Howto: Direct rendering with your ATI Radeon and FC2

[Rick Johnson]

Gabriel Labelle wrote:
> I simply hope this will help somehow, it worked for me with my ATI
> Radeon 9600 Pro on the Fedora Core 2 :)

I saw these on fedoraforum.org as well - thanks! They do work (worked 
for my 9700 Pro). However I have a few suggestions in order to simplify 
the process. Note the changes below:

> 5. Back up your current /etc/X11/xorg.conf
> 
> sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

Not a bad idea.

> 
> 6. You now need to configure X :
> 
> sudo fglrxconfig

Also a good idea.

> 7. Perform these last steps :
> 
> cd /etc/X11/
> sudo ln -sf XF86Config-4 xorg.conf
> cd /etc/X11/xkb/rules
> sudo ln -sf xorg xfree86
> sudo ln -sf xorg.lst xfree86.lst
> sudo ln -sf xorg.xml xfree86.xml

This part is all unnecessary, and actually encourages regressing to a 
previous version. Instead, this is what I chose to do:

7.

cd /etc/X11
edit XF86Config-4

Copy the Device section for the ATI Graphics Card (probably 50-60 lines 
total).

Paste it into xorg.conf below the existing Device section for Videocard0 
that defines "radeon" as the driver. It would be useful to keep that 
section in case you need to fall back.

In the Screen section within xorg.conf, comment out the device line for 
Videocard0, and create a new line that says:

Device	"ATI Graphics Card"

(or whatever matches the device section you just copied into the file).

Make sure the other sections/modules per the ATI readme exist (i.e. dri, 
glxcore, DRI permissions, etc.). This is also a good time to copy any 
DRI permission changes you may have chosen from the XF86Config-4 file 
(from Section "DRI").

I then move XF86Config-4 to XF86Config-4.ati to keep as a reference, but 
to prevent xorg from using the wrong file.

This method prevents the user from needing to create backward-compatible 
symlinks for the problematic xfree86 references within the older style file.

Hopefully the next version of fglrxconfig will take this into 
consideration with an updated template for x.org.

> 8: Voilà, you can restart X and enjoy direct rendering ! ;)
> 
> $ glxinfo |grep direct
> direct rendering: Yes

Same results for me using the above method. However, I keep the 
forward-compatible config and get the ATI specified settings to boot. :)

Either way works, so it's a matter of preference.

Enjoy!
-Rick
-- 
Rick Johnson, RHCE #807302311706007 - rjohnson at medata.com
Linux/Network Administrator - Medata, Inc.
PGP Public Key: https://mail.medata.com/pgp/rjohnson.asc