Talk:Ubuntu Hardy Installation Guide

Installing Support for an ATI Graphics card did not work

excuse me, I am an absolute newby in Linux and Ubuntu.

I have a PC with an ATI Fire GL2, which is an AGP graphics adapter. It is not recognized automaticallsy, so Ubuntu can not enter the graphical mode. Therefore I used the Alternate Installation CD, after the Live CD ended without graphics mode.

After installing in the text mode I followed the instructions on

[1]

Method 1 ("the ubuntu way"), to be exact.

I logged into a terminal and typed

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx sudo depmod -a

During these commands, the computer had an internet connection and the message lines did not look like having failed.

Then I wanted to edit xorg.conf using

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

but that did not work, because a graphical mode is not available - the reason to do this all.

I found that there is another editor which works in the text mode so I typed:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

I searched for a section "Device", below it was a line, that it is an autoconfigured device (I missed to note the exact line of the original xorg.conf). I left that line in the file and below it, I added:

    Driver "fglrx"

I quit nano saving the modified xorg.conf.

Then I executed the command

sudo aticonfig --initial -f

which gave the message: Uninitialized file found, configuring Using /etc/X11/xorg.conf

I do not know, if this indicates right or wrong!

Then I was not sure, if I should first reboot or do the test

fglrxinfo

so I did that first which yielded

Error: unable to display(null).

I concluded, that I should do the reboot. Doing so, Ubuntu did not enter a graphical mode.

I could just enter a terminal and check the fglrxinfo command again (giving the same sad result) and then I checked /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Now it looked like this:

...

Section "Monitor"

  Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
  Option     "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
  Option     "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
  Option     "DPMS" "true"

EndSection

Section "Device"

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

EndSection

Section "Screen"

  Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
  Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]"
  Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
  DefaultDepth  24
  SubSection "Display"
     Viewport 0 0
     Depth   24
  EndSubSection

EndSection

Whad did I do wrong and how to proceed to get the graphical mode with this adapter running?

--Melolontha 18:58, 19 October 2008 (UTC)