Ubuntu Installation Guide

Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

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

$ 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 8.23.7 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:

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

Reboot.

Installing the new driver

Download the ATI driver installer: Click here

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. Sample sources.list.

Install necessary tools:

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

Create .deb packages:

chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-i386.run
LANG=C LC_ALL=C ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-i386.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/breezy

Install .deb packages:

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.23.7-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-control_8.23.7-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.23.7-1_i386.deb

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

sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

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

Reboot.

Confirm that it worked

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5695 (8.23.7)

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 madwifi driver you can do the following before removing the linux-restricted-modules package and rebooting.

sudo cp /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile/ath_hal.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/
sudo depmod -a $(uname -r)

Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake)

Method 1: Installing Dapper's Included Driver (8.23.7)

The fglrx driver supports Radeon 8500+ and the X-series cards up to X850.

Installing the driver

sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r) #Okay if it is already installed
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo aticonfig --initial

Reboot.

Confirm that it works

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5695 (8.23.7)

Troubleshooting

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

• It might be necessary to create a symlink to get accelerated OpenGL:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri

• To ensure you automatically get the current linux-restricted-modules package with kernel updates, you should install the linux-restricted-modules-??? package matching your kernel-type (without version numer), e.g. linux-restricted-modules-386, linux-restricted-modules-686 or linux-restricted-modules-k7.

Method 2: Generating/Installing Ubuntu packages for the newer 8.23.7 drivers in Ubuntu Dapper

Important Change: Installation of this driver no longer requires removing the linux-restricted-modules package in order to work. There is a new blacklist feature in Ubuntu Dapper that you can use to go around this.

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

Blacklist fglrx module from linux-restricted-modules:

sudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Edit DISABLED_MODULES to include fglrx

Remove Dapper's included fglrx drivers if they are installed:

sudo apt-get remove xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo apt-get remove fglrx-control
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg #select the "ati" module

Reboot.

Installing the new driver

Download the ATI driver installer: Click here

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.

Install necessary tools:

sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential 
sudo apt-get install fakeroot dh-make debconf libstdc++5 gcc-3.3-base

Create .deb packages:

chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-i386.run
LANG=C LC_ALL=C ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-i386.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/dapper

Install .deb packages:

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.23.7-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-control_8.23.7-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.23.7-1_i386.deb

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

sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

Compile the kernel driver:

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

Note: If sudo module-assistant a-i fglrx doesn't work then run the following:

sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.23.7-1_i386.deb
sudo module-assistant build,install fglrx

This is because the current fglrx kernel source package in Dapper is marked "newer" than the one created by the ATI Installer.

Update the xorg.conf file:

sudo aticonfig --initial

Reboot.

Confirm that it worked

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5695 (8.23.7)

Troubleshooting

General

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

HP dv5029us Notebook PC

If you have an HP Notebook Computer such as the HP dv5029dvus it is needed to modify the BIOS configuration. It seems for some reason using sideport memory (the card's onboard memory only) leads to an apparent system crash although the logs show successful initialization of DRI. It is needed to run the BIOS setup screen, go to memory options, and select UMA+Sideport memory and assign a value to it (I assigned an extra 128M from the system RAM). Boot the computer and the fglrx driver will work. FGLRX version is 8.23.7 on an i386 Ubuntu Dapper install.