A few days after the release of Ubuntu's new version, Gutsy Gibbon(7.10), I decided to do a fresh install on my laptop.
Everything was auto detected during the installation, and I was instantly able to use it properly. There was only one thing missing, namely 3D acceleration. Without it I could not use the integrated compiz-fusion, nor play any 3D games.
At first I tried to use the restricted drivers manager which comes with Ubuntu, but after reboot I got just a blank screen and unresponsive keys. I then rebooted it again, and this time the X-server started, but it was using the initial drivers without the 3D acceleration.
Secondly I tried the newest ATI drivers that you download from the AMD site. When I installed those and rebooted I got a kind of light show on my screen when I booted. It looked really cool, but it didn't make the computer more usable.
Now I have managed to get the 3D acceleration working, and the solution I present here might also work for other with different computers or ATI graphic cards and the same problems as me.
Here is how I did it:
- I had to download an older driver from ATI's archive. For my computer, an Asus A6Va with ATI Mobility Radeon x700, I had to use the 8.39.4 driver.
- The file was saved to my ~/download directory.
- I then had to make the file executable:
# sudo chmod u+x ~/download/ati-driver-installer-8.39.4-x86.x86_64.run - Ran the installer as root:
# sudo ~/download/ati-driver-installer-8.39.4-x86.x86_64.run - And followed the instructions, choosing "Install Driver" and "Automatic".
- Now you got two options, either reboot your computer(which is easiest), or load the module and restart your X-server.
- To load the module, you have to run the following in the terminal:
# sudo modprobe fglrx - Then just hit Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart your X-server.
With this driver, the desktop effects were still not working. To get them working I just ran:
- # sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl
- And restarted the X-server
I really hope this helps others in similar situations getting the most out of their ATI graphics cards in Ubuntu.
