From: Andrew Jewett (jewett.ai_at_gmail.com)
Date: Thu Nov 03 2011 - 15:56:37 CDT

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 8:12 AM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>  I'm soliciting feedback from any VMD users that are running
> on Linux systems using the ATI GPUs or graphics chipsets, to
> find out how stable the current crop of ATI drivers are.
> For a period of a few years, there were stability problems
> with the ATI drivers on Linux, but things have slowly improved
> and if possible, I would like to turn off some VMD safety code
> that prevents the old buggy ATI drivers from crashing, since
> this code costs a significant amount of performance in cases
> where the drivers are working fine.  In order for me to make
> this change safely, I would like to hear from people that
> are using the ATI/AMD commercial graphics drivers with VMD
> on Linux, in particular in the case where they have disabled
> the safety code using the VMDDISABLEATILINUXWORKAROUND
> environment variable.  It would be nice if we could turn off
> this code for VMD 1.9.1 by default, but only if the current
> crop of ATI/AMD graphics drivers are stable enough.

I have only run VMD a few times and I have not noticed any problems so far.

I have not made any modifications to my VMD configuration, and I am
not using a .vmdrc file. (I suppose this means the
VMDDISABLEATILINUXWORKAROUND bit still has the default value, as of
2011-03-14.) If you want me to try disabling it, please email me back
how to do this.

I am using:

Version of VMD: 1.9 (2011-03-14), downloaded from top of page:
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Development/Download/download.cgi?PackageName=VMD

OS: Ubuntu 11.10 (fresh install)
Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Driver: ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver

(I am NOT using the "post-release updates". The newer updated driver
was so unstable I could not even run unity with it.)

Cheers!
Andrew

  -- more probably useless details --
I have appended a list of other system details from apport-collect:

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
AplayDevices: aplay: device_list:240: no soundcards found...
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices: arecord: device_list:240: no soundcards found...
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/by-path',
'/dev/snd/controlC1', '/dev/snd/hwC1D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC1D3p',
'/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c',
'/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with
exit code 1:
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. G73Jh
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic
root=UUID=96d3ceac-0984-4d2e-8467-9bd7a6eeaa4b ro quiet splash
vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.0.0-12-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.0.0-12-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.60
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
       Soft blocked: no
       Hard blocked: no
StagingDrivers: mei
Tags: oneiric running-unity staging
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 01/26/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: G73Jh.205
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: G73Jh
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrG73Jh.205:bd01/26/2010:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnG73Jh:p