Ubuntu

How to use fglrx proprietary driver without crashing 12.10

Asked by Adam Cajander

Samsung 535U4c Notebook Specs:

Memory: 7.3 GiB
Processor AMD A10-4655M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics × 4
Graphics Gallium 0.4 on AMD ARUBA
OS type 64-bit
Disk 976.6 GB

Using the X.org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper from xserver-xorg-video-ati

I Want to switch to: Using Video driver for the AMD graphics accelerators fglrx

HDMI and VGA are both not working and my screen has an irritating flicker every few seconds. I want to switch to the proprietary driver but the last time I tried that my system wouldn't boot and I don't want that to happen again. So how can I safely install the fglrx drivers without crashing my computer again? I read something online about adding the xorg edgers PPA (https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa), and getting the driver from there, which apparently worked for some people. I just want to use the fglrx driver without ruining my install again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
N1ck 7h0m4d4k15
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

What is the outputof:

sudo lshw -C display; lsb_release -a; uname -a

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Adam Cajander (cajander1111) said : 		#2

 *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=radeon latency=0
       resources: irq:47 memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:f000(size=256) memory:feb00000-feb3ffff
LSB Version: core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10
Codename: quantal
Linux ********* 3.5.0-22-generic #34-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 8 21:47:00 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Thanks

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Obfuscating your hostname does nothing.

What is the output of:

lspci | grep -i vga

Thanks

Revision history for this message
N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#4

Do not add the X-edgers PPA , is extremely bleeding edge ,is for testing proposes ... Read the descritpion of the PPA before you add it.
https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

Use the terminal and execute the commands below , one by one (copy-paste from here) , to install a stable version of AMD/ATI driver.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r)

sudo apt-get install fglrx fglrx-amdcccle

sudo amdconfig --initial

and reboot your PC .

To see if the driver is used properly try to open the Catalyst Control Center
Or
see the results of this command

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Adam Cajander (cajander1111) said : 		#5

@actionparsnip
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device 9907

@NikTh
You gave me those instructions verbatim just a couple of days ago, which is why I am asking this question. The installation of the driver in that manner caused my system to hang on boot as soon as I restarted. I know it is not your fault and I am not blaming you. I just know that if I repeat those instructions again, my desktop won't load, so I need another solution/method.

Thanks for your help

Revision history for this message
Best N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#6

You have 2 options. One , is the open source driver (radeon) that is pre-installed in Ubuntu , is a good driver - stable but not for high performance.. (example: games , HD 1080p .. etc)
Second , is the closed source driver , AMD offer this driver for Ubuntu (Linux).

Above drivers have multiple versions , so you must test which version working for you.

There is another method to install the AMD closed source driver (from AMD's web site) but is not recommended and I will not post it here.

Try the newer driver , the fglrx-updates .. and see if works..

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates
sudo amdconfig --initial -f

In case of a problem is not necessary to re-install Ubuntu. If the boot hangs , then boot from [Recovery Mode] and use the Root option to restore your system , to uninstall the fglrx. How ?

At grub menu , select the [Recovery Mode] , then click on "Network" first , to have network connection and mount the root partition as Read/Write. You must have a cable (Ethernet) connected.

Then click on "Root" and restore the system to previous driver with the commands below
No sudo needed here.

apt-get remove --purge fglrx-* fglrx-amdcccle*
rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
reboot

Last command will reboot your system and the open source driver (radeon) will be used again.

An external repository you can enable is the X-swat PPA , contains more stable newer versions of drivers.
Check it here:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates

So you can FIRST enable the PPA and update your system with the commands below

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update

and then follow above instructions to install the driver.

To see what version will be installed , you can apply

apt-cache policy fglrx-updates

it will show you the candidate version.

Also you can update your existing radeon driver with above PPA , with below commands

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

In case of a problem with the above PPA , you can revert back to original packages with the ppa-purge script. Below commands

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

will downgrade the packages to previous original versions. Do not just un-tick this PPA from software-sources , you must purge it with ppa-puge to downgrade the updated packages properly.

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Adam Cajander (cajander1111) said : 		#7

 Thats exactly the answer I was looking for, NikTh. I thank you for taking the time to write a well thought-out reply, that left no remaining questions. There is only one problem and that is: I do not have a grub menu that appears on boot. I will search the web for literature pertaining to this problem; I'm sure I will find an answer.Thanks again for your assistance. I will let you know the results, and then I will close the question as solved.

Revision history for this message
Adam Cajander (cajander1111) said : 		#8

 I did a test to see if I would be able to recover my system. I followed your instructions to boot into recovery mode, then I selected network and it gave a couple lines of output, then just hung there for over 30 minutes. I couldn't get back to the previous menu at all. The only way I found to get out of it was cried rebooting ctrl+c, which brought me to a command line. I tried this several times, but the problem persists. So now I can't try installing the drivers until this additional roadblock is cleared. Any suggestions?

Revision history for this message
Adam Cajander (cajander1111) said : 		#9

This is so annoying. Now I found out theres a bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer/+bug/1076298

Both fglrx and fglrx-updates will never work for me. There are only 3 people who reported the bug including me, so now I basically have a $900 internet machine. Can't use VGA, HDMI, annoying screen flickers, no HD video, sub-par game performance.

Revision history for this message
Adam Cajander (cajander1111) said : 		#10

Thanks NikTh, that solved my question.