changing graphics cards (nvidia to ati)

[johannlo]

If I want to pull out my current graphics card (nvidia 7950gt) and replace with new ati 4850, what would be the procedure on F8?

Is it as simple as

boot as runlevel 3.
yum remove kmod-nvidia
yum install kmod-fglrx

package names may be wrong but you get the drift

Or is it going to be a lot more involved? Also how would this affect working compiz setup?

I realise livna may not have built the latest driver yet but I'm assuming in a month or so it would be there.

Or should I just wait till F10 rebuild time?

[Hlingler]

I don't see why you would necessarily have to remove the nvidia driver. You could leave it in place in case you decide to revert. There should be no conflicts.

I would think that all that is required is to install the appropriate driver package(s) for the new card, and edit xorg.conf to specify the correct driver for the new card , plus any other relevant options. When I switched the first time (from ATI to NV), I just moved xorg.conf aside to a backup location before rebooting to the other card, and let Xorg do the work of generating/figuring out parameters. However, this may not be a good idea with the proprietary drivers.

V

EDIT: P.S. Now I can switch cards at will, simply switching copies of xorg.conf to the appropriate one for whichever card is going in.

[johannlo]

Thanks for the tip.

[leigh123linux]

Originally Posted by johannlo

If I want to pull out my current graphics card (nvidia 7950gt) and replace with new ati 4850, what would be the procedure on F8?

Is it as simple as

boot as runlevel 3.
yum remove kmod-nvidia
yum install kmod-fglrx

package names may be wrong but you get the drift

Or is it going to be a lot more involved? Also how would this affect working compiz setup?

I realise livna may not have built the latest driver yet but I'm assuming in a month or so it would be there.

Or should I just wait till F10 rebuild time?

Is your new ATI card even supported in Linux ! , ( I don't see it listed on the ATI site )

[johannlo]

I've seen a patch floating around (in a phoronix article) that makes it work with the open source driver.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...v770_oss&num=1

Also the article mentions it ships with linux drivers. Hence on that basis I'm thinking fglrx will support it relatively quickly once its packaged. Its just been released in the last few days so I haven't seen any other "i have it working in linux with proprietary drivers" reports.

Haven't put down my money yet anyway so no loss even if it isn't

In any event, main use will be for gaming in XP as long as it works in linux I'm not fussed if the driver isn't great, as long as its stable and runs compiz.

Though having said that, despite all the ATI is going open source hype, my previous experiences with ATI card in linux is nothing but pain, whereas Nvidia cards work fine even if the driver is proprietary.

[mkonopski]

this camera works with vesa drivers i just installed it. Cant make it work witch ati drivers so far. when I changed vesa to ati in xorg xserver crashed. I changed my old gforce 6800gt to ati hd 4850. I'm not sure if this was a good idea.

[mkonopski]

sorry I meant card.

[johannlo]

well at least it works. No desktop effects I presume?

Have you tried radeon driver?
Also have you seen this article. Apparently ATI supply drivers that work (though poor performance relative to wintel driver)

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...nhd_4850&num=1

On a side note, radeon drivers + 7000 (mobile chipset on thinkpad t41 - 4 year old laptop) = desktop effects! Stupendous considering vista probably can't run properly on that machine alone (1.6Ghz Pentium M, 1 gig ram).

[johannlo]

Anyone out there tried one of these cards (ATI 4850) in Fedora and gotten them working with fglrx?