The Radeon Mobility 9000 on Dell Inspiron Notebooks under RedHat Linux

Last updated: 1/14/02

Summary: Does it work? Yes.

I've gotten it to work at native resolution with both 2-D and 3-D acceleration and Xv support under RedHat Linux 8.0.

What else is known to work or not

The XFree86 4.2.0 drivers only provide simple 2-D support at present.
RedHat versions prior to 7.3 don't install easily with this video card.
The working 2-D, 3-D, and Xv come from closed-source ATI drivers.
These instructions only work at native resolution on 1600x1400 or 1400x1050 screens.

How to install on RedHat 8.0

Download the version 2.5.1 (or later) rpm file of fglrx for XFree 4.2.0 from here (ATI's web site)
Make sure the kernel being run has no built-in DRM drivers, only DRM drivers loaded as modules.
(I'm pretty sure this is the case with the stock RedHat 8.0 kernel)
Backup the current files /etc/X11/XF86Config and /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1.2
(just in case something goes wrong)
Get out of X if you are in it, and become root
Install the rpm with:
rpm -i --force file.rpm
(The --force is necessary because the libGL package doesn't cleanly upgrade, so it has to be overwritten)
Run fglrxconfig, give the following answers:
- PS/2 port mice
- generic ps/2 mouse driver
- Emulate3Buttons
- mouse device: /dev/mouse
- kbd: Generic 101-key PC
- layout: U.S. English
- single screen
- refresh rates: HorizSync = 31.5 - 90, VertRefresh = 60
- display mode = 24bit: 1600x1200
- no virtual desktop
- DRI restrictions = none
- application specific profile: Default
- synchronize buffer swaps with vertical sync signal? n
Move /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to /etc/X11/XF86Config
(this is for style only, you could leave the name with the version number in if you want)
Change the long list of font paths in XF86Config to just be:
FontPath "unix/:7100"
(This makes the X server to use a font server, such as is present on RedHat 8.0)
If you have the 1400x1050 screen, you need to make these changes to the /etc/X11/XF86Config file:VertRefresh 40-110 HorizSync 28-90 Modeline "1400x1050" 107.85 1400 1450 1500 1999 1050 1058 1070 1150 Modes "1400x1050"
Restart X, and everything will either work or not. If not, restore backed up files, and restart X.
To double-check, run fglrxinfo and make sure nothing's missing

Known Issues

Power Save Blanking and Console Text Mode

After doing the install, any power save or screen close will turn the display to junk. To recover, press ctl+alt+F1 (this brings up a console, but it's not visible yet), then press Fn+d (this resets the display, and it will probably go blank), then press spacebar (to see the console display), then press alt+F7 (to return to X). Or, to prevent the problem before closing the screen, type ctl+alt+F1 to go into console mode, then close the screen, then type alt+F7 to get back to X later. This all assumes that you are not using console framebuffer support, in which case all text console mode stuff will be garbage no matter what you do (including startup and shutdown messages).

DGA extension not present

The ATI-supplied drivers do not support the XFree86 DGA extension. The only case I've found that this matters is trying to run VMware in full-screen mode (which it won't). VMware still runs fine in a window.