intertwingly

Hey Sam,

In theory, the fglrx drivers are what you need for acceleration/direct rendering on that card.  Check if the fglrx kernel module is loaded using lsmod (I think mine autoloads either in hotplug or when the X server starts, but load it manually anyway to see if it supports your card).  You might need to install the ‘linux-restricted-modules-2.6.12-10-386’ (or similar, I’m not quite at Breezy yet) package first.

Then you should be able to tell Xorg to use the fglrx driver when you ‘dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg’.  You might need to install the ‘xorg-driver-fglrx’ package first.

Once up and running (it seems to fall back to the ‘ati’ driver if things break), ‘fglrxinfo’ can be used to confirm everything is good.

Good luck,

Neil

GLX is what you need for 3D acceleration. Video is accelerated by XV. Type xvinfo and see if you have support.
It should look like this:

X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
  Adaptor #0: “ATI Radeon Video Overlay”
  number of ports: 1
<snip>

Also if playing from DVD, make sure you have DMA turned on for your DVD player. Check the ubuntu wiki.

After thinking I had tried all of these combinations, I tried again, and things seem to be working.  glxgears is reporting a respectable 1920 fps.  I can suspend and resume.  I did once see a flicker, but that went away by switching to the console and back (Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-F7).

Here’s what I did from a clean Breezy install:

sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx

Apply the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

--- xorg.conf.bak	 2005-10-24 09:04:07.000000000 -0400
+++ xorg.conf	2005-10-24 09:23:44.000000000 -0400
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@

 Section "Module"
	Load	"GLcore"
-	Load	"i2c"
	Load	"bitmap"
	Load	"ddc"
	Load	"dri"
@@ -72,7 +71,7 @@

 Section "Device"
	Identifier	"ATI Technologies, Inc. FireGL Mobility T2 (M10 NT)"
-	Driver		"ati"
+	Driver		"fglrx"
	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
 EndSection

Apply the following to /etc/modules:

--- modules.bak 2005-10-24 10:22:20.000000000 -0400
+++ modules	2005-10-24 10:00:44.000000000 -0400
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@
 lp
 mousedev
 psmouse
+fglrx

Apply the following to /etc/acpi/prepare.sh:

--- prepare.bak 2005-10-24 10:19:14.000000000 -0400
+++ prepare.sh	2005-10-24 10:19:35.000000000 -0400
@@ -77,10 +77,10 @@
 chvt 12

 # And then try to save some video state
-#if [ x$SAVE_VBE_STATE = "xtrue" ]; then
-#  VBESTATE=`tempfile`
-#  vbetool vbestate save >$VBESTATE;
-#fi
+if [ x$SAVE_VBE_STATE = "xtrue" ]; then
+  VBESTATE=`tempfile`
+  vbetool vbestate save >$VBESTATE;
+fi

 # Now source everything in /etc/acpi/suspend.d/
 for SCRIPT in /etc/acpi/suspend.d/*.sh; do

I’m jealous.  :)

Is this one of the new ThinkPads sold under the Lenovo name?  If so, has much changed besides the addition of a Windows key?  I really loved my A32p, and I’m seriously wanting to buy another TP, but I haven’t heard much feedback about the new ones.

Anyhow, I think it’s really cool that everything works.  That’s extremely impressive.  You mentioned suspend, but does it hibernate, too?  (Not that I ever used that feature in Windows on my old ThinkPad.)

Thanks for posting the details of how you got it working.  That will certainly prove useful.

The T42P looks virtually identical to the T40 it is replacing.  No Windows key.

I suspect that the terms “suspend” and “hibernate” map to specific Windows actions, whereas the Ubuntu equivalents aren’t an exact match.  Looking at /etc/default/acpi-support, it appears that what I was referring to as “suspend” is actually doing is suspending to disk.  The reason why I didn’t use hibernate so much when I ran windows is that resuming after hibernate was almost the equivalent of a reboot whereas I appear to be up and running in about a second after a suspend to disk on Ubuntu.

[link]...

Mmm, this Stellarium Astronomy Software is the kind of exciting gadget for all you geeky APOD lovers out there (well, it is for me) I’ve discovered it as an easy to add package on my Ubuntu Breezy Badger distribution. Which......

I tried switching to the “fglrx” driver. I got the same increase in FPS, but I couldn’t get that driver to display on my external monitor. The monitor claimed “no signal”. So I went back to the “radeon” driver.

Seems like I have the same setup as you, Breezy Ubuntu, T42p

Have you or any of the readers had any luck of extending the desktop on two screens, eg. having a web browser open on the laptop monitor and a programming IDE on the external monitor?

Nexenta [via  Dave Johnson and  Tim Bray] Download.  Unzip.  Burn.  Boot.  I’m to the login prompt on a T42P ThinkPad in under an hour.  I didn’t initially know where to find the user and password despite the fact that Tim had directly link... [more]

Trackback from Sam Ruby

How to get direct rendering from ATI Mobility FireGL T2 on Ubuntu can be found here....

How to get direct rendering from ATI Mobility FireGL T2 on Ubuntu can be found here....

how would the changes need to be modified to work on a ibm tp t41?  the graphics card is a ati radeon mobility 9000.  thanks.

I got everything working--- dual monitor/single monitor fglrx + suspend + hibernate all working on my Ubuntu install for my t42. I will work on other laptops as well. If you want to check it out its at [link]

Hope this helps someone!
-Aaron Snyder

Laptop (IBM Z60m) with External Display using RandR 1.2 - Ubuntu Forums (tags: linux ubuntu dual-monitor ATI) Tips for Gutsy Xrandr compiz radeon driver dual screen - Ubuntu Forums (tags: linux ubuntu dual-monitor ATI) Thinkpad Ubuntu video (tags:...