Sapphire Radeon X1650 AGP won't install in Ubuntu 9.10 32 bit

[Crow550]

I thought Ubuntu 9.10 32 bit edition would be a breezy install. However it won't auto detect the video card. I'm kinda new to this. So what do I do?

Thanks. I believe everything else is working nicely....

Just need that 3D support for games and media.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

ATI has moved the X1650 to Legacy status, and are no longer providing 3D drivers for it. The latest Ubuntu that you can have working 3D under is 8.10.

The Linux ATI Catalyst™ driver will only be supported in Linux distributions prior to February 2009 for the legacy products listed above.

Link

Yet another reason I won't buy ATI...

 

[Crow550]

So if I'm planning to use Linux to play 3D games with this ATI card. I'm S.O.L.

This really blows....

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Not necessarily. You'll just have to use an older release, preferably an LTS release (for long term support), or dual-boot...

 

[Crow550]

I'll give it a shot.

This is for my Moms PC. So as long as Yahoo games & Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, 3 & Sims 3 works. Everything should be cool.

Well......Yahoo Messenger might be an issue....

 

[Crow550]

Just about to say eff it and goto Windows XP. I wanted to use Ubuntu because the PC is a P4 1ghz with 1 gig of memory. So performance wise, linux should be faster.

However I got Ubuntu 8.04. It offered 8.10 as an upgrade. Okay. So I do that. No problem....Then it finds my video card and I click to activate it. It says to restart......The drivers crash.....

Nice....

Any ideas? Otherwise I'll install my old copy of XP. Don't really have the dough right now for 7. I thought Ubuntu could handle the tasks I needed it for....I guess not....

 

[Jodell88]

You can try Mandriva 2010.0 One edition. I installed it on my mom's old laptop about three weeks ago. The One edition installs graphics drivers, flash and codecs so that you won't have to.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Crow550, I am guessing that the upgrade installed a newer kernel that is incompatible with the 3D drivers (kernels released after Feb won't work). If you have the option to boot into another kernel, use it and see if that helps, otherwise boot into safe mode and install an older kernel.

You can try Mandriva 2010.0 One edition. I installed it on my mom's old laptop about three weeks ago. The One edition installs graphics drivers, flash and codecs so that you won't have to.

Although I am using Mandriva 2010 and do recommend it, 3D simply won't work with his graphics card.

 

[Crow550]

Alright. First I shall try installing 8.04 and then installing the driver and see if everything works.....Then should I try 8.10? I read that these ATI drivers worked till 8.10.

Or just stick with 8.04? Or should I hunt for another distro?


Thanks for the input thus far.

 

[Fox5]

That's weird, the open source drivers should support that card and install automatically. You shouldn't even have to install them, it should automatically be recognized and configured. Are you sure you don't have 3d? How's the performance with glxgears? Do 3d desktop effects enable?

In 9.10, from a command line try:
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd

to install the open source drivers (but really, they should already be installed, unless the agp part isn't recognized).

After that point, you can add this PPA if you want the latest up to date versions of the open source driver:
https://launchpad.net/~guido-iodice/+archive/best-radeon

It's some dude's personal compilation of the latest radeonhd drivers.

 

[Crow550]

The 3d gears worked and so did the effects. However when I tried The Sims 3 in Wine it wouldn't get past the first screen. Another time I tried it loaded upside down? Which it should run just peachy.

 

[Fox5]

The 3d gears worked and so did the effects. However when I tried The Sims 3 in Wine it wouldn't get past the first screen. Another time I tried it loaded upside down? Which it should run just peachy.

Oh yeah, the open source drivers don't work in Wine. Not really anyhow, I think the older r300 ones might, but the newer ones don't. Wine doesn't work very well on ati hardware in general though.

You could try updating to the latest open source drivers though, this is what's changed:

Version 1.3.0

Added support for RV740, M92, M93, M97.
Added support for HDMI audio on RS690 and R700.
Added support for power management.
Implemented almost correct analysis of PowerPlay AtomBIOS tables.
2D acceleration (EXA) is enabled by default now, except on RV740.
Backlight handling finally fixed - compatible with xbacklight 1.1.1.
Overhaul of memory controller setup. Fixes many "MC not idle" issues.
Overhaul of cursor handling. Fixes most cursor bugs.
Selectable color space for XVideo on R6xx/R7xx.
Tons of bug fixes (DDC, EXA, LUT, RandR, AtomBIOS).
More quirk table entries.
Shave support (cleaner compilation output).
All warnings fixed.
Some start of Developer's documentation in README.coding.

But you should really either grab a cheap nvidia card for that system, or just run windows. Radeonhd's focus is still on just general desktop usage, not on games.

 

[Crow550]

I could also dual boot.... However.... I don't know. I don't feel like getting another video card right now.... *shrugs* If I look at other distros then I have to figure out what kernel is being used because ATI cut off Linux support....

 

[OptotsshorP]

youd be missing things by using the disc drivers instead of 9.11

you shouldnt be seeing any new hardware wizards, just boot in, install mobo/chipset drivers, restart, install cats

may i ask why 32bit?

 

[Crow550]

youd be missing things by using the disc drivers instead of 9.11

Huh?

you shouldnt be seeing any new hardware wizards, just boot in, install mobo/chipset drivers, restart, install cats

What?

may i ask why 32bit?

It's a Pentium 4 (P4)


Uh er uh.......Anyways


Someone is selling a Geforce 8400 GS 512mb PCI for $50.....It's PCI though and not AGP which is what i'm currently using......Would it be worth snagging since Ubuntu and Wine likes Nvidia better?

Otherwise I can install XP and dual boot and use XP for games and Ubuntu for browsing and such.

Can I access XP in Virtual Box from the second partition?

Thanks.

 

[Fox5]

You'd probably be better off going with an older gen AGP card (geforce 7 series) rather than an ultra low end pci card.