ATI/AMD fglrx in Ubuntu Edgy, step by step.

[slavik]

written by Vyacheslav Goltser

This HOWTO is to get ATI's (now AMD's) fglrx module working under edgy. Reason for this HOWTO is that the wiki page has all the info thrown about and weird to follow. This HOWTO attempts to streamline the instruction already available on the wiki page.

Step 0: Let's create a working environment so that we can clean up afterwords

cd ~/Desktop; mkdir atitemp; cd atitemp

Step 1: Download the proper packages we will need.

sudo apt-get install fakeroot gcc-3.4 module-assistant build-essential debhelper

Step 2: Download the latest driver from the ATI/AMD site, as of 11/23/2006, it is 8.31.5

wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.31.5-x86.x86_64.run

Step 3: Make the driver executable

chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.31.5-x86.x86_64.run

Step 4: We need to generate the packages, but because the default shell is not bash (which we need) we need to make it default and then generate packages (this piece of code, also undoes it)

sudo mv /bin/sh /bin/sh.old
sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh
fakeroot sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.31.5-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/edgy
sudo rm /bin/sh
sudo mv /bin/sh.old /bin/sh

Step 5: We need to install the generated packages and build the kernel module (this is the actual driver)

sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo module-assistant prepare,update
sudo module-assistant build,install fglrx-kernel
sudo depmod

Step 6: Package linux-restricted-modules has it's own fglrx module which we need to blacklist.

sudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

put fglrx between the quotes, save and exist

Step 7: Let's make sure that the driver is actually loadable. If you get an error here (output about it not being found) then read Troubleshooting Step 1.

sudo modprobe fglrx

Step 8: Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to load fglrx instead of whatever is there.

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Scroll down to the Section "Device" that reffers to your video card and on the line that starts with Driver, change whatever is in quotes to fglrx (it is most likely that ati or radeon is there).

Step 9: We need to restart X.

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

At this point you should have the drivers working confirm with the following code:

glxinfo | grep direct

You should receive output that looks like this:

Direct Rendering: yes

If you don't get that line, then try rebooting, if that doesn't help, come to the IRC channel #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net network.

Troubleshooting step 1: modprobe can tell you that it can't find the module, if it is so, execute the followin g piece of code:

sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/misc/fglrx.ko /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko

[seijling]

Well as smooth as that walk through went, it didn't seem to completely work. I sill cannot get "direct Rendering". Is there something I can do? I asked in irc but no one seemed to know/care.

Thanks either way - graphics are working much better.

[ericsonp]

These instructions worked up to:

sudo modprobe fglrx

which returns:

FATAL: Error running install command for fglrx

It appears I have the right sources:

root# apt-cache showpkg fglrx-kernel-source
Package: fglrx-kernel-source
Versions:
8.31.5-1 (/var/lib/dpkg/status)

root# apt-cache showpkg xorg-driver-fglrx-dev
Package: xorg-driver-fglrx-dev
Versions:
8.31.5-1 (/var/lib/dpkg/status)

Any suggestions on troubleshooting this problem?

Thanks,

Paul

[ericsonp]

Here's more info...


paule@paule2:~$ sudo modprobe -vf fglrx
install /sbin/lrm-video fglrx
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/misc/fglrx.ko
FATAL: Error running install command for fglrx


paule@paule2:~$ sudo install /sbin/lrm-video fglrx

returns nothing and

paule@paule2:~$ sudo insmod /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/misc/fglrx.ko

returns:
insmod: error inserting '/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/misc/fglrx.ko': -1 Invalid module format

What does "Invalid module format" mean?

Cheers,

Paul

[kthakore]

Try my script for ATI drivers it works for edgy

fglrxinstaller

[ericsonp]

Thanks!

FYI it doesn't work with the current version of the ATI driver (8.31.5-x86.x86_64) due to ATI's deviation from their previous naming convention.

I should still be able to get it working though. Any idea which version of the driver will work with Edgy?

Cheers,

Paul

[ericsonp]

So I modified your script and it runs without errors, but still no direct rendering, still using Mesa driver!

version=8.31.5-x86.x86_64
#wget http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-$version.run
sudo ln -sf bash /bin/sh
sudo apt-get remove fglrx-kernel-2.6.17-10-generic
bash ati-driver-installer-$version.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/edgy
version=8.31.5
sudo ln -sf dash /bin/sh
sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_$version-1*.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_$version-1*.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-control_$version-1*.deb
sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb
sudo module-assistant prepare
sudo module-assistant update
sudo module-assistant build fglrx
sudo module-assistant install fglrx
sudo depmod -a
sudo aticonfig --initial
sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
sudo cp libGL.so.1.2 /usr/lib/

I commented out the wget since I already had the .run file. Been working on this on and off for days. Worst time I've ever had with a video driver.

[ericsonp]

More clues:

dmesg says:

[17179610.272000] fglrx: version magic '2.6.17-10-generic SMP mod_unload 586 REGPARM gcc-3.4' should be '2.6.17-10-generic SMP mod_unload 586 REGPARM gcc-4.1'

It appears that:

apt-get install build-essential

requires gcc-4.1:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
g++ g++-4.1 gcc gcc-4.1 libstdc++6-4.1-dev
Suggested packages:
gcc-4.1-doc lib64stdc++6 manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex
bison gcc-doc gcc-4.1-locales libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1 libstdc++6-4.1-doc

One solution is to leave gcc-4.1 installed and compile a new kernel and all the kernel modules. But this seems like a lot of work just to get one driver working.

Is gcc-4.1 required to compile the fglrx module?

Was the Edgy distro was compiled with gcc-3.4?

Opinions?

[kcallis]

The closest that I can to actually working was I was able to boot, but as soon as GDM started, there were problems with the screen. From there, the system would eventually lock up.

I am running under 2.6.19 and the card in question is a X200m. The battle continues!!!

[kcallis]

The closest that I can to actually working was I was able to boot, but as soon as GDM started, there were problems with the screen. From there, the system would eventually lock up.

I am running under 2.6.19 and the card in question is a X200m. The battle continues!!!

Well, I am back to back screen of death, and I it would look like I am never going to get away with using fglrx as my driver... Nevertheless, I will keep battling, until I come up with some different!