topic title: How do I enable ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450? Suggestions?
Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#1
Hello all,

Well I'm up and running and now I would like to install my ATI driver. I plan on using sfgxi.
Would using sgfxi -f be a good place to start? I've checked out this and this

sgfxi-now-with-improved-fglrx-install-options-t1410.html

and


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Sgfxi"
linktext was:"http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Sgfxi"
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I'm really concerned that I will end up with a blank screen. Any suggestions?

Here is inxi -F if it helps.

System: Host antiX2 Kernel 2.6.32-1-mepis-smp i686 (32 bit) Distro antiX-M8.5 Marek Edelman 11 April 2010
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i5 M 430 (HT) cache 3072 KB flags (lm sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips 9047.46
Clock Speeds: (1) 1199.00 MHz (2) 1199.00 MHz (3) 1199.00 MHz (4) 1199.00 MHz
Graphics: Card-1 Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller Card-2 ATI Manhattan [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series] X.Org 1.7.7 Res: 1368x768@0.0hz
GLX Renderer Software Rasterizer GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 7.7.1 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio: Card-1 Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio driver HDA Intel BusID: 00:1b.0
Card-2 ATI Manhattan HDMI Audio [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series]driver HDA Intel BusID: 01:00.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.21
Network: Card-1 Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller driver r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI at port 2000 BusID: 02:00.0
Card-2 Broadcom BCM4313 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver wl BusID: 03:00.0
Disks: HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (0.6% used) 1: /dev/sda Hitachi_HTS72505 500.1GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 11G used: 2.5G (25%) fs: ext4 ID:/home size: 42G used: 212M (1%) fs: ext4
ID:swap-1 size: 8.41GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Info: Processes 125 Uptime 18 min Memory 118.4/2459.7MB Runlevel 5 Client Shell inxi 1.4.9


***I find it interesting that my Broadcom wireless is listed above as 4313. At boot from HD and LiveCD it was 4727. When I used the Updated LiveCD It showed it as 4313 one time and 4727 the 2nd time. Sorry to be off topic here.*****

Dave
Last edited by Cuttlefish on 04 Sep 2010, 12:02, edited 3 times in total.
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#2
I don't know much about ATI. The installation instructions for their proprietary driver (also known as fglrx) (
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Gh00FLG5iF8J:https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_cat107-inst.pdf+catalyst+10.7+linux+release+notes&cd=2&hl=pt-BR&ct=clnk&gl=br"
linktext was:"http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=br"
====================================
) says it is for Xorg versions 6.8 to 7.5 and your inxi output looks like antiX has a newer 7.7 version.
ATI has been lagging behind NVIDIA with their proprietary driver but I hear there's a good open source driver for it (can't say much about that though, like how to enable it - if it's not enabled already - and such).

-EDIT- <strike>it seems they released an update making it support up to Xorg 1.8</strike> so I guess you could install it with sgfxi:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24689"
linktext was:"http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24689"
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-EDIT2- I read the thread above and it was just a guess by the first poster, so I'm inclined to think that maybe it doesn't work with this Xorg version.
Last edited by secipolla on 11 Aug 2010, 18:53, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#3
Well, I believe I installed the driver, but I am now looking at a screen saying"Welcome to antiX. Powered by MEPIS and Debian Testing" and then asking for my antiX login.

Everything seemed to install okay. I don't know how to get beyond this.

btw: I used sgfxi -c to install.

Thanks,
Dave
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#4
Then something is not well. Maybe the configuration.
As I said, I don't have ATI. I see that sgfxi -c uses composite mode but I never tried that.
You could remove the proprietary driver with sgfxi -n and try to install without the -c option.
But although h2, who wrote smxi/sgfxi, seems not to use ATI too (and often points out at the poor ATI driver installer) maybe you could ask at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://techpatterns.com/forums/forum-33.html"
linktext was:"its forum"
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if there's any other tip before trying to install fglrx.
Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#5
Thanks, secipolla. That seems like sound advice. I think I will check the mepis forum also. I believe that I have read that the driver could also be downloaded on the ATI site.??
Thank you also for the advice on how to remove it.
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#6
You could try asking at the phoronix forum if the driver works with this version of xorg.

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linktext was:"http://www.phoronix.com/forums/forumdis ... a81d2&f=19"
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Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#7
Well, for comparison, and since I needed to reinstall antiX anyway,due to the black screen of death I decided to try Linux Mint 9. In their Adminstration/Hardware drivers menu an ATI/AMD driver was recommended for install. I figured...what the heck. I still got the black screen of death. Then I found this in their forum.


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=15448"
linktext was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=15448"
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secipolla, I know that ATI isn't your thing. What do you think? Especially the last post. I'm always leary about messing around in my BIOS, but that is just me.

There are a few other interesting posts here:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=59"
linktext was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=59"
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btw: I haven't abandoned antiX. This is my favorite distro. I just need to get my daughter up, running and comfortable on her pc when she is up at school.

Thanks,
Dave
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#8
Cuttlefish wrote:Well, for comparison, and since I needed to reinstall antiX anyway,due to the black screen of death I decided to try Linux Mint 9. In their Adminstration/Hardware drivers menu an ATI/AMD driver was recommended for install. I figured...what the heck. I still got the black screen of death. Then I found this in their forum.


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=15448"
linktext was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=15448"
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secipolla, I know that ATI isn't your thing. What do you think? Especially the last post. I'm always leary about messing around in my BIOS, but that is just me.
Hi, Dave.

The problem there at the last post is different since the guy didn't have the graphic environment even with the live-CD's default driver.

If you decide to go with Mint (or just think you might go with it), then I suggest that you post in their forum asking for help to install ATI's proprietary driver for you computer (post the specs). Here's a post that seems to suggest that one would have to compile the driver for it to work (see last post):
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url was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&p=302249"
linktext was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&p=302249"
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You already wiped off antiX?
Now that the free nvidia driver comes as a kernel module, to install the proprietary driver for NVIDIA the free driver module must be blacklisted and the nomodeset kernel parameter must be added to the boot line in GRUB, then one has to reboot and install the proprietary driver. Maybe it's similar with ATI. So maybe sgfxi blacklisted the free driver and you had to add nomodeset to GRUB's boot line, reboot and try to install the driver again (just guessing).
Anyway, if you go with antiX you could ask at mepislovers.org because antiX comes with the MEPIS kernel and this is very much kernel related (only antiX comes with a newer Xorg version than MEPIS).
Also I suggest again that you ask at the sgfxi forum (
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) and at the phoronix forum (
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).
You could also ask at forums.debian.net

You see, it can be simple but you need to know what to do (and if the driver does work after all). Also I've heard that the free driver is good so maybe you could just stick with it (but here there's a distinction between xorg's ati, which I think is a basic free driver and radeon or radeonhd which I think that could be better drivers). One simple experiment, if you want to do it, would be to install antiX and then install the liquorix kernel (packages linux-headers-2.6-liquorix-686 and linux-image-2.6-liquorix-686) and see if it has a better video performance or even if the proprietary driver can be installed on it (but from all this I'm inclined to think that if you find the best free ATI driver and it works then stick to it - but ask on those places where more knowledgeable people can advise you better).
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#9
This may help too:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo"
linktext was:"http://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo"
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(note that may be a bit outdated, also note that AGP is a graphics port from the time before PCI Express came to be - like I have an AGP card but this mobo is from 2002).
Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#10
secipolla,
I want to say that I really appeciate all the help and advice that I have received from you and this forum. I thank you for all the links. There is really so much to learn. I am a bit bewildered by it all.

Yeah, I did wipe off antiX, and I do feel kind of dirty. I wanted to see if something would work OOTB in regard to this driver. I figured I had nothing to lose, (except more time of course...argh). I felt I was at a wall, because of my lack of skill and knowledge. I am still of the Windows World, and tend to get a bit lazy and look for the"quick fix". I will try again, however, not tonight. I know that I am testing my wife's patience. I sincerely hope that I am not testing yours.

Thanks again!! I have alot of links and info to digest...tomorrow.

Dave
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#11
Yeah, I did wipe off antiX, and I do feel kind of dirty. I wanted to see if something would work OOTB
Just speaking for myself. Linux, whether AntiX or whatever is a free world. One uses a distro/release because it works for them or they are comfortable with the way it works. I see no reason that you should not want to have your daughters Lappy"work out of box". A lot of users here chose AntiX because most everything works out of the box. What does not work, well, our small group of volunteers try to help as we can. I see no reason to feel dirty also.

Now let's see if I am any good on shedding any light on this.
So I started here

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url was:"http://linuxidx.com/linux.php?q=Problems+installing+ATI+Radeon+HD+5000+drivers+on+Debian+i686"
linktext was:"http://linuxidx.com/linux.php?q=Problem ... ebian+i686"
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Which took me to here

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.linuxidx.com/linux.php?q=ATI+Radeon+Linux+How-To"
linktext was:"http://www.linuxidx.com/linux.php?q=ATI ... nux+How-To"
====================================


So I looked at

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.rage3d.com/content/articles/atilinuxhowto/Linux_ATI.html#SECTION000120000000000000000"
linktext was:"http://www.rage3d.com/content/articles/ ... 0000000000"
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which basically says you need/download the radeon driver from ATI. Then covert the driver into a .deb package.

So I go to

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx"
linktext was:"http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/l ... linux.aspx"
====================================

Low and behold. It has install instructions via PDF.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_cat106-inst.pdf"
linktext was:"https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/ ... 6-inst.pdf"
====================================


I downloaded and read the first page of the pdf and it stated it will show how to generate a package for your distribution. It is in Micro Soft Word Format (sheesh) but I can read it in AntiX 8.5.

Now for the rest. I don't know how to copy and paste the automatic install intructions using Microsoft Word Window I am reading from (Ha, I am in AntiX) so I will type this out by hand.
Automatic Driver Installation:
Note: You must be root (my shorthand, I aint gonna type every thing and my interpetation is my own. Download the PDF if you want verbatim intructions)

1. Open Terminal. Become root user
Maneuver to where you downloaded the driver
2. enter the command

Code: Select all

sh ./ati-driver-installer-10-6-x86.x86_64.run
To launch the installer
Like ya'll know. I ain't no Linux expert or great typer . Just a Biker. Download the PDF Link I gave you for detailed How to Instructions. The Linux driver is also on that page where the PDF link was grabbed from in my above link . I used ATI website beginning page to enter model version of card to get to that page. You might want to double check by starting at

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url was:"http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx"
linktext was:"http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx"
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to see if it takes you to the same page. (double check me)
You will probably have to do it this way CuttleFish no matter what Linux Distro you go with as this Hardware is so new.

Hope this help ya CuttleFish __{{emoticon}}__

Happy Trails, Rok
Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#12
roky,

Thanks for the links and info. I'm slowly sorting all that you and secipolla have provided for me. This is going to be an on going project. I gave my daughter both systems to play with, and she likes them both for different reasons. Of course, they are being used without the ATI drivers... In my head, I was thinking, that the lack was a big deal. It really doesn't seem to matter much. Both OSs work very well.

Well, right now the ball is in her court. She'll have to get comfy with one and make her choice. Maybe one day she will want to triple boot!! Maybe one day, when her hardware is a little older, it may be eaiser to configure! Like I said this is a"work in progress." : )

Thanks,
Dave
Posts: 1,228
secipolla
Joined: 15 Jun 2008
#13
A new ATI proprietary driver for Linux with support for 5000 series has been released. I don't know if it will help you, Dave, but just in case, check it at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://support.amd.com/br/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.2&product=&lang=br&rev=10.8&ostype=Linux%20x86"
linktext was:"http://support.amd.com/br/gpudownload/l ... inux%20x86"
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Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#14
Thanks secipolla, I caught it the other day too. Here:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-ATI-Linux-Video-Driver-Has-Support-for-OpenGL-ES-2-0-153725.shtml"
linktext was:"http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-ATI- ... 3725.shtml"
====================================


My daughter is home this weekend. I'm very tempted.

Dave
Posts: 299
Cuttlefish
Joined: 18 Dec 2008
#15
Hey, things are interesting here. I didn't want to bork my daughters existing system so I used my AnitX live CD and logged in as root and used sgfxi to try and install the new 10.8 ATI driver. Well I got as far as the"EULA" ( took about 30 mins.) and I ran out of Free Space and I couldn't proceed any further. That looks pretty promising IMHO. What do you folks think?

My daughter has Mint on there now with Win7. If I can convince her to replace it with antiX 8.5 and the driver works. I'll be asking how to change the default boot order.

Hmmm.

-Dave

Tried the expert settings to complete the install and sgfxi said that 10.8 was successfully installed, but was unable to start (option 1). Perhaps this was because it was a live CD.