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35a32c5
(Get the code!)
G'day djchandler,
It sounds like you are in a bad situation. I'm not sure if my comments will help, but I thought I'd try anyway.
According to https:/
Old fglrx drivers wont work with new kernels, but old drivers and old kernels should work together just fine, so I'm not sure what is going on there - can you provide more details?
The above problem not withstanding, it's not really Ubuntu's fault that support for your older hardware is diminishing, but rather it is AMD's fault.
Perhaps instead we can get the open source Radeon driver working for you. The Linux 3.6 kernel finally enabled Radeon PCI Express 2.0 support by default and the Linux 3.8 kernel introduces a-synchronous DMA support. These changes have been demonstrated to make the open source Radeon driver much faster. HDMI audio support is also re-enabled by default and can be turned on and off with xrandr. The 3.11 kernel finally introduced full Radeon power management (DPM) support which was further refined and enabled for more hardware in the 3.13 kernel used in Ubuntu 14.04 "Trusty Tahr". This latter item should make your laptop run cooler, although if it's 5+ years old dust buildup could be part of the problem. Either dismantle it (I presume it's out of warranty) and clean out the dust or just run a vacuum cleaner nozzle along the external air vents. Your older hardware does not need updated Radeon firmware files for DPM.