[How-To] ATI open source driver installation - Overclock.net

Melcar · 05-19-09

NOTE: Because of the changes to the xserver in Karmic and other newer distros this guide is not 100% accurate anymore. I will update as soon as I figure out a fail safe way of configuring X.

This is a short guide on how to get the ATI open source drivers installed. This guide targets Ubuntu, but should work for any distro too.

There are currently 2 open source drives for ATI cards: radeon and radeonhd. Ubuntu comes with radeon installed by default, but radeonhd is easily obtained with Synaptic (just search for it and install it).
Depending on your distro a different version of the drivers may be available, so check the respective driver's wiki for information on what is supported in what version.

(the following assumes a "virgin" xorg.conf)

If you need to generate a fresh copy of your xorg.conf (advisable) simply run the following from the terminal:

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

1.- Open a terminal and type:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

2.- Look for your Device section and append the following option:

Code:

Driver   "radeon"  #or radeonhd

3.- Save and close the file

4.- Reboot

Provided your card is supported by the driver, you should now have working 2D/3D.

Disclaimer: Recent distros are deprecating the xorg.conf file. I will leave the above steps for those still using older versions of Ubuntu/Debian. In newer distros without a xorg.conf (like Karmic) you will need to generate a fresh copy first.

1.- Boot into safe mode (or kill X) and drop to command prompt mode. "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" no longer works on the newer versions of X, so generate a new file with the command:

Code:

sudo Xorg -configure

2.- the system will generate a new file (xorg.conf.new) and drop it in your root folder. Simple move the new file to the appropriate place:

Code:

sudo mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/

3.- Open the file for editing:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.new

4.- Since the file is no longer needed for X to function, you can delete everything in the file and just leave the section pertaining to your video device (the "Device" section). Add the "Driver" line like before.

5.- Save the file and rename it xorg.conf so X can recognize it.

6.- Reboot your system or simply restart X.

Notes:

* These drivers do not have complete support for all cards. Check their respective wikis for support information.

* These drivers tend to have much better 2D acceleration and accelerated movie playback than fglrx. Compiz and other composite managers are perfectly usable too.

* Don't expect awesome 3D performance. In my testing, radeon has 20-50% the speed of fglrx.

* Currently the drivers do not accelerate OpenGL2.x in hardware. Some applications (like WINE) rely heavily on OpenGL2.x functionality.

Links of interest:

radeon wiki
radeonhd wiki