1. Introduction

By default Ubuntu will use the open source Radeon driver for cards manufactured by AMD. However, the proprietary fglrx drivers are made available for those who would like to use it. The instructions on this page advise on how to install and use fglrx.

If you encounter a bug with these closed-source drivers, you are welcome to file a report via Launchpad. However, if the bug is determined to be with fglrx, this may only be fixed by AMD, as they are the only ones with access to the source code.

2. Before you get started

The first thing to check for when you consider using the fglrx driver is whether your AMD graphics card is supported.

1. Go to the AMD website.

2. Enter your graphic card details. You may check this at the terminal:

   lspci -vvnn | grep VGA

3. Identify whether your AMD graphics card model series is supported by the fglrx driver. If the search returns the latest version of the Catalyst driver, then proceed to the next section. If the search returns a legacy version, you may have to use the open source driver.

NOTE: If you are switching from another OEM's hardware, NVIDIA for instance, you must uninstall the driver for that hardware before installing the AMD driver.

3. Installation via the Ubuntu repositories

Ubuntu offers the following fglrx drivers from the repositories:
fglrx-installer
fglrx-installer-updates
fglrx-installer-experimental-9
fglrx-installer-experimental-12
fglrx-installer-experimental-13

The easiest way to install binary drivers is to use the built in Additional Drivers manager in Ubuntu.

After the fglrx driver is installed, reboot your system and login. To check whether the fglrx driver is working, open a terminal and type:

fglrxinfo

If fglrx is installed and working well you should see an output similar to:

fglrxinfo
display: :0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series       
OpenGL version string: 3.3.11399 Compatibility Profile Context

3.1. Installing via the command line

For users who find that the Additional Drivers method does not work, please file a bug report on Launchpad about this.

Once done, the driver may also be installed from the Ubuntu repositories using the terminal.

(Note: If your machine has hybrid Intel/AMD switchable graphics, please consult the Ubuntu Forums thread here first and refer to the section titled "Manually installing Catalyst 13.4, special case for Intel/AMD hybrid graphics" in this wiki. At the time of writing, the method described below MAY NOT WORK for Intel/AMD switchable graphics. If you have an Intel/AMD hybrid, it is advisable to wait until further instructions are available).

1. Save a backup copy of xorg.conf in case this doesn't work.

   sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.BAK

2. Remove/purge current fglrx and fglrx-amdcccle (If you have used a method outside of aptitude, apt, Software Center or Synaptic, follow the other party's instructions for removal). You will need to deliberately remove both the normal and -updates versions in recent releases of Ubuntu because it seems that attempting to remove one installs the other:

   sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*

3. Reboot.

4. You may need to install the linux generic headers

   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

5. Install the driver

   For 12.04:

   sudo apt-get install fglrx fglrx-amdcccle

   or

   sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates

   From 14.04 forward, fglrx-amdcccle is included when you install fglrx, so the following will suffice:

   sudo apt-get install fglrx

   or

   sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates

   To install the packages for hardware acceleration along with the driver:

   sudo apt-get install fglrx xvba-va-driver libva-glx1 libva-egl1 vainfo 

   or

   sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates xvba-va-driver libva-glx1 libva-egl1 vainfo

6. Generate a fresh xorg.conf BEFORE REBOOTING!

   sudo amdconfig --initial

   If you are using multiple AMD graphics cards or AMD dual graphics (i.e.: notebook users), use:

   sudo amdconfig --adapter=all --initial

7. Reboot again.

8. To confirm the drivers are working open a terminal and type:

   fglrxinfo

   You should get an output similar to the following:

   fglrxinfo 
   display: :0  screen: 0
   OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
   OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series
   OpenGL version string: 4.2.11733 Compatibility Profile Context

9. Use the Catalyst Control Center to make final adjustments to your monitor setup. If, after rebooting, you are presented with the message "Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors", do not be alarmed. It simply means that you will have to use the Catalyst Control Center to configure your monitors as you should even in the case where this warning is not shown. This most likely to happen with multiple monitor applications (particularly if the monitors are of different sizes) and multiple graphics card applications.

4. Installing upstream drivers directly from AMD's website

4.1. Manually installing Catalyst 13.4

These instructions apply to AMD Catalyst official software distributions, versions 11 through to 13 (e.g. 11.10, 12.104, 13.12, 13.35/"14.1 beta"). Before you go about installing the fglrx driver from the official AMD Catalyst software distribution ensure to read the release notes from the AMD website.

In this how-to an AMD64 Catalyst 13.4 installation on an Ubuntu 13.1 system (Saucy) with an AMD Radeon HD 6300M will be chosen for illustrative purposes.

Note: Remember to uninstall the AMD proprietary fglrx graphics if it is already installed and reboot your system.

1. Download the driver found at the AMD website. Select System - Product Family - Product - and Operating System (Linux x86/x86_64). Select a compatible driver (note for Ubuntu Saucy/13.1 this may be the "Latest beta Driver"). To avoid complications later on, save it inside an empty folder. Unzip the driver if necessary.

2. Enable the Source Code repository in Synaptic Package Manger, then open a terminal and type:

   sudo apt-get update

   On a standard desktop install of Ubuntu 12.x you may also need to install dh-make libraries, to do this type:

   sudo apt-get install dh-make dh-modaliases execstack libc6-i386 lib32gcc1

   Note: This is not necessary if you are running Kubuntu or have already installed the libraries.

3. Still using the terminal, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the drivers.

   1. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty:

      sh amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/trusty

   2. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise:

      sh amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/precise

      
      If it is required, a package manager window will open and install some dependencies and after a while create the following three .deb packages:

      fglrx_13.4-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb  
      fglrx-amdcccle_13.4-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb  
      fglrx-dev_13.4-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

      Note: It will also create a file called fglrx-installer_13.4-0ubuntu1_amd64.changes. If you wish you can read this file to know the changes that have been effected through AMD Catalyst 13.4 and related information. For reference, the AMD driver installer can also be executed using its built-in graphical user interface, which provides options to manually generate the fglrx driver.

      • sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run

      Select Generate Distribution Specific Driver package - Continue - I Agree - select Build package for detected OS:Ubuntu/saucy - Continue.

4. To install the created .deb files, type:

   sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb

   Note: In case any of the packages are broken, open Synaptic Package Manager and go to Edit -> Fix Broken Packages. In case you are new to Ubuntu, broken here means that some dependent packages are not yet installed. Once you sort out the issue as indicated above through the Synaptic Package Manager, the problem of broken packages should be resolved.

5. Continuing with the installation, type:

   sudo aticonfig --initial

   After this command, reboot your system. If all is right, the fglrx driver that corresponds to AMD Catalyst 13.4 will be installed and working on your system. To confirm the drivers are working open a terminal and type:

   fglrxinfo

   You should get an output similar to the following:

   fglrxinfo 
   display: :0  screen: 0
   OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
   OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series
   OpenGL version string: 4.2.11733 Compatibility Profile Context

   Note: If you see any mention of MESA in the output, the fglrx drivers have not been installed correctly. See the troubleshooting section for more details You can make configuration changes through the AMD Catalyst Control Center, it can either be found in your Application menu or you can launch it through a terminal like this:

   gksudo amdcccle 

4.2. Manually installing Catalyst 13.4, special case for Intel/AMD hybrid graphics

WARNING: This method does not appear to work with Catalyst 12.8. More information will follow as available.

WARNING: Using a method other than described in the manual instructions section above by creating a .deb file can lead to extreme difficulties. Be sure to take note of the instructions for uninstalling the driver at the end of this section, since the driver must be uninstalled using the amdconfig utility.

This method is NOT RECOMMENDED in general, but has been found by some users to make the chore of getting Intel/AMD hybrid graphics to work less difficult.

This method PROBABLY WILL NOT WORK for HD 5xxx or earlier cards. It has been shown by some users to work only with 6xxx and 7xxx series cards.

1. Save backup copy of xorg.conf in case this doesn't work.

   sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.BAK

2. Remove/purge current fglrx and fglrx-amdcccle (If you have used a method outside of aptitude, apt, Software Center or Synaptic, follow the other party's instructions for removal).

   sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx-amdcccle

   For some users, the fglrx-updates and fglrx-amdcccle-updates packages do not work. If you attempted to install them, also do:

   sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates

3. Reboot.

4. Download the driver found at the AMD website.

5. Navigate to the directory to which the file was downloaded.

   cd /path/to/file

6. Make the .run file executable, using the 13.4 driver as an example (modify as needed for future versions. Note that the name of the .run file is for ILLUSTRATION only and you must be sure that you type the name of the actual file correctly).

   sudo chmod +x amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run

7. Execute the .run file:

   sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13-4-x86.x86_64.run

   Be sure to click "Install Driver" as shown:
   

8. Create a new xorg.conf:

   sudo amdconfig --initial

9. Reboot.

10. To confirm the drivers are working open a terminal and type:

    fglrxinfo

    You should get an output similar to the following:

    fglrxinfo 
    display: :0  screen: 0
    OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series
    OpenGL version string: 4.2.11733 Compatibility Profile Context

11. The Catalyst Control Center should now offer a choice between the integrated Intel graphics and the dedicated AMD graphics. To switch, select the graphics you want to run. Because the change is not dynamic, a reboot is required.
    

12. To uninstall after installing using this method, you MUST use the amdconfig utility:

    sudo amdconfig --uninstall

5. Enabling Video Hardware Acceleration

Video hardware acceleration with the Linux AMD driver is not as full featured as other OEMs, but there is some that can be enabled. To get video hardware acceleration (tested on all currently supported releases at the time of writing), you need to add four packages after installing the driver.

sudo apt-get install xvba-va-driver libva-glx1 libva-egl1 vainfo

You can test to see if you have installed them correctly thus:

sudo vainfo

When installed correctly, you should get the following:

libva: VA-API version 0.32.0
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0".
libva: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/fglrx_drv_video.so
libva: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.32 (libva 1.0.15)
vainfo: Driver version: Splitted-Desktop Systems XvBA backend for VA-API - 0.7.8
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileH264High               :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :    VAEntrypointVLD

From time to time a required symlink is not properly created. This will result in a shorter message than the above indicating that the driver could not be found.

The following may correct the problem.

For 64 bit systems:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/va/drivers/fglrx_drv_video.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/fglrx_drv_video.so

For 32 bit systems:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/va/drivers/fglrx_drv_video.so /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_drv_video.so

6. Troubleshooting

You may see a message like this:

Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":1.0

This message does not necessarily indicate a problem. It can be fixed however...

Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the following line to Section "Module":

load "dri"

6.1. MESA "error"

If fglrxinfo gives you the following output, your installation is not completed correctly:

$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.4.1)

In this case, watch for these things:

1. Make sure that the restricted-modules package installed correspond to the kernel your are running and that you can load the fglrx driver, whether by issuing the command:

   sudo modprobe fglrx

   or by verifying that the module appears in the list of loaded modules, by issuing the command:

   lsmod

2. It may be necessary to establish a symbolic link for the /usr/lib/dri folder, by issuing the following command:

   sudo ln -s /usr/lib/dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri

3. You may have to deload the radeon and dri modules, by issuing:

   sudo rmmod radeon

   and:

   sudo rmmod dri

4. Make sure you deload the module ati-agp by issuing:

   sudo rmmod ati-agp

   and blacklist it in:

   /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

5. Make sure you've added:

   Load "dri"

   to:

   /etc/X11/xorg.conf

   under:

   Section "Module"

6.2. HDTV underscan

If you experience underscan when outputting video to an HDTV, this may resolve the issue:

sudo aticonfig --set-pcs-val=MCIL,DigitalHDTVDefaultUnderscan,0
sudo reboot

This sets the default underscan setting to false.

6.3. Catalyst Control Center does not open from the panel icon

If you cannot get the Catalyst Control Center to launch from an icon, try from the terminal:

gksudo amdcccle

7. Reporting a bug when using fglrx via supported Ubuntu repository

7.1. Known issues

• fglrx-installer not working with AMD Radeon™ HD/Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000, 3000 or 2000 series graphics card in Quantal+

  • For more on this, please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer/+bug/1058040.

• Xorg segfaults with Radeon HD 6400M w/ desktop in low graphics mode via Quantal

  • For more on this please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1075035.

  • The current WORKAROUND was graciously provided by Nick Andrik:

    sudo apt-get purge fglrx*
    sudo apt-add-repository ppa:andrikos/ppa
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get -y upgrade
    sudo apt-get --reinstall install xserver-xorg-video-intel
    sudo apt-get -y install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates
    sudo aticonfig --initial -f

    and then reboot. If this does not work for you, please do not file a bug report on Launchpad as it will be marked Invalid. For more on please see here.

7.2. New issues

If you have a bug in the driver provided in a supported Ubuntu repository, please file a report about this by executing at a terminal:

ubuntu-bug xorg

Once reported, please test the latest fglrx version available from AMD's website as per below. This will allow one to also report it to AMD directly, as they are the maintainers of the fglrx, and will ultimately be the ones providing a fix. Not testing the latest driver available for your card virtually eliminates the possibility of getting your bug solved.

8. Reporting a bug in fglrx when using latest upstream beta and stable downloaded directly from AMD's website

Reporting bugs about the latest driver downloaded directly from AMD's website should be done via official AMD channels. Please do not report bugs about these drivers in Launchpad.

8.1. Known Issues

• Using the upstream 13.4 AMD Catalyst™ driver with AMD Mobility Radeon™ HD/Radeon™ HD 4000, HD 3000 and HD 2000 Series cards does not work in Quantal. This is due to how "currently AMD has no plans to support Xserver 1.13". For more on this, please see http://ati.cchtml.com/show_bug.cgi?id=625.

8.2. Official AMD channels

Please make sure when contacting AMD, to provide the information generated by executing at a terminal:

sh /usr/share/fglrx/atigetsysteminfo.sh

8.3. Technical Support

If you have an issue that requires a technical response, please contact AMD Customer Care via http://support.amd.com/us/contacts/Pages/global-technical-support.aspx. If you use their E-mail Web Form, you get a ticket number sent to your E-Mail address to track your issue.

8.4. Linux Crew Driver Feedback

This program is intended to gather feedback for specific driver releases and not to solicit regular support inquiries. This is NOT the location for support for your product, however AMD may contact you to request more information: http://www.amd.com/us/LinuxCrewSurvey.

9. Unofficial AMD community support

As per AMD the Unofficial AMD Linux Driver Wiki and Bugzilla are community resources, and are not supported by, or affiliated with AMD in any way. As they largely duplicate what is already found on Launchpad, and the Ubuntu Wiki, they are of minimal value given it's not associated with AMD. Hence, please use the official, AMD reporting methods above when reporting issues.

10. Other Links

• Newest stable and beta upstream drivers http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx.

• Legacy driver for AMD Radeon™ HD/Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000, HD 3000 and HD 2000 series cards http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/legacy/Pages/legacy-radeon_linux.aspx.

• Legacy driver for ATI Radeon 9500/9550/9600/9700/9800/X300/X550/X600/X700/X800/X850/X1050/X1300/X1550/X1600/X1650/X1800/X1900/Xpress/X1200/X1250/X2100 Series cards http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Legacy/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx.

• Previous Radeon® Series/Motherboard/Notebook Display Drivers for Linux x86 and Linux x86_64 http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/previous/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx.

• Previous FireGL™, FirePro™, FireMV™ Unified Display Drivers for Linux http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/fire/previous/Pages/fire_linux.aspx.

• The AMD Radeon open-source driver how-to for Ubuntu.

CategoryHardware CategoryGraphics