10.04LTS : failed to install ATI proprietary drivers

[Browser_ice]

I have installed Xubuntu 10.04lts, Kubuntu 10.04LTs and Ubuntu 10.04lts because since I replaced my graphic card, I want to see which one of those 3 I like best and keep it. To do this, I need to configure my AGP Saphire HD4650.

Initially, I did not have any xorg.conf, so I went to recovery and created one with X -configure. This allowed to find out I was using Radeon driver from the start.

Then I followed the instruction from link "How To: Configure ATI Radeon HD 4650" but using kdm instead of gdm. Once I get to install the ATI driver ati-driver-installer-10-12-x86.x86_64.run, I get an error message that says to check the /usr/share/ati/fglrx-install.log.

Unloading radeon module...
ERROR: Module radeon is in use
Unloading drm module...
ERROR: Module drm is in use by radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
[Message] Kernel Module : Trying to install a precompiled kernel module.
[Message] Kernel Module : Precompiled kernel module version mismatched.
[Message] Kernel Module : Found kernel module build environment, generating kernel module now.
AMD kernel module generator version 2.1
doing Makefile based build for kernel 2.6.x and higher
rm -rf *.c *.h *.o *.ko *.GCC* .??* *.symvers
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-32-generic/build SUBDIRS=/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x modules
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-32-generic/scripts/gcc-version.sh: line 25: gcc: command not found
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-32-generic/scripts/gcc-version.sh: line 26: gcc: command not found
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-32-generic'
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-32-generic/arch/x86/Makefile:81: stack protector enabled but no compiler support
make[1]: gcc: Command not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.o
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
make[2]: *** [/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.o] Error 127
make[1]: *** [_module_/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-32-generic'
make: *** [kmod_build] Error 2
build failed with return value 2
[Error] Kernel Module : Failed to compile kernel module - please consult readme.
[Reboot] Kernel Module : update-initramfs

What do I do now ?

I want to use the full potential of my video card.

[Browser_ice]

Anyone ?

[BicyclerBoy]

My guess is you are missing any compiler tools..

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Make sure you have linux kernel headers installed (I think you do).

There should be a meta package for kernel headers that always matches the latest kernel (also a meta package).

It probably isn't a lot of potential in an old AGP video card & old pentiums & athlons just keep your feet warm in winter..

[Yellow Pasque]

First, remove the cruft from the outdated driver you tried to install:

sudo sh /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh

Next, follow this install guide:
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubu...ivers_manually

[handy]

...
It probably isn't a lot of potential in an old AGP video card & old pentiums & athlons just keep your feet warm in winter..

Some of us are more easily satisfied than others. My 2nd machine is an Athlon64 3500+, 2GB RAM with an AGP XFX 7950GT 512MB, that plays Sacred Gold at the highest graphics levels without a hitch. Where my HD2600Pro 256MB GPU can't. Admittedly the nVidia card is running proprietary drivers & the AMD/ATi GPU is using the latest open-source driver stack/kernel.

But that really just muddies the water. What I'm trying to say is that if something does a job for you satisfactorily it matters not what others may think about it.

/off-topic

[BicyclerBoy]

Quite true..but it is tricky to establish a transferable/translatable reference.
And the OP may well enjoy the challenge more than the result.

As AGP videocards are history, it is possible that support will disappear from latest drivers.
So supporting your AGP card in the latest distro may become increasing difficult.

[handy]

Quite true..but it is tricky to establish a transferable/translatable reference.
And the OP may well enjoy the challenge more than the result.

The transferable/translatable reference for everything & everyone in life comes down to what you find satisfying on the various levels of consciousness that define you.

For people, this changes depending on whatever combination of the myriad of variables that happen to directly effect the paradigms that govern people's reality. Be these variables & paradigms ethnic, cultural, religious, political, financial, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, educational, or the sporting team that they & their cronies will fight to the death for!

As AGP videocards are history, it is possible that support will disappear from latest drivers.
So supporting your AGP card in the latest distro may become increasing difficult.

The AGP cards have been history for some time. Though many of us are still quite happily using them as we do not have any need (or perhaps the funds) to buy new motherboards, CPU, RAM, just so we are able to use the current technology (& proprietary drivers) which we may or may not have any use for.

If the closed source nVidia drivers stop supporting the legacy AGP GPUs, they will certainly lose some customers. Seeing as the nVidia open-source drivers are still pretty useless, there may be some that take heart in the fact that AMD have (even though they stopped supporting older cards some time ago with their proprietary drivers - when the company was still ATi) put the effort into helping the open-source people in the process of creating great drivers for both their legacy & current cards.

So people who are happy with their AGP system, if dumped by nVidia proprietary support, could quite easily (& cheaply these days) buy a better AMD AGP card than what they have due to the great support that the AMD open-source driver will provide them.

This is not a simple topic.

[BicyclerBoy]

The only dumping is being done by the FOSS..
The existing proprietary drivers from AMD (ATI) & nVidia will always be available.
AFAIK
Using these drivers has always required the user to be able to link with kernel headers & the driver being compatible with Xorg API & this is constantly changing.
So the problem is not with AMD or nVidia or of their making.
But as I said, supporting these old cards will become increasing difficult.

I sense, from the forums, that the AMD/ATI open source driver is worse than nouveau. I would not be surprised if the nouveau driver achieves full h/w utilisation before open AMD driver.
I'm not sure AMD/ATI has helped at all with FOSS, for example where are the XvBA API specs ?
Whereas nVidia VDPAU has worked perfectly for > 2 yrs.
Intel is an a good example of FOSS support. But look at the fiasco with Nehalem/Westmere IGPs. The IGP support is still not working properly.

You can not expect the latest closed source drivers to continue to support obsolete h/w.

This is a multimedia-video forum so you should expect a focus/bias on the latest/fastest..