Ubuntu Feisty Installation Guide

The latest fglrx driver supports Radeon 9500 and the X-series cards up to HD2900. Workstation cards are not supported.

Enable "restricted" Repository
Make sure the restricted repository is enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list or this guide will not work!

System > Administration > Software Sources. Check "Proprietary Drivers for Devices (Restricted)" box.

Disable Composite Extension
In Ubuntu Feisty the Composite extension is enabled by default, however, fglrx does not yet support Composite with DRI. In order to disable Composite you have to edit the xorg.conf file: gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add these lines at the end of the file:

gksu mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf kdesudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf Another option is to use nano directly from the terminal. sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
 * Note: Xubuntu does not have gedit. The default text editor in Xubuntu is called mousepad.
 * Note: Kubuntu does not have gedit. The default text editor in Kubuntu is called Kate.

Method 1: Install the Driver the Ubuntu Way
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx sudo depmod -a

Note: The second line of the above may not be necessary. If apt says it cannot find the "linux-restricted-modules" package, try line 3. If that fails, check your sources.list (see top of page)

If the system complains about dependencies, use your preferred package manager to download python2.4 and, if necessary, its dependencies.

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Configure the Driver
sudo aticonfig --initial Then: sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
 * Note Method 2 Users: Before you carry out this step you must reboot your machine. Or else the fglrx driver will not be in use on xorg.conf and using the aticonfig options will cause a memory dump and not intialise the Driver properly.
 * Note: An alternative to the aticonfig --initial command is to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and replace the string "ati" with "fglrx" in the "Device" section. This way you won't lose your old "Screen" and "Monitor" settings. Afterwards you can use aticonfig for setting overlay etc. Another alternative is aticonfig --initial --force if you encounter issues with the first command.
 * Note: Is there an alternative to the previous step?

Finish the Installation
Now save any open document and reboot your system: sudo shutdown -r now
 * Note: An alternative to rebooting is to restart the X Server by pressing your CTRL ALT BACKSPACE keys. You must remove any old kernel modules such as "drm" "radeon" or "fglrx" using the "rmmod" command. Example:

Verifying
Run the following command to check its output to ensure the fglrx driver is installed properly: $ fglrxinfo display: :0.0 screen: 0 OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc. OpenGL renderer string: ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600/9700 Series OpenGL version string: 2.0.6650 (8.40.4) The  should read ATI and not Mesa.

If you see a message like 'Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":1.0"' then you may have to add the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (see ):

Additional configure with aticonfig tool
You can even more configure the driver with the aticonfig tool, more information can be found at Configuring.

For example:
 * use powerplay option to switch power state for battery friendly or performance mode
 * use dual head or one big desktop mode
 * turn second monitor on/off on the fly

Ubuntu-specific Issues
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If suspend is not working
If suspend stops working after fglrx installation, meaning display will not initialize after attempting to resume, then changing a few options has been reported to work for some hardware.

For ATI X700 and ATI X1100 on Acer Aspire 5051:

For ATI X1300 and the ATI X1400 on a Dell Inspiron 9400 or Lenovo Thinkpad T60, also for ATI X1600 on Asus Z96J (using install method 2):