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ATI Proprietary Linux Release Notes


This release note provides information on the latest posting of ATI's Proprietary Linux driver version 8.23.7.

The ATI Linux release notes provides information on the following:

ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Features

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver provides TV Output support for ATI graphics cards that support TV out. The ATI Proprietary Linux driver also allows for the following monitor arrangements:

Web Content

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver is available in both RPM format and through an Installer executable. The packages are available for XFree86 versions 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3, as well as X.org 6.8. One of these four versions must be installed before installing the ATI Proprietary Linux driver.


Note: 64 bit driver support for XFree86 version 4.1 and 4.2 are not supported.


Note: Refer to the minimum system requirements listed below to ensure you have downloaded the correct driver package for your system.

ATI Workstation Product Support

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver is designed to support the following ATI Workstation products:
FireGL™ V7100
FireGL™ X3
FireGL™ V5100
FireGL™ X1-128
FireGL™ V5000
FireGL™ X1-256p
FireGL™ V3200
FireGL™ 8800
FireGL™ V3100
FireGL™ 8700
FireGL™ X2-256
Mobility™ FireGL™ V5000
FireGL™ T2-128
Mobility™ FireGL™ 9100
FireGL™ Z1-128
Mobility™ FireGL™ T2
FireGL™ X3-256


ATI Mobility™ Product Support

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver is designed to support the following ATI Mobility™ products:

ATI Integrated Product Support

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver is designed to support the following ATI Integrated products:


Caution: This software driver provides 2D support only for the ATI Radeon® 9100 IGP and ATI Radeon® 9100 PRO IGP.

ATI Desktop Product Family Support

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver is designed to support the following ATI desktop products:
Radeon® X850 series
Radeon® 9200 series
Radeon® X800 series
Radeon® 9000 series
Radeon® X700 series
Radeon® 9700 series
Radeon® X600 series
Radeon® 9550 series
Radeon® X300/X550 series
Radeon® 9500 series
Radeon® 9800 series
Radeon® 9100 series
Radeon® 9600 series
Radeon® 8500 series


Note: ATI All-in-Wonder® variants based on the above are also supported. Video capture however is not supported.

Operating Systems Distributions Supported

The latest version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver is designed to support the following Linux distributions:


Note: The ATI Proprietary Linux driver may install on a number of other Linux distributions. Refer to the installation instructions for more information.


Note: ATI has accepted contributed packaging scripts to allows creation of other packages, but does not necessarily test, verify or warrant the reliability. Currently Red Hat Enterprise Linux suite and Novell/SuSE product suite are supported Linux distributions

Minimum System Requirements

Before attempting to install the ATI Proprietary Linux driver, the following software must be installed:


Note: If a Linux 2.6.11 or newer kernel was built with CONFIG_AGP enabled, the kernel AGP frontend is required to load the fglrx kernel module. To identify whether your kernel was built with CONFIG_AGP enabled, look for CONFIG_AGP=y in the kernel config file, or if the 'agpgart' module loaded.

System Recommendations

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver no longer provides precompiled Kernel Modules; all installations require GCC compiler and kernel-headers or kernel-source in order to enable 2D and 3D acceleration.

For best performance and ease of use, ATI recommends the following:


Note: The following 32 bit packages must be installed in order for 64 bit drivers to install and work properly:
· XFree86-Mesa-libGL
· libstdc++
· libgcc
· XFree86-libs
· fontconfig
· expat
· freetype
· zlib


Note: In order to use the fglrx internal AGP support, you have to make sure that the kernel agpgart support is not active, i.e. it is not compiled into the kernel and the kernel modules are not loaded. If the fglrx kernel module detects that the kernel agpgart support is active, it will automatically use that even if its internal AGP support is requested in order to avoid conflicts that can cause problems under some circumstances.

New Features

This section provides information on new features introduced in the latest release of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver. This include:

New Product Support

This release of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver introduces support for the following ATI AGP products:

OpenGL 2.0 Enhancement

This release of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver provides support for applications utilizing OpenGL Extension Wrangler (GLEW) Library. GLEW has a run-time mechanism that determines which OpenGL extensions are supported on a target platform.

Full Scene Anti-Aliasing Support

This release of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver now provides Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) support on all ATI Radeon® 9500 and above. FSAA is enabled through aticonfig. Information on this feature can be found executing the command aticonfig --help.

Known Issues

The following section provides a brief description of known issues associated with the latest version of ATI Proprietary Linux driver. These issues include:

TV Display is Corrupt After Switching Resolutions

This information applies to the following system configurations:

This issue does not occur in Clone Mode or when the TV is the only connected display.

Upon using the resolution keyboard shortcuts (ctrl-alt-+) or (ctrl-alt--) to switch resolution of the XFree86 Desktop, the display will be off center or completely corrupt.

The TV display is not usable in this state and it is not possible to get back to a stable resolution once this has happened. A restart is required.

3D Linux Applications Corrupt or Hang with Force Multi-Sample Visuals Enabled

This information applies to the following system configurations:

A 3D window might appear normally, but will corrupt the contents of any other window placed above it.

The 3D display may also appear corrupt. Lines, polygons, and highlights will be visible, but textures will not. The application is not usable in this state and may crash after a few seconds.

This issue does not occur on all systems or monitor configurations. Symptoms may vary between different applications.

X Fails to Load on Systems with Linux Kernel Version 2.6.x

This information applies to the following system configurations:

A blank screen may appear momentarily when X starts to load. The following error message (or similar) may appear on the text console or in /var/log/XFree86.0.log:

(EE) fglrx(0): [agp] unable to acquire AGP, error ""xf86_ENODEV""xf86_ENODEV""

This is not a problem with the display driver.

Version 2.6 kernels require a second kernel module in addition to agpgart, which should be named similar to the manufacturer of your motherboard AGP chipset. This error message should occur if the other agp module is not loaded.

This issue can be worked around as follows:

  1. First make sure that agpgart is loading properly.
  2. To find out which AGP controller your motherboard uses, issue the following command: lspci | grep AGP
  3. To find a list of AGP related kernel modules installed on your machine, issue the following command and look for a module (*.ko file) that suits your AGP Controller: ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/agp
  4. Use the modprobe command (as root) to load the module. For example: On a motherboard using a VIA® AGP Controller, you would load the via-agp.ko using modprobe as follows (notice that the trailing.ko is omitted): modprobe via-agp

Check the modprobe manpage for more information on loading kernel modules.

  1. To verify that the AGP module is already loaded, run lsmod as root. With the X server running and the connection established, the usage count of this module must be greater than zero.

If you cannot find a suitable agp module for your motherboard, then you may want to upgrade to the latest version of the Linux kernel, or check your motherboard manufacturer's website for more information.

3D Applications Produce Open of Shared Memory Object Failed Error Message

This information applies to the following system configurations:

The following may occur when trying to run certain 3D applications:

The following error message may also appear numerous times:

FGLTexMgr: open of shared memory object failed (Function not implemented) __FGLTexMgrCreateObject: __FGLTexMgrSHMmalloc failed! fglX11AllocateManagedSurface: __FGLTexMgrCreateObject failed!

The display driver requires POSIX Shared Memory to be enabled on the system in order to run these applications correctly. This feature should be enabled by default on most current Linux distributions, but may be disabled intentionally by some system administrators or not included in older distributions.

To enable POSIX Shared Memory on your system, perform the following as root:

  1. Add the following line to /etc/fstab (if it isn't there already): tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
  2. Mount shared memory as follows: mount /dev/shm
  3. Issue the following command to check that it mounted properly: mount | grep "shm"

If the mount was successful, then the following output (or similar) should appear:

tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

At this point, POSIX Shared Memory is enabled. Your 3D applications should run properly and the error message above should no longer occur.

If the output from this command is blank, then the mount failed.

If /dev/shm fails to mount, then this feature may not be turned on in your Linux kernel. In this case we recommend upgrading to a more recent Linux kernel, or contacting your Linux Distribution vendor for more information on enabling POSIX Shared Memory.

For further information and general help on driver or software installation, game issues, and more, visit the ATI FAQ website.

ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Installer

The ATI Proprietary Linux Installer makes installing the ATI Proprietary Linux driver a much simpler and user friendly experience. The new ATI Proprietary Linux Installer provides two modes of installation. The Install Driver option provides a simple driver installation process, and the Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package provides a simple way to generate a package for your distribution.


Note: ATI recommends that you create a central location for your ATI Proprietary Linux driver downloads.


Note: `fglrxconfig' is no longer provided with the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Installer. To configure your display devices, use `aticonfig'.

Un-installing the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver

Un-installing the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver is dependent on the mode of initial installation.

Automatic or Custom Driver Installations

If the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver was installed using either the Automatic or Custom options, then do the following:

  1. Launch the Terminal Application/Window and navigate to the /usr/share/fglrx folder.
  2. With super user permissions, enter the command "sh./fglrx-uninstall.sh"

You have now successfully uninstalled the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver.

Package Generation

If the initial installation of the driver was done via the Operating Systems package management software (rpm, apt, etc.) then please use that package management software to remove the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver.

Install Driver Option

The Install Driver option provides two driver installation options. The Automatic option installs all driver components, and the Custom option allows for the selection of driver components to be installed.

Automatic Driver Installation Option

To install the ATI Proprietary Linux driver using the Automatic option, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the Terminal Application/Window and navigate to the ATI Proprietary Linux driver download.
  2. Enter the command sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-i386.run to launch the 32bit version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver installer or sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-x86_64.run to launch the 64 bit version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver installer. The ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Setup dialog box is displayed.



Note: You must be logged in with super user privileges in order to successfully install the ATI Proprietary Linux driver.

  1. Select Install Driver and click Continue. The ATI License Agreement is displayed.
  2. Read the License Agreement and Click I Agree to continue the installation, or Cancel to terminate the installation. The Mode of Installation Dialog Box is displayed.

  3. Select Automatic and click Continue. The ATI Proprietary Linux Driver is installed, and the Installation Complete Dialog box is displayed.

  4. Click View HTML Release Note for last minute driver information, or Exit to close the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Installer.
  5. Launch the Terminal Application/Window and run /usr/X11R6/bin/aticonfig --initial to configure the driver.
  6. Reboot your system.

You have successfully installed the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver.

Custom Driver Installation Option

The Custom option allows for the selection of driver components to be installed. To install the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver using the Custom option, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the Terminal Application/Window and navigate to the ATI Proprietary Linux driver you have downloaded
  2. Enter the command sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-i386.run to launch the 32bit version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver installer or sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-x86_64.run to launch the 64 bit version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver installer.

    The ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Setup dialog box is displayed


Note: You must be logged in with super user privileges in order to successfully install the ATI Proprietary Linux driver.

  1. Select Install Driver and click Continue. The ATI License Agreement is displayed.
  2. Read the License Agreement and Click I Agree to continue the installation, or Cancel to terminate the installation. The Mode of Installation Dialog Box is displayed.

  3. Select Custom and click Continue. The ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Setup options is displayed.

  4. Select the driver components to be installed and click Continue. The ATI Proprietary Linux Driver is installed, and the Installation Complete Dialog box is displayed.

  5. Click View HTML Release Note for last minute driver information, or Exit to close the driver installer.
  6. Launch the Terminal Application/Window and run /usr/X11R6/bin/aticonfig --initial to configure the driver.
  7. Reboot your system.

You have successfully installed the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver.

Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package Option

The Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package option provides a simple way to generate a package specific for your distribution. This option uses the policies set by the operating system vendor and allows for maximum compatibility with the distribution. To install the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver using the Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package option, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the Terminal Application/Window and navigate to the ATI Proprietary Linux driver download.
  2. Enter the command sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-i386.run to launch the 32bit version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver installer or sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.23.7-x86_64.run to launch the 64 bit version of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver installer

    The ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Setup dialog box is displayed


Note: You must be logged in with super user privileges in order to successfully install the ATI Proprietary Linux driver.

  1. Select Generate Distribution Specific Driver Package and click Continue. The ATI License Agreement is displayed.
  2. Read the License Agreement and Click I Agree to continue the installation, or Cancel to terminate the installation. The Package Generation Dialog Box is displayed

  3. Select the distribution package to be generated and click Continue. The package generation is started and the Package Generation Completed dialog box is displayed.

  4. Click Exit to close the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Installer.
  5. You are now ready to install the generated distribution package using the distribution's package management system.
  6. After installing the generated distribution package, launch the Terminal Application/Window and run aticonfig --initial to configure the driver.
  7. Reboot your system.

You have successfully generated and installed a distribution specific driver package..

Driver Update Notification

To receive driver notifications, add the following RSS feed to your RSS reader: http://www.ati.com/online/rss/atilinuxdriver.rss


Note: In order to receive notifications you will need to have an RSS reader installed.

ATI Customer Care

The ATI Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and easy of navigation. The ATI Customer Care website provides accurate and up-to-date product support for optimum usability and performance. Technical issues are categorized and personalized to enhance user experience. The ATI Customer Care Website can be found at: support.ati.com

To view a known or resolved issue, do the following:

  1. Go to: support.ati.com. The ATI Customer Care web page is displayed.
  2. In the top left hand pane, click Advanced Search. The Advanced Search pane is displayed.
  3. Under Search Type: Select the By: ID option.
  4. Enter the Topic number.
  5. Click Go.

Linux Feedback Program

The ATI Proprietary Linux driver releases may incorporate suggestions received through the Linux feedback program.
Please refer to http://apps.ati.com/linuxDfeedback/ to provide us with feedback.


ATI Technologies Inc.
http://www.ati.com
Voice: (905) 882-2600
Fax: (905) 882-2620