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im running fedora16 with my ati radeon hd 5770
do i need any other drivers? or does the system already have them included?
if i run this in the terminal:
glxinfo | grep rendering
if get an answer of:
direct rendering: Yes
does this mean i already have drivers for my ati?
Every Linux distribution I know includes at least the open source driver versions for ATI/nVidia cards. These usually work fine for 2D effects, but not so much for 3D effects. No Linux distribution has control over the proprietary drivers and therefore doesn't include them by default. They may also cause problems when new kernel versions get pushed out.
IF you didn't have drivers already, you wouldn't be seeing a graphical desktop; instead, you would be stuck in a command line interface.Quote:
Originally Posted by cokabear
To see if you have the restricted drivers installed, open a terminal and enter "fglrxinfo".
The open-source driver works fine for 3D desktop effects and light gaming, as they're not too demanding on 3D power. The proprietary driver (fglrx/Catalyst) has better 3D performance, but I wouldn't install it unless I was having bad performance with the open-source drivers. Catalyst has its own drawbacks (slower 2D and other assorted bugs depending on version).Quote:
These usually work fine for 2D effects, but not so much for 3D effects
As MoreOrLess said, in the case of ATI I would keep using the default drivers and install the proprietary ones only if I run into trouble. For example, you may run into issues on some heavy games or you may suffer from low battery life on a laptop.
If you decide to install the proprietary drivers, from the Unity menu, look for "Additional Drivers" and enable the ATI drivers from there. This is the correct way to install the drivers on Ubuntu. Do not download anything from AMD unless you know what you are doing.
Moved to Other OS/Distro Talk