ATi 58xx + Linux = frustration :( desktop tearing and two displayport issues

[Icm76]

EDIT: I posted a short summary in reply 7, of methods that may or may not be helpful to fix tearing.

I doubt anyone will have any new solutions, but I figured I'd post anyway. I'd hoped that by know ATi would have extracted digits from orifices and provided a good driver for the HD 5-series cards, but no. I've spent the last day tinkering with Ubuntu 10.04 and Fedora 12 + 14 (beta) Will be having a play with ubuntu 10.10 RC a bit later.


Tearing on the desktop: just a PITA and apparently very much a known issue with no easy fix, dragging windows around the desktop results in some quite horrible tearing.



Displayport no signal - it seems the proprietary driver is required for ubuntu 10.04, so you have to connect with VGA or the primary DVI socket on the graphics card (secondary DVI and HDMI also have no signal issues) ONce you get the proprietary driver, then the other connection options will work.



Displayport doesn't get shut down properly, it's impossible to reboot until the displayport cable is unplugged :rolleyes: very annoying. Fixed this on Windows with the latest drivers for mobo & graphics card, but it still happens on Linux

[Toonshorty]

What driver are you using.

10.8 was fine for me with Ubuntu 10.04.

[Icm76]

I had the latest one from the ubuntu 10.04 repository, maybe that's not ATi 10.8

[Toonshorty]

Download 10.8 or 10.9.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.42&lang=English

[Icm76]

Thanks, I'll give it a try at some point in the next few days. Using F14 beta for the moment just so I have a functional PC, but I need to get Windows up and running again before I get too heavily into this.

[Lorem-Ipsum]

I would not recommend repository drivers in Linux for newer hardware. Always get the drivers from the manufacturer.

I have had nothing but trouble with drivers from the repos.

[Icm76]

Download 10.8 or 10.9.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.42&lang=English
I would not recommend repository drivers in Linux for newer hardware.
I installed the ubuntu 10.10 (64bit) release candidate to have a play and it's still got horrible tearing with both open source driver and the proprietary, but it does seem OK on the DisplayPort connection - signal is fine and so far I haven't seen the shutdown bug (though it may be too early to say for sure)


ubuntu 10.10 & catalyst / flgrx driver - repo v. ATi/AMD
The version of Catalyst 10.9 on the link above doesn't install:
Error: ./default_policy.sh does not support version but there was a newer version as a kernel update broke the driver: GPU83ATICatalystLinuxHotfix.aspx (http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU83ATICatalystLinuxHotfix.aspx) however this hotfix version has the same install error. The hot fix is identified as:
ati-driver-installer-8.771.2-x86.x86_64
which appears to be older than the version in ubuntu repo:
fglrx 2:8.780-0ubuntu2
the repo driver install just fine, but of course the tearing issue persists.

Desktop & video tearing possible fixes

It's interesting to search for this google and in the ubuntu forum - there are scores of complaints, from ATi, Nvidia and Intel users alike, but no solid solutions. I tried following this guide but it made no difference to me, but someone else looking here might find it and have more success:
fix-ati-vsync-video-tearing-issue-once-and-for-all/ (http://thelinuxexperiment.com/guinea-pigs/tyler-b/fix-ati-vsync-video-tearing-issue-once-and-for-all/)
There is also this wiki that may be useful: Unofficial ATi Linux Driver Wiki (http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page)
but is hasn't yet been updated for ubuntu 10.10.

I also tired the settings in Compiz install CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) under:
General Options -> Display Settings ->


check/uncheck Detect Refresh Rate
set Refresh Rate to 60 or 120
check/uncheck Sync To Vblank

None of this worked for me :( The last idea I noted was that there may be a permissions problem, but the possible solution I saw posted was for Nvidia (and I do remember with my older PC having to use the gksudo command to access nvidia-settings and make the changes stick) I don't know what the solution is for Ati, CCC has two launchers, the default command for the admin one is:
amdxdg-su -c amdcccle
I tried gksudo amdcccle as well and adjusted the wait for vertical refresh setting using both methods to lauch CCC. Still no improvement. Lots of tearing.

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This is all a pity, and a PITA, because ubuntu 10.10 overall seems really nice. Having Flash, Skype, ATi drivers etc all in the noob accessible repo is really user friendly, it's almost as good as Windows. However, if the tearing can't be fixed then what's the point of of all the good stuff? Not that I think this is an ubuntu specific issue, it's generic Linux graphics driver issue, I see the same thing in Fedora.

[marsey99]

ATI and lux have never played nice together afaik, that's why most people use nv gpu for it.

As they say, life is all about compromises :/