VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 11 2011 - 10:19:21 CST

Andrew,
  Can you try disabling the workaround in your install VMD?
You can do this by setting an enviroment variable in your terminal
shell before you run VMD:
(csh syntax)
  setenv VMDDISABLEATILINUXWORKAROUND 1
(bash syntax)
  export VMDDISABLEATILINUXWORKAROUND=1

I am also disabling the workaround code for the next test versions
of VMD, so you could also just try out one of the pre-release versions
of VMD and let me know how it runs for you. I should have a new VMD
test version posted early next week.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Thu, Nov 03, 2011 at 01:56:37PM -0700, Andrew Jewett wrote:
> 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 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/           Phone: 217-244-3349
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/       Fax: 217-244-6078