Video Cards

Out of the box, Ubuntu includes support for video cards via open source drivers. You may want to enable the proprietary drivers for your graphics card if you are looking for better 3D acceleration (especially if you want to use the OpenGL effects of mythfrontend), or if you are looking to use TV-Out support for your graphics card.

ATI/AMD Graphics Cards

If you have an ATI/AMD graphics card that is generally newer than a Radeon 9000, you can use the proprietary graphics driver.

This guide is loosely based upon the guide at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI:

• 1) Install the driver:

  • # sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx linux-restricted-modules-generic

  2) Make sure that fglrx isn't in the DISABLED_MODULES list in /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common. 3) Update module dependencies

  • # sudo /etc/init.d/linux-restricted-modules-common start
    # sudo depmod -a

  If you don't have xorg installed yet, do these steps after installing xorg (later in the guide) 5) Configure xorg for your card.

  • # sudo aticonfig --initial
    # sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

  6) Disabled the Composite extension since it isn't yet supported by ATI/AMD graphics cards. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

  • # sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

    Add this to the bottom:

    • Section "Extensions"
              Option      "Composite" "0"
      EndSection

  7) Switch to Virtual Terminal 1 (CTRL-ALT-F1) and Restart GDM/KDM (whichever you will be using)

  • # sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

    or

    # sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart

  8) Test to see if the driver loaded properly.

  • # fglrxinfo

    If you see output similar to this, things are working properly:

    • # fglrxinfo
      display: :0.0  screen: 0
      OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
      OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9700 Generic
      OpenGL version string: 2.0.5755 (8.24.8)

    If you see output similar to this, things aren't working properly:

    • # 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)

If GDM/KDM hasn't started or isn't properly working See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI, the forums, and #ubuntu for more help.

Nvidia Graphics Cards

Nvidia provides a list of cards that supported by their proprietary drivers at http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-8762/README/appendix-a.html. See if your card is supported by the ordinary or the legacy drivers.

This guide is loosely based on the guide at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia.

• 1) Install the appropriate driver for your card

  • # sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx linux-restricted-modules-generic

    or

    # sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-legacy

  2) Make sure that the nv isn't disbled:

  • # sudo nano /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

if you see:

• DISABLED_MODULES="nv"

make it:

• DISABLED_MODULES=""

• 3) Update module dependencies

  • # sudo /etc/init.d/linux-restricted-modules start
    # sudo depmod -a

  If you don't have xorg installed yet, do these steps after installing xorg (later in the guide) 4) Enable the driver

  • # sudo nvidia-xconfig

  5) Switch to Virtual Terminal 1 (CTRL-ALT-F1) and Restart GDM/KDM (whichever you will be using)

  • # sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

    or

    # sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart

  6) If you see the NVIDIA Splash Screen, things have worked correctly. Otherwise, you will need to troubleshoot further.

See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia, the forums, or #ubuntu for additional assistance.

PVR-350 Video Output

If you are using a PVR-350, video output can be enabled on this card via this howto:

X running on PVR-350 out click here.