Catalyst 7.12

ATI Catalyst Linux 7.12 driver

Release date: 20 December, 2007

The driver contains lots of bugfixes. Finally suspend/hibernate works with SLUB.

New Features (according to the release notes)

 * This release of the ATI Catalyst™ Linux driver introduces support for the following new operating systems:

* Red Flag DT 6.0 Support * OpenSUSE 10.3 Support

Resolved Issues (according to the release notes)

 * A memory leak is no longer noticed when running OpenGL applications
 * Running X -configure no longer results in a segmentation fault in the fglrx driver
 * fglrxinfo no longer reports OpenGL Render string: as Mesa GLX Indirect on systems containing an ATI Rialto AGP series of product

Known Issues (according to the release notes)

 * There is no support for video playback on the second head in dual head mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26985
 * Desktop corruption may be noticed when dragging the overlay/video when using dual-display mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29578
 * A black screen may be observed on some hardware when switching to the console or leaving the X window system when a Vesa framebuffer console driver is used. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30687
 * Corruption may be noticed in the lower right corner of the display after the system is running for a long period of time
 * Display flicker may be noticed when the gnome screen-saver starts
 * Diagonal tearing may be noticed when playing a video file using a video player that utilizes the XVideo extension
 * Video playback may look blocky when playing a video file using a video player that utilizes the XVideo extension
 * Video Playback may display wrong colors and additional shadow images when cropping or expanding a video file using a video player that utilizes the XVideo extension
 * Connecting a display device that supports 1680x1050 to a system running Linux may result in a maximum display resolution of 1280x1024 only being available
 * Custom mode lines in xorg.conf may be ignored by the fglrx driver
 * Building RPM packages for Mandriva may fail
 * A system may freeze with the "northern lights" effect. (Radeon Mobility 9600/9700)

Known Issues (according to users)
Some of the issues are the same issues that have been plaguing the driver, just finally acknowledged. The one about the 1680x1050 resolution is true, accept when I tried the driver I could only get 1024x768. Similar issues have also been observed with a Thinkpad T43 and HP 8510p; the native resolution of 1400x1050 cannot be used, and even if it is the only mode defined in xorg.conf, the display starts up with 1280x1024. Same on a MacBook Pro (maximum is 1152x864, should be 1400x900). Bugs 160 and 939 cover this issue.