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I followed these instructions in a large (but now dead) thread in order to ascertain my video card and driver info seen below:

In Linux, there is two parts for the video driver, the kernel part and the X server part.

  1. Let's identify your hardware first. By typing lspci | grep VGA in a terminal, you should see a line with you graphic card description (even if not configured at all).
  2. Let's check the correct kernel driver is loaded find /dev -group video.
  3. Let's check the correct X driver is loaded glxinfo | grep -i vendor.

So when I type lspci | grep VGA I get a list of my PCI devices, which is just my video card:

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Hawaii PRO [Radeon R9 290]

And when I type find /dev -group video I get a bunch of gobldygook that I don't understand:

/dev/fb0
/dev/dri/card0
/dev/dri/renderD128
/dev/dri/controlD64

And when I type glxinfo | grep -i vendor I also get a bunch of nonsensical stuff (to me):

server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org

Can someone tell me if this machine has drivers or not? and if not can they please link to me the correct drivers?

Also I used the GUI to see if I have drivers and in all honesty its all just nonsense to me. Here's a screenshot of my GUI

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Hoffmannkenn
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1 Answers1

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Can someone tell me if this machine has drivers or not?

Your screenshot clearly states you are using the open source driver (the name for that is xserver-xorg-video-ati. That is a wrapper though and connects to one of these: 

xserver-xorg-video-mach64    
xserver-xorg-video-r128   
xserver-xorg-video-radeon

The ati wrapper autodetects if you have a Radeon, Rage 128, or Mach64 or earlier chip and loads the radeon, r128, or mach64 xorg video driver corresponding to your card).

and if not can they please link to me the correct drivers?

All should be fine unless you want some more extra. The normal, open source version often lacks that little bit extra as it is a one-fits-all type of thing.

Besides the one currently active you can also opt for 2 versions from AMD itself from the screenshot you posted (proprietary, so owned by AMD) called fglrx and fglrx-updates. Sometimes it is worth installing this one as it often also comes with some tool where you can tweak the video card. Then again a general rule is: if it is not broken don't try to fix it; so if what is installed now works and you do not feel like you miss out on anything keep the open source driver.

By the way: if you had no driver for your videocard I doubt your system would even boot and it would crash as soon as anything videocard driver related was going to be shown; I assume that would be the purple greeting screen with the 3 dots.

Then there is also the official Radeon how to. You have an R9 290 so do note this bit of information:

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and newer: for some most recent graphics cards (R9 285, R9 380/380X, R9 M395X, R9 Nano/Fury/FuryX, RX 460/470/480, RX 550/560/570/580...) and APUs (Carrizo, Stoney), the open-source AMDGPU driver is enabled by default. For Ubuntu 16.04 LTS AMDGPU-Pro hybrid driver is also available to download here (please read the release notes for known problems and limitations).

It is about 16.04 and, as it is newer, 18.04 will have even better support.

Rinzwind
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  • Thanks for your response! Really! I only downloaded 14.04 because apparently that was the most current version supported by the flgrx drivers found on AMD's site, if I use a wrapper will I be able to get my 290 working on a newer version you think? Also whats the deal with having 2 different drivers? could you please explain what the difference between xorg and the kernel drivers are? – Hoffmannkenn Jul 03 '18 at 20:09
  • That wrapper is installed automatically on 16.04 and 18.04. I would have started with 18.04 if I was you and not 14.04. No harm in booting up a live session and to check 18.04 out before committing – Rinzwind Jul 03 '18 at 20:12