[SOLVED] AMD Catalyst and Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) problem

AMD dropped the support for the Radeon HD 4000, HD 3000 and HD 2000 series, leaving the owners of any of these models with broken graphics when they chose to upgrade to Quantal.

In order to continue to use proprietary drivers, the AMD Catalyst Legacy driver must be installed. Bellow instructions are provided for installing it from Tomasz Makarewicz PPA.

Install

Open a terminal window and run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:makson96/fglrx -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get install fglrx-legacy -y

Then restart your computer.

AMD Catalyst Control Center

AMD Catalyst Control Center can be accessed via Applications Menu > Settings Manager or typing the following command: amdcccle.

AMD Catalyst Control Center

References

AMD Catalyst Legacy PPA
Ubuntu 12.10 And AMD Catalyst Problem (Solved)

Comments

  1. Hey, could you post a solution for 6xxxx series?
    Particulary I'm stuck with an ATI Radeon HD 6630m with hybrid graphics. I've too an Intel Core-i5 processor.
    Sorry for my poor english.
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You could try this:

      sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic fglrx-updates

      Please, tell me if this works. I didn't try this because I don't own (or have access to) a graphic card of that series.

      Delete
    2. Hello, I try this:
      sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic fglrx-updates

      and dosent work. I am in dm1 with ati Radeon HD 6250.

      Can help me?

      Sorry for my english and thank you so much for the blog.

      Delete
    3. @Marcello de Souza
      Could you be more specific on what doesn't work (eg, installation, graphical artifacts, ...)?

      Delete
    4. sorry... when i used sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic fglrx-updates, the AMD Catalyst Control Center not appeared in the configuration manager and the amdcccle command not found.

      then I do not know where to find the card settings, and there can not configure.

      I hope you have been clear, sorry again for bad English.Thank you.

      Delete
    5. @Marcello de Souza
      The driver can be configure on the command line using aticonfig. It seems that Catalyst Control Center isn't installed. Could you try to install fglrx-amdcccle?

      Delete
  2. You made my day, a lot of tries and this simple combination of commands work like a charm! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for this, i thought i was left out in the cold by ATI, this is a life saver

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the fix!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm using an ATI X200 on a desktop setup

    1- I'm using Xubuntu 12.10 and updated it and upgraded it
    2- I installed the ATI driver featured by the default sources using software center
    3- Then I installed Compiz but no effects wobbly or anything
    4- I went to the AMD/ATI website and meant to install the ATI driver but they suggested to first uninstall any ATI driver in the system by the same route it was installed. I did and then I lost all video (duh lol)
    5- Then I couldn't follow their instructions any longer, oh well
    6- I found this site and booted in "safe mode"? (Or whatever advanced options were available on the GRUB boot menu)
    7- Followed your instructions and the install went fine!
    8- I typed restart on Terminal (meaning to restart the machine since I'm a gui person and know sh*t about terminal stuff) and it did something but then the screen went black immediately after.
    9- I hardware rebooted and the screen went black right after booting however the splash screen went up for a second. The routine went as follows. a) Boot menu, b) Selection, c) Black screen, d) Splash screen for one second e) Black screen again.

    NOTE: The monitor doesn't say the resolution is out of sync or anything like it

    How can I reconfigure XORG or get the machine to a point where I can recoup the install?

    Thanks in advance!
    7-

    ReplyDelete
  6. Try booting into recovery mode, then run:
    sudo aticonfig --initial

    Reboot:
    sudo shutdown -r now

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a shot, however I connected a CRT monitor and voila! The LCD runs fine but only at 1024 by 768 and Xubuntu might be running at a different resolution. I wanted to be able to pass some flags on the bootloader that would either use VESA or would allow me to set the right resolution for the monitor but couldn't figure out how to do so.

    I'm experiencing some weird things. The boot routine is similar to what I described above except for the end of the routine is that I do get video but no splash screen.

    I ended up with the Catalyst icons and so on but when you click them nothing happens. It is clear that no acceleration is happening in this system at the moment. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Changing the FrameBuffer resolution and the X resolution are two different things. Try disabling KMS (if enabled it might be the cause of the black screen):
      1) Edit /etc/default/grub:
      GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset"
      2) Then:
      sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

      When the desktop finally is displayed, you can use the command "amdcccle" to access AMD Catalyst Control Center.

      Delete
  8. Hey there, first of all thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. The output on the terminal line you suggested me to use was:

    aticonfig: No supported adapters detected

    Can't find any longer the video I saw on youtube of someone running compiz on a recent xubuntu system who had an X200. FWIW the board I'm using is an intel D101GCC which I'm putting together for a 10 yr old.

    Once again thanks and will be checking again later today after running some errands.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I see what the problem is: your graphic card isn't supported by the driver. Unfortunately I think you'll have to settle with the open source Radeon driver.

      Delete
  9. Thank you Will, though did you confirm this already? I know the symptoms point to that direction but what I am surprised about is the fact that AMD does point to Catalyst 9.3 as their proprietary solution to it but I can't find a way to install that I can execute with my level of expertise. Here are some screenshots from the AMD website:
    http://oi45.tinypic.com/30ldloy.jpg
    http://i45.tinypic.com/2a5c8xx.jpg (My card belong to the xpress series listed 4th from bottom to top).

    And I can see the Catalyst icons on the Configuration window thingy on Xubuntu but the icons do nothing. Ubuntu Software Center has a listing for Catalyst available but I think I already tried that, in fact I had the impression all along that I had installed Catalyst 9.3 from Software Center but uninstalled it, or maybe what I installed was the non restricted driver. Restricted drivers shows empty on software sources so I don't get it. And I would swear I watched a compiz video on youtube of someone with the same card as mine... Oh boy... This sucks and I suck too because idk what I'm doing :(
    Now, I guess I should reverse what I did, meaning I should probably uninstall somehow the Catalyst icons I currently have though I don't know if they will show on software center.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To use 9.3 the X.Org would have to be downgraded to 7.4. To remove the AMD driver:
      sudo apt-get purge fglrx*

      Delete
  10. Here are part of the instructions. I think that if I could, at least gain enough knowledge to check if this computer meets the minimum requirements I could go straight to take an I.T. engineering test at NASA headquarters for managing all of their computer systems, I mean... wt*? lol
    Please, check them out and advise if there is such a thing as a way an average human being can install this thing. Below A decent portion of ATI instructions:

    (Notice that I already tried this but the installer didn't run)
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    Minimum System Requirements
    Before attempting to install the ATI Proprietary Linux driver, the following soft-ware must be installed:
    • POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm) support is required for 3D apps
    • glibc version 2.2 or 2.3
    • Linux kernel 2.6 or higher
    • XOrg 6.8, 6.9, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 or 7.4
    System Recommendations
    For best performance and ease of use, ATI recommends the following:
    • Kernel module build environment
    • Kernel source code includes either the Kernel Source or Kernel Headers
    packages
    • The RPM utility should be installed and configured correctly on your system,
    if you intend to install via RPM packages
    Note: The ATI Proprietary Linux driver may be installed on a number
    of other Linux distributions. Refer tothe installation instructions for
    more information.
    Note: ATI has contributed packaging scripts to allows creation of
    other packages, but does not necessarilytest, verify or warrant the reli-ability. Currently Red Hat Enterprise Linux suite and Novell/SuSE prod-uct suite are supported Linux distributions.
    Note: ATI Events Daemon is not installed in /etc/init.d if using the
    Automatic Driver Installation Option. To install the ATI Events Daemon
    for Red Hat and SuSE, use the Generate Distribution Specific Driver
    Package option to create packages for LGD installation. If there are no
    available packages for your distribution that install scripts for the dae-mon, refer to their respective user documentation on inserting and use of
    services/daemons. Examples scripts can be located in the default direc-tory of "/usr/share/doc/ati/examples"after Automatic Driver Installation
    Option installation.
    Note: If a Linux 2.6.11 or newer kernel was built with CONFIG_AGP
    enabled, the kernel AGP frontend is required to load the fglrx kernel
    module. To identify whether your kernel was built with CONFIG_AGP
    enabled, look for CONFIG_AGP=y in the kernel config file, or if the
    'agpgart' module is loaded.
    ATI Catalyst™ Linux Installer Note 3
    • The following packages must be installed in order for the Catalyst™ Linux
    driver to install and work properly:
    • XFree86-Mesa-libGL
    • libstdc++
    • libgcc
    • XFree86-libs
    • fontconfig
    • freetype
    • zlib
    • gcc
    Uninstalling the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver
    Uninstalling the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver is dependent on the mode of the
    initial installation.
    Automatic or Custom Driver Installations
    If the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver was installed using either the Automatic or
    Custom options, then do the following:
    1 Launch the Terminal Application/Window and navigate to the /usr/share/ati
    folder
    2 With superuser permissions, enter the command "sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh"
    You have now successfully uninstalled the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver.
    Package Generation
    If the initial installation of the driver was done via the Operating Systems package
    management software (RPM, APT, etc.) then please use that package management software to remove the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver.""

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks man. I wouldn't mind downgrading xorg if that would take me in the right direction with compiz, I know this kid would really love it. I did go a bit further to learn that my radeon card is not properly documented on the AMD/ATI website so the driver in question is actually not compatible with 12.10 though AMD/ATI do not provide any f***g clues about that so I wasted my [insert big expletive here and a heresy if you wish] time downloading that crap. (sorry about the expletive but I really have to kick a mattress on this one or something to get this out of my chest).

    Anyhow, I just downloaded something from Software Center for the time being but if I can downgrade xorg so I can get hardware acceleration that's what I'd do if it isnt ridiculously complicated. NOTE: I'm going to take an Engineering Job at NASA after successfully followed those instructions just to learn that the thing would run but would give me a warning that it wasn't going to work... Oh well.

    But yet I really appreciate your advise, that's really generous of you that you are doing this for us the clueless ones :)

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh! Here is the video I told you about. It isnt 12.10 but 12.04 but close enough. At that point AMD/ATI had already rendered the xpress series as legacy and unsupported so I wonder how that youtube user did to get all of those effects with that card which belongs to the same exact series as mine.

    On the description of the video this guy lists his system specs.

    Here is the video:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbj25Dmzh7A

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He says on a comment that he recommends Xubuntu 12.04 because 12.10 has issues with compiz.

      Delete
  13. Update: No compiz love from the open source whatever driver downloaded from software center after finding it under the query: "radeon".

    Will be back later today. Thanks for your help. Will keep at it until I can get things going as well as they show on that one video I showed you. If this kid can do this with that old outdated P4 w/ a gig of RAM he will be very but very excited and the effort would have been worth it

    ReplyDelete
  14. Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Does that mean that I have to reinstall EVERYTHING??? Is there such a thing as a script I can download or some sort of easy way to downgrade then from 12.10 to 12.04?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, but I think that such a thing doesn't exist.

      Delete
  15. I ended up reinstalling 12.04. I noticed that the person who posted the compiz youtube video suggested someone else to forget about drivers altogether, reinstall and gave some command on the terminal that would suggest the tools to download so that compiz would work. Well I did just that and got compiz to work but I realize that the rendering is not done by the video card but by some sort of emulation. I believe the compromise of performance for coolness will ultimately pay off because this computer is for a kid who we are encouraging to use more (or switch) to Linux so his computer will be less vulnerable to viruses and malware (he breaks it quite often). For the time being he will be dual booting Xubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7

    One thing that kept me curious is that despite the fact i have the same video card the poster of the video has I was unable to get many of his effects going, i.e. I selected every single effect for minimizing to occur at random and I only get a very generic minimizing or maximizing animation.

    Another thing I was curious about is that I really want to update Thunar to the latest version as Xubuntu comes with Thunar 1.2.3 and neither on that version nor on the version that comes by default on 12.10 (which is Thunar 1.4.0) you can select two folders, select properties and check their combined size. I googled up how to update Thunar and came up with a site suggesting to add a PPA and to upgrade XFCE altogether. My worry is that suppossedly 12.10 has some issues with Compiz and I wonder if the source of those issues is in some way related to the most recent version of XFCE (which I would be upgrading if I did follow the steps they suggest in order to upgrade Thunar).

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The problem isn't related to Xfce's version. See here how to install the latest Thunar: http://goo.gl/YW1hp

      Delete
  16. I did the 4 steps "sudo add-apt-repository ppa:makson96/fglrx -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get install fglrx-legacy -y" but when I restar the computer and turn on again I tried to start with ubuntu studio I couldn´t cause when I press enter on "start with ubuntu" simply my display dosen´t show me nothing like If I had any SO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just to be sure, your graphic card is one these series: HD 4000, HD 3000 or HD 2000?

      Delete
    2. yes of course my graphic card is Mobility Radeon HD 4200 I don´t know if when I did that steps besides I install once updates it was a kernel and other things maybe it was that I install again ubuntu studio 12.10 and try it again

      Delete
    3. Have you tried to reconfigure the driver (sudo aticonfig --initial)?

      Delete
  17. Thanks for this share! Very helpful. :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Almost 3 days lost trying to configure my PC, now i got the answer.

    Thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete

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