Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

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buckethead

Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by buckethead »

I'm having some major issues here, trying to get Daryna to work with my ATI Radeon 9250... I've tried several different things each resulting in catastrophic failure. I ran a search for radeon 9250 in the forums here and almost everything I've tried causes both my monitors to go blank, and requires a hard reset. I'm brand spanking new at linux so, not knowing how to fix this problem through the recovery terminal, I've had to re-install off the live cd each time I do this. The last thing I've tried to get the card to work is use Envy. I tried the "install ATI drivers" option and it gave me an error, that they were the correct drivers for my card, but that it wasn't compatable with my operating system... after that failed, I tried the "manually install ATI drivers" through Envy... After rebooting my desktop resolution went down to 800x600 and when I tried to change it back to 1280x1024, the screen became garbled and unreadable... I have no way of using linux now to get it back to 800x600 because I can't see anything.... So far the only way Daryna has worked for me is with the generic VESA drivers which don't seem to work with 3d effects, only 2d.

I need to know two things:

A) how to fix the damage I've done through the recovery terminal (if possible, if not, I'll just reinstall Daryna... AGAIN)
B) The RIGHT way to install my ati drivers so I can get 3d effects working

My roommate just finished installing Daryna on his laptop (also with ATI graphics) using the same live CD and doesn't appear to be having any of these problems... WHAT AM I DOING WRONG????


my system is as follows:
ATI radeon 9250 Graphics
Athlon 900
384 MB RAM
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Husse

Re: Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by Husse »

I don't think you are doing something wrong :roll:
It's just that the 92xx seems to be really problematic (if I have time I'll add a link to show you)
And you have a slow processor and little RAM. A modern Linux with X running does demand a bit more than before....
You have managed to get it running with VESA (which is a crappy driver that always work and is what you get in Safe graphics mode) and this shows you're basically there.
Assuming Daryna works go to Synaptic (Software sources) and select Remove completely the ATI driver
I don't know exactly what it's called but search for ATI and I think you get it (or ATI and xserver)
Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf so vesa is used

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf 
You paste with a right click in gnome terminal
Driver in Section "Device" should be changed to "vesa" (including one set of quotes :))
Reboot and see how things are. If it seems OK apart from the effects of vesa (which I believe)
Install the latest envy. Get it here
http://www.albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html
Read this faq first
http://albertomilone.com/pmwiki/pmwiki. ... sForUbuntu
Install the driver. I am not sure if there is a legacy driver for ATI as for nvidia. If so I think it's the one for you to use - please check
buckethead

Re: Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by buckethead »

Alright, I completely removed the ATI drivers, then I checked the xorg.conf file.... the driver is indeed listed as "vesa" under "device"

I also downloaded and installed the latest version of Envy... when I ran it however, I got the same error message. Here's the output on the terminal:


Your graphic card has been detected as a ATI Radeon 9250
Your graphic card is supported by the legacy Driver
ENVY ERROR: ATI's legacy driver does not support your operating system



Not sure how to fix this
Husse

Re: Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by Husse »

Now I understand what's happening
You need to use the legacy driver and somehow it's not happy with your system
Edit xorg.conf (you've done it already I think) and put ati (or radeon) as driver
You'll get basic 3D, but not as good as with a closed driver, but compiz will work
Good luck
Husse

Re: Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by Husse »

Thanks stafio for reminding us about the composite thing
ATI is a tough beast :roll:
buckethead

Re: Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by buckethead »

stafio wrote:I have a radeon 9200 and have not been able to get the proprietary drivers working with it. It always fails when patching the kernel. I have gotten the radeon driver to work by following this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver.

The only exception to what's there is that adding

Code: Select all

Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
where it says
Add the following sections at the end of the file if they don't exist elsewhere:
doesn't work for me for some reason and X will fail to start with that portion in xorg.conf.
I followed that write up to the letter, and still no luck.

After the final reboot my screen became garbled, and then booted in safe graphics mode... when I run the terminal and check glxinfo I get the following errors:

xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0". repeated several times along with "Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual"

tried restoring to a backed up xorg.conf file and repeating the process, still no luck
buckethead

Re: Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by buckethead »

Here is the current contents of my xorg.conf file:

Code: Select all

# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Module"
	Load	"glx"
	Load	"dri"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"CoreKeyboard"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"		"ImPS/2"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"		"4 5"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver		"wacom"
	Identifier	"stylus"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/wacom"
	Option		"Type"		"stylus"
	Option		"ForceDevice"	"ISDV4"		# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver		"wacom"
	Identifier	"eraser"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/wacom"
	Option		"Type"		"eraser"
	Option		"ForceDevice"	"ISDV4"		# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver		"wacom"
	Identifier	"cursor"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/wacom"
	Option		"Type"		"cursor"
	Option		"ForceDevice"	"ISDV4"		# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Radeon 9250"
	Driver		"ati"
	BusID		"PCI:1:5:0"
	Option		"XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"BenQ T903"
	Option		"DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"Radeon 9250"
	Monitor		"BenQ T903"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Modes		"1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Option		"AIGLX"		"true"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
	Screen		"Default Screen"
	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"

# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
	InputDevice     "stylus"	"SendCoreEvents"
	InputDevice     "cursor"	"SendCoreEvents"
	InputDevice     "eraser"	"SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode	0666
EndSection
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Alpha-Geek
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Location: Wisconsin, USA

Re: Newbie problems getting Mint to run with ATI Radeon 9250

Post by Alpha-Geek »

I wasted so much time with my Radeon 9600 PRO, that I finally just replaced it with an Nvidia card. It just works.
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