Ubuntu Catalyst ATI Driver instability
I encounter a lot of issues with the Radeon Catalyst ATI drivers on Linux Ubuntu, and my configuration has been corrupted many times: removing, clearing, resetting, updating and configuring are all activities time-consuming and disturbing when the main activity is respect projects deadline. This guide is my reference for Ubuntu 12.x, 13.x and 14.x.
Update: at the end of the article, if you don’t like command line hacks, follow a link to a new ubuntu GUI basted application to install ATI Catalyst driver in a very easy way.
Have you ever been involved in one catastrophic system instability issue few days before a deadline? I was: when I was preparing my master degree final exam, 3 days before, a completely devastating crash wipes out my hard disk content. I had backup files, sure, but my backup system broke two day before the crash, and I have not another PC to continue work. I didn’t sleep for 3 days to recover and complete my work. A real nightmare.
So, lessons I learned in many years of experience are:
- Never update a system without a real need: if thinks are OK, delay the update
- If you need to update, make an entire backup. But, please, don’t update!
- If you need to update, be sure that in case of issues you could use a backup-system for continuing developing, just in case all go wrong. But, please, don’t update!
- Use VirtualBox and a repository manager, like git, in your all day developments.
- Don’t update if you have timeline constraints: wait until you have a free week-end or some days to ensure that, in case of difficulties, all can be managed with relatively time available.
And, now, the ATI problem: in a relaxed week-end I’ve update my system and.. what??! I cannot login on my system again, the graphic card fails on every login and no way to recover.
Symptoms:
- Unity Desktop doesn’t run anymore
- Blank screen instead of normal logon screen (but login sounds can be hear)
How to solve? Often I need to clear and reinstall catalyst driver to let my Desktop run again, and I think this guide could be helpful to everyone has the same issues, very annoying because brake the current dev activity. These are the steps:
- Before start, if you need, try to remove ATI driver and install the default ubuntu drivers: http://askubuntu.com/questions/68306/how-do-i-remove-the-proprietary-ati-drivers
- We need the last catalyst driver for linux. It’s better to download drivers and put them in a directory of home: if things will mess again, you’ll not need of an internet connection and the download of files (150-100Mb sized). Create the directory: md catalyst cd catalyst
- The main page of Catalyst driver for Linux x86 – 64bit version are here: http://support.amd.com/it-it/download/desktop?os=Linux%20x86_64
- Download files in the catalyst directory: in my case: linux 13.12 X86-64bit driver. Use wget, with this special syntax otherwise no file will be downloaded:
wget --referer='http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Linux+x86' http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/amd-catalyst-13.12-linux-x86.x86_64.zip
- A special version of the driver, a beta, is available here:
wget --referer='http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Linux+x86' http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/amd-catalyst-14.2-betav1.3-linux-x86.x86_64.zip
- I download all versions, and unzip them in 13-12 and 14-2 subdirectory:
mkdir 13-12 cd 13-12 unzip ../amd-catalyst-13.12-linux-x86.x86_64.zip chmod +X amd-catalyst-13.12-linux-x86.x86_64.run
make the same with 14-2, if you wish to try the beta versione
- Now install the driver. This command generate the installation package: a .deb package(use sh *.run –listpkg to read the entire list of install package that could be created from the script. A complete list of ubuntu version can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases):
sudo sh *.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/XXX
where XXX is the correct ubuntu version: 13.04 use raring 13.10 use saucy 14.04 use trusty - in case of error, maybe some dependencies for package building are missing in your system: for example dpkg-dev, debhelper,dh-modaliases xserver-xorg-dev must be installed (to install on 14.04, use sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev debhelper devscripts dh-modaliases xserver-xorg-dev execstack). Read the error messages to know what are the missing packages in your system.
- After that, a .deb installation package will be available (check with ls -l). Execute it:
sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb
Some error messages on boot, how can review them?
http://superuser.com/questions/176165/where-linux-places-the-messages-of-boot
After installing, fglrxinfo return null display error
Cannot login: looping to the login screen
Use this instructions, they worked in my case:
sudo mv ~/.Xauthority ~/.Xauthority.backup
sudo service lightdm restart
Source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/176593/cant-login-after-amd-catalyst-driver-installation
Unity: cannot see menu bar on top
symptoms: No Dash, no Launcher appears.
It’s very strange that, after many hours of check, all is fine, but unity top and left menu bar still don’t appear anymore. I found that the primary cause of this issue is the Unity plugin disabled or not correctly setup. First you need ccsm (Compiz Config Settings Manager), a GUI based configuration manager for desktop. First check: open a terminal and execute:
ccsm &
SO: open a terminal and launch CompizConfig Settings manager with ccsm. In my case it will show up:
"GtkWarning: could not open display"
to start the program you need to have the DISPLAY variable set. This variable is set when you run an app in a graphic environment, like Unity: ccsm must be run in a terminal under the unity desktop.
If you have not ccsm, install it with:
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
export DISPLAY=:0
ccsm
After ccsm is executed, a screen with all desktop options will be rendered. Go to All –> Unity:
- If Unity plugin is not enabled, enable it. Things should be corrected.
- If Unity plugin is already enabled (which is my case), turn it off. Then reboot the system (sudo reboot from terminal) and then reopen ccsm and reactivate it. This operation solve my issue.
- To configure xorg, read this: http://alexcovac.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-configure-Xorg-in-Ubuntu, usefull to configure xorg settings and gdm (Gnome Display Manager).
(from http://askubuntu.com/questions/17381/unity-doesnt-load-no-launcher-no-dash-appears)
Other issues
Please feel free to add further information by comment the page if you found some fix to your specific issues, I would add them to this page.
References
aria2: a command line download manager: http://www.tecmint.com/install-aria2-a-multi-protocol-command-line-download-manager-in-rhel-centos-fedora/
List of all Ubuntu versions:
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Oneiric_Installation_Guide
GUI based ATI Catalyst Driver Installation on Ubuntu
http://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/ubuntu-amd-catalyst-install
After install?? some thinks to do:
http://adec.altervista.org/blog/ubuntu_13-10_upgrade_issues/
http://www.noobslab.com/2014/04/thingstweaks-to-do-after-install-of.html