Ubuntu Ibex 8.10 with ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
So, I finally decided to crack out the new Ubuntu release, and the installer seemed to be successfull and it was time to reboot the machine which is where things went terribly wrong. My login screen was a blank screen.
So I then pushed CTRL+ALT+F1 to get to a shell, and noticed that by default the ati opensource video driver in xorg.conf wasnt happy at all.
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
So after googling a bit, i discoverd that support for this Radeon Series of cards was updated in later releases of the fglrx driver. Which can be enabled in 5 easy steps.
1. Remove all references to the older fglrx driver.
sudo apt-get remove xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx-kernel-source
2.Update the sources list
sudo apt-get update
3. Reinstall the newer drivers
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx-kernel-source jockey-gtk xserver-xorg-video-radeon
4. Enable the fglrx drivers
sudo aticonfig --initial
5. Restart gdm
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
We can now verify that we have the right driver installed by using fglrxinfo.
osamad@root:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
OpenGL version string: 2.1.8087 Release
And voila, I then was able to launch the ATI Catalyst Control Center from the menu system Applications > Accessories
> ATI Catalyst Control Center , and used that to enable my dual monitors.
After that I enabled the desktop effects and installed the compizconfig-settings-manager
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
System > Preferences > Compiz Config Settings Manager to enable my desktop cube! And now am a happy camper!
Worked great. Thanks!
David Barnett
12 Nov 08 at 10:00
Great!! glad to hear!
mnk0
12 Nov 08 at 10:00
Worked for me too
One thing, you’ve missed off the ’sudo’ commands from steps 3 and 4.
Eric
4 Dec 08 at 12:00
Eric, thanks for the comment, i’ll update that now!
mnk0
4 Dec 08 at 12:00
How does your video playback look while compiz or any advanced desktop options are enabled? My video is horrible!!
Nausser
9 Dec 08 at 0:00
Ok, so ive seen a white / flicker on the video play back for one of my monitors, and also when the dual monitor screen saver is on, flipping over to the other monitor works for me as a work around.
so your monitor is fine when you disable the desktop effects?
mnk0
9 Dec 08 at 10:00
does anyone know if this guide will work for mobility 2400 as well? I want to try, but months of frustration has warned me off…and my laptops a few hundred miles away.
Bernard
13 Dec 08 at 11:00
Actually i tried it on my laptop and it worked out of the box, i didnt even need to go through these steps, it has a ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 or V5250 256MB graphics card.
Take the plundge!!
mnk0
13 Dec 08 at 12:00
Thank you.
For Bernard :ce guide fonctionne avec une ATI Mobility radeon HD2400 qui équipe mon satellite P200 Toshiba sur lequel j’ai fait la mise à niveau d’Ubuntu (8.04 vers 8.10).
J’avais déjà rencontré le problème lors de l’installation de la version 8.04 d’Ubuntu, masi je l’avais oublié.
Bonne chance
Jean-claude
16 Dec 08 at 8:00
mnk0,
great job. works for me after a full day of frustration!
tx, richard
richard
23 Dec 08 at 18:00
Would this work for a Radeon 9600?
Dale Curren
4 Jan 09 at 7:00
Hmm, not sure if the 9600 is using the legacy driver or the fglrx .. have you tried it out ?
mnk0
5 Jan 09 at 12:00
This works, but yealds only dual 1024×768 monitors. Their doesn’t seem to be a way to increase this. I’ve been trying different methods for almost a week now. I’ve gotten one monitor at be 1600×1200, but hte second monitor stays at a lower resolution. - VERY frustrating.
dan
13 Mar 09 at 13:11
hey dan, you wanna msg me your xorg.conf , it could be a configuration issue, or your monitors can’t support more than that.
mnk0
18 Mar 09 at 11:11
Hi there!.
Guys when I restart my laptop I have to reinstall the radeon drivers. How can I avoid this and keep my radeon drivers as default video drivers?.
Rod_
30 Mar 09 at 16:11
yo rod, ok so what exactly do you mean reinstall the drivers??
the drivers should be there still, do you mean that your dual screen setup, resoluation is being reset after every boot?
mnk0
31 Mar 09 at 22:11
I have the same thing as Rod_
When I restart X or Reboot I get cloned screens. I have to back to Applications -> Accessories -> ATI Catalyst Control Center and change back to dual monitors. It never saves this configuration.
Any ideas?
Can someone share their working xorg.conf?
Matthew
17 Apr 09 at 10:11
You have to manually edit the xorg.conf to set that up, if you post your xorg.conf i can help you make the edits.
mnk0
1 May 09 at 13:11
Thanks! Here is my xorg.conf
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “aticonfig Layout”
Screen 0 “aticonfig-Screen[0]-0″ 0 0
EndSection
Section “Files”
EndSection
Section “Module”
EndSection
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Configured Monitor”
EndSection
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0″
Option “VendorName” “ATI Proprietary Driver”
Option “ModelName” “Generic Autodetecting Monitor”
Option “DPMS” “true”
EndSection
Section “Device”
Identifier “Configured Video Device”
Driver “vesa”
EndSection
Section “Device”
Identifier “aticonfig-Device[0]-0″
Driver “fglrx”
BusID “PCI:3:0:0″
EndSection
#Section “Screen”
# Identifier “Default Screen”
# Device “Configured Video Device”
# Monitor “Configured Monitor”
#EndSection
Section “Screen”
Identifier “aticonfig-Screen[0]-0″
Device “aticonfig-Device[0]-0″
Monitor “aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0″
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
# Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Virtual 2560 1024
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
EndSection
Matthew
4 May 09 at 10:11