Radeon 9200

[pamindic]

Can anyone tell this total newbie if a Radeon 9200 graphics card is compatible with Knoppix? If not, what's a good alternative to buy?

Thanks a lot

Pamindic
London

[mbmalone]

I have one of these cards, too.
I think it has the same problem as the nvidia based cards, in that the drivers are not open source.

It's supposed to work, though.

Michael

[martianrobot]

I'm not sure about the very latest KNOPPIX release but I am using 3.2 and the 9200 is not detected by the live CD. I have my KNOPPIX installed to hard disk and the same applies. It is useable as it defaults to a safe VESA mode - I've got mine running at 1280x1024 on my TFT screen - it's just a bit laggy as there is no 2D acceleration , let alone 3D.

Does anybody know if the latest KNOPPIX release does detect the newer Radeons? Or the forthcoming 3.4? And if so does it provide hardware acceleration for 2D & 3D?

There are proprietary drivers for all Radeons from the ATI website http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html but these are only available in RPM format, and the package doesnt seem to install under KNOPPIX using the instructions ATI provided, probably because KNOPPIX is debian based. Or am I being dumb and you can install RPMs under KNOPPIX?

The good news is that you can get open source drivers for Radeons, up to and including the 9200. The bad news is that I can't seem to find an easy-to-download-and-install package that will work under KNOPPIX. Does anybody know where and how?

Additional good news... I've just found out that the new Xfree86 window system release 4.4.0 has native support for the 9200 built in http://www.xfree86.org/4.4.0/radeon.4.html including accelerated 3D support & even dualhead. Will 4.4.0 be the base for any future KNOPPIX release?

I'm off to try find out how to upgrade to the new Xfree86 now.

(Just in case you are a complete noob and wondering what Xfree86 is, it is the software system that allows nearly all desktop Linux distributions to have a GUI, connecting KDE and other desktop environments to your hardware)

[Stephen]

The good news is that you can get open source drivers for Radeons, up to and including the 9200. The bad news is that I can't seem to find an easy-to-download-and-install package that will work under KNOPPIX. Does anybody know where and how?

http://www.kano.mipooh.net/ has a script for knoppix to install the ATI drivers. Download the script and use chmod +x script.sh and then ./script.sh in the directory containing the script. Best done from the console (choose console login from the menu in the KDM login screen) and as root /etc/init.d/kdm stop then run the script.

Additional good news... I've just found out that the new Xfree86 window system release 4.4.0 has native support for the 9200 built in http://www.xfree86.org/4.4.0/radeon.4.html including accelerated 3D support & even dualhead. Will 4.4.0 be the base for any future KNOPPIX release?

Not until they change the new license they have released, a lot of people are PO at them and you will never see that release in most linux distros.

[dede]

I have a 9200 vivo made by club and it works from cd or hdd. not yet on tv screen

[Chronotinman]

You can convert rpms to debs using alien. (alien -d /path/package) but i was unable to get the deb to install. better to just find a prebuilt one. if anyone finds one that works, let me know

[snakebns]

Thank you Stephen for this info. I have just installed Knoppix on my hard drive, and this info was invaluable and painless for a newbie (this is my first linux install ever!) . My ATI drivers for my 9800 is working perfectly.

[TheBurn]

Hi...I have knx 3.4 installed on hdd, but if i install ati drivers (with the installation script) i can't run X Window with this configuration... It writes

Screens found, but no have usable configuration.

... I must set driver fbdev or ati in XF86Config-4... With this drivers X Window starts, but with errors :/