fglrx (possibly an abbreviation for FireGL and Radeon X driver) is the name of the Linux display driver used for ATI Radeon and ATI FireGL family video adapters. It contains open source and closed source parts. For proper Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) support, the kernel source code for the currently running kernel must be installed and compiled. The driver can work without the kernel module, but DRI will not be available. “Software development” redirects here. ... “AMD” redirects here. ... Code complete redirects here. ... is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function, type, or field of use. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... It has been suggested that closed source be merged into this article or section. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... “ATI” redirects here. ... ATI Radeon is a brand of graphics processing units (GPU) that has been manufactured by ATI Technologies since 2000 and the successor to their Rage line. ... FireGL 4 video card FireGL was a company in Germany that built workstation-class graphics accelerator cards based on IBM geometry and rasterizer chips. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... In computing, a binary blob is an object file loaded into the kernel of a free or open source operating system without publicly available source code. ... In computing, the Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) is an interface used in the X Window System to securely allow user applications to access the video hardware without requiring data to be passed (slowly) through the X Server. ... A kernel connects the application software to the hardware of a computer. ...

Versions

Versions exist for XFree86 and X.Org for both x86 and x86-64 systems. ATI releases a new version approximately every four weeks. XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System . ... The X.Org logo The X.Org Foundation is the consortium holding the stewardship for the development of the X Window System. ... x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... The AMD64 or x86-64 is a 64-bit processor architecture invented by AMD. It is a superset of the x86 architecture, which it natively supports. ...

• 8.42.3 was released on October 23, 2007 AIGLX support, Xserver 1.4 support. Release Notes
• 8.41.7 was released on September 12, 2007 HD 2xxx (R600) and new driver codebase. Release Notes
• 8.40.4 was released on 13 August 2007. TV Out Functionality and Catalyst Control Center Linux Edition features are introduced. Release Notes
• 8.39.4 was released on 21 July 2007. The kernel module build no longer fails on kernel version 2.6.22.
• 8.38.7 was released on 28 June 2007. Hotfix for segmentation fault when using aticonfig --initial
• 8.38.6 was released on 25 June 2007. It adds support for RHEL5 and fixes the moving a video window between two monitors in a big desktop configuration and playing multiple videos at the same time with textured video issues. Release Notes
• 8.37.6 was released on 31 May 2007. It introduced the Catalyst Control Center version 1.0 and resolved few issues. Release Notes
• 8.36.5 was released on 18 April 2007. It added support for the latest Linux Kernel, 2.6.20. Release Notes
• 8.35.5 was released on 28 March 2007. It introduced a Beta version of the 'AMD Catalyst Control Centre: Linux Edition' to replace the FireGL Control panel Release Notes
• 8.34.8 was released on 21 February 2007. It adds support for ATI Xpress™ 1250 IGP and fixes the XVideo Extension loading segfault on X1K cards and x86-64 server. Release Notes
• 8.33.6 was released on 10 January 2007. It adds support for X.Org 7.2 and Linux Kernel 2.6.19. Release Notes
• 8.32.5 was released on 13 December 2006. It adds support for the ATI Radeon® X1650 Support and X.Org 7.2 RC2. Release Notes
• 8.29.6 was released on 20 September 2006. It adds support for the latest Linux kernel, 2.6.18. Version 8.29.6 ends support for Radeon R200 based cards (i.e., the series of Radeon 8500 through 9250). Release Notes
• 8.28.8 was released on 18 August 2006. It adds support for ATI Radeon Xpress 1200, 1250 and 1300 models and allows IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads to switch the active display devices using the Fn+F7 hotkey. ATI now publish a unified installer which detects the host architecture (x86 or amd64) and installs the appropriate packages. The driver now remembers which display devices were activated across restarts, rather than unilaterally enabling all attached displays. Some problems with XVideo have been identified with this release. For more information see the release notes
• 8.27.10 was released on 27 July 2006 and adds support for X.Org 7.1 as well as Fedora Core. Issues relating to OpenGL with Java2D and launching XGL on display :0 have been fixed. However, TV Out is still unsupported on Radeon X1x00 cards and the OpenGL issues with Radeon 9000 appear to be unresolved.
• 8.26.18, released 26 June 2006, is mostly concerned with minor bug fixes. However, it does include an events daemon which allows hotplugging of Digital Flat Panels and thermal throttling of the GPU through daemon events to prevent overheating.
• 8.25.18 was released on 24 May 2006. It includes support for FireGL V7350, V7300, V7200, V5200, V3400, V3350 & V2200 and enables DPMS support by default. X.Org 7.0 is now supported by the installer. At least eleven issues have been resolved with this release.
• 8.24.8 was released on 18 April 2006 and includes support for X.Org 7.0 and kernel 2.6.16. According to the release notes the driver now supports the Radeon X1300/X1600/X1800/X1900 (including Mobility versions of these) as well as adding accelerated video support on Avivo cards.

is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... The graphics processing unit (GPU) codenamed R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000 series and the FireGL 2007 series video cards developed by ATI Technologies. ... is the 225th day of the year (226th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 108th day of the year (109th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 87th day of the year (88th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. ... The Radeon 8500 (a. ... is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... Lenovo Group Limited, formerly known as Legend Group Limited, is the largest personal computer manufacturer in the Peoples Republic of China, and as of 2004 is the eighth largest in the world. ... IBM ThinkPad R51 ThinkPad is the brand name for a range of portable laptop and notebook computers originally designed and sold by IBM. Since early 2005 the ThinkPad range has been manufactured and marketed by Lenovo, which purchased the IBM PC division. ... The X video extension, often abbreviated as XVideo or Xv, is a video output mechanism for the X Window System. ... is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The term Daemon has several meanings: Daemon (mythology) - see also Demon Daemon (computer software), a background process Dæmon (His Dark Materials) in the Philip Pullman trilogy of novels His Dark Materials Daemon (Warhammer) Daemon (Warcraft) Daemon Sadi (SaDiablo) is a character in the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. ... Hot swapping is the ability to remove and replace components of a machine, usually a computer, while it is operating. ... Digital Flat Panel (DFP) is a video connector for flat panel displays. ... “GPU” redirects here. ... is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The FireGL range of graphics cards is a series fabricated by ATI for use with CAD (Computer Aided Design) and DCC (Digital Content Creation) programs, usually found in workstations. ... VESA Display Power Management Signaling (or DPMS) is a standard from the VESA consortium for managing the power supply of video monitors for computers through the graphics card. ... is the 108th day of the year (109th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

New Driver Architecture

On 2007-09-05 AMD announced (press release) their new Linux driver architecture that included Radeon HD 2000 R600 support, AIGLX, and performance improvements. Phoronix had delivered coverage of this announcement in an AMD 8.41 Display Driver Preview and other articles. The performance improvements were noted as upwards of 90% faster than the previous driver. Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Since R600 is a codename, it coincidentally refers to different things: Refrigerant R600, also known as N-Butane Radeon R600, Advanced Micro Devicess next generation unified shader architecture and Direct3D 10 graphics processing unit. ... Compiz running on Fedora Core 6 with AIGLX. Accelerated Indirect GLX (AIGLX) is an open source project founded by Red Hat and the Fedora Linux community to allow accelerated indirect GLX rendering capabilities to X.org and DRI drivers. ... Phoronix is a technology website that offers product reviews, Linux distribution screenshots, interviews, and news while maintaining a pure Linux orientation. ...

Criticism

Richard Stallman holding his sign "Don't buy from ATI, enemy of your freedom"

AMD/ATI Linux support has been heavily criticized over the last number of years. From stability issues to lack of AIGLX support AMD/ATI proprietary drivers have not been received well. Furthermore, 2D benchmarks show that ATI cards using these drivers are two orders of magnitude slower than the competing NVidia cards in basic tasks Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16, 1953), often abbreviated rms,[1] is a software freedom activist, hacker,[2] and software developer. ... Compiz running on Fedora Core 6 with AIGLX. Accelerated Indirect GLX (AIGLX) is an open source project founded by Red Hat and the Fedora Linux community to allow accelerated indirect GLX rendering capabilities to X.org and DRI drivers. ...

In fact, the responses to Slashdot articles over the last number of years demonstrate the severity of the problem. A Look at the State of ATI Linux Drivers (2005), The State of ATI Drivers on GNU/Linux (2006), Insight Into AMD's Linux Driver Development (2007)

Alternatives

Most cards will work, without acceleration and with reduced display resolution, using the vesa driver. The open source radeon, r128 and atimisc drivers (available in the xserver-xorg-video-ati package in Debian) provide 3D acceleration. Unfortunately, these drivers only work in chipsets r1xx, r20xx, r3xx, and r4xx — that is, from the original Radeon through to the Radeon X1050, inclusive. Before AMD released 2D specifications for its graphics card family, there was an open source project named Avivo (more info), which aimed to support Radeon R520 chipsets through reverse-engineering. Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Debian is a free operating system. ... Development Radeon 256 The first-generation Radeon GPU was launched in 2000, and was initially code-named Rage 6, (later R100), as the successor to ATIs aging Rage 128 which was unable to compete with the GeForce 256. ... The Radeon 8500 (a. ... The Radeon R300 (introduced August 2002) is the third generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. ... The Radeon R420 core from ATI Technologies was the companys basis for its 3rd-generation DirectX 9. ... ATIs R520 core (codenamed Fudo) is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9. ...

Concurrent with the released specifications AMD announced it had hired Novell, the developers of SuSe, to develop an open-source X11 driver using the specifications.^{[citation needed]} This driver is named radeonhd. Radeonhd development focuses on modesetting before more specifications are released by AMD. Although there are some success reports(progress report), the development process towards 3D support is expected to be slow. Novell Inc. ... SUSE (properly pronounced , but often pronounced /suzi/) is a major retail Linux distribution, produced in Germany. ...

External links

• Unofficial Linux ATI Wiki
• Linux Driver and Software page in ATI knowledge base
• The Fglrx page on the Thinkpad wiki

• fglrx options use in X configuration files (x*.conf). This is a manpage created from public records and is available here via cvs.