ATI Radeon 9800 support

[iraparks]

reading other threads they state that ATI no longer support Ubuntu 9.10, is there a latest version of another Distro that will allow ATI 9800 drivers to be installed and used?

Thanks in advance.

Is ubuntu 8.10 the latest version that still supports older 3d graphic cards?

[kingluke]

I don't know off-hand about the 9800, but I have a 9600xt that works beautifully in Debian. I didn't have to do any configuration after install either.

In ubuntu it took me a week of compiling my own mesa/DRI 3d drivers before it worked properly. I found out only after switching to Debian out of curiosity. Debian may be worth a try but a try. both 9600 and 9800 are r300 cards so they should use the same driver.

It's probably worth looking into. I'm sure there are other distros that work 'out of the box' too, but this is my experience.

good luck

[iraparks]

thanks for the quick reply, I will try Debian tonight!

[iraparks]

wow, just went to the site to download the Debian Distro and am surprised by the number of ISO files to download. Is it necessary to download all of the CD's? Is there a 1 CD or DVD version like Ubuntu? if not I may have to hold off. Thanks again

[kingluke]

Hey,

It just depends what system you have.
I found the minimal installer to be very good as it downloads everything it needs as it goes. The most likely one to get is the i386 version (if your system is intel or AMD based.)
Unfortunately I can't yet post links on these forums, so google'
Official netinst images for the "stable" release
select the top hit and choose the i386 version if your processor is intel or AMD. You can choose to download via bittorrent if you like, (first option) or directly from the Debian project (second option) then burn the ISO to CD and jobs a good'n!

[kingluke]

Justn read your post again and realised I didn't answer your question at all.

YOu only need to use one image. There are many images for different computer architechtures/people without fast internet. Most people will be using an i386 architecture, and have broadband connections so can choose the minimal installer for i386 whcih will have just enough on the CD to start the installer and download everything else it needs while installing. This is generally a good way to go as you only install what you need.

[iraparks]

will do thanks again