Installing latest on debian squeeze

[esheesle]

Anyone have any suggestions how to install the latest open source ATI drivers on debian squeeze? Downloaded the xf86-video-ati and compiled but Xorg fails to load them(missing symbols?). Really like to try them out instead of the ATI supplied driver. Can't use the current version in squeeze though because there is no power management and it causes some heat issues.

[Kano]

You can update x to a certain degree:

http://x.debian.net/reference/squeeze-backports.html

if you use 64 bit use my hotfix script for proper 32 bit support (i. e. for wine) later:

http://kanotix.com/files/fix-libgl-bpo-ia32.sh

[Ibidem]

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=68862 "Building mesa-git with video decode enabled on squeeze"
may be helpful.
You need to update at least half a dozen packages to get mesa working right:
xorg-sgml-doctools 1.5+ (install before proceeding)
libdrm 2.7+ (install before proceeding)
libxi 1.4.2+
libxmu 1.1.0+
x11proto-dri2 2.6+
x11proto-gl 1.4.14+

I suspect that some of these may help get the video driver working.
I just grabbed source from wheezy/sid & recompiled.

On the other hand, it looks like you'd need to upgrade your X server- it needs xorg-video-abi-10 to run
or--to build--xserver-xorg-dev (>= 2:1.9.4)