Hi Phil- Very rewarding, if not a bit confusing, starting from scratch with the "SL6 Live" installation and THEN making the leap to install the proprietary ATI (release 02/15/2011) drivers worked. In fact, the SL6 Live appeared (literally) to recognize the graphics subsystem in that the installation feedback stream was at a font size (and type?!?) which was readable (if one can speed read).
My objective was not to have proprietary ATI control, but it is present and the performance is what would be expected with this display driver. It was almost perfectly smooth. After most initial prelim installation of system updates and such, graphics failed. But after the delightful success of the initial performance, a quick re-install of ATI things solved the problem(s). I should add that while I was very motivated to get maximum performance (data visualization, not games), the "basic" display driver components which were packaged with SL DVD LIVE proper recognized not only the display card but the monitor model. Thus far keeping fingers crossed. I don't know if I can offer further help others to solve this rather hideous problem(s), but I will endeavor to keep technical information forthcoming. Best regards, Wil On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 1:54 PM, Phil Perry <[email protected]> wrote: > On 16/03/11 20:02, Wil Irwin wrote: > >> Hi Phil- >> >> I VERY much appreciate your suggestion and help. Sadly, these repo options >> didn't solve my problem. >> >> > Hmm :-( > > > "Everything" installed correctly (i.e., without error and a clean install >> report). However, I was unable to make any changes using the SL default >> 'display' GUI. >> >> I noted that elsewhere in the repo documentation (which I hastily ignored >> due to the excitement over your solution), the HD 5970 series was not >> included in the list of supported devices. >> >> > I'm really unsure which models are supported by which driver - I can't seem > to find this information in the ATI documentation. The list of supported > devices in the elrepo.org documentation is for the older legacy driver, > not the current release. > > All I can tell you is that when I go to the ATI driver download page, and > enter your device, it says the current (11.2) driver supports your card. I > have no idea when support was added. Most documentation only states that > current cards are supported by the current driver. > > > Am I missing something completely? I do have experience with Linux >> installations (not an expert by any means). And, specifically, have fought >> with display adaptor installations endlessly. Probably one of the most >> frustrating aspect of getting a new system up and running. >> >> Thanks again for any further guidance you can provide. >> >> > I'm not an ATI user so it's difficult for me to offer much in the way of > informed advice. Do you see any errors in your Xorg logs or anything else > useful to go on? > > Reading back through the thread, about the only thing I can think to check > is regarding your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. By default, SL6 doesn't have an > xorg.conf file. The elrepo.org packages will create a suitable xorg.conf > file during the installation of the drivers. If you've already created one > then the elrepo.org package will try to use that but if it's broken then > it's not going to work. Thus I would suggest uninstalling the > elrepo.orgpackages, make sure you (backup if necessary, and) delete > /etc/X11/xorg.conf > if it still exists and then reinstall the packages. Just a guess really. > >
