raid517 Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 Hi I'm trying to install a driver for my Radeon 8500 graphics card on my Linux Mandrake 9.0 distibution. As usual this isn't proving easy. I mean for cripes sake all I want to do is see OpenGL running under Linux. I am a Linux newbi. I tried just clicking on the RPM package and it all seemed to go very smoothly. That is until I tried to change the resolution of my desktop, at which point nothing happend. No response, no error message, nothing. So I thought "maybe I should reboot?" Bad idea... When I rebooted KDE (indeed the whole graphical interface) refused to start up. I think the driver install killed my version of the X graphical server environment. What I would love, what it has so far seemed impossible to obtain is a blow by blow account of how to correctly install and configure the official Radeon drivers in such a way that they are guaranteed to work under Mandrake 9.0 I think blow by blow is the operative term here, since I have beat my brain to a bloody pulp trying to work this one out. I mean why does it have to be so difficult? If I could just see a nice 3D game running under Linux (I have some that will work) I think I could possibly live the rest of my life a happy man. (Well considering that my experiences so far have been fairly miserable...) I don't want to go back to using Windows all the time, I just bought a new 120Gig hard drive so I could install Linux. So any assistance anyone can offer me will be very welcome indedeed. Many thanks in advance... Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjordan2001 Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 http://pdownload.mii.instacontent.net/ati/...251-420251.html Whole thing on installing, configuring, etc right there where you download the drivers under "Driver Release Notes" 120GB for linux? You must have a lot planned for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniacid Posted December 7, 2002 Share Posted December 7, 2002 I'm tired of Linux, I've tried to get the ATI driver working many times, but it never did, always messing up my system, so I quit, too much crap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raid517 Posted December 8, 2002 Author Share Posted December 8, 2002 (edited) Mmm that guide is good, but ultimately not very effective. I followed the intructions and the X server still flaked out. Guides like this are useful, but sometimes too general - as they attempt to cover a multitude of scenarios. What I was kind of hoping for was someone with real world experience of installing this driver on a Linux Mandrake system. Hopefully they would be kind enough to walk me through the process of installing the driver. I thought I was getting somewhere when I found the ati configuration utility and got it to write a new xfree86 configuration file (or in my language 'thingymajig'), it all went swimmingly well - and the machine even booted up in graphical mode again. But when I tried to correct the model of my monitor from 'generic' to Samsung 750s it went a tad nuts.... Maybe the new configuration file is hard coded and can only be accessed again through the ATI configuration utility? I just used Mandrake control centre to change the settings. Also perhpas it was unwise to write a new configuration file in graphical mode? I would try it in non graphical mode. But I don't know how to boot up in non graphical mode in Linux. Phew... Anyway... how can Linux ever hope to compete with windows if even very simple tasks are made so unecessarily complex? I may be a Linux dimwit, but like the majority of others, I just want to turn on my computer and use it. I don't care much for the guts of it, though I like the idea of Linux and am tierd of all the M$ bullpoop. Anyhoo, if anyone can walk me through this, I would be deeply appreciative. Many thanks, Q Edited December 8, 2002 by raid517 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjordan2001 Posted December 8, 2002 Share Posted December 8, 2002 https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?act=...ST&f=30&t=53027 See that thread to get out of X. Could be that being in X was the problem, I would always do the graphical config outside of X if I could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raid517 Posted December 8, 2002 Author Share Posted December 8, 2002 Mmm Well I just ran tux racer - and it ran like a dog. (Well a dog on drugs at least). Something like 6 FPS - also maximum bit depth colour resolution is being reported as 24Bit 1024 x 768, which is plum not right. It should be at least 32 bit with a much greater range of bit depths. Hmm... That's always the problem with Linux, there's never just a starightforward way to do a thing. Look at that thread you pointed me to for example, where there are about 6 diffent suggestions for ways to quit the graphical interface. Oh well ho hum, I will pluck away at it. I wasted a lot of money just to get it working (the 120 Gig drive was bought as a backup storage device though, as disk three in a total of 240 Gig disc storage. It will be converted to an external drive soon. The linux install is on a small 30 gig partition, as there is no sane reason to allocate any more space to linux than this). Again, if anyone has had any personal experience of this, please let me know... Regards, Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irasnyd Posted December 8, 2002 Share Posted December 8, 2002 I worked to install it too. The only thing that I cannot get to work correctly in the new drivers is dual monitors. I had it working correctly in the old drivers tho. The best way to do the config is outside of X. Press CTRL ALT BACKSPACE to get out of it. run the command: rpm -i <rpmname> to install it if there are errors, use rpm -i --force <rpmname> to overwrite the old drivers (you will probably need to do this) then run fglrxconfig to configure your GUI. Have fun..... irasnyd You can contact me if you have any questions. AIM: ClamChwdrMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raid517 Posted December 8, 2002 Author Share Posted December 8, 2002 Oh feck!!! Does this suck! I've tried 50 diffent ways to get this to work now, and no one seems to have ever installed this driver on this Linux version before. Indeed the only thing I havent tried is to install this driver while jumping backwards through a burning hoop and shooting cherries out my ass. I mean come on, for frags sake, how hard does it need to be? All I want is accelerated 3D Graphics. Its the only reason I still use Windows... My problem now is when I try installing/configuring the driver in non graphical mode and then tell the xserver to start up again eg 'startx', it totally flips out and spews some crap about there being 'no screens present' this happens with every mode and configuration there is for me to try. IWhat the hell is going on here? Please someone help, as I have now been trying for two days now to install this driver. Regards, Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniacid Posted December 9, 2002 Share Posted December 9, 2002 I know how you feel man, this is one thing I dont like about linux, everything has to be so complicated, I'll try it again today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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