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I've recently installed Ubuntu-x open source drivers for my ATI card on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I did it with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fglrx

And after running fglrxinfo, it returns the following:

$fglrxinfo
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 5670

My system still wasn't stable so I checked the 'Additional drivers' option and found out that the AMD/ATI proprietary drivers are activated. Does this mean I wasn't using the open source drivers at all? How can I make sure I'm using the open source drivers?

Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

ish
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gerky
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2 Answers2

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fglrx is the closed-source driver!

Your steps in fact installed the AMD/ATI closed-source driver. The open-source one radeon is included by default with Ubuntu.

Please remove the fglrx drivers to "activate" the open-source one.

ish
  • 139,926
  • hmm..I was having a problem before when I upgraded to 12.04, the screen was not showing anything, so I think I went ahead and installed fglrx. So I just need to purge fglrx and the 'radeon' driver would be activated? I'll try it and post the results, thanks! – gerky Aug 04 '12 at 13:01
  • Ok, I've ran 'sudo apt-get --purge remove fglrx' to remove fglrx and checked it by running 'dpkg -l fglrx'. After that, I rebooted and nothing shows up on login screen. So I rebooted and added the 'nomodeset' option to boot it up somehow. I think the 'radeon' driver does not work well with my system. Should I try out the Ubuntu-x-swat one? Thanks! – gerky Aug 04 '12 at 13:09
  • I've fixed my problem with the radeon driver here http://askubuntu.com/questions/171933/ubuntu-12-04-default-radeon-driver-does-not-work-at-all/172005#172005 – gerky Aug 04 '12 at 19:35
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Not much help I know, but I had so many issues with ATi and Ubuntu, and Mint for that matter.

I had to reinstall my OS multiple times after messing things up by swapping drivers, etc.

I used the ATi drivers that are installed with Ubuntu, the drivers provided by Additional Drivers, and ATi's latest drivers on there website.

In the end I installed my Nvidia graphics card, and it worked instantly without issues.

Again, sorry it doesnt help, but if you have an Nvidia card laying about, my advice would be use that instead. Others will no doubt have better advice regarding your card and drivers I'm sure.

Eliah Kagan
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Rob
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  • I agree, I never had problems with nvidia cards before. I'll see if the problem can be fixed first, and hopefully it will be fixed. thanks! – gerky Aug 04 '12 at 13:57