Arch Linux

devadittya

Member

From: Bangalore

Registered: 2009-11-16

Posts: 127

Website

Upgrade free drivers to Catalyst

Hello everyone

        I must first say that my exposure to linux is limited to basic commands like cd, ls,cp, chmod etc. I was looking for a good distro that would let me install kde4, and have a good package manager. I zeroed in on Arch Linux. I managed to install Arch Linux without a lot of hassles (I just followed the beginner's guide on the wiki). I am running Arch on a Dell Studio 1555, and have got almost everything to work.
        There is a minor issue that is bothering me though. The laptop has the ATI HD 4570 graphics card. I installed the radeonhd driver first. However, I cannot configure my KDE4 desktop to use OpenGL. I can only use XRender (in the configuration window). On selecting OpenGL from the dropdown, I get an error saying that my system is not capable of using opengl. This appeared, to me, to be a driver problem. I installed the other free driver (xf86-ati), subsequently changed the driver name in xorg.conf, and I still cannot use openGL.
         I am contemplating trying Catalyst, to see if I can get openGL to work. Now, after reading the wiki, I still have a few questions pertaining to Catalyst installation. Do I need to uninstall the old drivers first? If yes, then what command is to be used to uninstall them. Also, can I uninstall the drivers from KDE itself or do I need to stop Xserver before doing it.
         I tried googling it, but couldn't find anything conclusive. I would appreciate any help.

Thanks and Regards,
Dev

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./abominable/guzzler/geek

unixNeophyte

Member

Registered: 2008-03-09

Posts: 26

Re: Upgrade free drivers to Catalyst

currently catalyst does not support xorg-server 1.7
So keep on with the OS driver

devadittya

Member

From: Bangalore

Registered: 2009-11-16

Posts: 127

Website

Re: Upgrade free drivers to Catalyst

The Archwiki (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_Studio_1555) article on my laptop recommends either the Catalyst driver or xf86-video-ati. So I am assuming that if I install Catalyst, I won't have any conflicts with the xorg-server. Either that, or the wiki isn't updated.
Am I wrong?

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./abominable/guzzler/geek

MadTux

Member

Registered: 2009-09-20

Posts: 553

Re: Upgrade free drivers to Catalyst

If you look at the ATI Wiki (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI … st_driver>) it is made very clear, that catalyst is not supported by xorg 1.7, if you use a stock kernel. So, in general, the wiki is right in saying that you can use both drivers. For catalyst, either use xorg < 1.7 or a custom kernel.

devadittya

Member

From: Bangalore

Registered: 2009-11-16

Posts: 127

Website

Re: Upgrade free drivers to Catalyst

Thanks MadTux. So, while going the custom kernel way and installing Catalyst, do I need to switch to init 3? Also, will I need to uninstall the installed drivers?

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./abominable/guzzler/geek