Ubuntu Hardy Installation Guide

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Installation

For most users it won't be necessary to go into installation and configuration details of the driver. Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) provides a notification saying that there are restricted drivers available. You just have to go there (Restricted Drivers Manager) and enable the "ATI accelerated graphics driver". Ubuntu will then install and configure the driver for you. If this does not provide the optimal solution you were looking for, please read ahead.


Method 1: Install the driver the Ubuntu Way

This will install the current driver in Ubuntu's repository. It is older than the one AMD has released, but will be supported by the Ubuntu people. Catalyst 8.4 is in the repositories. 

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

The second line may not be necessary as you may already have restricted modules installed. Run it just in case. If the third line fails, you probably don't have the restricted repository enabled. See Pre-Installation.

After this, you'll may need to edit Xorg.conf: 

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

In the device section, if it is not already there add:

File: /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Driver "fglrx"

Then to make sure Xorg is set up correctly, you'll have to let aticonfig "initialize" it: 

sudo aticonfig --initial -f

After this you should be able to restart your computer and have the driver working. To test type 

fglrxinfo

into a terminal. If the vendor string is not ATI, but Mesa, check #Removing Mesa drivers

Post-Installation Tweaks

To enable hardware accelerated video on pre-R500 cards, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to include the following lines without [...] 

Section "Device"
	[...]
	Driver		"fglrx"
	Option		"VideoOverlay"	"on"
	Option		"OpenGLOverlay"	"off"
	[...]
EndSection

Note that when Visual Effects (Compiz) are active, flickering and artifacts may occur in OpenGL applications and hardware accelerated video windows (particularly with R300 chipset). To prevent this, disable Visual Effects.

Method 2: Manual Method (installing Catalyst 8.5)

Download the installer: ati-driver-installer-8-5-x86.x86_64.run (this installer is for 32bit and 64bit systems)

Follow These Instructions Carefully

Switch to the directory you downloaded this into and the run the following. (Make sure universe and multiverse are enabled in your repository sources). 

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

This installs the dependencies for the installer.

If you are using the x86_64 architecture (64 bit), be sure to inst "ia32-libs" before proceeding! Also, if you have a problem getting the libGL.so.1, create a symbolic link to it: 

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1

Remove any old fglrx .debs: 

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


Now use the following command to create the .deb files you will be using for installation: 

sudo sh ati-driver-installer-8-5-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/hardy

Now we have to blacklist the driver in Ubuntu's repository, so that the new driver will be used. 

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

Add "fglrx" to the line "DISABLED_MODULES"

File: /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common 
DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"

Please note that after the modification above, the "Restricted Driver Manager" will signal "ATI accelerated graphics driver" not enabled (unticked). This is perfectly correct. At the end of the installation procedure it will signal in Status: "in use" (green light), but NOT enabled. It simply means that the fglrx module contained in the linux-restricted-modules package is not enabled, but another fglrx module (8.5) is in use.

You may also need to edit the file(s) (if they exists): 

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-restricted
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-local

Put a # in front of the line "blacklist fglrx", if it is present. Otherwise, the kernel module will not load automatically, and you will not get 3D acceleration.

Install .debs: 

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.493*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_8.493*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_8.493*.deb

Additional 64-bit instructions

If you have a 64 bit install, the above dpkg command may complain that "Errors were encountered while processing: fglrx-amdcccle". This is because of a dependency of the amdccle package on 32 bit libraries. If you receive this error, issue the following command after the above dpkg command, which will force the installation of all of the 32 bit dependencies, and then the amdccle package: 

sudo apt-get install -f

Catalyst 8.5 on 64-bit systems requires the --force-overwrite command in the above dpkg command: 

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite xorg-driver-fglrx_8.493*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_8.493-0*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_8.493-0*.deb

When installing the packages, if xorg-driver-fglrx_8.493 fails to install due to a diverted file conflict, you can fix the package with this procedure.


Finishing the Install: Configuration

If you've used fglrx previously, you will not need to do this.

Now you'll have to edit your xorg.conf 

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and add the following line to the Device section (if it does not already exist): 

Section "Device"
	[...]
	Driver		"fglrx"
	[...]
EndSection

Save and exit, then run 

sudo aticonfig --initial -f

in a terminal. If it does not error you should be fine. Finally, reboot the computer and type 

fglrxinfo

into the terminal. If the vendor string contains ATI, you have installed the driver successfully.


Please note: Depending on the particular ATI card that you own, you may or may not automatically have all of the relevant driver features enabled. R500 and R600 cards (X1xxx, HD series, and newer) in particular will need TexturedVideo enabled in Xorg.conf (rather than the traditional VideoOverlay) in order to support Xv accelerated video playback.


Removing Mesa drivers

If fglrxinfo reports that Indirect rendering by Mesa is in place, even though you have installed ATI driver, check:

  • Remove the package xserver-xgl.
Explanation: If you installed this previously in order to make compiz work, it will not allow direct rendering on your display. You can check out if this is what it causing the problem by running
DISPLAY=:0 glxinfo | grep render
If it returns an ATI renderer, it means that xgl is being displayed indirectly on the display 1. (Taken from [1])
Warning: This might make your compiz stop working as it is configured to use XGL. A solution might be to run the Envy script in order to configure compiz.
Also, if Compiz stopped working due to "Composite" problem, check that
Section "Extensions"
	Option		"Composite"	"Enable"
EndSection
is set.
  • Check you are running the correct kernel.
Explanation: If you're upgrading from Gutsy to Hardy in some instances the Grub bootloader does not get updated and the new kernel is not loaded.
Run in a terminal:
uname -r
If the output starts with 2.6.22 or below you are not using the current kernel and the Ati drivers will not load properly.

If this doesn't help, try Ubuntu Gutsy Installation Guide#Verifying, or other links: [2], [3], [4].

Specific Issues

Hang at logout

If you experience hangs when logging out (of X) try disabling atieventsd with this command: 

sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f atieventsd remove

Suspend/Hibernation

Suspend hybernation works with the latest driver.

For ATI X1400, to get the laptop to wake up from suspend, I had to change the following in /etc/default/acpi-support: 

SAVE_VBE_STATE=false

POST_VIDEO=false 

ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false
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