ATI : Binary Driver Howto

• BinaryDriverHowto
• ATI

Contents Prerequisites Install from Ubuntu repositories (easier) Instructions for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) JAUNTY NOTICE Instructions for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) and 8.10 (Intrepid) Instructions for Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Instructions for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Instructions for 6.06 (Dapper) Troubleshooting Install from ati.com (latest version of drivers) Instructions for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) with ATi 8.443.1-1 and above binary drivers Instructions for 6.06 (Dapper) Seveas Repository Modifying xorg.conf More Troubleshooting General Troubleshooting Video-out Black and White/Wrong Colours or Scrolling Picture Other links

By default Ubuntu will use the open source 'ati' or 'radeon' driver for cards manufactured by ATI. Some users however prefer the proprietary 'fglrx' driver for various reasons. The instructions on this page will tell you how to use this driver.

There are two ways you can install proprietary fglrx drivers. The preferred way is to use the drivers provided via the Ubuntu repositories. More advanced users can also try the drivers from ati.com. Both approaches are documented below and you need to take only one of them. The Ubuntu-provided ones are the safest bet, the ati.com ones however may be needed (eg: when you need hibernation).

As mentioned elsewhere, if you encounter bugs with these closed-source drivers, developers will not be willing or even able to assist you in resolving your issues. Use them at your own risk. We encourage our users to prefer open source drivers.

Prerequisites

Make sure the following things are true about your video card:

• It is a 'Radeon' card
• The model of the card is in the 9xxx series, 9500 or higher, or it is in the X series (e.g. X300), or it has TV-Out capability. The 'fglrx' driver does not support cards earlier than the 9500
• The command lspci reveals a card with "ATI" in its name
• You need hardware-accelerated 3D support, or display refresh rates higher than 60 Hz. The open source drivers are fine for all other areas

• Some basic knowledge of a Linux command line (see UsingTheTerminal)

Note that if you own an ATI card from the R400 series or below, you already have working 2D and may have accelerated 3D with the default drivers. These cards include:

• R400 series Xnnn (X800, X700, etc) (3D works)
• R300 series (9300+) (3D works)
• R200 and R100 series (9200 and below)

For specific chipsets and models, see the Xorg 7.0 Release Notes.

Install from Ubuntu repositories (easier)

Instructions for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty)

Enable the accelerated ATI graphics driver in the 'Hardware Drivers' (System->Hardware drivers), then do:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`
sudo insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/volatile/fglrx.ko

Log out and log in.

JAUNTY NOTICE

• The above Jaunty 9.04 instructions don't actually work because the latest ATI driver is incompatible with XOrg 1.6. To see a guide on instructing how to downgrade XOrg and install the ATI driver, view this link:
  

• http://tan-com.com/posts/technology/fix-ubuntu-904-ati-driver-issue

Instructions for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) and 8.10 (Intrepid)

Enable the accelerated ATI graphics driver in the hardware drivers menu (System->Administration->Hardware Drivers), then do:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`
sudo insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/volatile/fglrx.ko

Log out and log in.

Instructions for Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy)

First make sure linux-restricted-modules-generic and restricted-manager-kde are both installed

sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager-kde

Open the restricted drivers manager from KMenu → System Settings → Advanced → Restricted Drivers and select "ATI accelerated graphics driver". This will hopefully enable fglrx in a painless way. If not, follow the instructions for Feisty.

Instructions for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy)

• Install linux-restricted-modules and restricted-manager provided in the restricted repositories:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager

Open the restricted drivers manager in "System -> Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager" and select "ATI accelerated graphics driver".

Instructions for 6.06 (Dapper)

Install the kernel drivers. These drivers should be installed by default, but it's better to make sure they are installed. You need the package linux-$arch, where you replace $arch by the CPU architecture for the machine. This is 386 for Intel Pentium, 686 for Celeron, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4 without Hyper-Threading. 686-smp for Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading, or k7 or k7-smp for AMD athlon. On 64-bit systems, this may be amd64-generic, amd64-k8, amd64-k8-smp, or amd64-xeon.

sudo apt-get install linux-686
or
sudo apt-get install linux-k7
or
...

You also need to install the restricted-modules package that match ***exactly*** the kernel you are running, as well as specific required packages: (if you ran the previous command, make sure to reboot on your new kernel, otherwise this will install the wrong kernel modules !)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx-control

Please note that the fglrx-control package is not compulsory as it seems to be buggy (but wont affect your machine in anyway ).

If the restricted-modules package for the kernel you are running is not available (it happens sometimes with K/Ubuntu), you may have to opt for running a kernel for which this package is available or to install the drivers directly from the setup script provided by ATI (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27)

Once the above packages are correctly installed, run these commands:

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

Then go back and edit xorg.conf with your favorite editor, perhaps:

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

or:

kdesu kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and make sure that under the "Device" section, the Driver is set to

Driver "fglrx"

You will have 2 device sections related to your graphic card, one is the pre-aticonfig one, and should use the ati or radeon driver. No need to change this part as it is not used by xorg anymore. The other device section however will have to use the fglrx driver.

It appears that fglrx is often unstable, at least on AMD64. System may lock on 8.25 driver. 3D accell may not work on 8.28. The 8.26.18 driver may be your best bet, as of Sept2006. Instructions for updating drivers are at: http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Dapper_Installation_Guide#Method_2:_Generating.2FInstalling_Ubuntu_packages_for_the_8.28.8_drivers_in_Ubuntu_Dapper_Manually But I recommend 8.26 at this time, not 8.28.

Reboot.

Confirm it worked, by issuing the "fglrxinfo" command:

• fglrxinfo/glxinfo may not work properly for you via SSH and via the console when logged in as root.

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5755 (8.24.8)

Source: http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Dapper_Installation_Guide

Troubleshooting

You may see a message

Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":1.0

If the line

load "dri"

in

Section "Module"

is missing from your /etc/X11/xorg.conf then add it. However this message does not necessarily indicate a problem.

If fglrxinfo gives you the following, your installation is not completed correctly:

• fglrxinfo/glxinfo may not work properly for you via SSH and via the console when logged in as root.

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.4.1)

In this case, watch for these things:

• Make sure that the resctricted-modules package installed correspond to the kernel your are running and that you can load the fglrx driver, wether by issuing the command "sudo modprobe fglrx" or by verifying that the module appears in the list of loaded modules, by issuing the command "lsmod";
• It may be necessary to establish a symbolic link for the /usr/lib/dri folder, by issuing the following command: "sudo ln -s /usr/lib/dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri";
• You may have to deload the radeon and dri modules, by issuing "sudo rmmod radeon" and "sudo rmmod dri";
• Make sure you deload the module ati-agp by issuing "sudo rmmod ati-agp" and blacklist it in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.
• Check the /etc/X11/xorg.conf in Section "Module" to have this line: Load "dri" and it is not commented.

Install from ati.com (latest version of drivers)

WARNING: this method of installing the driver is not recommended and not supported, and any problems that occur after using the following instructions should not be reported to the Launchpad bug area.

Instructions for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) with ATi 8.443.1-1 and above binary drivers

To begin first install the needed packages:

sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev debhelper libstdc++5 dkms build-essential cdbs fakeroot

You will then need to build the installation packages with the downloaded ATi drivers (ensure the ATi drivers have the execute flag set first):

./ati-driver-installer-8.443.1-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/ 

You can replace in the above with the codename for the version of Ubuntu you are running (gutsy, hardy, intrepid).

Then install the binary drivers:

sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_.deb

Run the following command to install the Xorg driver

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_.deb

Finally run aticonfig to build your new xorg.conf if you have not done so before:

sudo aticonfig --initial

Reboot and X.Org should start with the ATi binary drivers fully functional. To confirm the drivers are working from a terminal run:

fglrxinfo

You should get output similiar to the following:

display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 3870
OpenGL version string: 2.1.7170 Release

If you see any mention of the "MESA" in the output the drivers have not installed correctly. Look at instructions below for possible fixes.

Instructions for 6.06 (Dapper)

1. Download the apropiate drivers from ati.com. You will need the ATI Driver Installer, not the seperate XFree86/X.org rpm packages. Save the installer into an empty directory (or at least one containing no *.deb files), since it will create several new files.

2. Make sure the universe section of the Ubuntu repositories is enabled (See the AddingRepositoriesHowto)

3. Perform the following commands (where is the version number of the installer):

   $ sudo apt-get install fakeroot gcc-3.4 module-assistant build-essential debhelper
   $ fakeroot sh ./ati-driver-installer-.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/edgy
   You may need to wait a few mintues for this to complete.

This will create a number of .deb files in the current directory. note: If you run Dapper, replace "edgy" (above) with "dapper".

1 sudo dpkg -i *.deb
2 sudo module-assistant prepare,update
3 sudo module-assistant build,install fglrx-kernel
4 sudo depmod
note: You need to repeat steps 2-4 - building the kernel module -
everytime you upgrade the kernel.

Seveas Repository

You do not need to take all these steps if you run an up-to-date Dapper installation on a 32 bit system. Dennis Kaarsemaker provides these packages in a repository. Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl/ dapper-seveas drivers

Then you can simply install the ubuntu-fglrx-$arch (see above for the meaning of $arch) package.

The fglrx driver on Dapper (8.26.18-1) can cause rss-glx screensavers to run very slowly.

Modifying xorg.conf

When you install from ati.com drivers or the dapper-seveas repository, you still need to change xorg.conf and add the fglrx module to /etc/modules as described under "Ubuntu provided drivers". There are scripts from ATI that may or may not work for you. They will backup xorg.conf before modifying it.

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

Whether you install manually or from dapper-seveas, you MUST disable the Ubuntu-provided fglrx by performing these actions:

• Disable fglrx in /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
• Run sudo /sbin/lrm-manager
• Run sudo depmod -a
• Reboot

There is a forum thread on installing ATI drivers from ati.com. Look there if you have trouble, and if your problem isn't already solved there, post a question.

More Troubleshooting

• If after everything you still get indirect rendering when typing "fglrxinfo" run:

$ depmod -ae

Now reboot and hope for the best.

• If you're using an AMD64 configuration and your Xorg.0.log mentions a 'duplicate symbol rol_long' message, comment out the 'Load "int10"' line in the Module section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf

• If you are using an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M on an AMD64 CPU and the fglrx driver crashes with a blank screen on startup, change your BIOS settings to use the UMA+Sideport Video Mode with 128MB of Shared Video Memory. See http://ensode.net/ati_radeon_xpress_200m_linux.html

• If you are going to compile 3d applications, you will want to install the fglrx-driver-dev package

• The fglrx doesn't support 16 bit colour on some chip sets, if you have problems with X locking up on boot try setting this in your xorg.conf file to 24

• If you are having problems related to DRI or 3d acceleration and the following lines show up in your /var/log/Xorg.0.log

  (WW) fglrx(0): Kernel Module version does *not* match driver.
  (EE) fglrx(0): incompatible kernel module detected - HW accelerated OpenGL will not work

  then make sure you installed either linux-$arch or ubuntu-fglrx-$arch.Another reason for either this error message, or incorrect driver information when running fglrxinfo (reports that the mesa driver is still being used) could be that the (K)Ubuntu fglrx drivers were not uninstalled before installing the ATI driver, or that the restricted-modules package is installed. To fix this issue, start Adept or Synaptic and remove the fglrx packages supplied with (K)Ubuntu as well as the restricted-modules package. Quit KDE and go to a console.

$ sudo modprobe -r fglrx
$ gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
or
$ kdesu kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

• Change the driver for the device to 'ati' instead of fglrx to use the standard Xorg supplied driver.

$ startx

• Now re-run the ATI driver installation

• If there are no obvious error messages in Xorg.0.log but 3D acceleration is still not working, you should look at glxinfo output in debug mode:

LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo

• Possibly there are some errors in the beginning concerning not found drivers in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/. This could be the case if you used the driver from ATI and are now using again the provided fglrx driver. ATI's fglrx driver installs a script in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/10fglrx which changes the search path for libraries, causing 3D-related errors. In this case just remove the script:

$ sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/10fglrx

• Sometimes 2D acceleration with xv is not enabled. You need this for smooth video playback among other things. In this case you should check if your /etc/X11/xorg.conf contains the line Option "VideoOverlay" "on" in the corresponding section:

Section "Device"
       Identifier      "ATI Radeon"
       Driver          "fglrx"
       Option          "VideoOverlay" "on"
       BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

General Troubleshooting

Video-out

Black and White/Wrong Colours or Scrolling Picture

• If you are having issues with S-Video out where the video is incorrectly displayed (such as black and white or scrolling), try adding the line

          Option      "TVFormat" ""

  into the Device section that lists your monitor/TV, as the output to the TV might be set to PAL or another incompatible format for your region/TV. Replace the with the region specific video type. The TVFormat choices are: NTSC-JPN, NTSC-M, NTSC-N, PAL-B, PAL-CN, PAL-D, PAL-G, PAL-H, PAL-I, PAL-K, PAL-K1, PAL-L, PAL-N, PAL-M, PAL-SCART.

Example:

Section "Device"
       Identifier  "ATI Radeon 9600/X1050 (Screen 1)"
       Driver      "fglrx"
       Option      "TVFormat" "NTSC-M" # NTSC-M is used in North America -- Canada/USA -- amoung other countries
       BusID       "PCI:2:0:0"
       Screen      1
EndSection

Don't forget that most older TVs use a standard resolution of 640x480, so it may be wise to force that resolution:

Section "Screen"
       Identifier "TV"
       Device     "ATI Radeon 9600/X1050 (Screen 1)"
       Monitor    "Toshiba 32in (Screen 1)"
       DefaultDepth     24
       SubSection "Display"
               Viewport   0 0
               Depth     24
               Modes    "640x480" # Force this standard resolution
       EndSubSection
EndSection

More information about this issue is listed in the Ubuntu Forums and also through the MythTV Wiki. If you are unsure of your region, review this region list. The fglrx man page might be useful as well.