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ATI Proprietary Driver (fglrx)

This page describes how to install fglrx on Debian systems.
Contents
1. ATI Proprietary Driver (fglrx) 1. Installation 1. Squeeze 2. Lenny 2. Supported Devices 3. See Also 4. External Links

fglrx stands for FireGL and Radeon for X, the proprietary (non-free) display driver made available by ATI Technologies (now AMD). This driver provides 2D and 3D acceleration for AMD/ATI video card chipsets. Information on supported devices can be found towards the end of this page. For 3D acceleration, fglrx requires an associated kernel module, its compilation can be automated via module-assistant or DKMS.

As of DebPkg: fglrx-driver 1:9-4-1, support of chipsets prior to the r600 series has been dropped.1 For Radeon chipsets prior to the r600 series (i.e. models up to and including the X1950), they are supported by the "radeon" open source driver, which provides 3D acceleration via DRI. The "radeonhd" driver packaged in DebPkg: xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd supports the Radeon r5xx, r6xx and r7xx chipset series.

Installation

Squeeze
1. Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

# Debian Squeeze/6.0 deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free

2. Update the list of available packages, then install the relevant linux-headers, DebianPkg: fglrx-control and DebianPkg: fglrx-driver packages:

# aptitude update # aptitude install linux-headers-2.6-$(uname -r|sed 's,[ ^-]*-[^-]*-,,') fglrx-control fglrx-driver

This will also install DebianPkg: fglrx-glx, DebianPkg: fglrx-modules-dkms and other recommended packages. DKMS will build the fglrx module for your system. 3. If the X Window System is running, exit your desktop environment or window manager. If a display manager is in operation, switch to a virtual console and stop it. For example:

# invoke-rc.d gdm3 stop

or

# invoke-rc.d kdm stop

4. Unload the radeon and drm modules:

# modprobe -r radeon drm

5. Create or amend /etc/X11/xorg.conf to include a Device section and request use of the fglrx driver: This command creates and configure automatically a xorg.conf file to use the ATI proprietary driver:

# aticonfig --initial

You can otherwise edit it by yourself:

# sensible-editor /etc/X11/xorg.conf

A minimal /etc/X11/xorg.conf example is shown below:

Section "Device" Identifier Driver EndSection "ATI" "fglrx"

Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" DefaultDepth EndSection 24

Save the file and exit the editor before continuing. 6. Start the X Window System (startx) as a regular user, or start your display manager. For example:

# invoke-rc.d gdm3 start

or

# invoke-rc.d kdm start

Lenny
1. Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

# Debian Lenny/5.0 deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib n on-free

2. Update the list of available packages. Install appropriate fglrx-modules-* packages for your system, along with the DebianPkg: fglrx-control and DebianPkg: fglrx-driver packages:

# aptitude update && aptitude install fglrx-modules-2.6$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,') fglrx-control fglrx-d river

This will also install DebianPkg: fglrx-glx and other recommended packages. 3. If the X Window System is running, exit your desktop environment or window manager. If a display manager is in operation, switch to a and stop it. For example: virtual console

# invoke-rc.d gdm stop

or

# invoke-rc.d kdm stop

4. Unload the radeon and drm modules:

# modprobe -r radeon drm

5. Create or amend /etc/X11/xorg.conf to include a Device section and request use of the fglrx driver:

# sensible-editor /etc/X11/xorg.conf

A minimal /etc/X11/xorg.conf example is shown below:

Section "Device" Identifier Driver EndSection "ATI" "fglrx"

Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" DefaultDepth EndSection 24

Save the file and exit the editor before continuing. 6. Start the X Window System (startx) as a regular user, or start your display manager. For example:

# invoke-rc.d gdm start

or

# invoke-rc.d kdm start

Supported Devices
Refer to the "Product Family Support" sections within the ATI Proprietary Driver Release Notes: Squeeze (Debian 6.0): Lenny (Debian 5.0): Catalyst 10.9 (fglrx 8.771) Catalyst 8.12 (fglrx 8.561)

See Also
/usr/share/doc/fglrx-driver/README.Debian AtiHowTo Hardware GraphicsCard ATIStream - OpenCL GPGPU programming

External Links
Be aware that upgrading from packages created by the ATI installer is and will most probably NEVER be supported by the Debian maintainer of the DebPkg: fglrx-driver package(s)! Debian HOW-TO : ATI drivers - how to install and configure ATI proprietary drivers using module-assistant and the official ATI installer. Unofficial ATI Linux Drivers Wiki - how to install, configure and test a basic setup with proprietary ATI drivers. http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html - the ATI Driver Installer. http://www.stanchina.net/~flavio/debian/fglrx-installer.html - obsolete Debian fglrx installer packages. irc://irc.freenode.net/#ati - fglrx driver IRC channel. 1. Debian Changelog fglrx-driver (1:9-4-1) (1)