Why Ubuntu Isn’t Using Open-Source AMD/ATI Drivers – Explanation

12.04atifglrxgraphics

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!

Best Answer

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.

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Go to terminal past sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-update
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
lshw -c video

If you want more information about the loaded driver, run modinfo or glxinfo

Ubuntu – (L)Ubuntu 13.10 AMD ATI Radeon laptop screen is black after upgrade from 13.04

Ok, I finally fixed this by removing the closed-source proprietary driver, and using the open source Radeon driver. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

The open source driver fully supports my ATI card CEDAR Radeon HD 5430/5450/6330/6350/6370

To install the open source driver it is enough to fully remove the closed-source one (more details at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/VideoDriverDetection#Problem:_Need_to_purge_-fglrx). This is what I used:

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*
sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo shutdown -r now

After restart both laptop screen and my external monitor screen worked. To set the resolution for the two monitors I used arandr tool.

To check all is ok:

sudo lshw -c video

should show ... configuration: driver=radeon latency=0

Hope this will be of help.

Best Answer

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