Troubleshooting

No 3D acceleration
If you see output that looks like this:

$ fglrxinfo display: :0.0 screen: 0 OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect OpenGL version string: 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.4.1)

Make sure you have enabled the fglrx driver in the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You have to open that file as superuser (using kwrite, getdit, vi, ...) and see:

Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]" Driver     "fglrx" ...

Make sure you do not have Xinerama enabled in your xorg.conf! 3D-acceleration is not supported by fglrx in Xinerama mode.

Then try these two commands:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri sudo ln -s /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri Source

In Gentoo "maybe other distros, not sure" you must initiate the ATI opengl interface by typing:

eselect opengl set ati

Or you can try deleting all files from the /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile folder and relinking:

If that doesn't work confirm fglrx is loaded:

lsmod | grep fglrx

If it returns nothing then try this:

sudo depmod -ae sudo echo fglrx >> /etc/modules (If this returns "bash: /etc/modules: Permission denied" then sudo su first.)

If it doesn't still work, open up /etc/modprobe.d/lrm-video with an editor, and uncomment any line(s) that contains fglrx in it.

In case nothing above works, open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-restricted with an editor and comment any line that might contain fglrx word in it.

nForce 3 AGP Issues
For nForce3 based motherboards: if the install seems to go well, but fglrx still fails and $ fglrxinfo tells you you're still running Mesa, there may be a problem with the nVidia AGP-PCI Bridge module's compatibility with your BIOS (or vice versa, I haven't yet investigated). (Confirmed at least for ASUS K8N-E Deluxe.) A solution is to downgrade your BIOS to a previous version (see your motherboard manual/manufacturer's website for instructions). Here is a list of compatible BIOS versions (if your model is not listed here and you find a version that fixes the problem, please add it to the list so others can benefit):

(Update: March 22nd, 2007) It appears that the beta ASUS bios 1012 will also fix the problem. I had the ATI drivers installed but fglrxinfo was still reporting Mesa as the OpenGL provider. I flashed the BIOS to 1012, rebooted into Ubuntu. Problem solved.

''The 1012 bios did not work for my K8N-E deluxe mobo and my x800. Bios 1006 works great though.''


 * ASUS
 * K8N-E Deluxe: Version 1006
 * K8N-E Deluxe: Version 1012 beta
 * K8N Bios versions up 1003 to 1011, my Solution -> K8V-X (Asus with Via-Chipset) It is working really good now. (Always Problems: nForce3 Chipset)


 * ASROCK
 * K8Upgrade-NF3

(A little workaround for K8Upgrade-NF3 is to edit xorg.conf, in section "Devices", adding this line: Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no") It doesn't work with Gutsy release yet.


 * GIGABYTE
 * GA-K8NSC-939: Bios versions: F1, F2

AGP Initialization fails with amd_k7_agp module
With Kernel 2.6.16.x, there came a new feature called "EDAC" which creates a conflict causing amd_k7_agp not to work. This results in a (EE) fglrx(0): [agp] unable to acquire AGP, error "xf86_ENODEV" (EE) fglrx(0): cannot init AGP Message in the error-log.

To resolve the problem, in your kernel config change CONFIG_EDAC_AMD76X=y to (just comment it out) recompile/reinstall/reboot your kernel. Everything should work now.
 * 1) CONFIG_EDAC_AMD76X is not set

Using realtime enabled kernels
Apparently the official driver doesn't support realtime enabled kernels, as installation fails to build the kernel module (see /usr/share/ati/fglrx-install.log). Correct this if I'm wrong.

No high-resolution video modes available

 * Versions of the fglrx driver following 7.12 had problems with video resolutions higher than 1280 x 1024. The modes of the xorg.conf are simply ignored, and the server starts up e.g. with a resolution 1280 x 1024 (even if this resolution is not defined in xorg.conf). This is particularly a problem on LCD displays.
 * This bug documents the problem; it is fixed since driver version 8.2

No XVideo support on 690G integrated graphic chipset

 * Upgrade your BIOS if you get random flicker lines and black screen with a 690G chip.
 * Motherboard using the 690G IGP chipset don't have XVideo support. When you execute the "xvinfo" command you get "no adaptors present". This is the case by using the 8.39.4 FGLRX driver and whenever the "sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv" command or the "sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=opengl" was used. ATI seem to know this as there list TVtime as an application unable to run on a 690G chip.
 * XVideo works with 8-1 release (version 8.45.4). You need to change the defaults in /etc/ati/amdpcsdb (created by amdcccle, loaded by X on start, and saved on exit). With X shutdown, set VideoOverlay=Son, OpenGLOverlay=Soff, and Textured2D=STrue. (Don't use aticonfig or xorg.conf to set these.  At this time, aticonfig and amdccle don't change these settings, and /etc/ati/amdpcsdb seems to override xorg.conf) (Verified on Asus M2A-VM with BIOS 1501)
 * With 8-3 release (8.47.1), to get XVideo working I added Option "TexturedVideo" "true" to the xorg.conf file. It wasn't necessary to edit the /etc/ati/amdpcsdb file as described in the paragraph above; the open GL overlay can be active and it will still work.

System lockup on logout or switch to virtual consoles
If your system locks up after you logout or when you try to switch to a virtual console, this might be an instance of this bug. It is likely that the problem only occurs for users with an Xorg version of at least 7.0. Probably it only affects users of DVI.

There is a workaround: Use a standard D-Sub VGA connector instead of the DVI connector.

This workaround was posted as a comment to another related bug: see here. - Unfortunately "D-sub" users (like me) have the same problem.

BigDesktop (Dual screen) doesn't work after GDM login screen
This can occur on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn & Gutsy.

System > Prefrences > Screen Resolution

Select the resolution that is a combination of both screen resolutions wide and your height.

If X crashes during login, go to a virtual console using Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in,, and comment out the line which looks like the following:

Computer Freezes while using fglrx (UMA and SIDEPORT)
If after choosing fglrx as your driver in either xorg.conf or xfree86.conf files, the computer freezes and becomes unresponsive while trying to start X this may be the solution.

Some ATI cards have the ability to run in three modes: UMA, SIDEPORT, or a combination of both. UMA mode is that one in which the video card does not use its dedicated memory, but rather uses and shares the system memory. On the other hand, SIDEPORT mode is the one in which the card uses its own dedicated memory. And finally, the third mode is a combination of the previous modes in which the card uses both the system memory and its dedicated memory.

If your computer hangs, this settings may be where the solution lies. If your computer hangs, try using either UMA by itself or a combination of both. However, if you choose the combination, make sure that the UMA one is at least 128MB. In my case, I have SIDEPORT 128MB and 128MB UMA. If I choose any less for UMA, it does not work. This is definetly not an attractive solution since it compromises your systems performance. Hopefully, this will be solved very soon.

On some systems, the BIOS screen may not offer a choice of UMA or SIDEPORT. In this case, you can try turning the amount of RAM dedicated to the video card down, from 128Mb to 64Mb for example.

Graphical Anomalies
This was experienced with an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 512mb:

After following instructions for both Method 1 and Method 2, whenever the Composite Extension is disabled, the display would be almost unusable, but the fglrxinfo command would display the correct information. If the Composite Extension is re-enabled the display would be usable, but fglrxinfo would report using mesa drivers.

To resolve the problem it maybe needed to lower the AGP Aperture setting in my BIOS to 128mb (or lower worked too). The AGP Aperture was initially set to 256mb. After setting the AGP Aperture to 128mb, everything worked perfectly; the Composite Extension is disabled, fglrxinfo reports the correct drivers, and direct rendering is enabled. Some systems may require setting the AGP Aperture to the highest setting (256mb or 512mb).

There's been a bug report regarding anomalies in Firefox as well.

OpenGL framebuffer Corruption
This problem has been experienced on Thinkpads (T60p) with an ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5250 running driver versions 7.12, 8.01 and 8.02. Whenever any OpenGL application is rendered, the rendered output appears "scrambled" and unreadable. This problem is not very well documented and both glxgears and fgl_glxgears display this anomaly when testing.

When Anti-Aliasing is forced, the problem resides.

A solution (tested with 8.02 on Ubuntu Gutsy) to this problem is to open the ATI/AMD Catalyst Control Center and expand the item labeled '3D' in the options tree on the left-hand side of the window. From there, select "Anti-Aliasing" and check the box which reads: "Override application setting". Apply the settings and close the control center.

For an example of this anomaly, please see this image

This solution not work on acer laptop with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT. kepfeltoltes.hu/view/080302/atisux_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

Blank Screen with Xorg 1.3.0
If you happen to get a blank screen on X startup and you find lines similar to those in your Xorg.log:

Then you're probably using the ati-drivers with Xorg-1.3.0. If that's the case the only solution (known to me) is to use a version < 1.3.0.

Edit: I got the same problem after using the --add-pairmode argument of aticonfig (using Xorg 1.3.0). My ati mobility x300 seemes to try sending the monitor signal to the vga output (even if no monitor is connected to it). After pressing [Fn]+[F8(CRT/LCD)] the monitor signal sometimes returnes to the internal laptop monitor. By switching to a console or shutting down the X-server, the card switches back to vga...

My solution: overwriting the file /etc/ati/amdpcsdb with /etc/ati/amdpcsdb.default (sudo cp /etc/ati/amdpcsdb.default /etc/ati/amdpcsdb) and restore the xorg.conf (since Xorg replaces /etc/X11/xorg.conf with a failsafe config file). Then reboot the system: fglrx should now work fine again with Xorg-1.3.0.

Radeon GPU fan is very loud / constantly works

 * See bug 499 for additional information.

It seems fglrx has a bug with all X800/X850 cards causing them to heat up excessively even when not in 3D mode. This behaviour will cause the cards' fans to function on full blast continuously. There is no known fix as of driver 8.31.05 or previous. Open source "radeon" driver does not exhibit this problem.

My Ati 1650GT has the same problem.It was normal when I enter ubuntu for 1 or 2minutes,and than ,the fan became crazy..No doubt it's because the temp~

It happens too with Radeon X1800 GTO and Radeon X1900 GT.

Possible solution (at least using a Mobility Radeon X1600): aticonfig --set-powerstate=1

To find out which powerstates your Radeon supports try: aticonfig --lsp

System freezes after logout with GDM or KDM
If you use GDM, which is the default Login Manager on Ubuntu, modify sudo gedit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf

If you use KDM, which is the default Login Manager on Kubuntu, add to the [X-:*-Core] section the following

sudo kate /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc

System freezes at startup of Fedora 7 after installing the driver
Turn off the Redhat Graphical boot from grub config:

Edit the grub config file located at /boot/grub/grub.conf and remove the 'rhgb' from the kernel line in order to disable the Redhat Graphical boot.

System lockup on logout with catalyst 8.01
To solve this issue you need to disable atieventsd. On ubuntu you can run: sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f atieventsd remove

Intermittent Freezes/Lockups due to AGPv3 running at 8x
Try forcing X to set AGP Speed to 4x

((Would be nice to put down WHERE to change this, not just to change this. The same applies to just about every hint shown above.))

+ You add it to the "Device" section for your graphics card in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.