Can't get a working driver for Radeon HD5870 on CentOS

[Nyromith]

Hello,
I installed CentOS 5.5 64-bit version. After (and during) the installation my graphic card couldn't be recognized. The resolution was way below the native (1920*1080), windows moved pretty slowly and scrolling was even slower.

I updated the system - didn't solve the problem. After the update I tried to select the 'radeon' driver from Administration->Display, but after the restart the X server crashed and recovered to the previous configuration (vesa). I tried to install the official AMD Catalyst driver, and after the restart the native resolution was detected, but the interface begun to work even slower (very difficult to move windows and scroll text). The Catalyst control panel couldn't be opened as well.

If there is a way to configure my card, please help me to do it.

[coopstah13]

centos is pretty old, it is intended for server and workstation, and isn't really meant for desktop use

if you like red hat, you should try fedora as you will likely have fewer problems with hardware

ATI official driver may not support version of X11 you have installed on centos, you should double check that

also, only up until recently has ATI support for graphics on linux started to approach support of nvidia, nvidia cards usually don't have problems

[Nyromith]

I had exactly the same problem with Fedora 13 and Catalyst 10.9.
Plus, CentOS is '100% binary compatible' with RHEL, and if I choose 'Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package' I get an option to install RHEL5 drivers.

I planned to use this OS for studying linux administration, and Fedora is changing way to often fot a comfortable learning platform. If there will be no solution, I'll install Fedora 14 that will be released in a week, and until then I'm free to experiment.

Edit:
This is an interesting quote from /var/log/Xorg.0.log that is generated during the boot when the Catalyst is installed:

(EE) fglrx(0): atiddxDriScreenInit failed, GPS not been initialized. 
(WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************************
(WW) fglrx(0): * DRI initialization failed                               *
(WW) fglrx(0): * kernel module (fglrx.ko) may be missing or incompatible *
(WW) fglrx(0): * 2D and 3D acceleration disabled                         *
(WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************************

[coopstah13]

What I would recommend then is to use a desktop distribution and use virtualization software to study the os

Try ubuntu 10.04 or mint 9 and see if either works for you

If you can't get them to work post back they are easier to get going than centos

[Rubberman]

You might try the AMD/ATI web site to get latest drivers for Linux. Ones available via yum on CentOS/RHEL are not likely to work well with new model boards. That said, I prefer to run nVidia cards because their Linux support is far superior (IMO) than AMD's. I run CentOS 5.5 with latest nVidia drivers and have no problems whatsoever - running multiple full-screen, full-motion video at the same time.