hello, i am using a Dell Inspiron 1501, with an ATI Radeon Xpress 1150. i am trying to ultimately get compiz fusion running, but i cant even install the ATI one click install. when it asks to ctrl alt backspace, after the driver “installs”, so i can run the command line, it beeps and then i cant see my screen, completely black. i actually had to reinstall openSUSE cause i could not fix it back to the normal render. by the way, i am so far linux stupid, so please, if you are going to help, make it simple, i do however understand command lines, but not necessarily the commands.
dzlockhead adjusted his/her AFDB on Monday 13 Jul 2009 13:26 to write:
>
> hello, i am using a Dell Inspiron 1501, with an ATI Radeon Xpress 1150.
> i am trying to ultimately get compiz fusion running, but i cant even
> install the ATI one click install. when it asks to ctrl alt backspace,
> after the driver “installs”, so i can run the command line, it beeps and
> then i cant see my screen, completely black. i actually had to reinstall
> openSUSE cause i could not fix it back to the normal render. by the way,
> i am so far linux stupid, so please, if you are going to help, make it
> simple, i do however understand command lines, but not necessarily the
> commands.
>
>
I think you will have to go down the “Hard Way” of installing drivers for
that chipset, on the AMD/ATI site it shows that the X1150 is only supported
upto the 9.3 version of the drivers, these can be found by going to:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
And selecting
Linux x86
Radeon
x1300
Yep I know you don`t have that but trust me 
If you follow the page down you will see a release not link that will drop
you a PDF and in there is the list of chips supported:
<<–snip–>>
ATI Integrated Product Family Support
The ATI Catalyst™ Linux software suite is designed to support the following
ATI
desktop products:
ATI Radeon™ HD 3300 Series
ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Series
ATI Radeon™ 3100 Series
ATI Radeon™ 3000 Series
ATI Radeon™ 2100 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1150 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1100 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 200 Series
ATI Radeon™ X1250 Series
ATI Radeon™ X1200 Series
AMD 690 Series Chipset
>>-pins-<<
So if you want to go that route then have a look at the instruction on the
SuSE site and also read the installation instructions on the AMD/ATI site.
Important!
Do NOT use SAX2 after you install, just use the :
aticonfig --initial
command and then when back in the GUI use the
amdcccle
command for the ATI Catalyst GUI configuration utility.
This can be run as user you do not need to be root.
HTH
If you need more info then just holler, but please do follow the
instructions and you will find it is easy peasy.
If all goes pear shaped then just remember that there is no need to re-
install it can be fixed, just be careful.
Enjoy.
–
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum
I have that card - ATI radeon Xpress 1150 (200M) in my dell inspiron 1501.
I used the fglrx driver from the opensuse ati repository (11.1 version).
It works just fine & I didn’t need to configure anything.
Perhaps the 200M is different? lspci says it is a 200M (RS485 chipset iirc, but don’t quote me on that). Bios says radeon xpress 1150
Edit:
NOT the 1-click version. I added the repo through YaST (from the repos page on the intertubes) and installed it like that, it has updated a few times since I installed it.
I do believe I have run aticonfig --initial when I was playing around with it (to do with XVideo overlays, the card worked fine without doing that).
Oh, and I have never ever used amdccle (amd’s config utility, I don’t even know where it is…)
like i said, i am linux stupid so three things
-
What is SAX2? i dont think ive come across that yet
-
If this wrecks my graphic capabilities, is there a way i can restore it without reinstalling the whole linux os again?
-
Please point me to the instructions, im not trying to be lazy or a burden, but i really just dont want to accidentally chose the wrong set. EDIT: i found the instructions on the ATI site in the pdf file, but i dont know if i have the required dependencies, and which set of instructions should i follow in that document? the automatic install or the distibution specific install?
wont let me edit again, but i found the other set of instructions for the hard way, but it talks about using the command line left and right but the ati pdf instructions say to use an installer. what do i do?
dzlockhead adjusted his/her AFDB on Monday 13 Jul 2009 18:06 to write:
>
> wont let me edit again, but i found the other set of instructions for
> the hard way, but it talks about using the command line left and right
> but the ati pdf instructions say to use an installer. what do i do?
>
>
If you do not feel 100% confident with the hard way then have a look at what
weighty_foe posted and try the repository way to install the drivers.
He has used that way and he has the same chipset as you, the instructions
are on the same page as the 1-click install doing it that way you get the
updates along with the normal updates in SuSE.
However if you want to continue doing it the hard way then if you want to
follow the pdf try it that way, I must admit I have not done it that way for
a long time so cannot comment, I find it much easier to just:
logout of the GUI, then press Ctrl+Alt+F1, login as root, type init 3, and
run the installer from there, type aticonfig --initial and then type init 5.
like this( assuming you d/load the drivers to your /home dir ):
(logout of KDE/Gnome and at the login screen )
Ctrl+Alt+f1
login as root and enter password
cd /your-home-dir
sh ./ati-whatever-version-number-the-driver-is.run
and just follow the instructions, do not compile a distro specific rpm and
do not let it try and get one from the net.
When fifnished type:
aticonfig --initial
init 5
now you should be back at the login prompt for KDE/Gnome and have 3D accel
and be able to use the desktop effects.
If you wantr to tweak your settings just open a console as user and type:
amdcccle
and this will give you a graphical Catalyst config app for the card.
If for some reason the drivers do not compile then you should just be able
to type:
init 5
to get you back to your desktop.
HTH
–
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum
ok, now if i fail and i cant get back to the KDE desktop, and all i get is a black screen, what can i do to restore it without reinstalling the linux os?
If this happens, you can generally get a basic graphical desktop (using basic vesa driver) by starting up in failsafe mode (grub boot menu option).
dzlockhead adjusted his/her AFDB on Monday 13 Jul 2009 22:06 to write:
>
> ok, now if i fail and i cant get back to the KDE desktop, and all i get
> is a black screen, what can i do to restore it without reinstalling the
> linux os?
>
>
well assuming that the underlying system has not hung then at the black
screen pres:
Ctrl+Alt+F1
this should drop you to a term from there you go to runlevel 3:
init 3
This should stop the xserver and all related graphical bits, you can check
using top to see if anything is still running, have a look for X, if it is
still running and it might be taking all the CPU then kill it by pressing k
while still in top and you wil see a request asking if you want to “kill”
and then enter the PID of the task.
Thenyou could just run
sax2 -r -m 0=vesa
this should rewrite you xorg.conf to just use the basic driver again then it
should just be a case of running:
init 5
to get you back to the desktop, however if you then still cannot get into
the GUI it could be that you have bits of the old ATIs lying around, you will need to un-install the ATIs by using the script that should be in:
/usr/share/ati/
called:
fglrx-uninstall
there is a good reason to use this script as it replaces some of the files
that ATI install with back-ups of you original system files.
However may I suggest that before you go through all this that you install a
couple of apps to make life a bit easier if you are not 100% comfy with a
plain commandline approach, these should be in the normal repos.:
htop
an excellent top clone with far more powerful options and a bit easier to
use ( and pretty colours too )
mc
this is a dual pane filemanager for the terminal ( Midnight Commander )
making it easier to navigate and read/edit/move/copy etc… etc…
Very handy for looking at log files etc to ascertain where the probs might
be.
Hopefully all should go to plan but there are other things to try if not,
plus do not forget to have a look at the logs in /var/log/ ( xorg0.log,
messages ) also there is an install log in the /usr/share/ati dir
One thing of note in that log of the ATI install ( if using the ATI`s from
the ATI site ) is that it states near the end:
<<–snip–>>
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.23-0.1-obj/x86_64/default’
build succeeded with return value 0
duplicating results into driver repository…
done.
You must change your working directory to /lib/modules/fglrx
and then call ./make_install.sh in order to install the built module.
- recreating module dependency list
- trying a sample load of the kernel modules
done.
>>–pins–<<
Do not follow the instruction to run the /make /make_install.sh I have never
done that and it is superfluous and can cause confusion.
HTH
If you need more help just holler but I will be away for few days later
today so I am sure someone else will jump in with better help than me
–
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum