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THpubs
Asked: 2012-10-19 22:05:19 +0800 CST

Can't install ATI proprietary drivers in 12.10

  • 772

I have a laptop with ATI Radeon 6770M HD Hybrid graphics card. In Ubuntu 12.04, I installed the fglrx driver through "additional drivers" and it worked. (I can even switch GPUs). But in the new Ubuntu 12.10, after installing, Unity won't load.

Only the mouse and the wallpaper. If I initialize the settings sudo aticonfig --initial then after rebooting it gives a warning saying I'm in low graphics mode! How to fix this?

Earlier I used software source to install the drivers. But when using the terminal, I got this warning : 

update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/lib/fglrx/ld.so.conf because link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf is broken

Update : Filed a bug report in launchpad : https://bugs.launchpad.net/fglrx/+bug/1068661

ati

8 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I started with a clean 12.10 install (not an upgrade) My card is a Radeon HD 5450

    First thing I done was to install Linux-source and Linux headers

    sudo apt-get install linux-source
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

    I noticed that many with Nvidia cards were having to do this and am sure I saw mentioned some-where that it also helped ATI users.

    Like everyone else if I installed either of the proprietary drivers after reboot I was able to login but lost unity.

    One thing I did notice is that installing the driver did not install Catalyst control centre (not sure if it is the same for everyone else)

    So I installed Synaptic package manager and installed fglrx-updates from there

    enter image description here

    Now the Catalyst control centre was installed.

    Upon rebooting however instead of being able to login with no Unity the system was hanging at the splash screen.

    So I applied nomodeset and this time it booted with Unity present

    Here is the result of fglrxinfo

    enter image description here

    And here is what software sources says

    enter image description here

    With nomodeset applied I might not be getting the splash screen on boot up but fglrx-updates is working well. I would go as far as to say that it is performing better than it was in 12.04

    More info

    Grub offers me 2 kernels

    3.5.0-18-generic and 3.5.0-17-generic

    The later one '18' is good, the older one '17' still loads without Unity

    • 25

  2. For those who have hybrid systems (ATI/intel) and fglrx has stopped working in 12.10, then the problem might be like the one described here (fglrx incompatibility with the recent version of the intel driver): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer-updates/+bug/1068404

    What I would suggest would be

    1. Remove all the fglrx* packages: 

      sudo apt-get purge fglrx*

    2. Add my PPA in your repositories list:

      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:andrikos

    3. Update your package information: 

      sudo apt-get update

    4. Update the fglrx and intel drivers: 

      sudo apt-get install fglrx xserver-xorg-video-intel

    5. Don't forget to enable the fglrx driver 

      sudo aticonfig --initial --force
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  3. I went to terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F1 for example) and did :

    sudo apt-get remove fglrx

    Now my computer is pretty slow but a least I can use it and wait for the problem to be fixed.

    • 4

  4. I found the problem. On upgrade of Ubuntu 12.04 -> Ubuntu 12.10, the contents of lightdm.conf in /etc/lightdm/ are completely erased. Installing or reconfiguring lightdm does NOT install this file here, so lightdm does not know how to go about displaying itself. You must do the following:

    sudo apt-get purge fglrx lightdm && sudo apt-get install lightdm ubuntu-desktop && sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

    insert the following text:

    [SeatDefaults]
user-session=ubuntu
greeter-session=unity-greeter
allow-guest=false

    Save the file via CTRL + X and sudo reboot. You may not have to uninstall fglrx, but I do not know.

    • 4

  5. This works for me.

        sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

    Go to amd.com and download their latest beta driver (which was just updated to 12.11). Run and install.

    Please note that the stable driver will not work with unity.

    Then head here to get a script to remove the watermark: http://areyoueye.net/?p=187

    Slainte!

    • 4

  6. There is an open bug at this time with fglrx-installer and Ubuntu 12.10

    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer/+bug/1025488

    I always say "search for open and confirmed bugs" before you proceed with something, especially when the distribution is new released.

    You can participate to this bug if affects you ,by posting comments there and click the button "Yes it affects me" (you have to have a Launchpad account).

    • 1

  7. Solution for me:

    1. remove current fglrx sudo sh /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*

    2. add ppa repository sudo apt-add-repository ppa:andrikos/ppa

    3. update packages list sudo apt-get update

    4. install packages sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates

    • 1

  8. I got the same problem. May i found a possible solution. First i opened the Ubuntu-Software-Center and i was looking for "additional drivers". After installing the "additional drivers" i installed the ATI driver and after a reboot my notebook startet normally with unity and with the right propietary driver.

    Note: The installation from the Software-Sources-button was not working in my case.

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