Catalyst 9.6 with 2.6.30

[gus_zernial]

I have an Asus motherboard with an ATI HD 3300 graphics chip.
I'm currently running Ubuntu jaunty with a custom 2.6.28 kernel,
and the ATI Catalyst 9.6 drivers, all is well.

I want to upgrade to 2.6.30 kernel, I've compiled the kernel successfully and can boot to recovery mode, and I've tried various approaches to build and install Catalyst 9.6 drivers. All failing
with errors ... fglrx.ko won't build, DKMS problems, no compatible
graphics device found, etc. From research it seems I'm not
alone in this situation, and I need some patches to do this.
But I'm confused as to specifics.

Can someone tell me exactly what patches I need, where to
download them and how to apply them - among other things, I'm
confused as to whether I need to patch the kernel, or the
Catalyst sources.

After I do this, do I then just run

ati-driver-installer-9-6-x86.x86_64.run --buildandinstallpkg Ubuntu/jaunty

or is there more ....

[Kano]

I guess you have to wait till karmic release to get a driver for 2.6.31, well 2.6.30 maybe a bit faster, but don't expect that will happen too soon.

[TheWind]

Ubuntu karmic repositories have a patched fglrx driver that works on 2.6.30 already you might need proposed and such enabled.

If your system is like mine I suggest getting the 2.6.31 then patching in the missing export, remove because to many people were improperly using it, then doing a compile. The audio in 2.6.31 is far better than anything its ever been on my rs780 .

Another issue on trying to use ubuntu's compiled 2.6.30 linux kernel is that some things need to be blacklisted and the blacklisting doesn't work for those modules. The module in question was i915 and drm and blacklisting just would not work. 2.6.31 you have to blacklist the radeon driver and drm so that fglrx can load, but thats not a probablem because the blacklisting actually works.

But yes fglrx on 2.6.31 is very possible, I know because I'm doing it right now.

[Kano]

Well you know that fglrx has LOTS of error messages in dmesg when you patch it? Not everybody likes that.

[TheWind]

Well you know that fglrx has LOTS of error messages in dmesg when you patch it? Not everybody likes that.

Yes I do , and am annoyed at them, but right now this is sadly the way to have flawless pulseaudio support for rs780, and it really is flawless.
My only other choice would of been to backport the driver and all changes relating to it from 2.6.31 to 2.6.28, something I was trying to avoid.

[DogWizard]

There are many ways, none perfect. You can do it with kernel patches and (at least on x86_64) without. As mentioned, at the very least you should expect to get log files flooded with error messages.

A minimalist (and therefore IMHO the best) way is described in "ATI releases catalyst 9.6" right here in the Phoronix forums. You want #153 in case of 2.6.30 and catalyst 9.6; as you will see this approach works without kernel patches; instead you patch ati's installation files which running ati's driver-installer puts onto your system (in /lib/modules/fglrx/ and the build_mod subdirectory). You then (manually) run ati's make.sh and make_install.sh present there to create the fglrx kernel-module.

See additionally #203 for 2.6.31. Applying both patches yields catalyst 9.6 installation files working for both 2.6.30 and 2.6.31 (I can confirm this on a x86_64 openSUSE)

Obviously, this is in no way Ubuntu specific, side-steps the package manager and is a rather manual procedure. However, if you keep the modified installation files, you only need to re-run "make.sh" and "make_install.sh" in case of a kernel upgrade within 2.6.30 / 2.6.31.

[Kano]

@TheWind

Alsa is available externally, most easy way to "backport" that you can think of

[TheWind]

@TheWind

Alsa is available externally, most easy way to "backport" that you can think of

Kano I know the ALSA "library" Is, but some relating parts are not, because with 2.6.30 or less I get horribly skippy and scratchy audio and with 2.6.31 the audio gives my really basic speakers a 3D feel that is unparalleled.

[Kano]

ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/drive...1.0.20.tar.bz2

That's basically the same as 2.6.31.

[TheWind]

ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/drive...1.0.20.tar.bz2

That's basically the same as 2.6.31.

Yes, I know but have alse been saying related pieces that refer into the kernels. Anyways way offtopic and pointless the real question is who needs help with this issue.