Solved ATI driver Problem...

[exze]

Hi

i have search but haven find any answer that helpt me.

i installd ati-driver-installer-11-2-x86.x86_64.run in LMDE and i dont get it to work, how do i remove the installation so that i is like it was original??? i wont work for me i regret the installation.. dont want to reinstall LMDE.

hope that someone can help me. i love my LMDE but now it dont work like i used to.

Thanks..

[doktordave]

From the AMD website:

To remove the ATI Driver:

Code: Select all

Launch the Terminal Application/Window and navigate to the /usr/share/ati folder.

With superuser permissions, enter the command "sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh".

Reboot your system.

Hope this helps.

[kbkatz1]

I have tried 11.2 and 9.3 and have not been successful with either, I'll be following this posting....

[Roken]

The best way I found to install teh ATI drivers is to use sgfxi (http://smxi.org/).

If you do it this way you will need to edit xorg.conf and change Option "composite" "disable" to Option "composite" "enable" afterwards to enable compositing, but apart from that it's worked flawlessly for me.

There is a switch that you can use to enable compositing by default, but I forget what it is.

[Mdyter]

could this help ?
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver

look at the "Problem: Need to fully remove -fglrx and reinstall -ati from scratch" part.

hope it helps

[exze]

thanks for the help
now i got the resolution to be correct but i cant get compiz to work

i did what Mdyter suggested.

Problem: Need to purge -fglrx
Typically, the following manual commands will properly uninstall -fglrx:

sudo apt-get remove --purge xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx*
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri fglrx-modaliases
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
If you want desktop effects (compiz or KDE) you'll need the glx module loaded. This will not work even after purging fglrx since a hanging libglx.so file is left around. Both fglrx and xserver-xorg-core provide this file so to replace it with the correct version you'll need to reinstall xserver-xorg-core as well.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core

i didnt find fglrx-modaliases is there a other name in debian then ubuntu??

[Roken]

Did you check the "composite" option in xorg.conf to make sure that it is set to "enable"? This is required for compiz.

[det4100]

Roken wrote:

The best way I found to install teh ATI drivers is to use sgfxi (http://smxi.org/).

If you do it this way you will need to edit xorg.conf and change Option "composite" "disable" to Option "composite" "enable" afterwards to enable compositing, but apart from that it's worked flawlessly for me.

This is the best solution I have found. Many people suggest using sgfxi but fail to mention the part about changing the "composite" option in the xorg.conf file. It had me scratching my head for a few hours before I realized it. Although, I can see how a novice user can be intimidated by the scripts. There are so many options available, it can be confusing.

[exze]

Hi it works now i used the script

The best way I found to install teh ATI drivers is to use sgfxi (http://smxi.org/).

If you do it this way you will need to edit xorg.conf and change Option "composite" "disable" to Option "composite" "enable" afterwards to enable compositing, but apart from that it's worked flawlessly for me.

with the sgfxi -n option work perfect

thanks for the excellent support

[h2-1]

thanks for the reminder, previously fglrx did not support composite, so sgfxi didn't enable it by default.

I'll take a look at that, but to have sgfxi enable fglrx composite, simply start it like this: sgfxi -c
for fglrx.

sgfxi -q
turns OFF composite for all cards.

composite is on by default for nvidia + non free drivers.

[blowtorch]

if you're going to use the ati fglrx driver install it the way debian recommends

http://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary

smxi is not really needed ... for anything ...

[h2-1]

blowtorch, when running Sid / Testing, and fglrx, my sad experience supporting users is that the 'debian way' fails often up to about 2, 3 months a year at worst cases. Not every year not every xorg version not every kernel version, but I have seen multi month failures repeatedly for the rolling release part of debian. Now if radeon works for you and it's enough, that's all the better, since it tends to upgrade with new xorgs, not always, sometimes there are bug reversions / regressions, which can take a long time to resolve too, but that's life in free software land. Maybe in any software land now that I think of it, since I've also seen unfixed fglrx issues that were known for years for windows xp.

Why? Because the kernels/xorgs are not supported, the official published and real policy of ati is to not support the rolling release stuff, only a small pool of stable pool distros, like ubuntu, debian stable, redhat.

So while it's easy to type the words you typed, my unfortunately too many years of experience directly supporting debian users proved that the debian way fails constantly, and reliably, in different ways. Now, for stable pool, it's great, I tend to agree, use the native tools of debian (unless you got a new card not supported by that rapidly aging driver in stable, then you'd be out of luck - yes kids new cards need new drivers in most cases... whoops), but the maintainers of those packages get really sick of the headaches and often have just checked out, for long periods of time.

Why? Because in non fanboy fantasy land, ie, back here in the real world, supporting the stuff is a huge pain and it gets boring and unrewarding, so like any sane human, the maintainers just say screw it, we'll just do the stuff we are paid to do (ubuntu for example) and not worry about the free stuff.

as an example:
apt-cache policy nvidia-glx
nvidia-glx:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 195.36.31-7

That's in Sid today I can't remember when 195.36.31 was the actual current stable driver, but it was a long time ago.260.19.36 is an entirely new driver series, and the beta is on 270, which gives a decent idea of the reality of the enthusiasm/time/willingness of some human guy /maintainer of the nvidia-glx package, for example. fglrx-driver is up to date now in debian, which is unusual, so that's nice to see.

My sample base at one point was about 1/4 million uses a year, maybe more, not as much now by the way, but still reasonable, which I think is as an ongoing sample base fairly adequate to form at least working conclusions about reality.

However, I do agree with your point, nobody needs this stuff, including any software designed to make some things easier, like smxi or sgfxi, nobody needs to even use a computer for that matter. I certainly look forward to a day in our human future when the word need returns to what it actually refers to, what you will die without, and I promise you that nobody will die without smxi or sgfxi, especially not me....

[h2-1]

added default composite ON for newer ATI cards, that means: sgfxi
for newer ati card will configure xorg.conf to enable composite.

sgfxi -q overrides the default and disables composite.

[blowtorch]

blowtorch, when running Sid / Testing, and fglrx, my sad experience supporting users is that the 'debian way' fails often up to about 2, 3 months a year at worst cases. Not every year not every xorg version not every kernel version, but I have seen multi month failures repeatedly for the rolling release part of debian. Now if radeon works for you and it's enough, that's all the better, since it tends to upgrade with new xorgs, not always, sometimes there are bug reversions / regressions, which can take a long time to resolve too, but that's life in free software land. Maybe in any software land now that I think of it, since I've also seen unfixed fglrx issues that were known for years for windows xp.

Why? Because the kernels/xorgs are not supported, the official published and real policy of ati is to not support the rolling release stuff, only a small pool of stable pool distros, like ubuntu, debian stable, redhat.

So while it's easy to type the words you typed, my unfortunately too many years of experience directly supporting debian users proved that the debian way fails constantly, and reliably, in different ways. Now, for stable pool, it's great, I tend to agree, use the native tools of debian (unless you got a new card not supported by that rapidly aging driver in stable, then you'd be out of luck - yes kids new cards need new drivers in most cases... whoops), but the maintainers of those packages get really sick of the headaches and often have just checked out, for long periods of time.

Why? Because in non fanboy fantasy land, ie, back here in the real world, supporting the stuff is a huge pain and it gets boring and unrewarding, so like any sane human, the maintainers just say screw it, we'll just do the stuff we are paid to do (ubuntu for example) and not worry about the free stuff.

as an example:
apt-cache policy nvidia-glx
nvidia-glx:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 195.36.31-7

That's in Sid today I can't remember when 195.36.31 was the actual current stable driver, but it was a long time ago.260.19.36 is an entirely new driver series, and the beta is on 270, which gives a decent idea of the reality of the enthusiasm/time/willingness of some human guy /maintainer of the nvidia-glx package, for example. fglrx-driver is up to date now in debian, which is unusual, so that's nice to see.

My sample base at one point was about 1/4 million uses a year, maybe more, not as much now by the way, but still reasonable, which I think is as an ongoing sample base fairly adequate to form at least working conclusions about reality.

However, I do agree with your point, nobody needs this stuff, including any software designed to make some things easier, like smxi or sgfxi, nobody needs to even use a computer for that matter. I certainly look forward to a day in our human future when the word need returns to what it actually refers to, what you will die without, and I promise you that nobody will die without smxi or sgfxi, especially not me....

I meant no disrespect smxi is quite legendary as I am sure people know. A lot of people I know do swear by it. I may have been put off because I have never gotten it to work with my ath9k wireless card for some reason? I think if it did work for me I'd quite enjoy it for sure. Never the less being a Debian user I am used to doing it all without the script.

[h2-1]

blowtorch, first, to be clear in case I wasn't above: if people like, prefer the technical debian way, then that is just fine, in fact, it's ideal, since it's cleanly integrated. The problem arises when that way is treated as if it's actually the only way, when it sadly often totally fails on sid/testing. For example, the only way aptosid manages to get the nvidia-glx package working consistently is by building it themselves when it fails and hosting it on a third party repo they run outside of aptosid.

Just as a quick current example, xorg 1.10 is coming. That xorg is supported ONLY by the new beta nvidia drivers. And those only support the current cards, none of the legacy ones. The second xorg 1.10 hits sid, then testing, all nvidia-glx drivers will immediately fail. And until nvidia releases new drivers for the 5000/400 series cards, those cards will fail without recourse. I assume also that fglrx will fail on xorg 1.10 but I am not certain, it usually fails on major new releases, for up to 3 months. So all the fglrx-driver running systems would also fail.

the debian way for non free drivers is really designed and suited for debian stable, or the frozen pool releases like ubuntu or mint ubuntu. In other words, if you run a frozen pool release and your driver works, it will keep working, because they don't update core components. So it's important to be clear about the difference re driver support on frozen pool or rolling release pools like sid/testing. I tend to agree, unless you want the latest and greatest, for sure use the distro packaged drivers if you run a frozen pool stable release distro, either squeeze or ubuntu based that is. sgfxi is primarily developed for rolling release stuff, or for frozen pool users who want the latest stuff, which often fixes bugs the stable packages might not have fixed. Remember, there is very little desirable about old drivers in general, especially when you use newer hardware.

One of the original reasons I agreed to take on the burden/headache of sgfxi was precisely because of the convoluted mess presented by those very same debian wiki non free driver install pages, which presented not one simple clean method, but 3, none of which were intuitively easy or reliable for regular users, and which left a great deal unsaid and undocumented. So sgfxi automated all that stuff, which is what scripts are supposed to do. The actual debian way has gotten easier since that time, to its credit, but it is still doomed to fail on some kernel/xorg updates.

Re the connection issue, if it's the same one I see in distros using gui connection managers that drop the connection out of X, that is in my opinion a bug with the configuration of those tools, and that bug should be fixed, ie, you should be able to easily and intuitively run a desktop system without X running, precisely so you can do whatever you need if you need to do it, without then hitting a steep learning curve just to get a connection running. Avoiding steep learning curves is how desktop Linux will succeed.

By the way, if I could make sgfxi install non free drivers from the run packages in X, I would have done that years ago, I can't.

Also remember, sgfxi lets you install distro packaged drivers easily: sgfxi -d
that is supposed to implement the Debian method explicitly, failure to do so is a bug and should be reported to my forums as such, usually that is caused by some package name changing without my being aware of it, or something else.

Re your connection drop, what I think is needed is for this problem to be solved so all users can benefit, it's a real problem, I see it in mepis users too, but it's not my issue so I can't fix it, don't have the time/desire to enter into such work at this point in my life, but it would be nice for the entire user base if that issue could be fixed for everyone.