Hi guys, I just wrote all this up for the Video Community Documentation and I thought I would post it in here for some feedback. I'll make the changes you guys suggest and then hopefully I can remove this paragraph and we can have it as a sticky. I think at the moment it's quite confusing for new Ubuntu users to decide what drivers to use, and how to use them... there is a lot of information but not much is summarized on one page. Please note, I AM NOT AN EXPERT ON ATI DRIVERS, so some of this information will probably be inaccurate or incomplete, that's why I need your help.
Here goes:
A NOTE ON THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ATI DRIVERS
This covers:
- The two different driver types
- How to get your hands on these drivers
- How to install/upgrade the fglrx drivers (the easy way)
- How to recover a non-booting system due to driver malfunction
The two different driver types and How to get your hands on these drivers
At present, there are two types of drivers available for ATI graphics cards.
1) The community-maintained open source xserver-xorg-video-ati or xserver-xorg-video-radeon driver (sometimes referred to as "radeon")
and
2) The proprietary (closed source) driver from ATI themselves (referred to as "fglrx").
There are several pros and cons for each type of driver. The most prominent are that the fglrx driver supports better 3D and OpenGL, as well as better Hardware processing as it is developed by the ATI engineers themselves and often has better features. It also supports Xinerama for dual-screen setups. On the other hand, the open-source driver supports older graphics cards, and is open source for those wanting a complete "free" system. It supports limited 3D, but full 2D acceleration and is suitable for most people, and some argue that it has better dual screen support that ATI fglrx drivers - although in recent driver versions (Catalyst 9.5 and above), ATI have made many bug fixes that address dual screen issues in previous versions.
With that in mind, there are presently FOUR ways to install these drivers:
1) By default on a fresh install of Ubuntu, the open source "radeon" driver is installed. This provides 2D acceleration and limited 3D acceleration for newer cards. In Synaptic Package Manager, this driver is called "xserver-xorg-video-ati" or "xserver-xorg-video-radeon".
2) In "Hardware Drivers" (found in System > Administration), Ubuntu will suggest an often OLDER version of the proprietary drivers to install. These are not the latest drivers from ATI, as they have been tested by Ubuntu developers which takes time. These drivers are often quite reliable and very easy to install, but will not provide the cutting edge new features and bug fixes from ATI. They are automatically updated with Update Manager, but updates for this driver infrequently come out. At the moment, it is not possible to see what version of Catalyst drivers are being installed by Hardware Drivers until after you install them... making it difficult to compare with the ones available on ATI's site.
3) The fglrx drivers can also be installed/uninstalled in Synaptic Package Manager. The relevant packages are:
xorg-driver-fglrx
fglrx-amdcccle
This installs the fglrx driver and the Catalyst Control Center. As in 2), it is not possible to see what version of the Catalyst drivers are being installed until after you install them (and then you can run fglrxinfo in a terminal window to check, or go to the Catalyst Control Center). These drivers share the same properties as the ones in 2). PLEASE NOTE: If you install the open source drivers, you do NOT need these drivers installed. Also, If you install the drivers from the ATI website (4), then you do NOT need these drivers installed. This prevents unnecessary conflict of drivers.
4) The final way to get drivers is from the ATI website (www.ati.amd.com). These are the most recent and full-featured drivers, but are also the most complicated to install, are not fully tested by the Ubuntu developers, and are not automatically updated by Ubuntu. These drivers are released once a month, with the current release being Catalyst 9.10 (as at October 2009). From Ubuntu Karmic Koala, the 9.10 drivers are INCLUDED, so the drivers available in numbers 2) and 3) will be the latest Catalyst drivers. Please note these will get out-of-date over time until the next Ubuntu release, in April 2010. Please see the binary HowTo to get the ATI drivers installed.
How to install/upgrade the fglrx drivers (the easy way)
Here is a quick guide on how to install/upgrade the proprietary drivers from ATI:
Open a terminal window and issue these commands:
First, uninstall the old ATI drivers:
NOTE: Please, please, please be careful with the "rm -rf" command - if you get this wrong, it could break your system!! Proceed with caution.
Code:
cd /usr/share/ati/
sudo sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh
cd ~
sudo rm -rf /etc/ati/
sudo apt-get remove -purge xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx-amdcccle
Change the ownership of the installer downloaded from ATI and run the installer. This presumes you downloaded to your HOME directory. Please remember to change the filename depending on driver version.
Code:
sudo chmod +x ati-driver-installer-9-9-x86.x86_64.run
sudo sh ati-driver-installer-9-9-x86.x86_64.run
Now, reconfigure the xorg.conf file (READ: DON'T DO THIS IF YOU HAVE A SPECIAL SETUP, eg. DUAL MONITORS.) The backup is created automatically.
Code:
sudo aticonfig --initial -f
Then reboot your computer:
Your computer should boot up with the new drivers. To check what version you have, either run the Catalyst Control Center (if it is not in the Application menu, right click and go "edit menus" and check the option to display it), or you can run this:
How to recover a non-booting system due to driver malfunction
If your computer does not boot when you have upgraded drivers, press escape at the GRUB bootloader, then choose "recovery mode" for your latest kernel. Drop down to "root shell" and then run the ATI uninstaller:
NOTE: Please, please, please be careful with the "rm -rf" command - if you get this wrong, it could break your system!!
Code:
cd /usr/share/ati/
sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh
cd ~
rm -rf /etc/ati/
apt-get remove -purge xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx-amdcccle
Then run this to restore your xorg.conf file to default:
Code:
dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
The computer should boot now using the open source "radeon" drivers, (it is important to keep these installed for a backup for this exact reason). If it doesn't boot with the radeon drivers automatically, go:
Code:
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Where it says "Device" you want to type "radeon" or "ati" in the "Driver" field, so it looks like this:
Code:
Section "Device"
"Driver" "radeon"
EndSection
Once you have booted back into Ubuntu, revert to an older version of the fglrx drivers, or continue to use the open source drivers if you like.
NB: These instructions can also be used with the LiveCD if you don't feel comfortable with using a root shell environment. I'll add some instructions on how to do this with the LiveCD later if there is demand for it.
==== GOOD LUCK! ====
{ HOWTO } A Beginners Guide to ATI Drivers
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Originally Posted by Pasdar
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