ATI Video Card Install Guide

[linuxnoobie]

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I found this somewhere but i don't remember the link so i have to post the document here.

Please take caution when doing this stuff. If things really get messed up as far as the video card goes you can do this.

Install the ubuntu cd then choose the recovery option this will then give you a promt that will say enter root password or hit control-D. Type the root password and then type in sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg at the prompt then follow the instructions. This is better than reinstall the ubuntu all over again. Does this work yes i have done it twice already

Revert to Xorg driver
If (for any reason) the fglrx install fails, you can revert to the Xorg driver by executing
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
and selecting the "ati" driver, or simply restoring the previous /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, if you made a backup.


First thing to do is run this in the terminal to see if it's installed

fglrxinfo

If you don't have it run this apt-get install fglrxinfo


Then follow these steps. If you have the ATI X1300 Pro card like i do you must go to STEP 2 instead. If Method 1 does not work for other cards you might try Method 2 also

The only thing i had to do at the end of all this was run the ati-driver-installer-7-11-x86.x86_64.run again and choose the automatic option. This for some reason allow the ATI Catalyst to open. You will see this below in one of the steps. sudo bash ati-driver-installer-7-11-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy. This is what i did the first time it installed fine and gives you the custom driver for gutsy but when i went to open the ATI Catalyst it would never open until Installed it my way above.

Here are the directions below. Have patience you will do this over about 3 times before you get it right, LOL

Installation
For most users it won't be necessary to go into installation and configuration details of the driver. Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) 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.

[edit] Method 1: Install the Driver the Ubuntu Way
This will install the driver that is currently in the repositories. It may be older than the current version from AMD.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a
Note: The second line of the above may not be necessary. If apt says it cannot find the "linux-restricted-modules" package, try line 3. If that fails, check your sources.list (see top of page)
If the system complains about dependencies, use your preferred package manager to download python2.4 and, if necessary, its dependencies.
(Note: This method did not work with ATI X1300 Radeon on Gutsy whereas method 2 worked perfectly for us. 26/10/2007)

[edit] Method 2: Install the Catalyst 7.11 Driver Manually
Note: This is just an alternative installation method for the section above. It might help if you still get 'DRI missing' errors.
Note: If you are running the -rt kernel, you will fail to compile the kernel module with "FATAL: modpost: GPL-incompatible module fglrx.ko uses GPL-only symbol '__rcu_read_lock'".

Download the ATI driver installer: ati-driver-installer-7-11-x86.x86_64.run (this installer is for 32bit and 64bit systems)
Change to the download directory. Make sure that you have the universe and multiverse repositories enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list before doing these steps.
There is a detailed manual with screenshots at Ubuntu Wiki.

By default, Ubuntu did not enable the Universe and Multiverse repositories, but now in Gutsy, both Universe and Multiverse are activated by default.
Install necessary tools:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper \
debconf libstdc++5 linux-headers-generic
Create .deb packages:

sudo bash ati-driver-installer-7-11-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy
note: if this step fails with a signal being caught, and you are running the script on an NFS-mounted directory, copy it to a local partition, and it will work.
If this step fails on amd64/x86_64 with a No such file or directory message about missing files in X11R6/lib, follow these instructions and come back here. Also check that your downloadpath does not contain spaces.

Blacklist old fglrx module from linux-restricted-modules:
As Ubuntu Gutsy's linux-restricted-modules package includes the fglrx module from an old driver version (8.37.6), we have to blacklist this module to make sure the new kernel module which is needed by the new driver will be used instead.

Ubuntu/Gnome users type in:
gksu gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Kubuntu/KDE users type in:
kdesu kate /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 grapichs 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 (7.11) is in use.

Install .deb packages:
sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.433-1*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_8.433-1*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_8.433-1*.deb

Note: If you get a 'Bad file descriptor' message concerning the xorg.conf file try switching user to root and repeating the same command without sudo. This might be valid for the following commands too. (Ubuntu Gutsy installs with no password set for root by default. You can set a password for the root by typing 'sudo passwd root' first.)

Note: If you have a 64 bit install, the above dpkg command will likely 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 recieve 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 pacakge:
sudo apt-get install -f

Remove any old fglrx debs from /usr/src/:
sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

Fix broken dependencies
Note: You only need to do this if you have installed previous versions of these drivers using this method before.
sudo apt-get -f install

Compile the kernel module:
sudo module-assistant prepare,update
sudo module-assistant build,install fglrx -f
sudo depmod -a

It's necessary, because sometimes this file is written by other packages, and so there's no 3D acceleration. Check that the file /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/fglrx.ko has been created.

Create the following folder
sudo mkdir /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile
Note: the volatile directory might already exist at this stage then simply continue with the next step.

Create a symbolic link
sudo ln -sf /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/fglrx.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile/fglrx.ko

NOTE : On my Gutsy install, after a reboot this link was always removed automatically leaving me without an fglrx module loaded, and thus no ATI rendering. There have been several ways of getting around this suggested here, and here is the one that worked for me:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/ati-module-fix
And put this in it:
#!/bin/sh -e

# For loading ATI display drivers

ln -sf /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/fglrx.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile/fglrx.ko
exit 0

Make it executable
sudo chmod ugo+x /etc/init.d/ati-module-fix

Now, make this run before gdm
To check the gdm sequence number,
ls /etc/rc2.d/

The value for [seqno] in the section below should be the gdm sequence number -1. NOTE: I did not understand this part so i left the [seqno] out of the equation

sudo update-rc.d ati-module-fix defaults [seqno]

IMPORTANT: You have to recompile the kernel module after each kernel update! (Note: This does not affect you until the next time you update your kernel.)
Comment the following line in the file /etc/modprobe.d/lrm-video { add at 27/11/2007 }

# Make nvidia/nvidia_legacy and fglrx use /sbin/lrm-video to load
#install fglrx /sbin/lrm-video fglrx $CMDLINE_OPTS # << this line
install nvidia /sbin/lrm-video nvidia $CMDLINE_OPTS
install nvidia_legacy /sbin/lrm-video nvidia_legacy $CMDLINE_OPTS
install nvidia_new /sbin/lrm-video nvidia_new $CMDLINE_OPTS

[edit] Configure the Driver
Note Method 2 Users: Before you carry out this step you must reboot your machine. Or else the fglrx driver will not be in use on xorg.conf and using the aticonfig options will cause a memory dump and not intialise the Driver properly.

Note: An alternative to the aticonfig --initial command is to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and replace the string "ati" with "fglrx" in the "Device" section. This way you won't lose your old "Screen" and "Monitor" settings. Afterwards you can use aticonfig for setting overlay etc. Another alternative is aticonfig --initial --force if you encounter issues with the first command.

sudo aticonfig --initial
Then:
sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
Note: Alternative in the overlay-type to "Xv" can be "opengl" or "disable" if the TV-out makes problems in videos.

[edit] Alternative: Configure the Driver, The Manual Way:
An alternative to the "sudo aticonfig" commands is to edit "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" and change the "Device" section for the video card as shown below. This way you won't lose your old settings.

gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
[...]
# Driver "vesa"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
[...]
EndSection
[edit] Finish the Installation

Now save any open document and reboot your system:
sudo shutdown -hr now

Note: An alternative to rebooting is to restart the X Server by pressing your CTRL ALT BACKSPACE keys. You must remove any old kernel modules such as "drm" "radeon" or "fglrx" using the "rmmod" command. Example: sudo rmmod fglrx

[edit] Post-Installation Checks
[edit] Verifying
Run the following command to check its output to ensure the fglrx driver is installed properly:
$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon Xpress Series
OpenGL version string: 2.1.7059 Release

The OpenGL vendor string should read ATI and not Mesa.
If it still says Mesa and not ATI, even after re-enabling the driver from the Restricted-manager: You can try the following:

Remove all the packages provided by the xserver-xorg-video-all meta-package (search for it using Synaptic or Adept), then restart the machine. The X Server should now use the new fglrx driver by force (provided the driver is being used in xorg.conf).

If you can't log in after this, you'll have to log in to a terminal in the login screen, and reinstall the xserver-xorg-video-all package. Your problem is probably somewhere else. (taken from [1]).

If it says libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory... Check if you have a /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2, if so do this:
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1

[linuxnoobie]

When finish to see if it's right it will look like this when you open ATI Catalyst.
If you did it right the OpenGL section will mention ATI and not messa3d

This is correct. The picture below this one is not



This is not correct

[linuxnoobie]

Please note that after the modification above, the "Restricted Driver Manager" will signal "ATI accelerated grapichs 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 (7.11) is in use.

When you open Resticted Drivers Manager it should look like this.