Catalyst 14.9 under Lubuntu (A10-7700k)

[DrMrLordX]

I'm trying to get Catalyst 14.9 working under Lubuntu 14.10 on an A10-7700k. I've followed these directions:

http://www.yourownlinux.com/2014/09/how-to-install-amd-catalyst-14-9-graphics-driver-in-linux.html

and others to no avail. This whole thing is making me look like a noob. Basically I either get a corrupt pacakge install or I get a situation where X won't start, even if I run aticonfig --initial from a console after rebooting.

Ugh.

Any hints on what I need to do?

 

[Jodell88]

Unless you're really experienced using Linux, never install anything that is not packaged for your distribution.

Have you tried installing catalyst using the package manager?

Do you need catalyst, or will the open source drivers work for you?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Actually, I found out that the problem is that Catalyst 14.9 doesn't support Xorg 1.16 just now. Everyone attempting to install it on Ubuntu 14.10 of any variety is experiencing the same problem.

The Catalyst package is actually pretty easy to use (it actually builds packages for your distro).

 

[Jodell88]

Actually, I found out that the problem is that Catalyst 14.9 doesn't support Xorg 1.16 just now. Everyone attempting to install it on Ubuntu 14.10 of any variety is experiencing the same problem.

Usually AMD releases a beta (in some cases a special beta) build for Ubuntu in time for their next release with support for Ubuntu's graphics system.

I believe a beta was out in September IIRC that supported XServer 1.16.

Edit: Catalyst should support XServer 1.16
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTc4NTQ

 

[DrMrLordX]

I noticed that. Actually what I noticed were some Gentoo packages that allow Gentoo users to install that driver version for themselves. What is interesting is that the driver downloads available directly from AMD do not offer this as an option.

edit: apparently this driver conflicts with Wine. Ugh.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Okay, so I found a workaround for installing fglrx-updates which is the x 11.6-compliant driver for Linux:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/540780/14-10-wine-and-fglrx-conflict <-- first answer

It worked . . . ! Sadly, I ran into the classic "fglrx autodefaults to an unsupported resolution" bug. I tried setting up xorg.conf to get around this problem to no avail, so I just canned fglrx and went back to gallium .4. Grumble grumble.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Huh, weird. The Xorg.log says that it's autodetecting the monitor as being capable of 1600x1200 when its max resolution is 1280x1024. So obviously it's going to go out of spec at boot.

Then there's a segfault at 0x0. Got some more work to do on this I see.

 

[DrMrLordX]

On second thought, the 14.12 drivers are out now, so I'm just going to punt on 14.9. Setting xorg.conf to support specific resolutions did not prevent the driver from autodetecting and setting unsupported 1600x1200 which was most frustrating. Hopefully 14.12 won't exhibit similar behavior.

As an added bonus, AMD is supplying .deb packages on their site:

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Ubuntu x86 64

. . . but only for 14.04 LTS. Wonder if they'll work in 14.10. The site is recommending using the .run installer for 14.10 instead.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Okay tried 14.12 drivers using a custom xorg.conf file with hints from this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1590990&page=2&

and

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1590990&page=3

It looks like commenting out the horizsync and vertrefresh lines and setting the preferred mode did the trick. They work! Woohoo. Time to try these babies out.

 

[bbhaag]

EDIT: Looking at my previous post I was being a smart ass. Sorry about that.
I'm glad you got it working and thanks for posting the links on how you solved the issue.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hey no problem. I know I did a lot of talking-to-myself hashing this out which didn't necessarily need to happen on this forum . . . but it sort of helped me sort out the issue. 14.12 isn't without its flaws (Warsow in Phoronix Test Suite just won't run with 14.12, at least not on my 7700k), but overall it's a huge improvement over Gallium.

 

[phasseshifter]

have you tried the AMD site it has the catalyst versions there you need to match your video card more than your cpu...also i would like to add install the .... generic headers first then load catalyst....

 

[DrMrLordX]

Yeah, I got 14.12 from amd.com . It was not an issue related to downloading the improper driver. The driver just behaves strangely when autodetecting resolutions allowed by my old-arsed monitor. Among other things.