D, ATI DRI</ti>
</tr>
</table>

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

<p>
The multimedia features are actually supported by <uri 
link="http://gatos.sf.net">the GATOS project</uri>, the GATOS drivers will be 
merged in the xorg tree shortly.
</p>

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

<p>
You have almost the same x11 support on PPC or Alpha platform but you can't 
use the ATI closed source drivers.  That means that you can't use the r300 3d 
features at all. If you have such a board and you want it supported by x11, 
you should contact <uri link="http://www.ati.com">ATI</uri> and ask them to open
the specs. Recently the AMD64 closed source driver has been released. AMD64 
users can use it as the x86 users.
</p>

<impo>
In order to enable the agpgart for certain AMD64 chip sets you have to disable 
the K8 IOMMU support
</impo>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>I have a laptop.  Is my "mobility" ATI 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>.
</p>

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

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

<ul>
  <li>The <c>xorg-x11</c> ebuild provides the X11 implementation</li>
  <li>
    For a 2.6.x kernel the DRI modules can be built with the kernel or be
    provided by the <c>x11-drm</c> ebuild
  </li>
  <li>
    For a 2.4.x kernel series you must use the <c>x11-drm</c> ebuild
  </li>
  <li>
    The <c>ati-drivers</c> ebuild provides the ATI closed source X drivers
    and kernel modules, for both the 2.4 and 2.6 series kernels
  </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>

<pre caption="Installing drivers">
<comment>(If you want just the Rage128 drivers and modules installed with x11)</comment>
# <i>VIDEO_CARDS="rage128" emerge x11-drm</i>
<comment>(To have just the Radeon support)</comment>
<comment>(r100, r200, r250, r280, but not r300 yet)</comment>
# <i>VIDEO_CARDS="radeon" emerge x11-drm</i>
<comment>(To install the ATI closed source drivers)</comment>
<comment>(r200, r250, r280 and r300 only)</comment>
# <i>emerge ati-drivers</i>
<comment>(To install just X11 but not install)</comment>
<comment>(any kernel module)</comment>
# <i>emerge xorg-x11</i>
</pre>

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

<p>
It is suggested the use of <c>xorgcfg</c>, <c>xorgconfig</c> or directly by
using 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/index.xml?catid=desktop">Gentoo
Desktop Documentation Resources</uri>.
</p>

<note>
Users of the ati-drivers can also use <c>fglrxconfig</c>.
</note>

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

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