User Contributed Documentation

2006-04-19T22:04:03Z

84.160.135.203: spam spam spam

Wiki users should link their contributed pages here for others to find. Create new categories as necessary if there isn't an appropriate existing one.

==Manpages==
There is a project writing manpages to document the driver-part and the applications of the proprietary ATI driver for the Debian distribution. The manpages can be installed on every system. Because driver options heavily lack documentation, any help is appreciated to complete these manpages. The sources can be found [http://cvs.wgdd.de/cgi-bin/cvsweb/fglrx_man/ here].

==Xorg7==
* [[xorg7|xorg 7/probably also 6.9]]
Yes! 8.20.8 (tested with i386 and 2 monitors in bigdesktop mode) works with xorg 7! Possibly older versions work aswell..
==Benchmarks==
* [[Glxgears is not a Benchmark|glxgears is not a benchmark]]. Neither is fgl_glxgears!

==DesktopSetup trouble==
If you are using the latest (at the time of this writing 8.20.8) drivers with a DesktopSetup and you are wondering why both monitors (eg. the RGB and DVI output) are both displaying the left side of the bigscreen, try the following option (which is AFAIK not documented anywhere, I guessed it):

Option "ForceMonitors" "nocv"

nocv stands for No Composite Video and resulted in a succesful bigscreen setup with my ATI X300 at a debian amd64 unstable system (after many hours). Options like

Option "ForceMonitors" "crt1,tmds1"

And many other combinations of crt1, crt2, tmds1, tmds2 and notv don't seem to have any result!

(This piece of documentation was contributed by Ron Rademaker: ron@ttvavanti.nl)

==Related Software==
* How to install and use [[Suspend2]] with fglrx.
* [http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-343029.html rovclock] - an under/overclocking utility. YMMV.

Ubuntu Breezy Installation Guide

2006-04-19T22:02:59Z

84.160.135.203: goddamn spammers...

== Method 1: Installing Breezy's Included Driver (8.16.20) ==

The fglrx driver supports Radeon 8500+ and the X-series cards (see [http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.16.20.html#173867 release notes]). When running the dpkg-reconfigure commands you can accept the defaults whenever you aren't sure.

=== Installing the driver ===

''All Platforms:''
<pre>
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r) #Okay if it is already installed
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg #Select the fglrx driver and 64-bit users should deselect int10a
</pre>

''64-bit users:''

You have to downgrade to an older version of libdri.a due to an incompatilbity with the ATI drivers. [http://mail3.mpr.org/mlomker/libdri.a.gz Download it here]

Change to download directory:
<pre>
gunzip libdri.a.gz
sudo cp /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libdri.a libdri.a.old
sudo cp libdri.a /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/
</pre>

If you wish to revert to any non-fglrx driver you will need to copy the libdri.a.old file back over the fglrx version.

''All platforms:'' Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart your desktop.

=== Confirm that it works ===
<pre>
$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 1.3.5272 (X4.3.0-8.16.20)
</pre>

=== Troubleshooting ===

If you have a widescreen LCD display that is stuck at 1024x768 then it is probably the bug in the 8.16.20 driver that was fixed in 8.18.X (see the next section).

The output of '''dmesg | grep fglrx''' and /var/log/Xorg.0.log are most useful when looking for errors.

== Method 2: Generating/Installing Ubuntu packages for the newer 8.24.8 drivers in Breezy Badger ==

'''Important Warning:''' Installation of this driver requires removing the restricted-modules package in order to work. That package includes drivers for madwifi (Atheros wireless cards), nvidia cards, and a handful of other devices. I provide a work-around for the madwifi drivers, but you need to perform it before removing the restricted modules (jump to end of this this post).

When running the dpkg-reconfigure command you should answer the questions that you know and take the defaults for the rest. You might want to say ''no'' to the monitor detection--it has caused X-Windows to crash for some people.

=== Remove existing fglrx driver ===

Remove Breezy's included drivers if they are installed:

<pre>
sudo apt-get remove xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo apt-get remove fglrx-control
sudo apt-get remove linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r)
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg #select the "ati" module
</pre>

Reboot.

=== Installing the new driver ===

Download the ATI driver installer: [http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.24.8-x86.run 32bit Installer]

This guide refers to the 32bit version of the driver. If you are using a x86_64 System you need the [http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/64bit/ati-driver-installer-8.24.8-x86_64.run 64bit Installer]. The installation procedure should be the same as for 32bit, except some filenames will differ slightly.

Change to the download directory. Make sure that you have the ''universe'' and ''multiverse'' repositories enabled in ''/etc/apt/sources.list'' before doing these steps. [http://mail3.mpr.org/mlomker/sources.list Sample sources.list].

''Install necessary tools:''

<pre>
sudo apt-get install gcc-3.4 module-assistant build-essential
sudo apt-get install fakeroot dh-make debconf libstdc++5 gcc-3.3-base
</pre>

''Create .deb packages:''

<pre>
chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.24.8-x86.run
LANG=C LC_ALL=C ./ati-driver-installer-8.24.8-x86.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/breezy
</pre>

''Install .deb packages:''

<pre>
sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.24.8-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.24.8-1_i386.deb
</pre>

''Remove any old fglrx deb's from /usr/src/:''

<pre>
sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb
</pre>

''Compile the kernel driver:''

<pre>
sudo module-assistant prepare
sudo module-assistant update
sudo module-assistant a-i fglrx
</pre>

''Update the xorg.conf file:''

<pre>
sudo aticonfig --initial
sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
</pre>

Reboot.

=== Confirm that it worked ===

<pre>
$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5755 (8.24.8)
</pre>

(''renderer string'' depends on your hardware and may/will be different)

=== Troubleshooting ===

==== General ====

Look for error messages in /var/log/Xorg.0.log and kern.log.

==== Madwifi Drivers in Breezy Badger ====
In order to continue using the [http://madwifi.org madwifi] driver you can do the following '''before''' removing the linux-restricted-modules package and rebooting.
<pre>
sudo cp /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile/ath_hal.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/
sudo depmod -a $(uname -r)
</pre>

[[Category:Installation Documentation]]

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User Contributed Documentation

Ubuntu Breezy Installation Guide