AMD64 Fedora Core 6, Need much help

[Etano]

Hi, so if it's not obvious, I am very new to Fedora Core 6 as well as the whole Linux world. Few the past couple days I have been trying in vain to install drivers for my ATI Radeon X1300. I have followed several tutorials. All of which have failed. I have tried both the open source drivers as well as the ATI proprietary drivers.

When reading this forum, I noticed that people tend to have better luck. So, I was looking for some recommendations. That is, if you knew of a step-by-step guide I could use; which release of the ATI drivers would be best; etc. that would be great.

I see hints around these forums to install scripts that you have made, but all the links seem to be broken.

I am using kernel 2.6.20-1.2948.fc6

Please help!

[Michael]

Welcome to the forums.

First off, the install scripts are for legacy hardware and not your X1300.

If you have all of the software development tools and libraries installed, you should be able to just run ./ati-driver-file-name.run --buildpkg Fedora/FC6 and it will generate the needed RPMs. When that is done, you can then install the resulting RPMs (using rpm -ivh syntax).

After that, reboot or restart X and you should be good to go.

[Etano]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have a problem with the rpm though.

When trying to rpm -ivh, ATI-fglrx-8.36.5-1.fc6.x86_64.rpm, I get this:

/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.45718: line 11:  5217 Segmentation fault      /usr/bin/aticonfig --initial >/dev/null 2>&1
error: %post(ATI-fglrx-8.36.5-1.fc6.x86_64) scriptlet failed, exit status 139

[Etano]

Ok, I quit X, and then I was able to install those files.

However, now whenever I boot kernel 2.6.20-1.2948.fc6, I get a blank screen before I even get the login screen. What would this have to do with?

[Michael]

Ok, I quit X, and then I was able to install those files.

However, now whenever I boot kernel 2.6.20-1.2948.fc6, I get a blank screen before I even get the login screen. What would this have to do with?

Did you disable composite and AIGLX in your xorg.conf?

[Etano]

Yes I did. No go.

[Michael]

What is the output of:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

[Etano]

What is the output of:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

Well when the screen goes blank, I suppose the kernel crashes because I can't even do ctrl+alt+f1 to get to a command prompt.

I am using a 20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel with native screen resolution 1680x1050@60Hz

[Etano]

Alright, so here is where I am. If I delete the Composite disabled part of xorg.conf, I do not get a blank screen, but X won't start. If I enable the composite part, I just get a blank screen.

I have a DRI connection to my monitor, but I tried switching it to normal VGA and that did nothing.

I have inserted in several things into xorg.conf including:

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Devices"
Option "MonitorLayout" "TDMS,NONE"
EndSection

Both of these make no difference. I am thinking that I need to give some specifics about my monitor in the xorg.conf, but I"m not sure how. Again, please help me.

[Michael]

Did you see if there was anything in cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old | grep EE after rebooting? It likely shouldn't be anything to do with your EDID information for monitor information not being detected properly.

Is this by chance a virgin FC6 system with not all fedora-updates applied (such as rhgb)? If so, in grub remove the "rhgb" segment as a kernel argument and then try booting... there is a bug in rhgb in the original FC6 package that has caused a few problems with NVIDIA/ATI binary driver initalization. Or just update rhgb. This may be your problem.