ATI drivers under Ubuntu 5.10
Posted on March 22, 2006
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 47 views |
I put a perfectly good ATI Radeon X300 into my PC and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to take full advantage of it in both Windows and Ubuntu.
The Windows side was dead easy: stick in the CD, install the drivers, update. The Linux side, not so much, even with the fabled ease of install that is Ubuntu (easy like Sunday morning it is). After the install I fired up my favourite screensaver (Atlantis if you must, who doesn’t like whales and sharks?) it was choppy, ugly and unacceptable. Obviously it wasn’t taking full advantage (nay, any advantage at all) of the X300’s “enhanced visual quality”, “reliability, speed and graphics computing power”, and “performance to achieve the best visual experience possible”. I was non-plussed.
Fortunately Ubuntu Forums has the answer: HOW TO: ATI Drivers v0.2 (Revised). A mostly-complete description of what to do to your xorg.conf file to get the ATI drivers to work. Note that this is not for the faint-of-heart, or presumably heartless, since mucking up xorg.conf can totally hose your system. Trust me, I know. I’ve done it by accident more times than I can remember… in the past.
Coupled with these detailed instructions for what to put in the file I restarted X Server and… fluid, smooth, happy whales and sharks. Oh yeah, that’s what quality graphics processing is all about: the screensaver.
Unfortunately Ubuntu still only displays at 1024×768 whereas the Windows side will go much higher. Pity that.
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