Display Drivers

A short (and incomplete) HowTo on updating LMCE (1.1 Beta2) to the latest display drivers.

ATI Chipsets

I'm writing these from memory more or less so it probably needs to be tested and updated, don't be shy.

Installation

1. Go to a console (text) terminal by holding [CTRL]-[ALT] and pressing the [F1] key simultaneously, log in with the user account you have created during the Kubuntu install and become root, if you haven't done so already.

<you>@dcerouter:~$ sudo -s

2. Prepare the system for building the driver packages, this only has to be done once, please add if you needed more.

root@dcerouter:~# apt-get install dpkg-dev debhelper

3. Download the latest linux drivers from AMD/ATI (version 8.38.6 currently), if you haven't done so already.

root@dcerouter:~# wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.38.6-x86.x86_64.run

4. Build installable packages for Feisty.

root@dcerouter:~# sh ati-driver-installer-8.38.6-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/feisty

5. Install them (maybe the order needs to be changed).

root@dcerouter:~# dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_*_i386.deb xorg-driver-fglrx-dev_*_i386.deb fglrx-kernel-source_*_i386.deb fglrx-amdcccle_*_i386.deb

6. Now it needs to be configured. There are a lot of ways to do that.

Configuration

(ToDo: Write some real instructions, with a bare full config example)

One way is to edit the "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file by hand and change at least. Before you begin modifying this file you should make a backup copy so you can always restore it back to a working default.

Section "Device"
 Identifier  "Generic Video Card" # or whatever Device was specified in the "Screen" Section
 Driver      "vesa" # or "ati" or "radeon" or something.
 ...
EndSection

to:

Section "Device"
 Identifier  "Generic Video Card" # <- leave this line as it was, unchanged!
 Driver      "fglrx" # <- change this one
 ...
EndSection

You might want to make a backup copy of this file once it works since it seems to be overwritten rather eagerly, and not always by the most adequate of tools.

Here's a quick and crude way to upate the configuration, it simply changes "vesa" to "glfrx" (not really recommended, better to do it properly).

root@dcerouter:~# sed -e '/[^#]*Driver/s/"vesa"/"glfrx"/' -i /etc/X11/xorg.conf

There might be other options that perhaps need to be changed depending on your existing configuration file, feel free to add them here.

Either restart the X-server completely or reboot. There should be an ATI controll center installed now if you followed the previous install instructions, this could be used for futher configuration needs, YMMV. Make another backup copy of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf when everyting works properly.

NVidia Chipsets

Coming soon to a browser near you!

Troubleshooting

X-windows won't start anymore at all

Reboot into safemode if needed (hit [Esc] when Grub tells you to), and restore a working copy of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf, or edit it by hand to fix the problem. Test it with the command "X" and press [CTRL]-[ALT]-[Backspace] simultaneous to quit (alternative: use "startx" and get the full desktop), then reboot when it works and you're done.