Lockup with DRI and Radeon video

[Dirk]

Red hat 8 new install with an ATI Radeon 7000 (aka VE). Original install
with its kernel work fine. After the post install upgrades including kernel
2.4..20-18.8 the computer will lock hard requiring power down if the screen
saver engages or I try to go into screen saver settings. It's ok if Load
"dri" is commented out.

So from the boot menu I can select the old kernel and it's fine with dri
enabled but lock under new kernel.

Any ideas?

[Alex Yung]

Dirk (dsr@MYSHORTSaracnet.com) wrote:
: Red hat 8 new install with an ATI Radeon 7000 (aka VE). Original install
: with its kernel work fine. After the post install upgrades including kernel
: 2.4..20-18.8 the computer will lock hard requiring power down if the screen
: saver engages or I try to go into screen saver settings. It's ok if Load
: "dri" is commented out.

: So from the boot menu I can select the old kernel and it's fine with dri
: enabled but lock under new kernel.

: Any ideas?

I ran into the opposite situation but same DRI problem with Mandrake.
During my upgrade, my XFree got upgrade to XFree 4.3 but the
kernel did not get upgraded. It appears that some portion of the
kernel video driver is tight to the XFree. Redhat also updated to
"XFree86-4.2.1-21". Are you running this version in your box?

[renrutv]

Dirk wrote:

> It's ok if Load
> "dri" is commented out.
>

Maybe this is just the best solution.

I understand this is an ATI graphics card, but the video driver that comes
from nvidia explicitly states you must comment out the "GLcore" and "dri"
modules in XF86Config. The one that comes with XFree86
4.3 says you need the "GLcore" and "dri" modules. The driver that comes
from nvidia is superior to the one that ships with XFree86. Presumably,
the driver is implementing it's own dri interface that is better than the
XFree86 version.

The point is you may not really need the dri module. I'm not an expert on
X modules, but I believe that dri stands for "direct rendering interface"
and is used for 3-dimensional graphics in "framebuffer mode" (like when
you're running a game that takes over your entire monitor e.g tuxracer).
So unless you run 3-d games, you're not even using it. If you do, your ATI
driver might run faster without it.

Are you noticing any negative side effects to *not* having this module?