Linux Mint 15 - AMD fglrx Proprietary Driver installation

[Apolyon]

Apologies if duckduckgo did not find a pre-existing guide or detailed posting. The default three drivers given to me were not up to snuff when testing out steam games on LM15. I looked around for posts concerning howto install the proprietary AMD drivers on my laptop, and I didn't find any information at all pertaining to this version. So the following is my rambling howto on the installation.


I went to www.amd.com and navigated their find a driver menu. In my case it is for an Asus g71jh laptop with and AMD Radeon 5870M. So I selected:

Notebook Graphics
HD Series
5xxx Series
Linux x86_64

And downloaded the corresponding file for AMD Catalyst 13.4 that the above search returned. In my case it was named:

amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-linux-x86.x86_64.zip

I unzipped that in /home/user leaving me with the following file:

amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run

I pressed control+alt+t to open up a new console window and ran the following:

sudo chmod +x amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run

at this point you could potentially attempt running the file as it is but I would advise against it. Letting the file do things on its own broke my cinammon and my direct rendering and I had to spend some time reversing the damages. In other words, I couldnt play games, and my cinnamon was acting worse than unity on a bad day. Like I said I would not do it, I would advise skipping down to the part that says in bold "the way that worded for me!", else here you go:

sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run

That will generate the graphical installer and it will do its thing. Like I said, i had a bad experience. If it breaks for you, that doesnt make AMD a bad company making bad drivers. Instead it means you tried an installation not really intended for ubuntu or linux mint, and it broke your stuff. Get over the mistake if you can't fix it and run the following command and hopefully it will revert what went wrong:

sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --uninstall

the way that worded for me!

I actually did the above, so this is in order for my own adventure. I then figured I would try running the program with the --help suffix. Behold!

./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --help

you will see an option labeled --listpkg . This tells you that you can generate packages specific to your distro. you should run it.

./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --listpkg

I have Linux Mint 15 installed so I ended up running"

sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring

At this point the program will grab whatever additional packages it requires in order to build you the AMD specific .deb files for your hardware. It didnt take long and it returned the following 3 files for me at /home/user

fglrx_12.104-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
fglrx-amdcccle-12.104-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
fglrx-dev_12.104-0ubuntu1_amd.deb

cool. We like .deb files right? So i ran the following command:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

this installed the above files for me (assuming you have no other deb files in that folder the same should work for you)


I have no guarentee that this will work for you, but it raised my frame rates on the CSS benchmark from mid 50's to 186. Like I said, the drivers that come packaged arent up to the job.

Hope this helps somebody else!

[natecgraham]

I followed your instruction up to buildpkg. I typed "sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring" and got "sudo: ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run: command not found" I am also running Mint 15. I have the AMD 6400/7400 series. I'm a newbie when it comes to Linux. I understand why the proprietary drivers are better, but it would be nice if a few distros worked up some contracts with AMD and NVIDIA so those distros could come packed with the proprietary drivers. But I'm sure that wouldn't work because I'm sure some seasoned hackers/programmers could find all of the files, reverse engineer it and somehow create a better Graphics card (even though though it's just a driver and not the actual card). So if I get "command not found" What do I do next?

[tdockery97]

I followed your instruction up to buildpkg. I typed "sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring" and got "sudo: ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run: command not found"

Are you sure you made the amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run file executable?

[natecgraham]

I followed your instruction up to buildpkg. I typed "sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring" and got "sudo: ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run: command not found"

Are you sure you made the amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run file executable?

No I didn't. I've only been using Linux for a week and I didn't know you had to set it as an option. After I saw your reply I looked around a little bit and found the option in properties! Thank you.

[natecgraham]

Well I guess I spoke too early. I checked the executable option, but after i typed my password into the terminal it still couldn't be found. Is there a certain program I need to use to have it work? I think the default program that runs it is geEdit.

[hunternet93]

Make sure you're in the correct directory, the file might be in your Downloads folder. If you're interested, I'd recommend a tutorial on the command line, it's somewhat daunting at first but it's fun and powerful once you learn to use it. You could start with [url]http://linuxcommand.org/learning_the_shell.php[/url], it's a longish read but expains the subject well.

[FrankR38]

Well, what can i say. I followed your tutorial step-by-step, up to the point where it created the three .deb files. After using "sudo dpkg -i *.deb" in the folder where the three .deb files are located, it gave me some error messages regarding dependancies etc., and after a reboot i couldn't even reach the log-in screen. Nothing but a black screen with several lines of (error)messages, with the picture being offset to the right side of the monitor. I couldn't do anything there.

I've tested this on Mint 15 Cinnamon 64bit, right after installing and booting it for the first time (so no updates where downloaded and installed, out-of-the-box installation so to speak). The only thing i did prior to installing the AMD driver was to setup my wlan usb stick in order to have internet access.

As usual, i had to do the first boot after installing using the "nomodeset" parameter because otherwise i wouldn't even be able to get past the log-in screen. This is a problem common to both MATE and CINNAMON editions, KDE RC is not having this problem because it uses the 3.8.0.25 kernel already, while MATE and CINNAMON come with 3.8.0.19.

Some further info:

-On MATE 15, which i'm testing on another HD, installing the AMD driver wasn't a problem using "sudo amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run", after a reboot the driver and CCC were installed and funtional. No further problems, even after updating MATE. Only thing i had to do was to use "nomodeset" on first boot.

- On KDE 15 RC, i didn't have any graphics problem at all, i could boot without the need for "nomodeset", install the driver the same way as in MATE, and everything's okay so far. Only problem here is that after a kernel upgrade to 3.8.0.26 the "ndiswrapper" won't work anymore, because i can't install it anymore (which leaves me without internet !).

- On CINNAMON 15, things are completely screwed ! Yesterday, i installed it for the first time. As usual, i had to boot using "nomodeset" in order to get to the desktop. After installing ndiswrapper 1.58 and my wlan stick, i installed the AMD driver (like i did before in MATE and KDE RC), made a system update and rebootet. The result: Nothing but the wallpaper, two icons in the upper left corner and the mouse cursors. Using the "nomodeset" didn't help too. So today, i decided to give it another try, using the tutorial posted here, with the result posted above.

This is really frustrating, i tried several current Linux distros over the past few weeks, namely Ubuntu 13.04, Kubuntu 13.04, Fedora 19, openSUSE 12.3 and 13.1 MS2 and of course Mint 15 in flavors MATE, CINNAMON and KDE RC, and EVERY distro had at least one major problem. Mostly regarding a non-functional ndiswrapper because of the kernel in use, or massive problems with my graphics card (Radeon HD 6670).

Ain't there a SINGLE, 100% working way to install graphics drivers without having to fear a screwed up system ?

[Beardedragon]

Ain't there a SINGLE, 100% working way to install graphics drivers without having to fear a screwed up system ?

In a word "No." There are too many old and new graphic cards and drivers to get one to work for all of them.

[borgdomination]

THANK YOU! This has been giving me headaches for months.

I had to do a sudo apt-get -f install to re-install flgrx before running the dkpg and it still says in Catalyst Control Center I'm running 12.9 but I am glitch-free.

[puffcake111]

OMG!!! PLEASE HELP!!! I did this exactly as you did but I started a bit in, avoiding all the mestakes you made int the start and everything said it installed, then when I rebooted there was absolutely nothing on the screen. It did the bios screen and then started to boot, but then everything went black, there is no login screen or anything, no mouse-notta! WHAT DO I DO!!! I was running linux Mint 15 off of a External Hard drive so I am able to modify files on it without actually having to boot, I just don't know what to change, I am new to linux this week... :'(
So far NOTHING on linux has worked for me and I just feel really stupid! *sad Face\

[grallis]

This post could be very helpful to people ... too bad you can't give karma. +1

[tadaensylvermane]

Couple steps missing that I had to do.

After this...

fglrx_12.104-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
fglrx-amdcccle-12.104-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
fglrx-dev_12.104-0ubuntu1_amd.deb

cool. We like .deb files right? So i ran the following command:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

this installed the above files for me (assuming you have no other deb files in that folder the same should work for you)

When I did it it complained about missing dependencies.
To fix this do

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install -f

I have a HD 5770 which is ati. I'm assuming newer generation cards use this same command

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sudo aticonfig --initial

For me the aticonfig part was critical as it said it found an uninitialized entry and it initialized it.
After these I was able to reboot and it worked great, still working great days later.

[Epicurean]

Thank you, Apolyon. I spent the better part of the day trying to install my ATI Radeon HD 5450. I had been following other tutorials and they all failed; they were not for Mint but Ubuntu. I would also like to thank everyone that contributed to this thread and those that listed their problems. Those things where helpful to me too. Hopefully everyone can get things worked out. Keep trying and never give up.

As far as graphics cards are concerned, even on a Windows system things can get ridiculous, but I don't want to get off topic. Thanks again guys.

[Epicurean]

Just an update and a problem. I started testing the 32bit version of MATE and one of the first things I tried to do was install the driver on the same machine and I got to the deb package part. Now I was greeted with this:

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depmod.......

DKMS: install completed.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Setting up fglrx-amdcccle (2:12.104-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up fglrx-dev (2:12.104-0ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic
Warning: No support for locale: en_US.utf8
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place

It installed just fine for me on Cinnamon, but MATE will not work.

*edit* I was able to fix the "Warning: No support for local: en_US.utf8" by entering this into the terminal:

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sudo locale-gen --purge --no-archive

Now I need to figure out why idconfig is deferred. . .

[sliksikki]

Worked like a charm!

I ran into some errors regarding dependancies and missing "stuff" - installed what it said was missing and voila... Catalyst is up and running.

Thank you, I'm new to all this and have tried a bunch of other "help" out there... yours is the only one that worked for me.

[OctoParrot22790]

I typed "sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring" and got "sudo: ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run: command not found"

Are you sure you made the amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run file executable?

I tried this in the File Properties GUI and with sudo chmod; it doesn't stick. When I close Properties and open it again, it doesn't remember my selection. What's up?

[NMSM]

Sorry to bump this thread, but i want to thank the OP and other users for the information provided... All worked well, i'm using now the latest driver for my Radeon HD.

Thank you!

[Megazell]

I have a spare rig with an ATI Card that I would love for this to work for.

AMD/ATI HD 4670 - 1 GB

After following this guide this is what I got -

Generating package: Ubuntu/raring
Error: Distro Version entered incorrectly or not supported, use --listpkg to identify valid distro versions
Error: Distro Version entered incorrectly or not supported, use --listpkg to identify valid distro versions
Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.xmrpvj

This is the driver I was directed to by AMD/ATI when I hit the site -

amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13.1-legacy-linux-x86.x86_64

Any hints or help would be great!

Edit - NVM - I just realized that this card/irg was put to the side because it was no longer supported.

[zonQe]

I tried doing this on Petra with AMD Catalyst 13.12 and I made it up to
& sudo ./amd-catalyst-13.12-linux-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring

Here's what came up:

Created directory fglrx-install.LM4C4g
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing AMD Catalyst(TM) Proprietary Driver-13.251..
=====================================================================
AMD Catalyst(TM) Proprietary Driver Installer/Packager
=====================================================================
Generating package: Ubuntu/raring

(synaptic:9930): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_set_data: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(synaptic:9930): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(synaptic:9930): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion 'G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

After that another window showed up where this was happening:

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Selecting previously unselected package libdpkg-perl.
(Reading database ... 152924 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libdpkg-perl (from .../libdpkg-perl_1.16.12ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package dpkg-dev.
Unpacking dpkg-dev (from .../dpkg-dev_1.16.12ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libdpkg-perl (1.16.12ubuntu1) ...
Setting up dpkg-dev (1.16.12ubuntu1) ...

with a message everything went successful. Back to terminal:

Resolving build dependencies...

(synaptic:11487): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_set_data: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(synaptic:11487): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(synaptic:11487): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion 'G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

Another window popped up:

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Selecting previously unselected package libc-dev-bin.
(Reading database ... 153285 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libc-dev-bin (from .../libc-dev-bin_2.17-93ubuntu4_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libc6-dev:amd64.
Unpacking libc6-dev:amd64 (from .../libc6-dev_2.17-93ubuntu4_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libstdc++-4.8-dev:amd64.
Unpacking libstdc++-4.8-dev:amd64 (from .../libstdc++-4.8-dev_4.8.1-10ubuntu9_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package g++-4.8.
Unpacking g++-4.8 (from .../g++-4.8_4.8.1-10ubuntu9_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package g++.
Unpacking g++ (from .../g++_4%3a4.8.1-2ubuntu3_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package build-essential.
Unpacking build-essential (from .../build-essential_11.6ubuntu5_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libc-dev-bin (2.17-93ubuntu4) ...
Setting up libc6-dev:amd64 (2.17-93ubuntu4) ...
Setting up libstdc++-4.8-dev:amd64 (4.8.1-10ubuntu9) ...
Setting up g++-4.8 (4.8.1-10ubuntu9) ...
Setting up g++ (4:4.8.1-2ubuntu3) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/g++ to provide /usr/bin/c++ (c++) in auto mode
Setting up build-essential (11.6ubuntu5) ...

"Everything went successful". Terminal:

Unable to resolve debhelper dh-modaliases execstack. Please manually install and try again.
^CSignal caught, cleaning up

It stayed on this message, until I made a dumbass mistake when trying to copy it...
The .deb files didn't generate.
What am I missing? Do I need additional packages? Should I be waiting until the program proceeds beyond "Unable to resolve ..."?

[mchi_ro]

I'm a netgamer, I play UT2004 a lot and recently I installed a linux distro (Mint 16, MATE - amd64) for the first time seriously.
My video card is an AMD Radeon HD 5670.
I saw that there's a utility software called "Driver Manager" with 3 different choices: xserver-xorg-video-ati, fglrx, fglrx-updates.
I observed that with fglrx the in-game FPS go around 200, instead with xserver-xorg-video-ati it can't go further than 80 FPS. You might want to ask what's the difference because the monitor can refresh at 80 Hz max, well I don't know why and I can't explain it either, but 200 FPS looks a lot more fluid than 80 FPS. Therefore I would like to use proprietary drivers if possible.

Yesterday I noticed that the fglrx drivers listed in the Driver Manager utility aren't up-to-date so I decided to install the latest ones from the AMD website.
The version I've got is this one: amd-catalyst-14-4-linux-x86-x86-64.zip
To install the drivers I followed this guide's 3.1 paragraph: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/AMD
I ran these commands:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dh-make dh-modaliases execstack
sh amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/saucy
sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb
*** REBOOTED *** After this first reboot the screen resolution was changed to 800x600, I manually changed it back to 1600x1200.
sudo aticonfig --initial

The fglrxinfo command returns the following:

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mchiro@mchiro-asus ~ $ fglrxinfo
display: :0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 5670
OpenGL version string: 4.2.12337 Compatibility Profile Context 14.10.1006

I've been using the computer without rebooting and without any problem after that.


Today I turn on the pc and while it's booting I see the startup logo of linux mint, but it's bigger as its resolution was changed again into 800x600.
When the boot finishes and the desktop manager starts the resolution is changed back again to 1600x1200, but the clock is shown at the wrong place on the taskbar, it's no more on the bottom right of the screen but it's in the center of it.

Screenshot.png

I changed the resolution to 800x600 and it fitted exactly to the bottom right, so I changed the resolution back again to 1600x1200 and moved it manually.

Screenshot-1.png

I rebooted again to see if the clock was to change its position again, but this time everything else was fudged up: the icons on the desktop were bounded within the top-left 800x600 area of the screen and couldn't be moved further, as if an invisible box was keeping them inside; the maximized windows were stretched on the bottom half of the screen.

Screenshot-3.png

I asked for help on IRC and I've been told to try to boot adding the nomodeset option on the grub command-line, it didn't solve anything.

I uninstalled the deb files from dpkg and installed fglrx and fglrx-amdcccle from apt-get, it didn't solve anything either.

I must have ruined something badly and don't know how to fix it, any help would be appreciated before I give up and reinstall the system.
Thanks in advance.