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[O/C] ATI Driver Installation in Linux

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Nov 1, 1998
ATI Driver Installation in Lunux
by SeanBest

Scared to use an ATI card in Linux? Had a horrible experience with ATI in Linux that resulted in 2 smashed keyboards, a broken Ubuntu 8.04 LiveCD, and three trips to your family psychiatrist? Well I did, well maybe not THAT bad, but really close. Since I started using Linux roughly two years ago, I always ran it without 3D video drivers because ATIs drivers were so hard to install and configure. I started out using Ubuntu, I believe it was 8.04, with my brand spankin' new ATI 4870 and it was tearing it up in Windows, but as soon as I started dual boot...
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there's a built in util

have you tried using the utility that comes with ubuntu?
 
I think he is refering to the hardware drivers utility which doesnt always install the most up to date versions
 
If your referring to the Restricted Driver thing, I've used it once or twice, never had a problem with it, but it usually is one to three versions behind. Also it doesn't install CCC which is nice because some distros don't like to set up the display correctly and occasionally the best way to configure the resolution is via CCC if your Window Manager is giving you trouble.
 
If your referring to the Restricted Driver thing, I've used it once or twice, never had a problem with it, but it usually is one to three versions behind. Also it doesn't install CCC which is nice because some distros don't like to set up the display correctly and occasionally the best way to configure the resolution is via CCC if your Window Manager is giving you trouble.

Yep... My experience with the Restricted Drivers on Ubuntu is... sometimes it doesn't show anything at all. Other times it shows nvidia drivers (which is proper, since I have an nvidia gpu in the box), but after installation, it can never load the kernel module.

At which point I usually get annoyed, drop out of X, nuke all nivida-* that is installed, and install from my backup of the nvidia drivers I downloaded from nvidia's website. I've always had that work for me.
 
I can't speak for ati support, but i've never had a problem with the restricted drivers tool and nvidia gpus - xorg always loads fine after rebooting. do you check the logs to see what went wrong before you nuke everything?
 
I had quite a lot of problems with my ATI drivers on my new workstation at work. It was a pretty new model and the restricted drivers barely supported 2d. On the other hand Ati's own drivers did not support the newest Ubuntu version... Funny thing is, I found a hacked (ATI checks removed) driver based on their official one which installed just fine.

You'd think they could just list supported distro's and models but not artificially limit installation to them?
 
ATI has always been hit an miss for me. I can't play WoW in linux because the graphics drivers run like arse. I have a 4670 video card, core I7 with 4 gigs of ram and on the title screen I get about 7 fps.

The official drivers from ATI caused X to crash constantly, I am using the hardware drivers utility to give basic functionality
 
ATI has always been hit an miss for me. I can't play WoW in linux because the graphics drivers run like arse. I have a 4670 video card, core I7 with 4 gigs of ram and on the title screen I get about 7 fps.

The official drivers from ATI caused X to crash constantly, I am using the hardware drivers utility to give basic functionality

i have never had a problem with ati linux drivers
 
i have never had a problem with ati linux drivers

You won't unless you have a very new card / want to use a newer kernel then installed on supported distro's etc. There are pretty clearly definable cases that will cause problems, but even they would not need to cause problems (as shown by how well the drivers work when you find a "hacked" one that removes the check used prior to install).
 
You won't unless you have a very new card / want to use a newer kernel then installed on supported distro's etc. There are pretty clearly definable cases that will cause problems, but even they would not need to cause problems (as shown by how well the drivers work when you find a "hacked" one that removes the check used prior to install).

well everything has worked on my 4850's with no problem, i got a friend with a 5870 and mint 9 and it works fine, and we both do gaming, ie css, gmod, hl2 etc
 
Yup.. Then get an SSD, and try to get trim to work... You'll have to download a 2.6.33 kernel which will work fine, except with Ati drivers. Also you'll need to be running a 64bit distro if you want more then 4GB of memory (unless you want to compile the kernel yourself).
 
I've been told to straight up avoid ATI in favor of nvidia if I want to get any sort of reliable graphics performance under nix; is there truth in this statement? I've never run into this problem since I have a windows machine for all my graphic intensive (read: gaming) needs, and most of my nix machines are legacy machines from who knows how long ago running embedded chips.
 
I've been told to straight up avoid ATI in favor of nvidia if I want to get any sort of reliable graphics performance under nix; is there truth in this statement? I've never run into this problem since I have a windows machine for all my graphic intensive (read: gaming) needs, and most of my nix machines are legacy machines from who knows how long ago running embedded chips.

As a general statement I agree with the above. I have had problems upon problems with ATI (unless we are talking like a RAGE 128 which work well with the mesa drivers)

ATI is still a crap shoot as far as I am concerned. Stick with nvidia for any sort of graphics needs or intel if you don't want anything too fancy
 
i had no problems running the HD 5550 in linux with the ati drivers this past week when i was reviewing it
 
i had no problems running the HD 5550 in linux with the ati drivers this past week when i was reviewing it

same here i have a mobile 5750 i think it is, anyway, i just played some lan of l4d with some friends and game play on linux was smooth, also played some guildwars and it was great
 
I have a 4670, it runs like arse. I get about 3 FPS in WoW at the MENU The official drivers caused constant crashes. Am using the drivers from the repo's but it causes the fan to run quite a bit.

I have graphical glitches from time to time. All around not a good experience
 
maybe the 4xxx series isn't as well supported as the 5xxx series?
 
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