Ok, since ATI’s new drivers have a lot of weird things preventing install on Gutsy in 64 bit, I am posting this here as help for those that want to try it out.

P.S. Compiz works without XGL!

1. Get packages.

64-bit

There is a packaging error, and you will get strange errors. Someone posted a patch in a bug report, and I used it to make a set of debs.

xorg-driver-fglrx_8.42.3-1_amd64.deb

fglrx-kernel-source_8.42.3-1_amd64.deb

fglrx-amdcccle_8.42.3-1_amd64.deb

32-bit (bonus)

You can get i386 debs here:
http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/fglrx-8.42.3-Gutsy/

2. Disable fglrx in Ubuntu’s Restricted Modules Package

If you previously installed the restricted modules package (the default way to get fglrx in Ubuntu, and some other drivers), you have to disable the fglrx module in that package so that the kernel will use your replacement.

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

Find the “DISABLED_MODULES” line and add fglrx in the quotes:

DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"

3. Install new fglrx module

Open a terminal, and navigate (cd) to the directory where you downloaded the debs. Then,

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.42.3-1*.deb \
fglrx-kernel-source_8.42.3-1*.deb \
fglrx-amdcccle_8.42.3-1*.deb

You may get an error here. Run this first if you do:

sudo apt-get install -f

Remove any old fglrx debs from /usr/src/:

sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

4. Compile the Kernel Module

Some additional software and tools are needed to compile and prepare the kernel module:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential \
fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 linux-headers-generic

Now compile the actual module:

sudo module-assistant prepare,update

sudo module-assistant build,install fglrx -f

sudo depmod -a

5. Configure xorg

sudo aticonfig --initial

Then:

sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

6. Check xorg.conf to make sure Compositing AIGLX are enabled

gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Since compositing and AIGLX support is new in this driver, we want to enable the options to use features. Check in the ServerLayout Section for:

Option "AIGLX" "true"

and make sure that this section is in your xorg.conf somewhere.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

7. Make sure XGL is not installed (if you used compiz with an older fglrx version)

sudo aptitude remove xserver-xgl

8. link broken libGL reference

sudo ln /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1

9. RESTART!

sudo reboot

Tags: 64bit, ATI, compositing, flgrx, How-To, Linux, Ubuntu

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 11:13 PM and is filed under Computers, Linux, Ubuntu, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.