Debian Installation Guide

As of November 2005, ATI's drivers are in the non-free area of Debian. Make sure your /etc/apt/sources.list contains "contrib non-free" as well as main. You will, however, have to build your own kernel modules.

Install the driver

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install module-assistant fglrx-driver

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

Now restart X, or reboot for the driver changes to take effect.

Confirm that it worked

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 1.3.5461 (X4.3.0-8.19.10)