= radeon =
Driver for ATI/AMD Radeon based video chips, everything from Radeon 7000 to Radeon HD 4870. Part of [[http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati|xf86-video-ati]], ie. also known as the ”ati” driver. License: MIT

== Latest releases ==

 * 18 Feb 2009: 6.11.0. Bug fixes, output rework. ~-[ [[http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-driver-ati/2009-February/008479.html|changelog]] ]-~
 * 6 Jan 2009: 6.10.0. Bicubic scaling, reduce tearing, more r600/r700 asics supported. ~-[ [[http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2009-January/042191.html|changelog]] ]-~

Next release 6.12.0:
 * Accel support for r6xx/r7xx chips. See [[radeon:r6xx_r7xx_branch]] for more information.
  * ''Note'': r6xx-r7xx-branch (which exists both for xf86-video-ati and xf86-video-radeonhd drivers) is now (Feb 26th) merged to [[http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati|xf86-video-ati]] trunk. So do not switch to the branch anymore, just use trunk.

== Status ==

 * R100/R200 (Radeon 7000 – Radeon 9250) class chips
  * 2D: stable
  * Video accel: stable, [[http://www.botchco.com/agd5f/?p=33|tear free]]
  * 3D: stable.

 * R300/R400/R500 (Radeon 9500 – Radeon X1950) class chips
  * 2D: stable
  * Video accel: stable, [[http://www.botchco.com/agd5f/?p=33|tear free]]
  * 3D: stable.

 * R600/R700 class chips (Radeon HD 2300 – Radeon HD 4870):
  * 2D: initial support, EXA acceleration in development (02/2009: [[http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati/log/?h=r6xx-r7xx-support|r6xx-r7xx-support branch]])
  * Video accel: in development, see above
  * 3D: in development ([[http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/drm/log/?h=r6xx-r7xx-support|kernel drm]])

More 3D information at DRI wiki: [[http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ATIRadeon|ATIRadeon]]. See also [[RadeonFeature]] and [[RadeonProgram]] for feature and supported program lists. And [[http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/R300_Portal|R300 Portal]] for some older stuff.

== What about other drivers? ==

For an alternative R500/R600/R700 driver see [[radeonhd]]. Radeon has some features not available in radeonhd and vice versa, but generally they are starting to be quite close while radeon supports all the cards and radeonhd only r5xx-r7xx.

The differences between radeon and radeonhd with r5xx-r7xx:
 * radeon supports tear-free video playback
 * radeon supports TV-out (experimental)
 * radeonhd supports HDMI audio

The reasons for two different drivers are historical, and starting to be a thing of the past as all the new DRM (direct rendering manager), 3D and KMS (kernel mode setting) work is done elsewhere, in a single place. Both drivers will be continued to be developed as long as they are useful.

For R400 and above there's also an [[ATIProprietaryDriver]] available, which is worse in many aspects but has better 3D performance and features.

== Documentation and Support ==
Please check the included manual page (old version [[http://ftp.x.org/pub/X11R7.0/doc/html/radeon.4.html|here]]) for configuration options. To see or submit real-world reports on the 3D acceleration performance of this driver, see the [[http://www.free3d.org|free3d.org wiki]]

There is an IRC channel #radeon on irc.freenode.net for radeon users and developers.

[[https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=xorg&component=Driver/Radeon|Submit]] a bug report. [[https://bugs.freedesktop.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=specific&order=relevance+desc&bug_status=__open__&product=xorg&component=Driver/Radeon|View]] open bugs.

Development mailing lists are:

http://lists.x.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg-driver-ati - for the ati/radeon driver

http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg - for general Xorg development

https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mesa3d-dev - Mesa / 3D support development.

=== TV Out Support ===

Please check [[radeonTV]] for information about TV out support.

=== Dual-head Support ===
See the [[http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Projects/XRandR|XRandR 1.2 documentation]] for how to set up multiple monitors.

== Known Issues ==

== User-submitted tips ==

=== Building recent version of radeon + mesa + drm ===

Here's how one can install a recent version of radeon + mesa + drm
from git for testing. Instructions for a recent Debian-based distribution with sudo enabled, adaptable to elsewhere.

Alternatively for 1. and 2., use versions provided by the distribution:
 {{{
sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg-dev x11proto-xf86dri-dev x11proto-dri2-dev libxdamage-dev libxxf86vm-dev libdrm2-dev x11proto-gl-dev
}}}

1. clone relevant trees (first use only)
 {{{
git clone git://git.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/proto/dri2proto
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/drm
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/util/macros
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/mesa
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xcb/pthread-stubs
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati

}}}

2. update all trees
 {{{
for file in *; do
(cd $file; git pull)
done

}}}
3. prepare /local/xorg
 {{{
sudo mkdir -p /local/xorg/share/aclocal
sudo chmod  a+rx /local
sudo chmod  a+rx /local/xorg
sudo echo /local/xorg/lib > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/a-local-xorg.conf
sudo ldconfig -v > /dev/null

sudo cat >> /etc/X11/xorg.conf << EOF
Section "Files"
        ModulePath "/local/xorg/lib/xorg/modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection
EOF

}}}


4. build and install everything
 {{{
export ACLOCAL="/usr/bin/aclocal -I /local/xorg/share/aclocal"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/local/xorg/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig
export LDFLAGS=-L/local/xorg/lib CPPFLAGS=-I/local/xorg/include
for file in *; do
(cd $file; ./autogen.sh; ./configure --prefix=/local/xorg; make; echo $file; sudo make install)
done
}}}
