ATI drivers fubar, always

[relent]

A typical recent experience on a standard FC6 x86_64 laptop:

- download latest drivers from ATI website
- build FC6 rpms
- sudo cp xorg.conf xorg.confwhichworks
- sudo rpm -Uvh *rpm
- logout, login
- fglrxinfo

and some info appears about Mesa indirect driver being used.

Yawn.

- waste time researching on Internet
- add additional lines to xorg.conf
- logout, login
- fglrxinfo

and ATI drivers appear to be loaded.

Progress.

- googleearth

and GE freezes at start up screen, consuming all CPU resources.

F**k.

- sudo rpm -e
- sudo cp xorg.confwhichworks xorg.conf
- logout, login

A few notes on this pointless exercise:

* Why does one have to edit xorg.conf manually? If *any* additional lines are needed, these should be added automatically to xorg.conf by the rpm installation script. That´s one of the purposes of an installation script. If any user tweaking may be required, comments should also be added to xorg.conf by the installation script and a warning message should appear at the end of rpm installation about reading those comments.

* I have been having bad experiences with ATI´s proprietary drivers not for days, not for weeks, not for months, but for years. They seem to undergo constant development and yet never work.

* The only reason I need proprietary drivers is for Google Earth. Many others are in the same boat. But Google Earth doesn´t work with ATI´s drivers (it does work with nvidia´s).

* And compiz doesn´t work with ATI.

* And, historically, other applications have not worked with ATI.

* One of my other boxes has an nvidia card which just works and has always just worked. Add livna to repos. Use yum to install nvidia drivers. Bob´s your uncle.

I suppose the lesson to be learned from this is never to use ATI hardware if you are a linux user. Pity I can´t upgrade my notebook´s graphics card.