How to setup the ATI Radeon X1050 graphics card in Linux

The ATI Radeon X1050 graphics card is really the ATI Radeon X550, aka RV370 or Sapphire X550 Silent.

Programs to install

 * Recommended/Required
 * Mesa 3D, with video_cards_radeon support
 * Mesa 3D Homepage
 * xf86-video-ati
 * xf86-video-ati Homepage
 * libdri


 * Optional
 * glxgears
 * glxinfo
 * xdpyinfo
 * GL O.B.S
 * http://globs.sourceforge.net/

Recompile Linux kernel
Some of these features may be enabled by default.


 * cd /usr/src/linux
 * make menuconfig
 * Processor type and features --->
 * [*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
 * Bus options (PCI etc.) --->
 * [*] PCI Express support
 * Device Drivers --->
 * -*- I2C support --->
 * Graphics support --->
 * -*- /dev/agpgart (AGP Support) --->  (enable even if your card is PCIe)
 * Set what ever chipset your motherboard is.
 * <*> Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI su...
 * <*>  ATI Radeon
 * make all
 * make modules_install
 * make install

X.org configuration
Section "Module" Load "glx" Load "extmod" #miscellaneous extensions module Load "xtrap" Load "record" Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension Load "dri" EndSection
 * Edit
 * /etc/X11/xorg.conf
 * Add the following

Section "DRI" Mode	0660 EndSection

Section "Device" Driver     "radeon" Option "AccelMethod" "EXA" # XAA/EXA Option "AccelDFS"   "1" # 1/0 On for PCIE, off for AGP # Manpage: Use or  don't  use accelerated EXA DownloadFromScreen hook # when possible. Option "GARTSize" "64" # 0-64 Megabytes of gart (system) memory used. # Wrongly defaults to 8MB sometimes, see your logfile. # Bigger seems better. Option "EnablePageFlip" "1" # 1/0 Increases 3D performance substantially # seemingly in XAA mode only Option "ColorTiling" "1" # 1/0 Increases 3D performance substantially # affected stability only positively on my system Option "RenderAccel" "True" Option "Backingstore" "True" EndSection

Section "Extensions" Option       "Composite"        "Enable" EndSection
 * 1) add the following if you use a composite window manage

Distribution Specific
This is for specific changes needed to be done for a specific distribution. Make sure to follow the general instructions as well

Gentoo

 * Recompile kernel as described above
 * Edit: /etc/make.conf
 * Add USE flag
 * video_cards_radeon
 * Add VIDEO_CARDS variable
 * VIDEO_CARDS="vesa radeon"
 * its a good idea to always add vesa as a backup
 * Install programs
 * emerge mesa libdri xf86-video-ati
 * Recompile xorg-server
 * emerge—deep xorg-server
 * Update world, may not be necessary, but a good idea
 * emerge—update—deep—newuse world
 * Edit xorg.conf as described above
 * Reboot computer

Xorg crashes

 * login as root
 * Execute: X -configure
 * Try the new config as root, as it will describe
 * Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to exit Xorg
 * compare new xorg.conf to old one and modify accordingly

General debugging

 * Benchmarking
 * Benchmarking and testing opengl
 * Execute: glxgears
 * Output on a Pentium D, 1G DDR2
 * 9002 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1800.346 FPS
 * GL O.B.S.
 * Output on a Pentium D, 1G DDR2
 * GL_pointz 1.0 : 470.2 FPS
 * GL_shadow 1.0 : 289.4 FPS
 * GL_blit 1.0 : 678.2 FPS
 * GL_blit_ext 1.0 : 676.2 FPS
 * GL_smoke 1.0 : 477.8 FPS


 * Check to see if DRI is enabled
 * Execute: glxinfo |grep direct
 * Output: direct rendering: Yes
 * Check what extensions are enabled in Xorg
 * xdpyinfo
 * It will show you if Composite, GLX, XFree86-DRI, etc is enabled


 * Check log files for problems
 * /var/log/Xorg.0.log
 * and
 * Execute: dmesg