new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

I just installed Ubuntu and love it! However, I'm having some mighty problems with dominions

first, graphics run SUPER slow. I have to disable the animated backgrounds. Is this a problem with linux? or does it indicate issues with by gfx card? I uninstalled the proprietary drivers because they were causing linux to hang up when attempting to reawaken. I'm pretty sure there are still to open source drivers in place, are they really that bad with graphics?

second, I can't change resolution at all. its stuck in default (something like 1280 x 768 or something). whenever I click on the option to change resolution, dominions simply quits.

help please?

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

What graphics card do you have?

The proprietary drivers may be the only accelerated 3D drivers available. If so, yes the open source drivers are that bad. Getting the drivers set up correctly is the solution.

I'm unsure about your second problem. It may be related. I'd try to get your drivers set up and see if it goes away.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

card is ATI Radeon 4850 chipset (the exact model is HIS ATI Radeon 4850 IceQ Turbo 512... or something like that)

I didn't know there was a setting up the driver. I simply enabled the restricted drivers in the hardware driver manager and it said it automatically configured it. I went into the configuration utility that then came with the driver, but I don't recall there being anything interesting in there (stuff having to do with monitor color and such; a lot of options were simply grayed out).

it runs just fine until it tries to reawake. it restarts just fine whenever I have to manually push the button and turn the damn thing off after hanging on reawake attempts. There is a noticable improvement in how the windows and such move across the screen. when the driver was active movement was silky smooth, and the fade ins and outs and minimize fades looked perfect. with the driver off a little trace of frames as the windows move, come up, and minimize is visible.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

No, you have installed propertiary drivers, those are not open source, that's why Ubuntu prompted you to confirm if you want to install them. You wouldn't need that in general, the open source drivers should be well enough for Dom3, you don't need to squeeze the extra 5-7% performance out for it.

That's a Dom3 bug which was introduced in the last version, so far only encountered on the Mac. It should be fixed when the next version is released, though it isn't clear when that will be. For the time being, you have to change resolutions through the command line.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

err... come again?

that posts explicitly states that I have _uninstalled_ the proprietary drivers. They were causing problems

If the open source drivers are adequate (within 5-7 percent of proprietary) then what other reasons should I seek to explain why dom3 graphics are so slow? and it's only those animated graphics. 4GB of ddr3 pc12800 ram and an AMD Phenom II 720... It goes through the "please wait" screen so fast I can't even read it...

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

Oh, I can't read. :)

That was just an estimate from the top of my head, I have no idea how much difference there is in general.

It might be the GLX/DRI settings. I can't help you with those, though, I always have animated backgrounds turned off, along with grass and other things.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

well, I was sifting through synaptic packages and noticed I don't have the open source versions of the ati drivers installed (what's it running off of then?) I installed them and things were worse than with proprietary!!! w/ ati's drivers it would just hang up during a reawaken, with the open source ones (I assume they were since they were gotten through synaptic and not by enabling the restricted driver in hardware driver manager) Ubuntu wouldn't load up at all!

since Ubuntu wouldn't load, I had the option of starting a root shell. I did that and used aptitude to uninstall the offending drivers; it booted right up then.

Also, I found this: http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubu....2FHibernation
apparently the issue with reawakining is very common. It seems there's some steps to fix it. I'll give it a try, see if it works, and then see if it helps dominions.

I wonder if updating the BIOS to the most recent version would help? I just put the machine together and have too busy with school to play with it much.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

You shouldn't necessarily use the open source drivers called "ati", as the performance for those depend on particular chipsets, in your case the "radeon" drivers might be better. You should better ask around the Ubuntu community for more help.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

Can you test dominions with the proprietary drivers on to see if that's indeed the issue?

What do you mean by waking up? Are you actually suspending/hibernating it? I've heard that suspending/hibernating is something Linux isn't yet all that good at. I don't know whether that's still the case.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

I could enable the drivers just to test it, then remove them again.

It is the 'suspend' option I am using. I hadn't heard there was any problem with it and linux. If that's the case maybe I should stop using it?

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

If you are using Gnome try turning the visual effects off (Preferences->Apeareance->Visual Effects) they seem to cause problems with Dom3. And use proprietary drivers. :)

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

I can't remember where I heard about "suspend" problems, but I do know that it crashes my friend's (very dodgy) laptop running Ubuntu (probably 8.04), and also my laptop (utterly ancient and running Puppy Linux, which is a much less slick kind of beast so not very surprising).

The Ubuntu forums should know lots about this. They are excellent. But in general I believe it is probably worth using proprietary drivers. Maybe there is a workaround for the suspend crash.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

Linux doesn't have a problem with suspend mode in general, though, those are hardware/driver issues. I have no troubles with suspend/resume. Puppy Linux is an abomination, BTW... :cool:

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

Just to help clear up any confusion, ATI's proprietary drivers are generally called fglrx and there are a couple of open source ones that ship with Xorg, radeon generally being the one you would want to use from among those. These drivers are almost certainly kernel modules, and so you can check which one is loaded with:
(More refined methods exist on various distributions, but the above should work just about anywhere.)

Also, you may want to look at the output of glxinfo, specifically the vendor strings. If you see Mesa in one of them, then there is a chance (though not a guarantee) that software rendering may be being performed.


As part of the troubleshooting process, I would definitely start by stripping down the in-game rendering options as much as possible, and then adding them back one by one or cranking them up in increments. It could be that a particular option, such as grass, is the killer.

Re: new linux user having probs w/ dominions
 

OK.

well I reinstalled the proprietary drivers. Everything runs fine and I'll just not use suspend. Also dominions runs great now. I can set everything to the highest detail, except for battle detail which is on 'very high', a step below the highest 'too high'. On very high I get ~27 fps, on too high it was about 5 :o