ATI Linux Driver

[Melcar]

For those interested. This thread is to keep track of official fglrx releases and give links to community resources.

Today's driver release:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.36&lang=English

Distro specific install guides:
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page

Bug tracker:
http://ati.cchtml.com/

[Melcar]

10.2 is out. AMD hasn't updated their links, so I got a direct one up. Will change it latter.
Ubuntu Karmic packaging scripts work fine now. 2.6.32 kernel support (since 10.1 though), but I doubt it has support for xserver1.7 yet.
Does not work with KDE4 desktop effects :down:, and I suspect Compiz as well. Enabling the effects causes a black screen, though the rest of the system remains responsive.
Driver also has a "new" 2D acceleration method. Off by default since it's still in testing, but if you want to try it out, as root:


aticonfig --set-pcs-str=DDX,Direct2DAccel,TRUE

... and restart X. To turn it off:


aticonfig --del-pcs-key=DDX,Direct2DAccel

It's still very buggy and slow, so use it with caution.

[karbonkid]

Would you recommend ATI for Linux yet? I don't use Compiz or any of that nonsense, all I care about is decent OpenGL and OpenCL support. I know the latter is there (and probably better than Windows), but is the former better than it used to be?

[Melcar]

AMD is still dragging their feet on the OpenCL front with fglrx. OpenGL support is pretty good as is. The driver still has problems with window manipulation in Compiz/Kwin, but since you don't use those you can ignore that issue. WINE gaming is also a sore point. No acceleration for HD content either; they do have XvBA which does work in some ways, but it's not officially supported and only a few players work (mplayer receives the most support).
Another thing to keep in mind is that fglrx only officially supports a handful of distros, mainly Ubuntu and OpenSuse. Fglrx is very slow in adopting new Linux tech. (kernels, xservers, etc.), but since the aforementioned distros are usually well supported, anything that's more or less in-line with those two in terms of internals should pose no problem.

[Melcar]

10.3 released today. Check OP.