Glxgears is not a Benchmark

2008-11-21T15:58:35Z

62.214.245.26: removed viagra spam

glxgears is an OpenGL program that reports FPS (frames per second) numbers. However, it is a very limited 'test'. Unlike most modern 3D games glxgears:

* has an extremely low vertex/polygon count
* does no texturing at all
* only simple, flat shading is used (except inside the hole in each gear is simple smooth shading)
* all vertex data is stored in a display list, so almost nothing passes between host CPU and video card once rendering is started. This mostly implies video card fill rate is limited. But, see next point.
* the default window size is 300x300, a large part of which is not even rendered into, so it's not even a good fill rate test
* the entire render step consists of only 21 OpenGL functions calls, of which only 6 are unique. This is not a very good OpenGL API stress test. Something like glean would be better.

So to summarize, glxgears only tests a small part of what you typically see in a 3D game. You could have glxgears FPS performance increase, but your 3D game performance decrease. Likewise, you could have glxgears performance decrease and your 3D game performance increase.

(Information taken from posts by Septor and dataangel - Thanks!).

==Debunking the Myth (fglrx updates)==
Your FPS numbers went up/down after you loaded the latest version! This is not because there was a change in the driver. Since the program is so wild and sensitive to load (since it barely uses any computational power), any 100+ FPS increase or decrease can easily be attributed to a music program or OpenOffice document you have open. You can also wildy change FPS in glxgears by simply unfocusing the window. Want a 1000FPS increase?? UNFOCUS THE WINDOW! Of course this is meaningless, since you can't enjoy Doom3 if you can't see the window.

==Debunking the Myth (glxgears is a benchmark)==
glxgears is not a benchmark.

You can use it to show that DRI works, but it does not even test that well. There's glxinfo or your Xorg.0.log to tell you if DRI was enabled as well.

And for the people who're wondering why CPU usage is 100%, while glxgears seems to be giving quite a lot of fps: yes, this is normal, because it tries to get the max number of frames per second. Checking CPU usage for glxgears is '''not''' a way to see if direct rendering works.

==Check fglrx install status==
# fglrxinfo
# glxinfo
# vi /var/log/Xorg.0.log
# dmesg
Use any of those commands to view the status of the fglrx module. Did it initilize correctly? Did it load DRI? Look in those files. If glxinfo reports direct rendering as "no" or the OpenGL renderer as "Mesa", then you are currently using software (un-accelerated) rendering.

==Real Benchmarks==
===OpenGL===
*Unigine Sanctuary & Tropics Demos - [http://unigine.com/download/]
===GTK===
*Gtkperf - offered by any major distribution's repository.

Ubuntu Hardy Installation Guide

2008-06-25T12:34:26Z

62.214.246.171: /* Follow These Instructions Carefully */

== Installation ==

For most users it won't be necessary to go into installation and configuration details of the driver. Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) provides a notification saying that there are restricted drivers available. You just have to go there (Restricted Drivers Manager) and enable the "ATI accelerated graphics driver". Ubuntu will then install and configure the driver for you. If this does not provide the optimal solution you were looking for, please read ahead.

=== Method 1: Install the driver the Ubuntu Way ===

This will install the current driver in Ubuntu's repository. It is older than the one AMD has released, but will be supported by the Ubuntu people. Catalyst 8.3 is in the repositories.

<pre>
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a
</pre>

The second line may not be necessary as you may already have restricted modules installed. Run it just in case. If the third line fails, you probably don't have the restricted repository enabled. See Pre-Installation.

After this, you'll may need to edit Xorg.conf:

<pre>
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
</pre>

In the device section, if it is not already there add:

{{Box File|/etc/X11/xorg.conf|
Driver "fglrx"
}}

Then to make sure Xorg is set up correctly, you'll have to let aticonfig "initialize" it:

<pre>
sudo aticonfig --initial -f
</pre>

After this you should be able to restart your computer and have the driver working. To test type

<pre>
fglrxinfo
</pre>

into a terminal. If the vendor string is not ATI, but Mesa, check [[#Removing Mesa drivers]]

==== Post-Installation Tweaks ====
To enable hardware accelerated video on pre-R500 cards, edit '''/etc/X11/xorg.conf''' to include the following lines without '''[...]'''

<pre>
Section "Device"
[...]
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
[...]
EndSection
</pre>

Note that when Visual Effects (Compiz) are active, flickering and artifacts may occur in OpenGL applications and hardware accelerated video windows (particularly with R300 chipset). To prevent this, disable Visual Effects.

=== Method 2: Manual Method (installing Catalyst 8.6) ===

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run

(this installer is for 32bit '''and''' 64bit systems)

==== Follow These Instructions Carefully ====

Switch to the directory you downloaded this into and the run the following. (Make sure ''universe'' and ''multiverse'' are enabled in your repository sources).

<pre>
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)
</pre>

This installs the dependencies for the installer.

If you are using the x86_64 architecture (64 bit), be sure to inst "ia32-libs" before proceeding!
Also, if you have a problem getting the libGL.so.1, create a symbolic link to it:
<pre>
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
</pre>

Remove any old fglrx .debs:
<pre>
sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb
</pre>

Now use the following command to create the .deb files you will be using for installation:

<pre>
sudo sh ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/hardy
</pre>

Now we have to blacklist the driver in Ubuntu's repository, so that the new driver will be used.

<pre>
sudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
</pre>

Add "fglrx" to the line "DISABLED_MODULES"
{{Box File|/etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common|
<pre>DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"</pre>
}}

Please note that after the modification above, the "Restricted Driver Manager" will signal "ATI accelerated graphics driver" not enabled (unticked). This is perfectly correct. At the end of the installation procedure it will signal in Status: "in use" (green light), but NOT enabled. It simply means that the fglrx module contained in the linux-restricted-modules package is not enabled, but another fglrx module (8.6) is in use.

You may also need to edit the file(s) (if they exist):
<pre>sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-restricted
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-local</pre>

Put a # in front of the line "blacklist fglrx", if it is present. Otherwise, the kernel module will not load automatically, and you will not get 3D acceleration.

Install .debs:

<pre>
sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_*.deb
</pre>

==== Additional 64-bit instructions ====

If you have a 64 bit install, the above dpkg command may complain that "Errors were encountered while processing: fglrx-amdcccle". This is because of a dependency of the amdccle package on 32 bit libraries. If you receive this error, issue the following command after the above dpkg command, which will force the installation of all of the 32 bit dependencies, and then the amdccle package:

<pre>
sudo apt-get install -f
</pre>

Catalyst 8.6 on 64-bit systems requires the ''--force-overwrite'' command in the above ''dpkg'' command:
<pre>
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite xorg-driver-fglrx_8.501*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_8.501-0*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_8.501-0*.deb
</pre>

When installing the packages, if <tt>xorg-driver-fglrx_8.501</tt> fails to install due to a diverted file conflict, you can [http://emmetcaulfield.net/Tech/ATIv84+Hardy/ fix the package with this procedure].

====Fix for an error:====
If you are having this error:
<pre>
dpkg-shlibdeps: failure: couldn't find library libfglrx_gamma.so.1 needed by debian/xorg-driver-fglrx/usr/bin/fglrx_xgamma (its RPATH is '').
</pre>

Fix it by doing the following:
<pre>
sudo sh ati-driver-installer-8-5-x86.x86_64.run --extract driver
cd driver/arch/x86_64/usr/X11R6/lib64
ln -s libfglrx_gamma.so.1.0 libfglrx_gamma.so.1
cd ../../../../../
sudo sh ati-installer.sh -- --buildpkg Ubuntu/hardy
</pre>

==== Finishing the Install: Configuration ====

If you've used fglrx previously, you will not need to do this.

Now you'll have to edit your xorg.conf
<pre>sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf</pre>
and add the following line to the Device section (if it does not already exist):
<pre>Section "Device"
[...]
Driver "fglrx"
[...]
EndSection</pre>
Save and exit, then run
<pre>sudo aticonfig --initial -f</pre>
in a terminal. If it does not error you should be fine. Finally, reboot the computer and type
<pre>
fglrxinfo
</pre>
into the terminal. If the vendor string contains ATI, you have installed the driver successfully.

Please note: Depending on the particular ATI card that you own, you may or may not automatically have all of the relevant driver features enabled. R500 and R600 cards (X1xxx, HD series, and newer) in particular will need TexturedVideo enabled in Xorg.conf (rather than the traditional VideoOverlay) in order to support Xv accelerated video playback.

=== Removing Mesa drivers ===
If fglrxinfo reports that Indirect rendering by Mesa is in place, even though you have installed ATI driver, check:

:*Remove the package xserver-xgl.
::'''Explanation:''' If you installed this previously in order to make compiz work, it will not allow direct rendering on your display. You can check out if this is what it causing the problem by running
::<pre>DISPLAY=:0 glxinfo | grep render</pre>
::If it returns an ATI renderer, it means that xgl is being displayed indirectly on the display 1. (Taken from [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=740287])
::'''Warning:''' This might make your compiz stop working as it is configured to use XGL. A solution might be to run the Envy script in order to configure compiz.
::Also, if Compiz stopped working due to "Composite" problem, check that
<pre>
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
</pre>
::is set.

:*Check you are running the correct kernel.
::'''Explanation:''' If you're upgrading from Gutsy to Hardy in some instances the Grub bootloader does not get updated and the new kernel is not loaded.
::Run in a terminal:
::<pre>uname -r</pre>
::If the output starts with 2.6.22 or below you are not using the current kernel and the Ati drivers will not load properly.

If this doesn't help, try [[Ubuntu Gutsy Installation Guide#Verifying]], or other links: [http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Troubleshooting#No_3D_acceleration], [http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problems_with_fglrx#Perpetual_Mesa_GLX_Indirect_on_Debian], [http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-475699.html].

== Specific Issues ==

=== Hang at logout ===

If you experience hangs when logging out (of X) try disabling atieventsd with this command:

<pre>sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f atieventsd remove</pre>

=== Suspend/Hibernation ===

Suspend hybernation '''works''' with the latest driver.

For ATI X1400, to get the laptop to wake up from suspend, I had to change the following in /etc/default/acpi-support:

<pre>
SAVE_VBE_STATE=false

POST_VIDEO=false

ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false
</pre>

=== Error! This module/version combo is already installed ===

Simply uninstall the previous version before installing the new one with
<pre>
sudo dkms remove -m fglrx -v 8.493.1 --all
</pre>

[[Category:Installation Documentation]]

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Glxgears is not a Benchmark

Ubuntu Hardy Installation Guide