[Linux] Journal.

1600×1024 DVI finally works with the newest release of Radeon linux driver v3.14.1 on my T41 with Radeon 9000 Mobility!

The driver can be downloaded from the official Radeon linux driver site. There’s also a website that maintains radeon driver packages for debian which is where I installed it from. I added its apt source,

deb     http://www.stanchina.net/~flavio/debian/ ./
deb-src http://www.stanchina.net/~flavio/debian/ ./

and installed from it the kernel module and driver,

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install fglrx-4.3.0-kernel-src fglrx-4.3.0-driver

It requires you to already have the kernel source installed. Once you do, extract and compile the fglrx module,

$ cd /usr/src/
$ tar zxvf flgrx-4.3.0-3.14.1.tar.gz
$ cd linux
$ make-kpkg --append-to-version ".hotot" --added-modules fglrx-4.3.0-3.14.1 modules_image
$ cd ..
$ wajig install fglrx-4.3.0-kernel-2.6.8.hotot_3.14.1-2+10.00.Custom_i386.deb
$ update-modules

A note on kernel, I selected the wrong AGP driver module initially and I couldn’t use the “UseInternalAGPGART” option. I thought it was radeon but it’s actually an intel AGP Controller on the T41. Check with,

$ lspci | grep AGP
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)

So I recompiled the kernel with intel_agp module and now it works.

Once everything is installed, generate the XF86Config-4 file with /usr/bin/X11/fglrxconfig. After a lot of debugging here’s the XF86Config-4 that finally worked for me. Here are the tweaks I made for it to work,

# disable PnP detection in the device section
Section "Device"
    Driver                              "fglrx"
    Option                              "NoDDC"
...
    # tell it to use its primary head for DVI
    Option "MonitorLayout"              "TMDS, LVDS"
....

# explicitly specify display size and modeline
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "Monitor0"
    DisplaySize 370 237
    HorizSync   31.5 - 63.8
    VertRefresh 59 - 60
    Option "DPMS"

    Modeline        "1600x1024" 108 1600 1628 1668 1704 1024 1027 1030 1056 -hsync -vsync
...

# tell the display to use 1600x1024 mode
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "1600x1024"
    EndSubsection

It actually almost worked with the default 1600×1024 modeline in the driver, only it’s slightly off centered. So I fine tuned it with xvidtune and copy & pasted the modeline from there.

Unfortunately I still can’t get both the laptop panel and DVI monitor to work at the same time since they are both detected on the primary head. I read it’s the problem with XFree86 device head handling, it might work with the new xorg source tree.

Nevertheless I’m happy it works with DVI now, it’s one step closer to the holy grail.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 20th, 2004 at 10:55 am and is filed under System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.