Hi,

i try to install the drivers of my ATI 9200SE graphic card in Suse 9.1. Everytime i run the rpm command i get an error that fglrx is in use and in the end that the drivers are installed succesfully. If then i write 'fglrxconfig', after the procedure i don't have 3d support.

linux:/home/ioannidis/ATI # rpm -Uh --force fglrx-4.3.0-3.7.6.i386.rpm
########################################### [100%]
########################################### [100%]
*** Trying to install a precompiled kernel module.
- creating symlink
- recreating module dependency list
- trying a sample load of the kernel module
ERROR: Module fglrx is in use
done.
Installed: qt3 (gcc 3.2) based control panel application
===
ATI display drivers successfully installed
please run 'fglrxconfig' now
===

How can i install the drivers and how can i stop fglrx? I tried many other methods i have read but most of them stops in a message for 'fglrx is in use'. I tried the command ps -aux to find fglrx and kill it but i didn't found it in the list. But when i write lsmod | grep fglrx it says that it is being used by 1 process.

Thanks!

Getting ATI 3d to work is hell. I've done this a few times so I know but it was on gentoo so it was a bit different. This is very tricky to get it running. You will need to recompile your kernel and the ati drivers a few times to get it right probably. Wait till i get home and ill post more help.

fglrx will not be found in the ps list. It is built into the xwindows system.

To see if it is running type:
bash$ glrxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes (this should be the output if 3D is supported.)
If it says 'yes' type:
bash$ glxgears
this will give you your fps or frames per second. It wont be that high since radeon support sucks in linux unfortunately.
A distro like SuSE should give you the option to enable 3D for your card during the installation. Or maybe even after using SaX or YaST. If you can't do it automatically I will help you do it manually. You will need to possibly recompile your kernel because if you wont want to use the kernels direct rendering and there are things you need and need to get rid of most likely, so I hope you installed the kernel source, then you need to install xfree-drm and maybe the ati drivers (I forget what exactly and ati support is weird there is no general way to do it. some cards work better with the kernel rendering, some with the ati drivers in the forums i read people had different levels of success with each) recompile xwindows, and hand edit your Xf86config file, which isnt as hard as it sounds.

Thanks a lot!

Firstly, i downloaded the new ati drivers 3.9.0. I installed them with the same procedure and get the same error messages. Now i type
fglrxinfo | grep render and get
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect

By using SaX i can't get 3d support and ati says that the procedure should be made manually. I'm ready to spend time for recompiling the kernel and all the other you said but please be simple as i'm a complete newbie.

Thanks!

hmm it should say something along the lines of:

bash$ glxinfo | grep render
disabling TCL support
direct rendering: Yes
Open GL rendering string: Mesa DRI Radeon 20020611 AGP 1x x86/SSE No-TCL

If you have direct rendering available.