ashughes
2006-11-15, 05:50 PM CST
Hey, I just stumbled across an easy way to get the ATI drivers working in FC6. I figured I would post it here so everyone can benefit from it. Keep in mind that this is a version of the guide at the ati-linux blog but simplified.
So without further ado....
The Guide
--------------
1. Launch Yum GUI. (In KDE: K>System>Add/Remove Software
2. Do a search for libstdc, kernel-devel, qt-devel, and the standard developer tools/libs. Ensure that they are installed.
3. Open terminal.
4. Create a common download directory: mkdir ~/downloads
Note: All files that are going to be downloaded must be located in the same directory.
5. Change to root: su -
6. Download fglrx generator script (http://www.phoronix.com/redblog/downloads/fglrx-fc6-8296-generator.sh) and ati 8.29.6 driver (http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.29.6.run)
7. Change permissions on these files so they can be executed: chmod a+x *.*
8. Run the script: ./fglrx-fc6-8296-generator.sh. This will generate 4 files:
kernel-module-ATI-fglrx-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-8.29.6-1.fc6.i386.rpm
ATI-fglrx-8.29.6-1.fc6.i386.rpm
ATI-fglrx-devel-8.29.6-fc6.i386.rpm
ATI-fglrx-control-panel-8.29.6-1.fc6.i386.rpm
9. Install the 4 .rpms in the order that they are listed above.
rpm -Uvh rpmfile
10. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and modify it to look similar to the .conf located here (http://www.phoronix.com/redblog/downloads/xorg-fc6-sample.conf)
Your xorg.conf should look almost identical except for the information specific to input devices (leave these sections as they are on your system).
11. Reboot your computer
12. Launch aticontrol, your openGL driver should now be registered as ATI provided.
13 In a terminal as root, run glxinfo | grep OpenGL should return similar results
14. Run fgl_glxgears and note the fps. I averaged 1200-1500 fps with a AMD64 4000+ and a Radeon X800XL.
There are a few things of note with this guide that I have noticed that I am pretty sure are driver related.
1. This guide is designed for the 8.29.6 driver. I have not tried it with the newer drivers, but I will soon and report back.
2. Decorations and Icons do not look as clean as with a fresh install of FC6. I find that bouncing cursors have a flashing border around them. They dont appear to render properly
3. If you use gnome with compiz+AIGLX, say goodbye to it. It doesnt work well with it, if at all. I use KDE, so I dont have those pretties anyway.
4. Gaming performance is better, but I found it to be still subpar. This may be an ATI driver issue. My experience with Diablo 2 was that the game was choppy from the intro movie and even the menu using the default driver. With the ATI drivers installed, the menu and cutscenes ran as smooth as with WinXP, but when I started playing the game, it was extremely choppy. Now, Diablo 2 was never designed to work with OpenGL, so this may be contributing to the problem as well.
If those points do not concern you than this guide will work for you.
If anyone out there has any resolution to those points, feel free to add to this guide.
And thank you to phoronix for posting the howto originally. If you want the full guide, please go here (http://www.phoronix.com/redblog/?p=blog&i=NTU1MA) . I have just provided a, I believe, simpler version of the same guide.
Enjoy!
ashughes
So without further ado....
The Guide
--------------
1. Launch Yum GUI. (In KDE: K>System>Add/Remove Software
2. Do a search for libstdc, kernel-devel, qt-devel, and the standard developer tools/libs. Ensure that they are installed.
3. Open terminal.
4. Create a common download directory: mkdir ~/downloads
Note: All files that are going to be downloaded must be located in the same directory.
5. Change to root: su -
6. Download fglrx generator script (http://www.phoronix.com/redblog/downloads/fglrx-fc6-8296-generator.sh) and ati 8.29.6 driver (http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.29.6.run)
7. Change permissions on these files so they can be executed: chmod a+x *.*
8. Run the script: ./fglrx-fc6-8296-generator.sh. This will generate 4 files:
kernel-module-ATI-fglrx-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-8.29.6-1.fc6.i386.rpm
ATI-fglrx-8.29.6-1.fc6.i386.rpm
ATI-fglrx-devel-8.29.6-fc6.i386.rpm
ATI-fglrx-control-panel-8.29.6-1.fc6.i386.rpm
9. Install the 4 .rpms in the order that they are listed above.
rpm -Uvh rpmfile
10. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and modify it to look similar to the .conf located here (http://www.phoronix.com/redblog/downloads/xorg-fc6-sample.conf)
Your xorg.conf should look almost identical except for the information specific to input devices (leave these sections as they are on your system).
11. Reboot your computer
12. Launch aticontrol, your openGL driver should now be registered as ATI provided.
13 In a terminal as root, run glxinfo | grep OpenGL should return similar results
14. Run fgl_glxgears and note the fps. I averaged 1200-1500 fps with a AMD64 4000+ and a Radeon X800XL.
There are a few things of note with this guide that I have noticed that I am pretty sure are driver related.
1. This guide is designed for the 8.29.6 driver. I have not tried it with the newer drivers, but I will soon and report back.
2. Decorations and Icons do not look as clean as with a fresh install of FC6. I find that bouncing cursors have a flashing border around them. They dont appear to render properly
3. If you use gnome with compiz+AIGLX, say goodbye to it. It doesnt work well with it, if at all. I use KDE, so I dont have those pretties anyway.
4. Gaming performance is better, but I found it to be still subpar. This may be an ATI driver issue. My experience with Diablo 2 was that the game was choppy from the intro movie and even the menu using the default driver. With the ATI drivers installed, the menu and cutscenes ran as smooth as with WinXP, but when I started playing the game, it was extremely choppy. Now, Diablo 2 was never designed to work with OpenGL, so this may be contributing to the problem as well.
If those points do not concern you than this guide will work for you.
If anyone out there has any resolution to those points, feel free to add to this guide.
And thank you to phoronix for posting the howto originally. If you want the full guide, please go here (http://www.phoronix.com/redblog/?p=blog&i=NTU1MA) . I have just provided a, I believe, simpler version of the same guide.
Enjoy!
ashughes