ATI's Linux drivers

[ffreeloader]

Originally Posted by dmarsh26

In my experience ATI drivers are always crap, another vote for NVidia !

Don't worry freddy I understood you perfectly ! Yeah software bitblt's suck, I remember playing with the software only driver for direct X once, nasty...

I have an Express 200M in my HP laptop, and ATI has the kinks pretty much worked out in the 2D drivers. 3D acceleration still sucks and Compiz won't run at all, but at least I don't get black screens and get locked out of alternate consoles now.

It only took ATI about 3 years to get the drivers for that card to where 2D works....

[Gaz 45]

Originally Posted by ffreeloader

Go take a look at the Xorg logs after a failed xserver start, from a console (CTRL>Alt>F1 to F6). They are in /var/log, and should have a naming convention like Xorg.0.log, at least that's the naming convention in Debian, and the older logs normally have .1, .2.tgz, etc... tacked onto them. Each boot attempt creates a new log. I normally use "less" to view them so I can scroll back and forth through the logs.

Not working I'm afraid Freddy, won't go to a console whatever I press
Tried it in both a Wubi install & now a native install, identical behaviour from both.


Update: I've now loaded up a Live CD version of Hardy, so I can access the files of the proper install. Can't see what's wrong though.
A few forums I've seen have suggested xorg.conf might be missing the line DefaultDepth 24, but it's present in mine...

[ffreeloader]

Originally Posted by Gaz 45

Not working I'm afraid Freddy, won't go to a console whatever I press
Tried it in both a Wubi install & now a native install, identical behaviour from both.


Update: I've now loaded up a Live CD version of Hardy, so I can access the files of the proper install. Can't see what's wrong though.
A few forums I've seen have suggested xorg.conf might be missing the line DefaultDepth 24, but it's present in mine...

When Grub loads choose the single user/maintenance option to boot into. That should run the system without the gui starting up causing the video drivers to be loaded, and then you should be able to access the log files.

In Debian what happens is you're asked for root's password when it reaches the login stage, and then dumped into a console. You can then just "cd" into /var/log/, use "ls | grep Xorg" to find the file names, and then just use "less filename" to view the file.

[Gaz 45]

Cheers Freddy, back on my install proper now.
Booted into Recovery mode through GRUB, chose the root prompt option, then did

apt-get remove xorg-driver-fglrx

then

dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

then reboot.

All working fine now, running on the built-in Ubuntu drivers rather than the ATI restricted ones. Think I'll keep it that way, looks like no 3D for me though!

[ffreeloader]

Originally Posted by Gaz 45

Cheers Freddy, back on my install proper now.
Booted into Recovery mode through GRUB, chose the root prompt option, then did

apt-get remove xorg-driver-fglrx

then

dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

then reboot.

All working fine now, running on the built-in Ubuntu drivers rather than the ATI restricted ones. Think I'll keep it that way, looks like no 3D for me though!

Not unless you change to a NVidia card anyway. ATI is just a crap shoot with their drivers.

[Gaz 45]

Lol, I only bought the ATI card a couple of months ago, still have the old NV card though.