Ubuntu

Radeon 1950 pro (RV570) on Ubuntu 12

1) Had problem:
– low resolution
– poor performance (2d too)
– glxinfo showed that it uses software driver
– to have at least any graphics I had to remove xorg.conf (removed it to use auto config, previously it used nv driver)
– when created it and set driver to ‚radeon‘ it failed to load, log:

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so
(II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn’t supported.
(II) UnloadModule: „radeon“

– Reason for radeon load fail: boot parameter „nomodeset“. After removing it the driver started to work. (hint for this: http://www.bitchx.com/log/radeon-f/radeon-f-30-May-2010/radeon-f-30-May-2010-00.php )
2) after reboot card did not get correct graphic modes, I had only 640×480. I had to disable ‚hsync‘ & ‚vsync‘ limit params in xorg.conf section, they were causing higher mode unavailability
3) it still did not find the largest resolution, I had to add it manually with: http://askubuntu.com/questions/271801/configure-modeline-ubuntu-12-04
– even after that it was not permanent. I can set the mode with xrandr call, it was added to xorg.conf, is displayed in GUI settings of monitor, but it can’t be set from that option (after reboot I see 2nd best resolution)
– fixed by advice from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution#Adding_undetected_resolutions – added xorg.conf line Option         „PreferredMode“ „1280x1024_60.00“ to section Monitor
4) Game „vessel“ tell me: ERROR: Missing required OpenGL extensions: – GL_EXT_draw_buffers2
glxinfo says:
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 9.0
I’m probably lacking latest Mesa driver (v 10) to support latest OpenGl – (10.0     (2013-11-30)  9.0 – 2012-10-08) … but there is no easy way how to install Mesa 10 to my Ubuntu 12.04.

Tools:
– call „glxinfo“ shows good results:
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV570

Reading:
– some hints : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI
– comparison of radeon vs fglrx: http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Glxgears_is_not_a_Benchmark
– ubuntu basic info : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver
– comparison XAA EXA UXA : https://kyberia.sk/id/5050946/
3) – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution#Adding_undetected_resolutions
4) – http://www.mesa3d.org/
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa_%28computer_graphics%29