Comment 36 for bug 98783

I only found this bug tonight - I don't want to seem impatient for a response :-) but I dug a bit deeper, and tried a series of different settings in xorg.conf. My ATI card (too "old" now for fglrx) using the radeon driver does offer some configuration options.

I ultimately decided that --- with my 256MB RAM video card, and with X duplicating that size in virtual memory /twice/ --- that I'd try this Device-section setting:

    VideoRam 128000

Now, /usr/bin/X starts up and uses about 400MB (at login prompt). When you login, it jumps to a bit over 500MB (running Compiz here) - that's 300 MB less than usual.

I've tried 3d accelerated games on this laptop like the wonderful Penumbra trilogy) and they just don't cut it - so as long as I can function day-to-day in Compiz with my 'heavyweight' business/development apps, I'm ok this way.

I'd like to understand why 2x the card RAM size needs to be allocated, though :-/ Once my machine starts swapping, it gets ugly fairly quickly.

Maybe this will help someone - and I'll still be watching for some solution to this issue. This is NOT windows, after all..... :-)