Package:AMD Catalyst Video Drivers

AMD Catalyst Video Drivers

   Tip

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   Warning

These drivers are not being regularly maintained by AMD, resulting in a sub-optimal and unreliable experience for many users. Symptoms generally involve X not starting at all, things like gnome-shell crashing on startup, etc. If you have problems with these drivers, consider using the free x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati, which are actually quite good and hassle-free.

Introduction

x11-drivers/ati-drivers (often referred to as "fglrx", the name of its kernel module) is the proprietary, accelerated driver for AMD (ATI) graphics cards.

Preparing to Install

Xorg-server compatibility

   Note

The release of the 14.9-r1 driver ebuild eliminates the need to mask xorg-server-1.16.

ati-drivers-14.9-r1 has been added to the Funtoo Portage tree which contains a special Ubuntu-only release of the drivers that are compatible with No results version 1.16. If you are using the "stock" drivers, then typically, you would need to mask xorg-server as follows. This is not necessary with 14.9-r1:

Add the following to /etc/portage/package.mask:

   /etc/portage/package.mask

>=x11-base/xorg-server-1.16

If X is already installed, force it to downgrade by typing:

root # emerge -auDN world

A few packages will downgrade, and you'll be ready to go.

Configuring the kernel

Configure the kernel as follows. Note that the Direct Rendering Manager is not enabled. It's possible to have it selected as a kernel module, but should not be built-in to your kernel.

[*] Enable loadable module support
Processor type and features --->
      [*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
Bus options (PCI etc.) --->
      [*] PCI Express Port Bus Support
      [*] Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI and MSI-X)
Device Drivers --->
      Graphics support --->
            < > Direct Rendering Manager (xFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support) --->

   Note

If you need support for AGP cards, enable the following kernel options:

Device Drivers --->
      Graphics support --->
            <*> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support) --->
                  Select an appropriate AGP driver:
                  <*> AMD Opteron/Athlon64 on-CPU GART support

Editing make.conf

Add the following to your /etc/make.conf:

root # nano /etc/make.conf
VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx"

Enabling AMD Catalyst Control Center

Then, add the following to /etc/portage/package.use if you would like to enable support for AMD Catalyst Control Center:

root # nano /etc/portage/package.use
x11-drivers/ati-drivers qt4

   Note

If you are using a desktop or workstation profile, this USE flag will be enabled by default.

Installing

Emerging the package

To emerge the drivers, run the following command:

root # emerge -av --changed-use --deep @world

Configuring

Next, set ati-drivers to manage the system's OpenGL and OpenCL implementations:

root # eselect opengl set ati
root # eselect opencl set amd

Afterwards, run aticonfig to modify the X-server configuration file to work with the ati-drivers:

root # aticonfig --initial

   Tip

If you would like to have a full-resolution framebuffer with ati-drivers, check out uvesafb

Troubleshooting

I am using a HDMI connection, and my monitor's display has a black border around it.

Disable overscan using the following command, as root:

root # aticonfig --set-pcs-val=MCIL,DigitalHDTVDefaultUnderscan,0

You may need to restart your X session.

GNOME 3 windows only refresh when I drag them.

This is a known issue, reported in Funtoo Bug 1130. This issue has been fixed by addressing a bug in cogl -- upgrade to cogl-1.12.2-r2 to fix it.

Compton with backend glx does not work well with ati-drivers

Try running compton with the following switches:

root # compton --backend glx --vsync none --paint-on-overlay