Compatibility status for ATI Radeon HD5750?

SpectrumDT · #1 18th March 2011, 03:36 PM

Hello.

First off I apologize for asking a stupid and generic question, but I don't know where to go to examine this myself.

I have an ATI Radeon HD5750 video card. I have had a lot of problems with this card in Fedora 13, as I have written about in these three threads:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=252865
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?p=1422759
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?p=1426255

To sum up, my problems are:

1. When running the proprietary driver, Fedora becomes cripplingly slow.
2. When running the open-source driver, video playback is unreliable. Video players crash if maximized.
3. I cannot connect my HDMI TV to my computer.
4. When running the open-source driver, my .xsession-errors file sometimes grows explosively.

Right now I am using the open-source driver because of problem #1.

Last December I was told that there were new drivers coming out "soon" that might help. Does anyone know if anything has changed since then? Are there new drivers that should work?

If not: Can I improve compatibility by changing to another version of Linux? Either upgrading to Fedora 14, downgrading to Fedora 12 or trying another distribution?

Again, I apologize for the stupid question. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

Fenrin · #2 18th March 2011, 08:14 PM

I don't have slowness problems with Catalyst 11.2 on my Fedora 14, Radeon 5750 should be supported fine. The kernel module for the driver were probably not built correctly.

If you use a old kernel, you could update to kernel-2.6.37-2.fc15.*.rpm, and also install kernel-devel-2.6.37-2.fc15.*.rpm (or kernel-devel-PAE if you use a PAE kernel!), kernel-headers-2.6.37-2.fc15.*.rpm.
And then reboot to the new kernel and install the installer *.run package. Afterwards "aticonfig --initial".

In /usr/share/ati is a log file, which you can check for possible kernel module built errors.

(if you want to update your kernel, you can download it here and install it via yum install kernel*.rpm. Kernel 2.6.38 isn't supported by ATI/AMD binary drivers yet.)

Tquilha · #3 19th March 2011, 12:26 AM

I have an ATI HD 5850 and it's working great with the Catalyst drivers.
Remember to update your kernel and install the kernel headers and kernel devel packages before installing the driver.

solo2101 · #4 19th March 2011, 05:49 PM

I been using ATI proprietary driver and before update 10.7 or 10.6 (i don't remember which one, sorry) these drivers were a pain...
lately these drivers have been working really nice for me, the only thing i notice is that you have to uninstall it if you want to do a kernel update,

if you go the AMD page, and download the newest drivers from there (11.2) and then follow the instructions on the "release notes" document, theres a link to it at the download page, you should be golden, (well they work for me)

in my case... I always do a automatic installation (painless, the easy way)... but you can choose the "Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package" option (never done it before)...

you may also want to check this thread:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=124643

although I never had a problem with these drivers...

slippery4678 · #5 20th March 2011, 07:53 PM

I am new to the forum and new to Linux so I hope someone can help. I cannot figure out an issue with the graphics. I have an ATI HD5750 and followed some instructions to get the Catalyst Control Center 11.2 installed. I thought once the computer recognized the card, that the graphics would greatly improve but it didn't happen. Everything (videos, firefox) looks like I booted into safe mode for Windows 98. If anyone can guide me I would greatly appreciate it. Also, if you could tell me what some of the commands mean during instruction that will help me learn quicker. Thanks.

Fenrin · #6 20th March 2011, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slippery4678

...

ok first you could check your kernel versions with "uname -r". And then check if the versions of kernel-headers and kernel-devel (or kernel-devel-PAE, in case if you use a PAE kernel) match your used kernel version. You can use the command "yum info kernel-devel kernel-headers" to do this.

gcc has also to be installed. You can also check if fontconfig, freetype, zlib and libstdc are installed, but these are either installed by default or not absolute necessary I think.

If the versions of kernel-devel or kernel-headers is older than your used kernel remove them with "yum remove kernel-header kernel-devel" if there was a dependency issue you could use "rpm -e --nodeps kernel-devel kernel-headers" and then install the new versions with "yum install kernel-devel kernel-headers".

Before you install it again you should excecute /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uinstall.sh first, which will deinstall it. And then you can run the installer again.

To check if the kernel module were built correctly open the file /usr/share/ati/fglrx-install.log. If there is a line which says "build succeeded with return value 0", it should be fine. Afterwards run "aticonfig --initial" as root, which will create the xorg.conf file at /etc/X11/

If you don't play much games, the Open Source Radeon driver which is installed by default should be very ok.

slippery4678 · #7 21st March 2011, 01:40 AM

Checked the kernel versions and they are the same (2.6.35.11) I couldn't find the file "/usr/share/ati/fglrx-install.log". I have all the CCC settings to the highest, resolution 1680x1050. The desktop background and screen saver are the only things that have a crisp look. I don't get it.

Fenrin · #8 21st March 2011, 09:43 AM

Did you use this guide or did you use the *.run package from the amd site?

slippery4678 · #9 21st March 2011, 03:18 PM

I thought I used the guide from this site but I don't recall doing steps 4 & 5. Is there a way to undo what I did, or can I just run those commands over again?

Fenrin · #10 21st March 2011, 05:59 PM

are those packages installed?: kmod-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst-libs.i686
Check it with "yum info *catalyst*"

It also shouldn't do any harm if you install akmod-catalyst too.

Afterwards do step 4 and reboot. If something went wrong, it will probably show any error messages during boot (press ESC to see the messages).

If it does not work, you could remove above packages, remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf and then either use the *.run packages from the AMD.com site instead or use the OpenSource Radeon driver (you don't have to install it, it's should be installed by default). If you install the *.run packages excecute the command "aticonfig --initial" as root after installation.

slippery4678 · #11 21st March 2011, 06:54 PM

Ok. This seemed to have worked. I installed Chrome and the graphics look better and my movies are looking cleaner too. Firefox is still a bit pixelated with icons and buttons which I don't get. I really appreciate all the help and I'm sure I will have more problems to be solved in the future.