by Kulbir Saini | AMD, ATI, Drivers, Fedora, Graphics, Hardware, Kernel, Linux in , , ,

Fedora 12 ATI Catalyst Drivers

I guess ATI graphics card owners are a bit unlucky! When Fedora 11 was released, we didn’t get the proprietary drivers from AMD for months and the older version didn’t work with default kernel at that time. When Fedora 12 was released, AMD released newer version of Drivers after a few hours. But this time, Xorg becomes a stumbling block and again the driver installation fails for a lot of people!

But Fedora 12 tries to make life a bit easier and may provide support for ATI cards. From Fedora 12 Announcement

Fedora 12 introduces experimental 3D support for AMD Radeon HD 2400 and later graphics cards. To try it out, install the mesa-dri-drivers-experimental package. On many cards, this support should allow desktop effects to be used.

What to do?

Step 1 : Try ATI Catalyst Drivers from AMD

Nobody, so far, has reported the successful installation of ATI Catalyst drivers on Fedora 12. But still if you want to give it a shot (because the uninstall is clean and doesn’t leave a trace of ATI drivers in your system), you can follow How To: Install ATI Catalyst (fglrx) Drivers. If it doesn’t work, just uninstall using the command given at the end of the post.

Step 2 : Try mesa-dri-drivers

Keep in mind that these are experimental drivers and may not work properly or may work partially.

Install the mesa-dri-drivers-experimental from Fedora repositories using Yum.

[root@fedora ~]# yum install mesa-dri-drivers-experimental

Reboot if the drivers are install successfully.

Let me know, if any of the above drivers work for you 🙂

 

137 thoughts on “Fedora 12 ATI Catalyst Drivers”

  1. Still waiting for the ATI driver for my Fedora Core 12
    I have a Toshiba Notebook Satellite A300 with a HD3400 series display
    Aaaaghh,…I wanna have 3D support

    Hurry up ! … ATI give us a good ATI Catalyst driver for Fedora Core 12

  4. These worked for me! Thanks!! I have noticed that for some reason I can;t run the Emerald theme manager with Compiz. But you can’t have everything can you?! 🙂

  5. Thank you so much, the second option worked just fine, this is the first time that i see a 3D desktop effect happening with an ATI.

  6. My attempt to install Catalysts rendered my laptop unbootable, I wanted to run Windows games using Wine.
    The second approach you mentioned worked, have not tested any game yet, but I got a nice 3D desktop.
    Thanks a lot 🙂

  8. I have tried installing the mesa experimental drivers but am still not able to enable desktop effects.

    I have installed the ‘mesa-dri-drivers-experimental’, rebooted, installed gnome-compiz and still, no effects.

    Relevant Outputs:
    [root@HADES shaunak]# glxinfo |grep -i “\(render\|opengl\)”
    direct rendering: Yes
    OpenGL vendor string: Mesa Project
    OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer
    OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.7-devel
    OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
    OpenGL extensions:

    [root@HADES shaunak]# lsmod |grep radeon
    radeon 584235 2
    ttm 49268 1 radeon
    drm_kms_helper 24568 1 radeon
    drm 171094 4 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
    i2c_algo_bit 5005 1 radeon
    i2c_core 26876 5 i2c_piix4,radeon,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit

    [root@HADES shaunak]# glxgears
    2518 frames in 5.0 seconds = 503.507 FPS
    2550 frames in 5.0 seconds = 509.992 FPS
    2410 frames in 5.0 seconds = 481.823 FPS
    2583 frames in 5.0 seconds = 516.515 FPS
    2536 frames in 5.0 seconds = 507.024 FPS
    2555 frames in 5.0 seconds = 510.874 FPS
    2533 frames in 5.0 seconds = 506.382 FPS
    2509 frames in 5.0 seconds = 501.622 FPS

  9. Initially the mera experimental drivers were not workig for me but after reading some of the above comments, I realized that I probably had some dependant packages missing.

    I had to install the following:
    kernel-devel
    kernel-headers
    kernel-firmware
    mesa-experimental-dri-drivers

    Apart from these I updated everything. Desktop effects are working fine now.
    Config: Fedora 12 + ATI HD3200 [onboard a Gigabyte Ma78Gm]

    1. Hi..
      When i try to install the RPMs .. i get package conflict at
      /etc/init.d/ .. from package checkconfig…

      and also few other packages..

      I am not able to install the packages due to that reason.

      Can you tell me how to install the packages…
      I am using fedora 12 64 bit

      1. It is quite strange…Have you previously installed another version of the catalyst?If yes, uninstall it, delete residual config and try again

        1. HI Marco,
          Nope i didnot install any previous version of catalyst. And the files which are conflicting are the following :
          sudo rpm -ivh xorg-driver-fglrx-8.702-1.i386.rpm
          Preparing… ########################################### [100%]
          file /etc/init.d from install of xorg-driver-fglrx-8.702-1.i386 conflicts with file from package chkconfig-1.3.44-1.x86_64
          file /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 from install of xorg-driver-fglrx-8.702-1.i386 conflicts with file from package mesa-libGL-7.7-4.fc12.i686

          I tried using yum local install which didnt work either.

        2. My fedora has gone completely commandline after i installed :
          kernel-devel
          kernel-headers
          kernel-firmware
          mesa-experimental-dri-drivers
          and other mesa packages with “yum install mesa*”

          Now it is not able to start x server. After booting there comes black screen with acursor blinking.
          When I press ctrl+f2 it comes to command line……

          plz somebody help me solving this.

  12. Greg wrote that the system didn’t use xorg.conf, but when I changed ‘Driver “vesa” ‘ into ‘Driver “radeon” ‘ , it recognised my monitor and used the maximum resolution of my monitor 1920×1080, after I logged off and in again. Before the change the maximum resolution was 1280×1024. I did not need to update the mesa drivers and xorg-x11-drv-ati. So for me it was only the change in xorg.conf. Oh, I have a Phenom II and HD4650.

    1. Apparently Xorg is picky about it. It doesn’t *need* any xorg.conf file to work. It scans the hardware at startup, regardless of the existence of the conf file. I guess on some systems it will honour the changes.

      I tried every setting I could in the conf file, and I could not get a decent resolution. (First time in 11 years that I could not get X properly configured.)

      But, my case was apparently different: Xorg decidedly did not like my 10-year-old Sony G420 monitor, which had been working with Linux all that time. Just this week I bit the bullet and bought a new 22″ HD wide flat panel, and with no extra config, Xorg gave me a perfectly beautiful resolution with the mesa experimental drivers. So, I’m fine on the desktop without the proprietary Catalyst headache.

      Unfortunately, I still can’t use my laptop with Fedora.

    1. That is now up to version 10.7 though the download page still says 10.6. I’ll be trying it soon.

  14. The new drivers! They do nuzzing!

    Seriously, though, they didn’t help. I yum updated to kernel 2.6.32.10-90.fc12.x86_64 then tried ati 10.3 drivers. When the system booted back up and came around to starting xorg, the screen went blank and a cursor at the top left blinked a million times very rapidly, then just blinked normally. /var/log/messages had stuff like this to say:

    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop gdm-binary[1982]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.066908 seconds
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop gdm-binary[1982]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.068755 seconds
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop gdm-binary[1982]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.068796 seconds
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop gdm-binary[1982]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.068187 seconds
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop gdm-binary[1982]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.067886 seconds
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop gdm-binary[1982]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.068025 seconds
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop gdm-binary[1982]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop init: prefdm main process (1982) terminated with status 1
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop init: prefdm main process ended, respawning
    Apr 7 21:45:34 laptop init: prefdm respawning too fast, stopped

    … which I’m assuming corresponded with the blinking cursor I saw.

    And not only did the drivers not work, the new kernel I downloaded killed my headphone/microphone jacks. I only get sound through my laptop speakers now! Yay! No more skype or watching movies on airplanes!

    GRRRRRR

    btw, I’m on a toshiba satellite t135-1324 (the amd proc version)

  16. That worked fine for my Toshiba satellite P300, can’t say the same for the fglrx. Thanks for the info.

  17. Pingback: What version of Linux? - Page 4 - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

  18. Works perfect on:

    2.6.32.11-99.fc12.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Apr 5 19:59:38 UTC 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

    mesa-dri-drivers-experimental-7.7-4.fc12.x86_64
    mesa-dri-drivers-7.7-4.fc12.x86_64
    mesa-dri-drivers-7.7-4.fc12.i686

    Motherboard with internal video – Elitegroup A780GM-A

  19. I used the 10.2 catalyst and installed it with yum through the terminal…I’m using Fedora 12 and I havent had a problem

  22. HD2600XT

    Freezes the computer entirely 🙁 so that I have to do a hard reboot. Nothing in the logs: seems to start normally and then *bam*: nothing. I was really feeling psyched, too!

  24. Catalyst 10.4 works on HD4350 (Fedora12 64Bit), but extremely slow. No fun with this driver. Kwin is disabled on every system start. Mesa-dri-drivers-experimental performes much better. Suspend to ram or hibernate are not available by any of the two drivers.

  25. Catalyst 10.4 doesn’t work with Fedora 12 64 Bits and HD 4650, and the only solution was reinstall fedora, if anybody is going to try this version, I recommend to anybody init your operating system with level 3 in inittab and try to start X server from the console.

  26. For those owners of IBM R500 thinkpad laptops with an ATI HD 3400in it, it works ONLY by installing the experimental drivers in FC12. The standard supplied drivers with the FC12 release are older and do not support 3D. Suggested solution at the top of this page (installing the esa-dri-drivers-experimental package) is the solution for me. Compiz cube and wobling windows work nice now.
    Let’s see how stable it is……..

  28. HD2600XT w/ Catalyst 10.4

    Anyone have any suggestions on what I might try, given that there is nothing in the logs? (Again, computer just freezes, have to do a hard reboot).

  29. I managed to install the latest version of catalyst which is now 10.4, you would expect that a XFX hd 5870 wouldn’t have a problem with the refresh rate when scrolling a page in firefox but with these drivers it does. I’ve just removed them and installed experimental.

    Will reboot and hope for a better performance. It irritates me that an awesome Distro such as Fedora is limited like this. I had no issue with desktop effects/3d rendering on Ubuntu 9.10 on this machine. Fedora is more my style and It breaks my heart to think i might have to try an alternative distro just to browse pages without my eyes hurting!!!!

  30. Tried the Catalyst 10.4 driver and the fglrx driver is erroring on load. It says that it’s not found… I looked at the fglrx_install.log file and it said something about the binary being compiled for a different kernel version. What kernel version are you guys (that got the driver to work) running? I would put the exact log file here, but I deleted it and uninstalled the defunct driver.

  31. I was using Ubuntu because they have a driver that works. However, I just upgraded to the new version (10.04) and didn’t like it. It was a little quirky on my computer. So, I decided to try Fedora again. I see that version 13 will be out in a week or so, hopefully the driver works with that. I think Fedora is a more polished OS than Ubuntu and would love to use it. But… I need the 3D drivers for a project I’m working on.

  32. Didn’t work for me. It totally slowed down my computer and kept popping up with errors. Has it been this bad for anyone else? The ATI Catalyst is evil for my computer. But you’re right, it does have a clean uninstall, and very quick too. Almost like my computer was eager to get rid of it.

  33. At first the card worked with 3d graphics. but it was really laggy and would freeze up my computer. as soon as i installed the mesa-dri-expierimental drivers instant pickup i actually can use computer now with 3d graphics 😀

  34. I just loaded Fedora 13. Catalyst 10.4 did not install, it was looking for XFree86. Anyone have a workaround?

  35. Still searching for the Ati Catalyst?
    Try changing your OS….in other words, try Ubuntu 10.04.
    It is faster and more stable that fedora 13 and….btw:I have an Ati Mobility Radeon 4xxx and have no driver installed.And you know what?3D ACCELLERATION AND DESKTOP EFFECTS WORKS IN ANYWAY!
    Ubuntu and fedora are similar….but Ubuntu will be always better, because of its stability, speed,customizability and pc&user-friendly working.

    Someone will say ”Ubuntu is for noobs….” and I’ll tell him ”The noob has a great-working-full-featured Os on his machine….what about you?What?Is it crashing?”

    1. It’s just the Fedora way of life, always trying the newest.
      If one wants a fast and stable Linux, maybe Debian instead of Ubuntu is the best choice. The “3D ACCELLERATION AND DESKTOP EFFECTS”

    2. It’s just the Fedora way of life, always trying the newest. Some call us Fedora users lab mouse. But it’s our feedback which makes new technologies become stable ones that you’re using.

      If one wants a fast and stable Linux, maybe Debian instead of Ubuntu is the best choice. The “3D ACCELLERATION AND DESKTOP EFFECTS” you mentioned is built on a non-free driver and it almost has nothing to do with a Linux distro.
      I can’t understand why you think Ubuntu is better than Fedora in “stability, speed,customizability” . Any reaonable reason?

  36. hello sir
    i using fedora first time in my life, so please tell me how i can set environment variable of Java in fedora,. & tell some shortcut key for open the program & “run command” & “command prompt”

    thanks
    regards
    pradeep joshi

  40. As I mentioned previously I tried Catalyst 10.7 on my new Dell Studio XPS 1645 machine running fedora 12, and the speed improvements in anything involving 3D or direct rendering have been absolutely fantastic. I have the fastest glxgear results I have ever seen.

    However one of the most primative X window operations, background setting, have shown the worst performance I have ever seen! Even worse than the old X10 in 1988 when X windows first made an appearence on SUN graphic workstations of the time.

    For example, XTerm’s (Yes I still like to use XTerms over all the newer terminal applications), Xterm visiual bell, does not ‘flash’ the terminal window, but updates so slowly you can see the reverse video scrolling down the window and then a revse back again (also top to bottom) afterward. Background display updates, such as the supposed fade-in of the login window is also a visible the background updated 6 times or so form top to bottom.

    I can live with this as few applications seem to be effected. I did however report it. But it can be a little disconcerting.

    The BIGGEST problem however is that the display completely locks up if any form of idle time screen blanking starts. I have solved this temporarily by ensuring power management never puts the display to sleep, when my machine is idle (inactive).

    ASIDE: I never did get the mesa DRI driver to work. Though will probably try it with the next OS upgrade.

  41. PS: the AIT driver was directly downloaded and directly installed from ATI. I did not use intermediate RPM packages for it. And no I have not yet attempted a kernel update with it, so I have yet to discover how well it handles that situation.

  42. @Anthony Thyssen
    I tried Catalyst 10.7 ..running Fedora12 ..
    one of the most primative X window operations, background setting, have shown the worst performance I have ever seen

    After a successful ATI Catalyst installation on Fedora12 2D performance may be worse. Try to run

    aticonfig --set-pcs-str=DDX,ForceXAA,TRUE
    and to add following line to the Device-part in xorg.conf:
    Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"

    to solve this problem.

    2. I tried the suggestion, then reboots but it did not make any difference.
      Background drawing and xterm visual bells, can still be senn visually updating from top to bottom.

      As for kernel updates. Well unless you have some suggestion, I ended up having to uninstall and re-install the ATI driver after a kernel update.

  44. As a further note. while those large area refreshs are slow the GL drawing is very very fast, whcih is why I am using it.

    However the ATI catalyst driver is now failing to compile its modules for the newest kernel (F16) or any of the current updates. I have been waiting of Catalyst to fix this from some time, but until the next release I am having to use a vanilia F16 release kernel from the initial F16 install distribution, and ensure patching does not update it or anything related.

    Their are suposedally fixed for the modules involved, but they are manually patched, and I never had much luck getting them to work well afterward.

    1. Just an update. Catalyst on the RPMfusion site has updated and is not working with the newer FC16 kernels again… Thank you to whoever updated it.

  45. i am using HP tx2525 and I am really impressed. Fedora 11 was not so much supportive.

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