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Thread: Sapphire HD5450, multi-monitor

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Basildon, England
    Beans
    339
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Sapphire HD5450, multi-monitor

    I gave myself a headache last week.
    I decided to upgrade my computer with an AMD Bulldozer 8120 processor, new motherboard, new HDD and RAM but keeping my old graphics cards.
    Thought I should upgrade to 13.04 so I installed, copied my data and so on and I was ready to attach my monitors.
    If you followed my thread last year http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2042265 then you will note that I attach 4 monitors to my computer and the last post in the thread gives you what I did to make them work.
    So gaily following my own work I downloaded the drivers from AMD and installed them and I got a message on my screens saying I had unsupported hardware. This I tracked to my graphics cards. I have 2 x Sapphire HD5450 cards which give VGA and DVI-I output. I have no monitors that accept DVI input.
    So I did another full install of 13.04 but this time I downloaded a backlevel version of the drivers from AMD - go to their site directly - do not use apt-get.
    In trying to get the monitors configured I kept finding my user output crippled. No output other than what was on the desktop. No task launcher. Then I broke X11 altogether and could only get command line access.
    So another full install and more attempts and then a lucky happenchance. On boot I had a list of about 10 Linux Kernels to run from so I used a back level kernel and booted. But unexpectedly I booted from my old hard disk which was still in my machine following data transfer. It worked. My screens were still configured.
    So I took out the new disk with the new installation and I am running 12.04 good as gold.

    Now the interesting thing is this. I have changed from a 4 core processor to an 8 core processor. I have changed the motherboard with all the bits on it - chipset etc. And Ubuntu worked without the need to re-install everything. I cannot imagine Windows ever doing something like that.
    All power to the God that is Linux.
    Mick 'n Keef rock, Chas beats time and Ronnie is the new boy
    Registered as user 466848 with the Linux Counter. Registered Ubuntu User 22858. Our company website or our new venture

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Reykjavík, Ísland
    Beans
    13,647
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: Sapphire HD5450, multi-monitor

    Not a support question, so moved.
    Bringing old hardware back to life. About problems due to upgrading.
    Please visit Quick Links -> Unanswered Posts.
    Don't use this space for a list of your hardware. It only creates false hits in the search engines.

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