(SOLVED) ATI video driver problem

[dylan420]

In the early hours of the morning I have made a small problem much larger.
The changes I made have made, make my system crash when my desktop loads and I open almost any window.
Luckily I have multiple operating systems and hope to make any nessesary changes to restore my system to the original configuration.
I have an ATI Radeon X1200 and I have always used ATI Radeon X1950 and Earlier Driver in XFdrake.
I have also always used the method described in the link in this post :
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=72ikeaqrmcp0pdfkmju9b0skm7&topic=92281.0
This has always worked very well for me playing 3D games and such.
So this was my previous setup.
This morning I noticed in that in PC>More Applications>Configuration>
there is a listing named "AMD Catalyst Control Center"
When I ran the program I got an error message saying that there were no supported drivers detected.
Also the output of:

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hollow@Destroyer:~# aticonfig
No supported devices detectedI assume now that this is because I am using the kernel 2.6.38.8bfs and NOT one of the .a64 kernels ?
I was reading a post online and as it recomended I made the following changes:
Completetly removed the following packages via synaptic:
dkms-fglrx
&
fglrx-control-center (If I remember correctly)
Then for the terminal I ran the following commands:

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su
wget -linktowebsite-ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.run
sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.runThis opened a gui dialog for the installer.
I ran the installer and it required a reboot.
I did a reboot and then ran:

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XFdrakeWhich launched the PCC "Configure your Video Card"
I selected the ATI RADEON x1950 and Earlier driver as I have in the past.
After another reboot I reinstalled dkms-fglrx & fglrx-control-center (? not sure on exact name)
I also marked for reinstallation: x11-driver-ati-fglrx and applied the changes.
After another reboot my system crashes when opening 1 or 2 windows. and the graphics are lagging .
I wish to return to my original setup. It was unwise of me to make those changes. I don't usually install things especially drivers from anywhere but synaptic.
Any help would be appreciated.
I am standing by to provide any additional information.

[dylan420]

I believe possibly when I ran this command:

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sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.runIt installed a video driver which conflicts with:
x11-driver-ati-fglrx
My video driver from synaptic.
I don't know how to remove the driver I downloaded and installed.

[cyrwyn]

You've really borked your system downloading that driver. You should only use the ATI driver from the PCLOS repositories, not from the ATI source. The kernel you're running has nothing to do with it. So remove that driver completely or you'll have conflicts. There is an uninstall command for that - read the readme files that come with it for instructions - should be in usr/docs/. It's something like "uninstall filename". You need the 3 files by apt: x11-driver-ati-fglrx, dkms-fglrx, fglrx control-center (that is Catalyst)  I guess you can't run Synaptic at this point, so from a terminal use apt get install on one of the files and it should bring in the others as dependencies: If the install goes Ok then reboot. It shouldn't be necessary to run XFdrake, but with your older card there might be problems.

[djohnston]

This morning I noticed in that in PC>More Applications>Configuration>
there is a listing named "AMD Catalyst Control Center"
When I ran the program I got an error message saying that there were no supported drivers detected.
Also the output of:

Code: [Select]

hollow@Destroyer:~# aticonfig
No supported devices detectedI assume now that this is because I am using the kernel 2.6.38.8bfs and NOT one of the .a64 kernels ?
I was reading a post online and as it recomended I made the following changes:
Completetly removed the following packages via synaptic:
dkms-fglrx
&
fglrx-control-center (If I remember correctly)
Then for the terminal I ran the following commands:

Code: [Select]

su
wget -linktowebsite-ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.run
sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.runThis opened a gui dialog for the installer.
I ran the installer and it required a reboot.

To repeat what cyrwyn said, you borked your install. The AMD Catalyst Control Center and aticonfig messages have nothing to do with what kernel you are running. More on that in a minute. The AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver page states:

AMD has moved a number of DX9 ATI Radeon™ graphics accelerators products to a legacy driver support structure. ... The following products have been moved to the legacy software support structure. ...

ATI Radeon X1200 Series

In other words, your card is not supported by the Catalyst driver. Neither is my Ati RV280 (Radeon 9200SE). I get the same messages from the ATI Catalyst Control Center and aticonfig that you do. Yet, my card works just fine. I've had no problems with it, using the drivers supplied in the PCLinuxOS repositories.

Now, to your kernel. The 2.6.38.8bfs kernel you are running and the .a64 kernels are 32bit. The video driver installation you ran, ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64 is intended for installation on a computer running a 64bit operating system. You are not running one. The PCLinuxOS 64bit releases are still in testing, and are not available for general release yet.

[dylan420]

Thank you both for simplifing everything.
/usr/share/doc/ati/installer.html

Uninstallation
 To uninstall the driver, change the directory to ${ATI_UNINST} and run fglrx-uninstall.sh. You have to do this with superuser privileges. The unistallation script should remove all filles copied by the installer, and restore your system to the original state it had before installation.

I will attempt this uninstallation and then install those 3 neccesary packages from synaptic. (x11-driver-ati-fglrx, dkms-fglrx, fglrx control-center)
I will post back results.

[dylan420]

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locate fglrx-uninstall.sh
cd /usr/share/ati
./fglrx-uninstall.sh
./fglrx-uninstall.sh --forceThe uninstall seemed to work.

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apt-get install dkms-fglrx
apt-get install fglrx-control-center
apt-get install x11-driver-video-fglrxThe install seemed to work.

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/etc/ati/fglrx-uninstall.log
*** ATI Catalyst(TM) Proprietary Driver Uninstall Log 2012-01-11 00:07:04 ***
Forcing uninstall.
Installed file is missing from system /usr/share/applications/amdcccle.desktop.
[MANY MORE FILES ARE LISTED AS MISSING HERE]
Removed /usr/share/applications/amdccclesu.desktop
Removed /usr/share/icons/ccc_large.xpm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_cs.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_da_DK.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_de.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_el_GR.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_ru_RU.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_sv_SE.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_th.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_tr_TR.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_zh_CN.qm
md5sum integrity check failed.  Force option removes /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/amdcccle_zh_TW.qm
Removed /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/qt_de.qm
Removed /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/qt_es.qm
Removed /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/qt_fr.qm
Removed /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/qt_ja_JP.qm
Removed /usr/share/ati/amdcccle/qt_pl.qm
Installed file is missing from system /etc/ati/signature.
Installed file is missing from system /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/fglrx_dri.so.
Installed file is missing from system /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-fglrx.conf.
Installed file is missing from system /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-fglrx.conf.But after looking at fglrx-uninstall.log, something went wrong.
And the drivers are still conflicting.
The files listed as missing in the log file are not present on my system.
However, when i run

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locate fglrxThere is alot of directories and files associated with the name fglrx.
Should I delete them all and then reinstall the 3 from synaptic?

[dylan420]

I really hate the thought of reinstalling the OS, It may be my only option at this point.
The graphics are bad and it crashes within 1 minute of loading the desktop.

[alphaace]

Don't worry too much about reinstalling the OS. Just be sure to keep your /home partition intact, all your settings then carry over. I was pretty worried myself when I had to do it but as soon as I redownloaded the software from synaptic (maybe an hour?), more than 95% of everything I did worked fine.

[dylan420]

I made 3 purchases today that I think are going to go along way.
1 ATI AMD Radeon HD 5450 512 MB DDR3 video card (upgrading from ATI Radeon x1200 which I believe is 128 MB)
2 Dynex 520 Watt Power Supply (upgrading from 250 Watt PSU)
3 & an additional case fan.
The new power supply and case fan have been installed no problems.
I wanted to relate this to my post on the driver problem,
When I install the new radeon 5450 video card, There is a VGA port on the bracket end of the video card.
If I just plug my monitor into that port, and fire up PCLinuxOS, will the old video card and driver become unused?
Enableing me to install any new drivers, and configure the new card , Avoiding reinstalling the OS.

[dylan420]

The answer is yet it will. And with the new video card, the AMD Catalyst Control Center detects the card and can be configured there.