Ubuntu
xorg package

Installed Ubuntu 8.10 but boots to command line. Cannot get Ati card to work

Asked by smokinfox

Hi Everyone,

I have a Samsung R20 laptop with the ATI Radeon Xpress1250 graphics chipset (256mb Shared i think). I have installed OpenSuSE in the past and dual booted with XP. OpenSuSE boots straight into graphical desktop with no probs. I am keen to try Ubuntu but I cannot get it to work. I installed it using Wubi and it boots to a command prompt but I cannot start X.

Unfortunately my knowledge of Linux command line usage is virtually nill so I am trying to find a step-by-step idiots guide to installing the required driver.

In SuSE I never managed to get 3D acceleration to work but was not too concerned. Of course I would prefer it if I could have full 3D acceleration working but just getting X to work would make me happy. I just hope Ubuntu is worth all this head scratching. Why is it that some Distros can boot X straight away and yet Ubuntu doesn't? SuSE manages it. Why not Ubuntu?

Thanks in advance
Rich

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smokinfox
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nhasian (nhasian) said : 		#1

this page on ubuntu has information regarding your video adaptor:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/RadeonXpress

Revision history for this message
smokinfox (richdavisuk) said : 		#2

Thanks for your answer. You solved my problem but perhaps not in the way you might imagine.

I made an error in my original post. I was not running 8.10. Instead I was using 8.04.

Thanks to your link I read that 8.10 works "out of the bos" on ATI hardware. I decided the download the latest version and voila. Everything works. I am delighted that literally everything is working. Stuff that had always frustrated me with Linux in the past like the laptop not going to sleep properly when I close the lid or wifi not working.

If Ubuntu continues to impress I will probably remove Windows altogether.