installing graphic card drivers: "Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV370" and "Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset"

Question

I have problems with graphic card drivers both on my desktop and laptop (different ones "Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV370" on desktop and "Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset" on latitude E6500). I think drivers don't work because cards weren't recognized until I have installed mesa-utils.

So firstly, how to test graphic card performance?

And secondly when I am sure that drivers aren't installed, how to install them (on producer's sites instructions are very hard to understand for newbies in linux like me)

I am using Ubuntu 12.04

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

how to test graphic card performance?

If you installed the mesa-utils package you can check with glxgears:

$ glxgears 
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
radeon: Acquired access to Hyper-Z.
291 frames in 5.0 seconds = 58.022 FPS

when I am sure that drivers aren't installed, how to install them

You have several ways:

With lspci -nnkvv -s then add the domain:bus:slot.function, in my case 00:03:00.0:

sudo lspci -nnkvv -s 00:03:00.0
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV515 [Radeon X1300/X1550] [1002:7146] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: VISIONTEK Device [1545:2352]
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 16 bytes
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 19
    Region 0: Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Region 2: Memory at bffe0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Region 4: I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
    Expansion ROM at bffc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
    Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
        Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
    Capabilities: [58] Express (v1) Endpoint, MSI 00
        DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
            ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE- FLReset-
        DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
            RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
            MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
        DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr- TransPend-
        LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <64ns, L1 <1us
            ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
        LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk-
            ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
        LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
    Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000
    Kernel driver in use: radeon

The important part here is the last line where it says "Kernel driver in use".

You can also checking the logfiles:

sudo grep -E 'dri|drm' /var/log/dmesg /var/log/Xorg.0.log

The lshw -c video:

$ sudo lshw -c video
  *-display:0
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: RV515 [Radeon X1300/X1550]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=radeon latency=0
       resources: irq:19 memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:bffe0000-bffeffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:bffc0000-bffdffff

And the good old mesa glxinfo.