ATI Video Card Driver Patch

Ever since I installed the video driver on Jan 29, I’ve had problems with X crashing on logout. I was just hacking around, trying to get Compiz to work last night and it crashed again while testing video resolutions. I decided to check for a video card driver update.

It seems that on Feb 13, they produced a new one:

Linux Proprietary Driver – Catalyst 8-2 Release: x86 and x86_64 variants
Driver version: 8.455.2
ISSUES RESOLVED: (1) Fixed Xserver crash on screen resolution change in horizontal or vertical desktop setup with a monitor that does not support DDC. (2) Fixed problems related to BusID entries in xorg.conf in an unexpected format. Symptoms could range from failure to initialize 3D acceleration to Xserver crashes on startup. (3) Fexed intermittent Xserver hangs on logout if atieventsd was running. (4) Fixed hang of the first OpenGL application in an Xsession on Xserver version 1.4.

Maybe this will prevent my system from freezing on logout and WoW might work! Woohoo!


mike@whitetower:~$ bash ./ati-driver-installer-8-02-x86.x86_64.run
Created directory fglrx-install.vD7255
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing ATI Proprietary Linux Driver-8.455.2............................................................

Hmph. That’s new. The ATI package should only output a deb file which I should be able to install as root. Running this massive ATI script as root is not a good idea, it’s why the “fake root” package was created. Running it the same way as I did on the 29th makes no difference. (i.e., chmod +x ./…. )

It looks like the ATI documentation doesn’t actually say that they support Ubuntu, but from the Ubuntu site, there seems to be an undocumented way to do this:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI


bash ./ati-driver-installer-8-02-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy


Ahhh, the WordPress blockquote truncates long lines of preformatted text 😦


==================================================
ATI Technologies Linux Driver Installer/Packager
==================================================
Generating package: Ubuntu/gutsy
Package /home/mike/xorg-driver-fglrx_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb has been successfully generated
Package /home/mike/xorg-driver-fglrx-dev_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb has been successfully generated
Package /home/mike/fglrx-kernel-source_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb has been successfully generated
Package /home/mike/fglrx-amdcccle_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb has been successfully generated
Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.a15276
mike@whitetower:~$ man dpkg
mike@whitetower:~$ dpkg -l | grep fglrx
ii fglrx-kernel-2.6.22-14-generic 8.452.1-1+2.6.22-14.47 ATI binary kernel module for Linux 2.6.22-14
ii fglrx-kernel-source 8.452.1-1 Kernel module source for the ATI graphics ac
ii xorg-driver-fglrx 8.452.1-1 Video driver for the ATI graphics accelerato
ii xorg-driver-fglrx-dev 8.452.1-1 Video driver for the ATI graphics accelerato
mike@whitetower:~$ dpkg -r fglrx-kernel-2.6.22-14-generic
dpkg: requested operation requires superuser privilege
mike@whitetower:~$ sudo dpkg -r fglrx-kernel-2.6.22-14-generic
[sudo] password for mike:
(Reading database ... 96630 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing fglrx-kernel-2.6.22-14-generic ...
mike@whitetower:~$ sudo dpkg -r fglrx-kernel-source
(Reading database ... 96626 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing fglrx-kernel-source ...
mike@whitetower:~$ sudo dpkg -r xorg-driver-fglrx
dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of xorg-driver-fglrx:
xorg-driver-fglrx-dev depends on xorg-driver-fglrx.
dpkg: error processing xorg-driver-fglrx (--remove):
dependency problems - not removing
Errors were encountered while processing:
xorg-driver-fglrx
mike@whitetower:~$ sudo dpkg -r xorg-driver-fglrx-dev
(Reading database ... 96622 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing xorg-driver-fglrx-dev ...
mike@whitetower:~$ sudo dpkg -r xorg-driver-fglrx
(Reading database ... 96611 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing xorg-driver-fglrx ...
Stopping atieventsd: done.
rmdir: /usr/lib/fglrx: Directory not empty
rmdir: /usr/lib32/fglrx: Directory not empty
Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
mike@whitetower:~$


This is a serious PITA.


mike@whitetower:~$ sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
Selecting previously deselected package fglrx-kernel-source.
(Reading database ... 96525 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking fglrx-kernel-source (from fglrx-kernel-source_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ...
Setting up fglrx-kernel-source (8.455.2-0ubuntu1) ...
Adding Module to DKMS build system
Doing initial module build
Installing initial module
Done.mike@whitetower:~$ sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
Selecting previously deselected package xorg-driver-fglrx.
(Reading database … 96542 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking xorg-driver-fglrx (from xorg-driver-fglrx_8.455.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) …
Setting up xorg-driver-fglrx (8.455.2-0ubuntu1) …
Installing new version of config file /etc/ati/atiogl.xml …
Installing new version of config file /etc/ati/signature …
Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/atieventsd …
* Starting atieventsd [ OK ]Processing triggers for libc6 …
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
mike@whitetower:~$

Reboot…… we’re back. I wonder if this did anything? I’ll try logging out.

We’re good.  No WoW though.  that’s probably some other issue.   Meh. Win some, lose some.