HOW TO: Install ATI/Nvidia drivers in Ubuntu

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Stu:
The easiest way to install ATI or Nvidia proprietary drivers after completing your Ubuntu install, is to use 'Envy', as created by Alberto Milone

--- Quote ---Brief explanation of the name of my application:
The Italian for "envy" is "invidia" ( I guess you can see the play on words)

What is Envy?:

"Envy" is an application for Ubuntu Linux and Debian written in Python and PyGTK which will:
1) detect the model of your graphic card (ATI and Nvidia cards are supported). However "Manual installation" is also available
2) download the right version of the proprietary driver for your ATI or Nvidia card from ATI or Nvidia's websites
3) handle the dependencies (compilers, OpenGL, etc.) (according to your OS version and kernel) required to build the module
4) install/uninstall the driver
5) set up your xorg.conf (i.e. the configuration file of the Xserver) for you (according to your system specifications)
6) restart the Xserver for you (if you wish so) (this feature is available only in the textual interface)

Envy features both a GUI (which you can launch only inside a Desktop Environment) and a textual interface which you can use if, for example, you cannot start the Xserver.
--- End quote ---

You can download the Ubuntu/Debian package from this page: http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

Once installed, go to your programs menu, and under System Tools, a new link has been added to 'Envy'

Run this program, and follow the instructions, its very straight-forward and easy, it downloads the latest ATI or Nvidia driver for your card, and does all the hard work for you. Once done, restart your PC, boot into Linux, and you have fully working proprietary drivers installed for your card.

:hat tip:

Ex Forum User 3:
Yep, I have installed them too and they are way better then the Ubuntu installed way.
Less bugs and on top a whole lot faster AND more options to tweak the drivers to your own likings.

Definitely 1000000% better :biggthumbsup:

Berniyh:
Another good way is to look at the scripts at phorogit.
http://www.phorogit.com/index.php?p=fglrx-packaging.git

Ex Forum User 3:
The new Envy for e.g. Ubuntu Hardy is 100% cool.
It now makes sure Compiz and 3D-modes are enabled on ATI cards!

Simply remove the old Envy, see FAQ at the website. (apt-get remove envyng)
Then install the new Envy. (apt-get install envyng-gtk)
Uninstall your current ATI drivers, restart the machine.
Install the new drivers, automatically (it will download/install quite a lot of stuff, don't worry about that!), reboot when it suggest it.
When it starts, it looks like the machine is stalling (a couple of times!)....be patient as it's not!
As you notice after boot, Compiz and 3D is working! However not that fast.
Now goto your System -> Management -> Hardware drivers -> Enable your 3D acceleration as it's disabled by default. (it starts messing with the drivers again!)
After reboot again, and you will notice your desktop and Compiz are freaking fast!

This is how I made it all work with ATI videocards and very quick desktop on ATI cards, only tested on Hardy, might work on others, don't know.

Tested on:

K8N Master 2FAR 2x Opteron 270 - ATI 3850
MSI Laptop S270 Sempron 1.8GHz - ATI x200M(obile)
K9A Platinum Sempron 2.2GHz - ATI x300

All effects work and the system is terribly fast, I hope it works for you too.

drankin:
can't help with nvidia, but for ATI 9600 cards and newer:

Building and Installing the New ATI Driver

(** note all version number have not been updated on this page. As of 4/7/08, the latest driver is the 8.47 driver built from the ati-driver-installer-8-3-x86.x86_64.run)

*** the 8-10 and 8-11 (released yesterday) drivers suffer from some large performance issues on openSuSE, I would install the 8-9 driver until the performance issues are worked out. 8-11 is nearly 50% slower than 8-9 on my laptop. You can get the 8-9 driver here:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux64/radeonprevious-linux64.html

To do the install right:

(1) Install the kernel-source (as root)

   # zypper in kernel-source (or however you do it on your distro)

** Note: you all need the basic gcc compiler and a build and make utility as well (these are generally installed by default)

Prepare the kernel (not absoutely required, once installed the kernel-source is ready, but since I'm not going to debate that here, let's just do it right)

   # su
   password
   # cd /usr/src/linux
   # make mrproper

** skip the cloneconfig step if you distro doesn't support it

   # make cloneconfig > /dev/null 2>&1 # remove the '> /dev/null 2>&1' if you like reams of output
   # make modules_prepare
   # make clean

(2) Download the Latest Driver (as of 3/08)

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html

** Note the x86_64 and i586 packages all come from the same ATI driver installer

(3) Generate new driver

Get the list of package names to determine which one you need:

   # sh ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run --listpkg

      For openSuSE 10.2-11.0 and SLES and SLED 10, you will see:

      SuSE Packages:
      SuSE/SLED10-IA32
      SuSE/SLES10-IA32
      SuSE/SLED10-AMD64
      SuSE/SLES10-AMD64
      SuSE/SUSE102-IA32
      SuSE/SUSE103-IA32
      SuSE/SUSE110-IA32
      SuSE/SUSE102-AMD64
      SuSE/SUSE103-AMD64
      SuSE/SUSE110-AMD64

For Ubuntu, you will see:

Ubuntu Packages:
Ubuntu/7.10
Ubuntu/8.04
Ubuntu/8.10
Ubuntu/gutsy
Ubuntu/hardy
Ubuntu/intrepid
Ubuntu/source

Build the openSuSE or Ubunto rpm (just substitute your package after --buildpkg)

   # sh ati-driver-installer-8.42.3-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg SuSE/SUSE103-IA32

for opensuse x86_64

   # sh ati-driver-installer-8-3-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg SuSE/SUSE103-AMD64

Check that the new driver rpms were successfully created in the present working directory

   # l /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i386/ (or check the x86_64 location if you built those)

      -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11073729 2007-10-22 19:45 fglrx_7_1_0_SUSE102-8.40.4-1.i386.rpm
      -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15365859 2007-10-24 20:31 fglrx_7_1_0_SUSE103-8.42.3-1.i386.rpm

Now --> Go to Runlevel 3

   # telinit 3

(4) Remove old drivers (YOU REALLY NEED TO DO THIS)

   # rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep fglrx)

<<< if ugrading fglrx driver - save a copy of your xorg.conf so rpm doesn't screw it up >>>

   # cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /tmp/xorg.conf

(5) Install the new rpms created in /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i386

   # rpm -Uvh /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i386/fglrx*.rpm

or just

   # rpm -Uvh fglrx*.rpm if the package was built in the current directory

(6) Configure your system for the new FGLRX driver

If you have a working xorg.conf and the fglrx driver is already being loaded at boot, just recopy your xorg.conf that you saved earlier and skip to step 7:

   # cp /tmp/xorg.conf /etc/X11

If you need to configure the fglrx driver and xorg.conf for the first time, continue on:

Load the fglrx module and update the needed module list:

   # modprobe -v fglrx && depmod -A

Also recommended by every other ATI reference, you need to launch the aticonfig utility.

   # ldconfig
   # aticonfig --initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Configure the new driver with sax2 (or however you configure your initial xorg.conf on your distro)

   # sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx

sax2 is getting flaky. If all else fails, just grab the following xorg.conf and change the monitor section. It is for 10.3 and works for both i386 and x86_64. The xorg.conf is already configured to use AIGLX for working with compiz:

*** Note AIGLX and DRI are enable by default in the recent drivers

http://www.3111skyline.com/download/linux/ati/xorg.conf.fglrx.openSuSE

(7) Reboot and have fun!

(8) If all fails, you can get back to the radeon driver by executing:

   # rmmod fglrx && modprobe radeon && depmod -A

Then either edit xorg.conf and change ( Driver "fglrx" to Driver "radeon" ) or

   # sax2 -r -m 0=radeon

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