I've been in this community for a while I've seen progress towards this series of cards, and yet we still lack something major. A fully functional frame buffer/driver.

The point of this thread, everyone who knows something credible about the ati Xxxx series (and others) lack of frame buffer should post info here. The lack of frame buffer is why there is mouse tearing (and possibly even the not so nice-looking fonts, but that could be a remote issue with just my laptop.) Any other information pertaining to building a fully functional ati Xxxx series driver should be posted here. No requests. you may post your card, your problem and information that can possibly be valuable in building a better driver.

What should be posted here:

• Detailed information about what we need (stuff I obviously don't know)
• How we could possibly go about building a fully functional driver/frame buffer
• Anything else relating to this

please no comments against progress of these card drivers. I'm not saying I'm developing it, I'm merely encouraging the development and collecting information relating to this and keeping it in one spot.

Keep it clean, productive, and informational. I will edit this thread as information is posted, thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Affected Cards: 9500, 9550, 9600, 9700, 9800, X200 (maybe not), X300, X550, X600, X700, X800, X850 and related (if there are any.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Current ATi 9500-9800 & X300-X850 frame buffer with all features that nVidia and X1000 cards get is compiled only for PPC (/System/Library/Extensions/AppleNDRV/ATiRuntimeDriver.kext and ATiDriver.kext)

-If a proper frame buffer with no tearing has to be built, it has to implement a hardware cursor. Existing frame buffers like Callisto and XRadeonFB don't have this, but have a software drawn cursor that creates tearing when used in conjunction with QE/CI.(or not)
-XRadeonFB or Callisto simply need VBL service ( hardware or software blit )

-Need to have a working knowledge of C/C++ and IOKit to be able to build a good OS X driver.

- Current ATi 9500-9800 & X300-X850 framebuffer with all features that nVidia and X1000 cards get is compiled only for PPC

(/System/Library/Extensions/AppleNDRV/ATiRuntimeDriver.kext and ATiDriver.kext)

- If a proper framebuffer with no tearing has to be built, it has to implement a hardware cursor. Existing framebuffers like Callisto and XRadeonFB don't have this, but have a software drawn cursor that creates tearing when used in conjunction with QE/CI.

- Need to have a working knowledge of C/C++ and IOKit to be able to build a good OS X driver.

Good luck!

I know that there is more then one person out there that knows something.

seriously people, if you want something to be done about mouse tearing and other features, try contributing rather then complaining about it.

poplars,
can you guide me with the installation of ati mobility radeon? i have an x300 with 128mb, im trying it on 10.4.6, can you send me the needed files and tell me the precise steps needed to get open gl working.. i'll be highly thankful!

Thanks.

this is a thread to encourage the further development of the driver. did you not read? this isn't a support thread for newbies.

but all you need is the koverg patch to get it working. you can track that down your self. also, 10.4.8 supports QE/CI/OGL out of the box apparently. so try that if koverg fails.

no more support newbies.

thanks.

anyone ? seriously, this is the last time I'm bumping this. if you guys let it fall it's your loss (and mine.)

It's not like you had anything to contribute, driver writers know how to make threads too.

We all would like to see stable drivers for ati cards. Fact is...if it wasn't a big of a deal
to get it to work, it would already be out there. I had a 9550 too..worked fine, except
for the mouse tearing. I worked with it for 2 months, and got me a 50 euro Nvidia card
which solved all my problems.

Some people in this forum modify drivers and even the kernel of osx. If the ati problem could
be fixed, it would already have been done me thinkz..


Take a deep breath...and just get a nvidia card

take a deep breath, and buy me a new laptop, buddy.

the point of this thread is to gather information, I do plan to make a driver in the next year if someone hasn't done it already, and I'd like all information pertaining to it in one spot, believe me it makes it a LOT easier to code something when you have everything you need in one spot.

if you can't appreciate the significance of that, you don't deserve to post here.

also, it is possible to fix the mouse tearing. callisto didn't code a hardware cursor in his frame buffer, that's the only reason we have mouse tearing at all. a lot of the people that developed drivers for this project quit before they truly finished.

HW cursor have nothing to do with mouse tearing

XRadeonFB or Callisto simple need VBL service ( hardware or software blit )

that's all

poplars what do you want to hear in this thread? I think, that ordinary users have no any idea, how they can help. I think there are a lot of skilled IOKit people in this community, but info about ATI cards have only ATI releated developers. All, that you can get - it's an opensource X.Org driver for R300 GPU's. And people like Alex Unwinder may have something info.

I never asked ordinary users to reply, only those with information that can help. what's VBL?

I found two recourses that could potentially be useful.

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vo...rol2/index.html (making a program that moves the cursor)

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vo...tion/index.html (vbl)

I guess this is destined to be an issue that nobody bothers to fix eh? I mean, how do you expect coders to be able to jump on this if they have no idea how to fix it?

that is the point of this thread, we need a center of information to aid us in the coding process. I do hope this thread doesn't die.

negative and unhelpful comments should be kept to one's self.

The best solution would be to turn Q.E./C.I. off - but only for the Cursor.... but I already read that this isn't possible.