As Gutsy's reign draws to a close, and the era of the Hardy Heron is nearly upon us, I thought it might me time to revisit the display driver issues of ATi. Following is the much easier situation we now have:

This recipe is for those who have a relatively recent ATi VGA card, and want to run the closed ATi drivers in their Ubuntu Gutsy/ Mint 4 system, with Compiz Fusion and AIGLX (pretty bling bling). As usual, should this recipe cause indigestion, pregnancy, or wombat dung in your computer, then please don't hesitate to sue me.

Preparation:

Cup of coffee, snack of choice.

Make sure that computer runs with card installed. You've got pictures on the screen? Great start.

Work:

Clear your Desktop of any DEB package files- in fact anything that shouldn't be there. Tidy is good.

Open Terminal.



sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.preati

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 dkms

Leave Terminal Open.

Open web browser (eg Firefox)

Go to get the latest ATi driver at time of writing: v 8-3 Save it to the Desktop.

Now open Synaptic. ( In System Administration ) - requires password

Use Search to find fglrx (Description or Name) mark each item for removal.

Apply.

Wait for it to finish processing.

Back to Terminal:

cd ~/Desktop

sudo sh ati-driver-installer-8-3-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy



This takes a while to process, but completes it's task by adding some files to your Desktop. You may recognise these as DEB package files.

We will get back to these shortly.

Back in Terminal:

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

What you need to do here is add the old ATi drivers to the list of stuff to ignore. So, change DISABLED_MODULES. If there is other stuff in there also, then leave it.

DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"

Save the file and close the Text Editor

Back in Terminal:



sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb This cleans out old packages.

Back in Terminal:

You should still be in the Desktop directory. If not, issue the command: cd ~/Desktop

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Installs all of the newly created DEBs for the ATi driver.

Right, finish the coffee and get another. You are half way. What you have accomplished so far is the installation of the ATi drivers. If you have had problems you can check here for clues.

REBOOT the PC

Now comes the part where you decide if you need to keep your old display settings. I recommend ditching them, as they may well cause more grief than they are worth. What I refer to is the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file which initializes the settings for display.

Open Terminal:

sudo aticonfig --initial && sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv



REBOOT the PC

Now the driver should be installed fully. Check the output of the following command:

Open Terminal:

glxinfo | grep ATI

You should have something like this:

OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.

OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon 9550 / X1050 Series

GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap, GL_ATI_fragment_shader,

GL_ATI_meminfo, GL_ATI_separate_stencil, GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3,

GL_ATI_texture_float, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color,

If you have nothing like that, then do glxinfo | grep vendor. If that indicates MESA then you need to do some debugging Here.

Onto the pretty bling bling:

Back in Terminal:

sudo gedit /usr/bin/compiz

Replace this block of code with the minor edits required:



COMPIZ_BIN_PATH="/usr/bin/" # For window decorators and compiz

PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/lib/compiz/"

GLXINFO="/usr/bin/glxinfo"

KWIN="/usr/bin/kwin"

METACITY="/usr/bin/metacity"

COMPIZ_NAME="compiz.real" # Final name for compiz (compiz.real)

# For Xgl LD_PRELOAD

LIBGL_NVIDIA="/usr/lib/nvidia/libGL.so.1.2.xlibmesa"

LIBGL_FGLRX="/usr/lib/fglrx/libGL.so.1.2.xlibmesa"

# Minimum amount of memory (in kilo bytes) that nVidia cards need

# to be allowed to start

# Set to 262144 to require 256MB

NVIDIA_MEMORY="65536" # 64MB

NVIDIA_SETTINGS="nvidia-settings" # Assume it's in the path by default

# For detecting what driver is in use, the + is for one or more /'s

XORG_DRIVER_PATH="/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/+"

FALLBACKWM="${METACITY}"

FALLBACKWM_OPTIONS="--replace $@"

# Driver whitelist

WHITELIST="fglrx nvidia intel ati radeon i810"

# blacklist based on the pci ids

# See http://wiki.compiz-fusion.org/Hardware/Blacklist for details

#T=" 1002:5954 1002:5854 1002:5955" # ati rs480

#T="$T 1002:4153" # ATI Rv350

T="$T 8086:2982 8086:2992 8086:29a2 8086:2a02 8086:2a12" # intel 965

T="$T 8086:2972" # i965 (x3000)

#T="$T 1002:3152 1002:3150 1002:5462 1002:5653 " # ati X300 X600,X600 X700

BLACKLIST_PCIIDS="$T"

unset T



Save the file.

do CTRL ALT BACKSPACE to restart the video system (X). Then when you get back to your desktop, you should have Compiz running with wobbly windows, etc.

If not, open Terminal: compiz & You should see the screen decorations disappear, then return different. Windows now wobble when you drag them. Other wise the output in the terminal window may give a clue as to problems.

sudo apt-get install emerald compiz-config-settings-manager compiz-plugins

Will install some of the helpers for bling bling.

Also goto gnome-look.org for more themes for Compiz, beryl (emerald window decorations), and other stuff.

I BROKE IT! Boohoo.

To reverse your hard work do this:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.preati /etc/X11/xorg.conf



And REBOOT.

NEW INFO thanks to Mackenzie Morgan:

If you're using ATI or Nvidia's binary drivers on a laptop, you've probably noticed that resuming from suspend & hibernate doesn't work so well. The fix is pretty simple, but definitely not intuitive.

1. Hit alt+f2 (or if you use KDE whatever their runbox thing is...or use a terminal)

2. Type in gksu gedit /etc/default/acpi-support (replace gksu gedit with kdesu kate if you use KDE)

3. Scroll to Line 17, which says MODULES="" and put fglrx (if you use ATI) or nvidia (if you use Nvidia) in the quotes

4. Save and exit

This will make the computer automatically unload your ATI or Nvidia drivers when you hibernate/suspend and reload them when you resume. If for some reason it still doesn't work perfectly (like the 3D is gone when you come back), try turning off Compiz before you suspend or hibernate. I've seen that mess with things too.

Also, from the Troubleshooting:

Catalyst 8.3 on 64-bit systems requires the --force-overwrite command in the above dpkg command:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite xorg-driver-fglrx_8.471-0*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_8.471-0*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_8.471-0*.deb