Ubuntu Installation Guide

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

The fglrx driver supports Radeon 8500+ and the X-series cards (see release notes). When running the dpkg-reconfigure commands you can accept the defaults whenever you aren't sure.

Installing the driver

All Platforms:

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

64-bit users:

You have to downgrade to an older version of libdri.a due to an incompatilbity with the ATI drivers. Download it here

Change to download directory:

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/

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

mlomker@mlomkernote:/$ 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)

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 8.18.x drivers

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:

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 driver

Reboot.

Installing the new driver

Download the ATI driver installer: Click here

All Platforms:

Change to the download directory. You might get some errors regarding dependencies during the dpkg process. You can ignore them since they should be resolved when you run the upgrade step.

sudo apt-get install gcc-3.4 module-assistant build-essential fakeroot dh-make debconf
sudo sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.18.8-i386.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/breezy
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-control_8.18.8-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.18.8-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.18.8-1_i386.deb
sudo apt-get -f upgrade

64-bit users: The 8.18.8 release is missing some files in the 64-bit installer that will cause the package generation to fail. Refer to this bug report for a workaround.

Compile the kernel driver:

sudo module-assistant prepare
sudo module-assistant update
sudo module-assistant a-i fglrx

Update the xorg.conf file:

sudo aticonfig --initial

64-bit users:

You have to downgrade to an older version of libdri.a due to an incompatilbity with the ATI drivers. Download here.

Change to download directory:

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/

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 session.

Confirm that it worked

mlomker@mlomkernote:/$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 1.3.5395 (X4.3.0-8.18.8)

Troubleshooting

Madwifi Drivers

In order to continue using the madwifi driver you can do the following before removing the linux-restricted-modules package and rebooting.

cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile
sudo cp ath_hal.ko ../madwifi