Fedora 8 Installation Guide

General Status

• Supported since Catalyst 7.11, which adds support for kernel 2.6.23.

Installation Option #1 Freshrpms.net repository

rpm -ihv http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/8/freshrpms-release/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm
yum install -y ati-x11-drv

and restart your system.

Installation Option #2 Livna repository

rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm

• These instructions on the Unoffical Fedora FAQ work. (In order not to duplicate the the instructions, we provide the link rather than the instructions themselves).

Installation Option #3 via ATI Installer

You can get the latest ATI-Driver here:

Linux Driver

The above bugzilla contains a patch to the firegl module source code. Here is an annotated walk-through for those not familiar with using the patch utility:

• Install the driver interactively

sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run

• Backup the existing module, download the patch

cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/
cp firegl_public.c firegl_public.c.orig
wget -qO- http://ati.cchtml.com/attachment.cgi?id=466 > firegl.patch

• Apply the patch

patch -p0 < firegl.patch

• Now build and install the kernel module

./make.sh
cd .. ; ./make_install.sh

• Create an initial X Server configuration file

aticonfig --initial

• Restart your X Server (by logging out/in or rebooting)

Issues

• AMD/ATI Catalist Control Center (amdcccle) fails to start, see this bugzilla entry.

FYI: this patch (and others like it) is incomplete. It fails miserably with the drm module loaded. It will not work without drm either, and what would be the point? As seen by dmesg:

[drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1898 MBytes.
[fglrx] ASYNCIO init succeed!
[fglrx:KCL_enable_pat] *ERROR* Pat entry 2 is already configured
[fglrx] PAT is disabled!
[fglrx:firegl_init_module] *ERROR* firegl_stub_register failed

The livna rpm incurs the same failure. Stick with F7 and kernel 2.6.22, or use the radeon driver instead.

---

Updated by yangyud:
You need to remove the loaded "drm" module from kernel before install the fglrx module.
rmmod radeon; rmmod drm

See Also

• Frequently Asked Questions#Why does fglrx not work for my bleeding-edge kernel?

Ok, the problem is gdm. I can `startx`, but gdm fails to load with fglrx, and there is no indication in any log as to why. This continues with new 7.11 Catalyst driver. Because of this, the problem is NOT with the driver, rather it is the default GDM time value of 10-seconds. To remedy:

vi /etc/gdm/custom.conf

[daemon]
GdmXserverTimeout=60

This allows enough time for X to startup before gdm considers it dead and aborts the X startup process.

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SORRY I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO ADD A COMMENT HERE AS A NEW USER TO LINUX - I HAVE A INSPIRON 9100 XPS -GEN1 NOTEBOOK - <RADON MOBILITY 9700 VIDEO CARD >

I INSTALLED FEDORA 8 TO THE HARD DRIVE - NO PROBLEMS ALL WORKS WELL {WELL EXCECPT THE USUAL IMBECILIC LINUX WORLD PROBLEM WHERE NONE OF YOU CAN SEEM TO FIGURE OUT HOW THE HELL TO SIMPLY MAKE WIFI CARD INSTALLATION A SIMPLIFIED EVENT AT O/S INSTALL LEVEL... I THINK THIS SITUATION IS JUST ABSURDLY CHILDISH ON THE PART OF ALL THE SO CALLED LINUX GURUS THRU OUT THE WORLD..}

BUT BACK TO THE ISSUE AT HAND. I DOWNLOADED AND MOVED TO THE FEDORA DESKTOP THE ATI LINUX DRIVER PACKAGE. I CLICKED ON IT...IT STARTED SOME KIND OF INSTALL PROCESS AS THE HARD DRIVE WENT NUTTS AND THEN A SMALL WINDOW POPPED UP..IT IT SAID "INSTALL WITH SUPERUSER PRVDLIGES" AND I CLICKED YES... THE LITTLE POP-UP WENT AWAY AND THE HARD DRIVE WENT CRAZY AGIAN , THIS TIME FOR ALMOST 15 OR 20 MINS... IT WAS DEFINATLY DOING SOMETHING... THEN... IT JUST...SEEMED TO BE DONE... I COULDNT TELL MUCH OF WHAT CHANGED OR HAPPENED, I JUST HAVE TO ASSUME IT INSTALLED ITSELF, HOWEVER..I CANT TELL HOW.. AS IM NOT IN WINDOWS ANYMORE TOTO ....

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO TELL IF IT INSTALLED...COMMITTED SELF DESTRUCTION..OR JUST...UNZIPPED SOME HUGE PROGRAM AND THEN SAT THERE DOING NOTHING WHEN IT FINISHED...

SO YEA... YOUR ATI DRIVER INTALL PROCESS SUCKS....ATI...LISTEN UP... WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM... ARE WE BEING FORCED TO GO BACK TO THE DAYS WHEN ATI COULDNT MAKE A WORKING DRIVER TO SAVE THEIR LIFE..??? WHAT THE HELL ATI, IS SO HARD ABOUT JUST.."DOING THE JOB RIGHT YOU MORONS"

THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ATI WAS WHEN THEY HIRED SOMEONE ELSE TO DO THEIR DRIVERS.. THATS WHEN CATALIST CAME TO BE... ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT ATI YOU ARE VERY LUCKY YOU 

ARE IN CANADA .... WHERE MOST OF US CANT PHYSICALLY FIND YOU AND KICK YOUR ASS FROM HERE TO THE HORIZION AND BACK....

CAN YOU TELL THAT IM NOT HAPPY WITH YOU...AGIAN ATI.... IM STILL SITTING ON A NEW $100 WORTHLESS PIECE OF ATI CRAP CALLED AN ATI USB TV 2.0 THAT DOESNT WORK IN VISTA BECAUASE YOU LIE...LIE...LIE AND CONTINUE TO LIE....SAYING THAT YOU WOULD PUT OUT DRIVERS THIS LAST SUMMER FOR IT... YOU LIE ..ATI....

YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK... I THINK YOU JUST SAID FUCK EVERYONE....WHO OWNS ONE...WE ARE SELLING OUT TO AMD AND WE DONT GIVE A RATS ASS ABOUT YOU USB TV 2.0 OWNERS...

WELL... IVE SAID MY PIECE ATI... BE GLAD THAT GOD HAS SPARED YOU FROM MY WRATH...AND PLACED YOU IN A FORIEGN COUNTRY WHERE I CANT PERSONALLY FACE TO FACE TEACH YOU THE ERRRORS OF YOUR WAYS...

AND OH...I JUST PURCHASED NIVIDIA ...FOR MY NEW DESKTOP GAME SYSTEM, I WILL NEVER..EVER BUY A PIECE OF YOUR CRAP AGAIN...