Can't upgrade ATI Radeon x1600 drivers

[burvowski]

Yes, because it doesn't let me take advantage of the money I paid for a 256 meg video card. (which at the time, wasn't cheap). Even moving a window in ubuntu had bad graphics on my system

[angryfirelord]

Yeah, it's like Ubuntu took a step backward for us ATI card users, which have to be a pretty sizable chunk. I've heard that the open source drivers are expected to be improved by the end of summer, though, so my fingers are crossed for that. I really did love Ubuntu for the few days I got to try it and would drop OS X and Windows with no hesitation to use it.

The problem doesn't lie on Ubuntu, it's a fault of ATI for getting rid of support for their cards. In order for Ubuntu to use the newest X Server, it had to include Catalyst 9.4, which drops support for a bunch of cards.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...9&lang=English

AMD has moved a number of DX9 ATI Radeon™ graphics accelerators products to a legacy driver support structure. This change impacts Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux distributions. AMD has moved to a legacy software support structure for these graphics accelerator products in an effort to better focus development resources on future products.

The following products have been moved to the legacy software support structure (including Mobile and All-in-Wonder Variants):

ATI Radeon 9500 Series
ATI Radeon 9550 Series
ATI Radeon 9600 Series
ATI Radeon 9700 Series
ATI Radeon 9800 Series
ATI Radeon X300 Series
ATI Radeon X550 Series
ATI Radeon X600 Series
ATI Radeon X700 Series
ATI Radeon X800 Series
ATI Radeon X850 Series
ATI Radeon X1050 Series
ATI Radeon X1300 Series
ATI Radeon X1550 Series
ATI Radeon X1600 Series
ATI Radeon X1650 Series
ATI Radeon X1800 Series
ATI Radeon X1900 Series
ATI Radeon Xpress Series
ATI Radeon X1200 Series
ATI Radeon X1250 Series
ATI Radeon X2100 Series

I know your pain because I have an X1600 in my laptop and I can't simply upgrade. Fortunately, the open-source driver, radeonhd, is moving at a quick development base and already has some very basic 3D support. I'd expect that in a year or two it should be usable enough to play 3D games with it. In the meantime, you can keep a copy of 8.04 or 8.10 loaded on your computer or just boot into Windows when you need to play a game.

[bobbyi]

This is pretty lame

[csmth]

is the open source driver really that bad? I haven't had any issues with it...

The open source driver does have a few issue for me, despite my games are not really demanding in graphics.

I used to play civilization 4 (and all expansions) on Wine. After upgrading to 9.04, the game is no longer playable. I can view the menu but not the actual game.

I am using X1250 chipset, but that is not much difference.

[burvowski]

Does anyone know where I can get a live cd download of 8.04?

This link http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.10/ does not work for me.

edit: nevermind, i found it

[Jonne]

Can anyone tell me if compiz and video accelleration work properly with the FOSS drivers? I don't care about 3D games on this box (this is a work box), but decent compiz is really something I need for productivity and stuff.

I have a x1600 card, btw.

[cyberdork33]

Can anyone tell me if compiz and video accelleration work properly with the FOSS drivers? I don't care about 3D games on this box (this is a work box), but decent compiz is really something I need for productivity and stuff.

I have a x1600 card, btw.

it works fine on my iMac

[Hakrabim]

Does anyone know how to activate the extended desktop (using 2 screens), without the flgrx driver?

[cyberdork33]

Does anyone know how to activate the extended desktop (using 2 screens), without the flgrx driver?

you should be able to go to System > Preferences > Display

[Hakrabim]

Thanks for your answer.

I tried that, the problem is that if I try to start ubuntu with the S-video cable conected, both of the displays will appear blank; and if I try to plug it afterwards ubuntu will not detect the second screen.

Any ideas?