OK, I have recently installed Slackware 10.2 on my desktop machine after running it for several months on my laptop. The main thing I never did on my laptop was get hardware graphics up and running, it just ran on whatever default display stuff it uses. My question is, how can I take advantage of my video card?
I've done some searching and read some stuff, but I decided the best way for me to grasp this would be to get an actual discussion going where I could ask specific questions. So here I go.

What needs to be done to use a video card, in general? I know there are kernel options for graphics stuff (framebuffer/direct rendering/etc) and some of it even refers to specific vendors. I also know there exist drivers for video cards, so what is the difference? Where does a driver come into play, and where does the kernel stuff come in?
Also, where does the X server come in? Do I have to modify the config for X, and if so what am I telling it exactly?

As for specifics about my particular setup, I have an ATI Radeon 9200 using the AGP slot. I haven't done much to my fresh Slack installation, and I have the 2.6.15.6 kernel source ready to be configured and compiled.

Take a look at my thread :http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=402003

It tells a bunch about getting DRI( 3D acceleration) going in X

However:ATI Is....problematic. There are many threads in this forum dealing with it. Try to search the forum for 'ATI 9200'.

It may come down to: It can't be done. ATI's linux support is the absolute worst in the video market.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
That's discouraging. I was looking forward to trying some 3D games in Linux.

Not to say it's not possible....Just may take alot of work

I've been trying in that thread to get some ATI advice going, but havn't had any luck...Just comments like "Going to get Nvidia next."

OK, I have successfully enabled DRI! Thanks for that thread of yours. I did the necessary kernel configuration, and used ATI's latest installer. It installed the driver and kernel module and even modified xorg.conf for me.
Now, I still have an issue. When I boot into CLI mode and startx, it comes up and I get 2000 FPS from glxgears. However, when I exit the window manager I just get a blank screen, the console doesn't return. I think it must still be there, just not displayed (ctrl+alt+del reboots fine, which is fortunate... I haven't tried blindly startx'ing again). Any idea what the issue here could be?

Not sure. My ATI experience is VERY limited. Maybe others can shed some light

Your window manager doesn't return to console properly. Try ctrl+alt+backspace. You can also ctrl+alt+f6, login as root and kill wm.

Do you have the Radeon frame buffer enabled (radeonfb)? If so, you will need to disable it, otherwise what you describe is the result.

I believe I do have radeonfb enabled. When configuring my kernel I enabled everything graphics-related I could find, heh. I will try disabling that now and report back the results.
Some questions in the meantime: What is the frame buffer? What does it do as opposed to what DRI does? Why can I disable it safely, and why would it be causing a problem?

EDIT:
I disabled frame buffer support altogether in kernel config, and after recompiling/installing I lost direct rendering. Should I re-enable frame buffer support, but just not select the specific hardware?

IIRC, the radeon frame buffer and the DRI drivers are both trying to access the same hardware at the same time, hence the problems.

You don't need any frame buffer support for using fglrx (I have it disabled in the kernels on both of my machines).

You will need to rebuild and reinstall the fglrx driver whenever you update, rebuild, etc... your kernel.
If DRI still isn't working, please post any errors that make_install.sh generates, or any other errors that are produced (except for make.sh since that produces lots of warnings that are can be safely ignored).

Well, I managed to get DRI working again by re-running the ATI installer. My kernel has no frame buffer support. However, I still cannot exit the WM properly. And, I can't seem to use any commands blindly either. Where should I go from here?

EDIT:
To be precise: If I exit using my WM's quit command, or if I use the ctrl+alt+backspace sequence, I get a blank (flickering somewhat maybe?) screen which I cannot get to respond other than with ctrl+alt+del. I am able to ctrl+alt+F6 to a different console, however. My harddrive's light comes on at periodic intervals while this is happening.

EDIT:
Also, if I ctrl+alt+F1 to the original console, I can ctrl+C kill X. But then if I try startx again I get that blank screen, and I can't even swith to a different console. Ctrl+alt+del still works in this case.

Bump......

OK, I have successfully installed Unreal Tournament (see here) and played it on Slackware! Yay! When I first tried it, it would give me a bunch of screen gibberish, but then I read about enabling shared memory from this post and after doing that it works. I still have a few issues, for instance I can't go above 800x600 resolution in the game without screen gibberish (my desktop is running at 1200 something though, so it's not the card). The shared memory thing seems to be a requirement of ATI cards.

However, I am still having issues with the inability to exit from my window manager correctly. Does anyone have any suggestions about this?

Another Unreal tournament fan woo hoo what server...add to buddy list *Old_Fogie* I got a shock ball waiting for you. Glad the ATI stuff in cwwilson's thread worked 4 you.