Fix Driver Manager to allow latest NVIDIA/AMD/Intel drivers

[Yfrwlf]

So there are lots of problems with Linux gamers trying to run games without the latest NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel drivers, and those games failing horribly. Even in Linux Mint 17.1, the driver manager is very "dumb" and only provides older drivers. At least when you add the xorg-edgers PPA it shows more drivers in it, but it still doesn't show the latest one, 346.

It would be nice to see the driver manager updated to include a method of getting the latest driver no matter your video card. Either adding those packages as optional packages in the repo, similar to how the new "Linux kernels" manager does it, would be awesome. For open source drivers apparently they would have to either be backported or the entire new Xorg stack would have to be made optional. Maybe you could simply make the manager be able to add Xorg-edgers PPA.

Anyway, it's a pretty big stumbling block for gamers trying to play the latest games, so I thought I'd start a thread about it!

What do you all think?

[Mark Phelps]

It would be nice to see the driver manager updated to include a method of getting the latest driver no matter your video card.

That's not how it is designed to work -- so, those changes are NOT going to happen.

Driver Manager installs drivers from the repos -- and these are nearly always older than the restricted drivers available directly from the AMD/NVidia websites. These drivers (in the repos) have been tested and known to work. This takes time, so there's always going to be some delay in those drivers being available.

It's very unlikely that the resources are available for the repo managers to monitor driver updates, grab and test the latest version, and add those to the repos.

If you want the very latest, you can simply get them from AMD/Nvidia. That's how it is done.

[Habitual]

These drivers (in the repos) have been tested and known to work.

touché

What do you all think?

You want games? Buy a console, is what I think.
Well, you asked.

[stormryder]

That's not how it is designed to work

Well i don't know anything about how its designed but it Doesn't Work at All if you have the proprietary driver and want to switch back to test the drivers against each other. When I tried to switch using the manager it didn't reconfigure the xserver so I had to reinstall the proprietary driver from the command line. If you're going to make a GUI to control drivers it should at least work.

You want games? Buy a console, is what I think.

My old windows desktop ran Oblivian way better than the console ever could.

[nascar64]

Mark Phelps sorry to said this but in some case we need driver for a very different reason ,my monitor like in my case need 1776x1050 resolution not newbi but tell you to install those Ati driver in linux mint close to nightmare i try so many different way i forgot how to do it the right way i had to get a different Os to use with my setup yes robolinux Os so easy to install or Pinguy Os too by the way and Zorin easy too, but mint Wow and love mint want mint, support mint on my setup but now i got to use a different Os for now,till some one got a good tutorial for amd driver, try the drive manager way,the Amd way very hard, by the way got a Amd hd 6850 with intel I7-2600 with 16 gig ram andCrucial ssd drive.Ray
only try like 6 times and had to reinstall most time was quicker then fixing the mess.

[ApexEverything]

This worked for me installing latest AMD drivers downloaded from here -

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/d ... =Linux+x86

I'm running 17.1 "Mate" I had enabled the included fglrx by mistake before trying to install the latest downloaded drivers. I had to remove them using Synaptic manager.

Uninstall current fglrx drivers using Synaptic -

Use the search box with "fglrx" as the search term.

Mark for uninstall ONLY the already loaded drivers marked with the green square leftmost.

Proceed by clicking the "apply" button.

Reboot the computer.

Download the new drivers using the above link ^ (If you haven't already)

Open the downloads folder and right click the downloaded package and select "extract"

Double click on the "fglrx 15.501.1003 folder icon that appears after the extract.

The AMD driver installer will open, select the 2nd option for installing the drivers, not the custom... I don't remember what it was called.

The app should install the drivers for you.

Reboot the computer.

In the driver manager you should now see "manually installed drivers" checked.

Watch your stuff, these work WAY better than the 13.x drivers that come in the 17.1 package. I have a R7 200 series video card. You can check for your card in the info area on the download link.

If you use VLC make sure you select deinterlace (blend) if your hardware is fast enough. You can toggle using the keyboad key "d" while watching a video to see the effect.

Let me know if I got the procedure right, I'll edit it if necessary...

Cheers

[ApexEverything]

Forgot to add, if you're getting the usual VLC screen tearing 2/5 of the way down the screen, the "Tear free" setting in the AMD control center will fix it.

[Mark Phelps]

When I tried to switch using the manager it didn't reconfigure the xserver so I had to reinstall the proprietary driver from the command line. If you're going to make a GUI to control drivers it should at least work.

Agree -- but that's not what your thread asks to be done. I commented on why the Driver Manager does NOT installed the latest Nvidia/AMD drivers by default -- because that it not the intention of the Driver Manager function.

IF it's not working, as apparently is the situation in your case, that is a different problem.

Also, when you install the drivers manually, by downloading them from AMD/NVIDIA you then create a problem in which, the next time you do an update that incorporates kernel changes, you will most likely "break" the drivers -- and then have to go to a lot of trouble to get a working display back. The installation using Driver Manager avoids this problem.

[stormryder]

Agree -- but that's not what your thread asks to be done. I commented on why the Driver Manager does NOT installed the latest Nvidia/AMD drivers by default -- because that it not the intention of the Driver Manager function.

Not my thread, I just thought I'd write what I think about the complete lack of support for proprietary drivers. I can understand that the manager may not be able to support the installation of these drivers, but it should at least be able to remove them and restore the repository versions properly. If it can't then it has little useful function.

IF it's not working, as apparently is the situation in your case, that is a different problem.

It is not working because there is no support for proprietary drivers, so it is the same problem.

Also, when you install the drivers manually, by downloading them from AMD/NVIDIA you then create a problem in which, the next time you do an update that incorporates kernel changes, you will most likely "break" the drivers -- and then have to go to a lot of trouble to get a working display back. The installation using Driver Manager avoids this problem.

Excuse me? "I" created a problem when I installed the driver supplied by the manufacturer of the hardware (that work better than any of the drivers in the so called manager I must say)? The "evil Irobot updater" will be responsible for breaking my driver! That BS is exactly why I wanted to get away fron microsoft. I guess I should just be happy I am allowed the freedom to chose only the software approved by those who know what is best for me, huh?

Well I will not go quietly into the night. I have the right to use whatever software I chose! Why would does mint's "Irobot updater" attempt to take that right away from me?

I have seen the term freedom bandied about on this forum quite a bit, I believe freedom is defined by the right to make one's own choice.

[deleted]

When you install things "out of band" from something other than a *.deb, apt knows nothing about it.
If manufacturers (like NVIDIA) release drivers as a runnable script, then they are not *.debs. That is the nature of Linux distros (for better or worse)
-Hinto

[Neil Edmond]

I have seen the term freedom bandied about on this forum quite a bit, I believe freedom is defined by the right to make one's own choice.

You have not lost any freedom of choice here, as far as I can tell. You are still free to choose which driver you want to use, the same as you can choose which kernel works best for your hardware, or which desktop/window manager, etc., works or meets your needs best, and on and on.

Only now you know that if you choose to source drivers from places other than the repo, and later choose to install a new kernel, the graphics driver may or may not have to be re-installed. Nothing impossible to deal with or fix, and certainly no loss of freedom.

[stormryder]

Hinto, I did actually compile it as a *.deb package according to the steps here:

http://www.ubuntulinuxguide.com/install ... ers-fglrx/

But I still had the issue with the driver manager. I very likely did something which caused it but that just indicates to me that I don't know enough about the installation and removel of these packages to practically use the operating system.

You have not lost any freedom of choice here, as far as I can tell. You are still free to choose which driver you want to use, the same as you can choose which kernel works best for your hardware, or which desktop/window manager, etc., works or meets your needs best, and on and on.

Indeed I suppose you are right about all that I just don't feel that struggling with command line code vs using a graphic interface is much of a choice for the average user, certainly not for me. My problem is I can't tell Oubuntu1 from 0ubuntu1 and can't remember whether that bit of code was ~/ fglrx-dev_14.501-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb or ~./fglrx_dev-14.501-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb or ~ fglrx-dev_14.501-Oubuntu1_amd64.deb for that matter. As for the kernel since I obviously don't know enough about linux to really understand the difference between one kernel and another how could I possibly make any choice about which kernel works best for me? I don't even understand why I should be required to learn that much about the kernel.

At the end of the day all that really matters to me is having an operating system that runs my hardware somewhere close to its fullest potential. Currently linux can't do that for the hardware I have chosen. I am extremely disappointed about this and I feel I have no other alternative but to go back to microsoft.

Which Really Sucks.

I am very thankful for the use I got out of linux for the last two years and I wish I could get it to work for with my current hardware, I really think it is a superior operating system. I just really need a good graphic interface not just for gaming but for graphic design as well. Its great that linux is free and all that but I would happily pay for a good alternative to windows.

Yfrwlf sorry about hijacking your thread but you did ask what I think and I just couldn't keep it to myself any longer.