How to Install FGLRX in Ubuntu 10.10
FGLRX - FireGL and Radeon for X (x stands for X.org)
The perfect 10 has just been released and some people are having troubles installing the ATI proprietary drivers, called FGLRX. Like any other package, there are several ways to install it. Some are better and safer, some are not. Here is a list of ways you can install FGLRX in order from safest to least safest as of October 10th.
1. Repositories
This may or may not work for you, but this is the easiest to install and uninstall. First we need to open up the ol' Synaptic Package Manager by going to System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager. Enter you Admin password and search for FGLRX. Check the box "fglrx" for installation, as well as the other packages that you'll be prompted to install.
Once everything is downloaded and installed, paste this in a terminal:
sudo aticonfig --initial
Reboot, and you should see compiz enabled. If you just see a black screen, reboot into recovery mode, coose to run in low graphics mode and paste the code above.
If that didn't work, then you need to uninstall FGLRX by going back into Synaptic Package Manager, search for the FGLRX package, mark it for complete removal an if prompted, all of the other packages that were installed along with it.
2. Manually Download and Install ATI Drivers
Although this is still relatively easy, it is the most difficult way to install FGLRX. You will have to download the drivers from ATI's website and do a bit of terminal work. First, go to ATI's website and enter the your graphics card's information and download the drivers.
Next, go to where you downloaded your drivers (usually the downloads folder), right click on the file, select "Properties." Under Permissions, check the box that says, "Allow executing the file as a program."
Close that window, click on the file again and choose to run in terminal. You'll be prompted to enter the admin password. Now the installer should appear. The default selections should be fine unless you're using a different distro than Ubuntu.
Once the installation is done, open up a terminal and enter this:
sudo aticonfig --initial
This should configure the drivers to your computer's specifications. Reboot and you will notice a prettier Ubuntu. If you just see a black screen, restart into recovery mode in low graphics mode and enter the above code once more. If that fails again, this method didn't work for you and you need to restart once more into recovery mode in low graphics mode and paste this into a terminal:
cd /usr/share/ati
sudo sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh
3. Additional Drivers
This is an easy way to install or uninstall proprietary drivers, however, this has not worked for me in the past. Go to System->Administration->Additional Drivers and select ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver for installation. Reboot for the effects to take place. If this didn't work for you, then reboot into recovery mode in low graphics and go back to Additional Drivers and mark the installed drivers for removal.
Those are the three ways I know how to install FGLRX. If this tutorial didn't help you, you can leave a comment and I'll try my best to get it working for you. You can also ask the community at ubuntuforums.org, as they have communities more than willing to help the novice and expert Ubuntu users.
