Diverting from our normal comic book geekery, it’s time to tackle some tech related stuff.
As promised a while back, here’s the lowdown on getting the DRI radeon driver working on my desktop computer. I tried the proprietary ATI fglrx driver, but couldn’t get a vertical refresh rate above 60Hz. After some work, I finally got things fixed. Here’s how:
- If you want to use the proprietary driver, check the ATI site to be sure that whichever driver version you’re using will work with your card. After much searching and frustration, I finally discovered that my 9100 series ATI card was no longer supported. The most current version of fglrx dropped support for several card series. Checking directly with ATI first would have save a lot of effort.
- Follow the guide over at the Gentoo Wiki. It tells you exactly what you need to do. Read it before you start, as you’ll need to choose which installation route to take. I chose to emerge the module separately, as I’d rather load modules than compile directly into the kernel.
- The DRI version is way slower than the proprietary driver. If it’s not near enough speed for you, then you’ll need to downgrade to an earlier version of the fglrx driver or buy a new video card. I don’t do any 3D stuff, so the super-fast rendering doesn’t mean much to me. I just need a machine I can use for audio, word processing, and web access.