I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my HP Pavilion dv5z. I'm new to Ubuntu, and in fact haven't used any distro of Linux since I last attempted to switch over to Red Hat back in 2002. So you can basically consider me to have no idea what I'm doing, although I am more computer-literate than the average person. Anyway, here's what happened:
(1) Wanting to check out the "desktop effects", I clicked System -> Preferences -> Appearance and changed the effects from "none" to "some" (or whatever: I'm typing this during my lunchbreak at work on my Windows laptop).
(2) It asked if I wanted to download and use the proprietary flgrx driver, and asked for my password; I clicked "yes" and gave it.
(3) It downloaded fine and seemed to install ok (on my 3rd try). I got some new, pretty effects.
(4) I changed my screen resolution (System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution) to something lower so that I wouldn't go blind at the ripe old age of 26. This is when I had my first hint of a problem: the graphical representation of my screen, which had previously said "15 in." in big letters, now said "unknown."
(5) I successfully lowered the screen resolution, but apparently to lower than I had intended. I was then unable to change it back or, indeed, to anything else.
(6) My (hopefully temporary) solution was to deactivate the proprietary drivers and go back to the default that was installed upon my installation of Intrepid. Everything works fine, but no 3D acceleration. I figure: if I pay for something, I should get full use of it.
Has anyone else had trouble getting their ATI Radeon HD 3200 to work? What's the fix? A brief sampling of the talk on this subject seems to indicate that one must be either (a) a masochist to want to install the proprietary drivers manually (after downloading from ATI's website) or (b) a linux kung fu master. I am neither. I am willing to put in a bit of work, however, because I hate Windows with a passion.... I've already spent over 2 hours working on my wireless card, and really just want things to work better out of the box.... Thanks for any help!
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