[clug] Radeon 9200 and Xorg suckage

[Michael Still]

hacklberry at hacklberry.net wrote:
>>I just picked up a Radeon 9200 PCI card for my MythTV machine, and I am 
>>using Xorg with Drapper Drake (Ubuntu). I've tried both the ati driver 
>>(which loads the radeon driver), and the radeon driver, and they both 
>>consume about 80% of the CPU while the machine is playing back video.
>>
>>This is a reasonably grunty machine, and I'd really like the CPU back. 
>>Have other people seen problems like this? I can't find any 
>>documentation that suggests that the ATI binary drivers will fix it, but 
>>I am tempted to give it a go. Does anyone know if the binary drivers 
>>work better at video playback?
> 
> I wonder if you could post your:
> 1. /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Files"
         FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
         FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
         FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
         FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
         FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
         FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
         FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
         # path to defoma fonts
         FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
         Load    "bitmap"
         Load    "ddc"
#       Load    "dri"
         Load    "extmod"
         Load    "freetype"
         Load    "glx"
         Load    "int10"
         Load    "type1"
         Load    "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
         Driver          "kbd"
         Option          "CoreKeyboard"
         Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
         Option          "XkbModel"      "pc104"
         Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
         Driver          "mouse"
         Option          "CorePointer"
         Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
         Option          "Protocol"              "ExplorerPS/2"
         Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
         Identifier      "Radeon 9200"
         Driver          "ati"
         BusID           "PCI:3:1:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
         Identifier      "Radeon 9200"
         Driver          "ati"
         BusID           "PCI:3:1:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
         Identifier      "Radeon 9200 port 2"
         Driver          "ati"
         BusID           "PCI:3:1:1"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
         Identifier      "DELL 2405FPW"
         Option          "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
         Identifier      "Default Screen"
         Device          "Radeon 9200"
         Monitor         "DELL 2405FPW"
         DefaultDepth    24
         SubSection "Display"
                 Depth           1
                 Modes           "1920x1200" "1680x1680" "1600x1200" 
"1280x1024"
"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
         EndSubSection
         SubSection "Display"
                 Depth           4
                 Modes           "1920x1200" "1680x1680" "1600x1200" 
"1280x1024"
"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
         EndSubSection
         SubSection "Display"
                 Depth           8
                 Modes           "1920x1200" "1680x1680" "1600x1200" 
"1280x1024"
"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
         EndSubSection
         SubSection "Display"
                 Depth           15
                 Modes           "1920x1200" "1680x1680" "1600x1200" 
"1280x1024"
"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
         EndSubSection
         SubSection "Display"
                 Depth           16
                 Modes           "1920x1200" "1680x1680" "1600x1200" 
"1280x1024"
"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
         EndSubSection
         SubSection "Display"
                 Depth           24
                 Modes           "1920x1200" "1680x1680" "1600x1200" 
"1280x1024"
"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
         EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
         Identifier      "Default Layout"
         Screen          "Default Screen"
         InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
         InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
         Mode    0666
EndSection

> 2. output of lsmod (after you re-started the xserver)

Sure, when I get home...

> 3. /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Sure, when I get home...

I'm in Seattle until Friday night, and the machine is in Mountain View, 
so I will poke it more when I am physically close to it.

> The ATI's proprietary driver name is 'fglrx' therefore the above
> "which loads the radeon driver" does not make much sense,

No, there are two drivers in Xorg. The "ati" driver, which loads the 
"radeon" driver. Then binary driver is "fglrx" as you mention, and separate.

Mikal