To Any One Who is Having ATI issue Here is Some Help

[tbruff13]

For any users that Need help installing ATI Graphics Drivers I have emailed AMD and they are working on it in the mean time you can use the instructions provided by this PDF (attached) I was also informed of a wiki http://goo.gl/ClKZn (short Link) this should direct you to the instruction for ubuntu 11.10 you can try those. I AM NOT AN OFFICAL MINT STAFF MEMBER I CANNOT GUARENTEE ANY OF THIS WILL WORK. Luckily There are instructions for removing and restoring Mint back to normal. If you need help with the newest driver this would be the place to go. I have not tested this however, I will be doing so in a few hours.

As for now this thread is designed for users to post with their issues, and provide screenshots. I will provide data to AMD about every issue, so that they can work on the issue. Post if you can make the current drivers work and tell us how you did it. I know that this driver issue might make some of you want to go back to mint 9 or 11, but give things a chance to work out. The more of you that post the more data AMD can get and the faster we can fix this issue. I am counting on the Linux Mint community to help us out as much as they can. If you are a user that can help out technically make yourself known. We need your support on this issue. If you have any questions or need help you can PM me or another person who has posted here on the forum. With your support we will make quick work of this issue.

I will work on this issue keeping things moving forward. I will file bug reports through AMD for every issue I can. Just remember to be as through as you can in explaining your issue, and attaching a screenshot can really help with that. I will follow up with you either through this thread or a PM on this forum. The message will tell you that I am submitting a bug report or that a bug report has already been submitted. If a report has already been submitted I will add your fourm name to the report to show the numbers the issues is affecting remember to mention your card so that I can give AMD and assessment on how many cards these issues affect.

Please remember to tell me what driver you are using Linux mint additional drivers or the newest one from ATI. Right now The Linux mint Additional Drivers applet is out of date it is using 11.8 for the main driver and 11.9 for the post updates driver. If you are having issues before you post here please install the newest driver from AMD with the links above serving as a guide.

If you have any question pertaining to the guide please fell free to post them here. I will be testing the new driver and replying telling you how it went.

IF THE DRIVER HAS BROKEN YOUR SYSTEM DON'T PANIC

Just follow the instructions on the wiki to uninstall the driver you don't need to reinstall mint once the ATI broken driver is gone you need to restart and your system will go back to the opensource driver (this has been tested). Have a good night, and if you need help post I will do the best I can to help any user who asks, but I can't help those who don't

NOTE: YOU MUST UNINSTALL YOUR FORMER DRIVER BEFORE INSTALLING A NEW ONE LOOK ON THE WIKI FOR THIS TO BE EXPLAINED

[714snoopy]

tbruff - Great topic! I am also having some minor problems with Mint 12 and the ATI driver.

Here's what I got:

VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV630 [Radeon HD 2600 Series]
ATI driver Version 11.10
AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4200+
2 Gigs RAM
32-Bit Mint 12

I installed (activated) the "ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver (post-release updates)" when I freshly installed Mint 12. There was an error message when the driver installed. So, I assumed the driver never installed. The "Additional Drivers" dialog does NOT show that this or any other driver is active. However, I have the "Catalyst Control Center" tools installed and it is showing that version 11.10 is installed. So, I guess the install actually happened after all.

Symptoms I'm seeing:
* Gnome Shell crashes on occasion. Mostly when the screen saver has been activated and I log back into my session, then click on or activate the "Activities" menu. Basically, any thing I click on in the upper or lower tool bars causes the crash. A few seconds later, all windows and shell lock up. ALT-F2 doesn't even bring up a command input box. CTRL-ALT-Backspace takes me to a text prompt but the shell never restarts. I have to do a hard reset/re-boot. Again, this has happened only about 5 or 6 times since I installed Mint 12 about a week and a half ago. Things appear to be more stable in the last couple of days with recent updates (maybe?).
* Ocasionally, I'll see some tearing/jittering on the display in large vertical bands. It only happens for a split second and seems to happen when programs are opened or closed.
* Playing a game (Steal Storm: Burning Retribution) works perfectly. However, after quitting the game and returning to the desktop, the original screen resolution does not restore and I have to log out/in again.

How I configure my desktop:
* User Themes Extension OFF (I like the dark, clean look of the vanilla Gnome 3 interface)
* Bottom Panel Extension ON (I love the Mint menu and the ability to see what windows are open in the "task" bar. That's what's missing from the standard Gnome 3 interface IMO)

Other Issues:
I have another machine that runs Mint 11 just fine (older and lower specs than this one) where the Mint 12 Live desktop will not come up at all. It'd be nice if it would just fall back into MATE mode so I can install it. I read a post where someone suggested a MATE "only" ISO.

Overall, I'm very happy with Mint 12!!! Thanks Clem and Mint Team!!!

[Roken]

I'm now using pure Debian, but this is a globally interesting thread. May I ask, is this restricted to fglrx from ATI, or does it include the repository fglrx (which I understand AMD contribute to)?

[tbruff13]

I will call AMD for you and open a ticket for support. I will post the ticket number if you want to follow up on it. The more tickets we open the more support we are likely. It is difficult for them to listen to one person I will PM your ticket number and copy your post into the bug report. Thank You for supporting this AMD movement to support Mint 12. I will call and ask for the linux bug report links for Linux users.

I will go ahead and add to this post by saying that if any want to phone or post their own bug reports you can all AMD (North America Only) here 877-284-1566 I am working on getting a linux bug support link. I will have it up within 24 hours

[gorellana09]

I have been trying to get this to work all day and just about to give up and reinstall Linux Mint 11. It is a shame as I really like Mint 12 but I cannot get gnome to work fine unless it is the open source drivers. The problem is that those drivers are not supported by a game I play a lot. So back to Mint 11 for me it seems.

[mr_raider]

What version of catalyst are you using>? 11.11?

I know fglrx has issues with gnome 3, but runs ok on unity, that's whay ubuntu works but mint does not. HAs this been fixed?

[tbruff13]

gorellana09 can you please be more specific with the issues you are having. I will not be able to submit bugs until monday, but I would like to have information about your issue. To people posting in this thread I just realized that ATI requires and email that they can reach you at. I will be maintaining a separate email for the bug reports I submit. tbruff13@mail.com, but if you would like me to submit a bug report under your email I will need you to PM me an email I can use.

YOU WILL NOT RECIEVE ANY EMAILS FROM ME

You will only recieve emails from AMD. Your email is safe I wlll only use it to submit a bug report. If you feel uncomfortable giving an email don't worry your bug report will still be submitted under mine. Can anyone who is using Ubuntu tell me if they have had any problems at all.

To Roken I tried install flgrx from the repos it did not work. If you are talking about the drivers in the Additional drivers section. If not I am not sure what you mean. I have been able to discern from the posts on this forum that the driver issue might be a problem with Gnome 3 I will be submitting a bug report to them as well to see what response i recieve

To 714snoopy I have posted a gnome 3 bug report for you I will submit a Linux Mint bug as here is the gnome 3 bug report https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=665512

[tbruff13]

Hey Guys,

I saw similar results after updating the ati video drivers, using the 'install additional drivers' icon.

The installation appeared to complete as expected however rebooting provided various unpleasant results. First attempt resulted in a black screen being the only result. ctrl-alt-F2 and checking log files yielded error messages relating to fglrx interrupt problems (sorry, have lost the error message as I performed a complete reinstall (just to check).

Second attempt also landed me with a black screen, however after a little bit of jumping from terminal to X and back the desktop eventually displayed, now it had the font and slight graphics corruption that you are mentioning. Not very pleasant at all.

To rectify this problem I performed the following (worked for me, YMMV):

Downloaded the latest ati drivers from the amd website (ati-driver-installer-11-11-x86.x86_64.run)

jumped to tty (ctrl-alt-F2)
CODE: SELECT ALL
sudo su -
apt-get remove --purge fglrx
apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf


(make sure radeon or ati are not blacklisted (mine was not))
CODE: SELECT ALL
vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

If you see ati or radeon referenced, comment out the appropriate line.

At this point, you will now have the standard video drivers back.

CODE: SELECT ALL
cd ~/Downloads
./ati-driver-installer-11-11-x86.x86_64.run

(follow the bouncing ball to complete the installation of the proprietary driver)

Once done reboot the system. If the gods are on your side, enjoy.

I now have a working, non-corrupted interface.

Hope it helps.

This was posted by a user named CalinDee viewtopic.php?f=47&t=87208 I will attempt to test this tonight.

[gorellana09]

@tbruf13, I will post a pic of the issue once I am able to get on Linux again. I am reinstalling Mint 12 because I messed up badly after uninstalling the ATI proprietary drivers Linux would not boot and all the solutions on the forums did not help, I finally just gave up and decided to do a fresh install and start from scratch. Only this know better than to try to install the drivers, I will just keep the open source ones for now and I will just have to learn to play my game that I play on low graphics and low specs. I do hope some day ATI cards work with this gnome shell as it really is a nice desktop.

[tbruff13]

To All you you who have responded I am working as fast as I can to contact ATI, but I will have to contact AMD on Monday. I am trying, but I am also in school, so bear with me

In the meantime i have added a petition for AMD to support Linux Mint offically and signed it myself I would like all of you to do the same. If Ubuntu is supported why isn't mint
This petition will be valuable to me when I file the offical bug reports to AMD to show how many customers this issues is affecting.

Also if you would like to support open-source ATI Linux drivers so i have emailed http://goo.gl/V4yuu

I will also be posting a separate thread for the petition link http://goo.gl/03Jux

Here is a direct link to the petition http://goo.gl/4XkKF If you do not feel confortable adding your real name use your forum name it will have the same effect.

If people are wondering why I am using Google Link Shortening it is only so that I can track the people who click on threads to get an idea on how many people this issue is affecting.

[Klaw117]

I applaud your commitment to this project. I have one concern though. Since I'm using a laptop, I have hybrid graphics cards, one of which is an Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics card while the other is an AMD Radeon HD 6470M discrete graphics card. I've been tempted to try some of the solutions mentioned here, but I also hear that the Catalyst software and switching between these two cards is unsupported. Even if I install the driver, I'm not sure if I'll be able to switch graphics cards, which is a bit of a concern for me because being unable to switch between graphics cards will severely decrease my battery life (both graphics cards just stay on, but I can only use one of the two graphics cards, which wastes energy). This is actually pushing me away from using Linux Mint when my laptop isn't plugged in. Would installing the AMD drivers also install the Catalyst software and allow me to switch between graphics cards? If so, then I may try using the latest solution that you posted (the one from CalinDee).

[gotjazz]

hrm guess it's mint11 for a while for me too. petition signed.

[surjagain]

I recently bought a Lenovo G570 laptop which comes with a Radeon HD 6370M graphics card along with the integrated mobile Intel HD graphics. From the BIOS I can select two configuration options, which are 1) Switchable and 2) UMA Graphics.

Under Windows 7, using the drivers provided by Lenovo, the switchable graphics system works pretty fine. I get to choose the High Performance or Power Saving mode for any application which I start. In general it seems to work alright.

When using Ubuntu Linux 11.10 or Mint, I suppose there is no driver which supports the Radeon card. The ones in the Synaptic Package Manager do not work, because post installing from the repositories, Catalyst Center says that I am not using any Radeon graphics card. I tried installing the new driver (AMD Catalyst™ 11.11 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver) for Linux which is available from the AMD website. But installing it stops Ubuntu or Mint 12 from booting and the graphical interface doesn't come up. What I get is a black screen with white text when I reboot after installing the driver, probably saying something about a segmentation fault. Then I reinstalled Mint 12 and it ran well but the laptop would start heating up and the fan probably ran at full speed. So I am forced to use the UMA graphics option from the BIOS which probably shuts off the GPU and at least runs the laptop much cooler.

Well, I have laid out the problem and I have read the solutions offered on the net but it is actually pretty confusing for an ordinary user like me. There are a certain points on which I would need help:
1) If I get a black screen with white text after rebooting the laptop post installing the propriety driver from AMD, what should I do to recover the graphical desktop? It's time consuming and frustrating to install the whole OS again and again.
2) What is the safest way I can follow to installing the proprietary driver?

Help and guidance for solving this problem will be very much appreciated.

[714snoopy]

+surjagain

Try the steps for removing the ATI driver as outlined by tbruff13 above or on this web page: http://www.upubuntu.com/2011/11/how-to- ... -1111.html

You shouldn't need to re-install the whole OS just to remove a driver. Hope that helps?

[surjagain]

Thanks for the quick reply. I hadn't seen this page be before. Trying out the method now. Will post about the results soon.

[surjagain]

+surjagain

Try the steps for removing the ATI driver as outlined by tbruff13 above or on this web page: http://www.upubuntu.com/2011/11/how-to- ... -1111.html

You shouldn't need to re-install the whole OS just to remove a driver. Hope that helps?

Ok i tried it and it failed miserably. The installation went smoothly, no error messages at all, I update dated the xorg.conf file as directed. Then the installation program asked me to reboot the computer and I did. When i rebooted i get the black with white text messages and it halts there without continuing to the login page. I rebooted again into the recovery mode and tried to uninstall the driver as instructed but even after uninstalling its still the same thing.

not sure what to do anymore. I don't really know how to troubleshoot this if i cannot get into the graphical mode.

[Psychedelic]

+surjagain

Try the steps for removing the ATI driver as outlined by tbruff13 above or on this web page: http://www.upubuntu.com/2011/11/how-to- ... -1111.html

You shouldn't need to re-install the whole OS just to remove a driver. Hope that helps?

Ok i tried it and it failed miserably. The installation went smoothly, no error messages at all, I update dated the xorg.conf file as directed. Then the installation program asked me to reboot the computer and I did. When i rebooted i get the black with white text messages and it halts there without continuing to the login page. I rebooted again into the recovery mode and tried to uninstall the driver as instructed but even after uninstalling its still the same thing.

not sure what to do anymore. I don't really know how to troubleshoot this if i cannot get into the graphical mode.

I'm running Radeon HD 4330 on my HP Probook 4710s. Installing manually drivers from AMD homepage did not help me either. Even tried a clean install + manual driver install with no help.
Immediatelly after login the Gnome 3 Shell goes all crazy and is full of graphical errors which makes it pretty much unusable. As much as it breaks my heart it seems I might have to go back to Ubuntu 11.10 on the laptop as there seems to be no problem with Unity desktop. Sigh... This is such a huge showstopper - something that definitely should have been solved before the release of Mint 12. Works fine on my Nvidia desktop though.

[714snoopy]

Well, that sux, guys. Sorry to here about your troubles. Maybe someone else here and give you some pointers. Every graphic card will have its own issues, unfortunately.

Don't forget, there is always MATE or Gnome Classic modes! Just log into that instead of the Gnome3 shell. (I know this won't help surjagain) At least you'll have a graphic environment in which to make fixes, install, uninstall, etc. Or, if you want Mint 12 functionality, just use MATE full time. That's what its there for.

[barrieluv]

+surjagain

Try the steps for removing the ATI driver as outlined by tbruff13 above or on this web page: http://www.upubuntu.com/2011/11/how-to- ... -1111.html

You shouldn't need to re-install the whole OS just to remove a driver. Hope that helps?

Ok i tried it and it failed miserably. The installation went smoothly, no error messages at all, I update dated the xorg.conf file as directed. Then the installation program asked me to reboot the computer and I did. When i rebooted i get the black with white text messages and it halts there without continuing to the login page. I rebooted again into the recovery mode and tried to uninstall the driver as instructed but even after uninstalling its still the same thing.

not sure what to do anymore. I don't really know how to troubleshoot this if i cannot get into the graphical mode.

I'm running Radeon HD 4330 on my HP Probook 4710s. Installing manually drivers from AMD homepage did not help me either. Even tried a clean install + manual driver install with no help.
Immediatelly after login the Gnome 3 Shell goes all crazy and is full of graphical errors which makes it pretty much unusable. As much as it breaks my heart it seems I might have to go back to Ubuntu 11.10 on the laptop as there seems to be no problem with Unity desktop. Sigh... This is such a huge showstopper - something that definitely should have been solved before the release of Mint 12. Works fine on my Nvidia desktop though.

I installed Mint 12 on my HP DV6 1313SA (Graphics provided by ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series) and although the open source drivers worked, my machine kept overheating.
Tried the latest driver (11.11) from the ATI site and never saw the desktop again.
Gone back to Ubuntu 10.10 for the time being, hoping that the issues will disappear with Mint 13. Gutted, 'cos this is the first time I've ever thrown in the towel on getting a distro to work. I need a working machine and can't be bothered with the fiddling.

[tbruff13]

I have contacted AMD and they told me they we can send our bugs to tech.support@amd.com. I will inform the Linux Team about this post, and I will see if they can fix the iusses. I am working as hard as I can.

Meanwhile, We are up to over 30 signs on the petition, but we need at least 100 (I put 200) before I can even consider presenting the petition to AMD, so I am making another call to sign I will work on submitting bug reports tonight. To all of who who have signed I thank you. I have school and so i was just able to check my email tonight I am so sorry for the delay. Remember the more work you put submitting on the forum the more work I can put into the submitting bugs to AMD. In the meantime I will work on getting an email address for the Linux Team at AMD.