Ubuntu

Tips and Tricks

• To build your own .deb packages for Ubuntu you will need to install at least the following packages from the apt repositories:
  • build-essential
  • fakeroot
  • dh-make
  • debconf

• Moreover for latest releases, the following package simplifies module installation:
  • dkms

• If you want to use a newer version of the driver than the one which comes with your distribution and you have linux-restricted-modules installed, you have to disable the fglrx kernel module from linux-restricted-modules because it will invariably get in the way of your more recent drivers. Detailed information on how to achieve this can be found in the distribution-specific guides.

• You can configure the driver with the aticonfig tool, more information can be found at Configuring.

Installation

• Natty 11.04
• Maverick 10.10
• Lucid 10.04
• Karmic 9.10
• Jaunty 9.04
• Intrepid 8.10
• Hardy 8.04
• Gutsy 7.10
• Feisty 7.04
• Edgy 6.10
• Dapper 6.04
• Breezy 5.10

Unsupported adapter

Specific notes for Radeon HD 6xxx cards with no official support yet (see Hardware#Not_Yet_Supported_or_Unoffically_Supported).

After installing the fglrx module, you might get the following message when trying to configure X through aticonfig:

 aticonfig: No supported adapters detected

Also you might see that the fglrx module has not been used by Xorg (no line saying ‘‘LoadModule: "fglrx"’’ in /var/log/Xorg.0.log). Also on my system I had segmentation faults from the ati Catalyst Control Center (amdcccle).

At this stage, do not panic! This does not necessarily imply a problem with the module, indeed your card may be not officially supported. Numerous reports on forums show that users end up using the drivers successfully anyway, e.g. for an HD 6850 card (BARTS codename). To force Xorg to load the driver for fglrx anyway, just manually create a minimal xorg.conf file, as suggested on this wiki (follow the tutorials). The module should then load and everything else should (hopefully) work. (On my system even the Catalyst Control Center was working at that point.) Except you have the "Unsupported hardware" mark on a corner of the screen, but that is another problem... (Forum users report they have been able to get rid of this as well, although caution should be used as the hack scripts seem not to work with version 11.1 of the Catalyst drivers.)

Related Resources

• Ubuntuforums.org Video forum: Dapper