Hey guys im new and I read somewhere that the ATI proprietary driver is supported through SUSE linux. I just wanted to confirm this because I really dont want to buy another graphics card, but i love linux! 
Any suggestions would be helpful.
The proprietary fglrx driver currently supports the X700 series (and upwards):
AMD Proprietary Linux Release Notes
The install HOWTO:
But ubuntu and distributions similar discontinued their support for the “x” series due to configuration problems…so does this still work with openSUSE??
Sorry, I stand corrected. The following link (provided with the openSUSE HOWTO)
reports that your card is among the legacy hardware and
The Linux ATI Catalyst™ driver will only be supported in Linux distributions prior to February 2009 for the legacy products listed above.
I’ve stayed with openSUSE 11.0 (X300 chipset) because of this issue. However, the open source radeon driver has had significant improvement AFAIU, so it might be worth a shot with a live distro to test with.
Ok thankyou so much!
Here is some practical theory on graphic drivers for openSUSE Linux … openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users - openSUSE Forums
… it has a note about the legacy drivers and about radeon and radeonhd.
So…what do i do now?? :’(
As surprising as this may sound, … YOU are the best one to make that decision!
The openSUSE on your PC likely comes with the xorg-x11-driver-video rpm which has the fbdev, vesa, and radeon driver. It also likely comes with the xorg-x11-driver-video-radeonhd rpm, which has the radeonhd driver.
1st you need to see what graphic driver you are using on your PC. If you are using the fbdev or vesa, then clearly you can improve by using the radeon driver or using the radeonhd driver. If you are using the radeonhd driver it is possible the radeon driver works better. If using the radeon there is a chance the radeonhd works better, but less likely.
It is also likely that openSUSE-11.3 (to be released in mid-July) has a superior version of the radeon driver and that will likely work better with your ATI X700. So maybe wait until Sep or Oct, when many of the bugs are out of 11.3, and give it a try.
Ok thnx so much, I can’t wait for version 11.3 to come out! Im surprised that I can actually have the desktop cube and wobbly windows and etc.
By the way how can I check to see which default driver Im using right now?
Please note this post of mine above:
I even created an index in that article. If you look at the index it will take you here to post#14: openSUSE Forums - View Single Post - openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users
… in essence, just type:
less /var/log/Xorg.0.log
and scroll down with PageDown or arrow keys, and look for something like many occurrences of (==) RADEON(0) (ie radeon driver in use) or (==) VESA(0): (ie vesa driver in use) … etc …
I have No idea…
Allthough i do see alot of “fglrx”??
Reads like you had a failed “fglrx” install, and after failing you did not clean up ?
What does:
su -c 'lsmod | grep fglrx'
give? Nothing? [enter root password when prompted for a password]
What does:
su -c 'lsmod | grep radeon'
give ? [enter root password when prompted for a password]
I have no idea…The only thing I do see is that there is a lot of “fglrx” after the (==) code.
What does:
su -c 'lsmod | grep fglrx'
give? Nothing? [enter root password when prompted for a password]
What does:
su -c 'lsmod | grep radeon'
give ? [enter root password when prompted for a password]
For the code:
su -c ‘lsmod | grep fglrx’ - it pops out nothing
For this code:
su -c ‘lsmod | grep radeon’ - it pops out
jonathan@linux-lltj:~/Desktop> su -c ‘lsmod | grep radeon’
Password:
radeon 367968 2
drm 184096 3 radeon
jonathan@linux-lltj:~/Desktop>
So im guessing my computer is using the “radeon” drivers for default?
Yes I think your computer is using the radeon. But your seeing lots of ‘fglrx’ in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log suggests to me the previous failed install attempt of the fglrx driver may be having an inappropriate affect.
Please, so as to see if there is anything that we can clean up (which may or may not make any difference), what is the output of:
rpm -qa '*fglrx*'
that command will search all of your installed rpms to see if the fglrx driver rpm is installed. If it is installed, I recommend removing that rpm.
The Output is nothing?? :\
Thats possible. It indicates you do not have an rpm with fglrx in the rpm name.
I confess to being puzzled when you noted that you saw “alot of fglrx” in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
Perhaps you could copy and paste the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log to New - Pastie and press ‘paste’ on that side and post the output website URL/address of that paste here?
Also copy and paste the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf also to New - Pastie and post the output website URL/address of that paste here?
That is the best way I can think of currently to investigate further to see what we can learn.
It wont let me copy the entire terminal?? I even tried “select all”
You could use
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log > xorg.txt