My Hardware

Check your graphic card name and chipset:

$ lspci -nn | grep VGA

Hardware list

• Xpress 200 / RS480 IGP
• Xpress 200 / RS482 IGP for Intel
• Xpress 200M / RS482 IGP
• Xpress 1100 / RS482 IGP
• Xpress 1150 / RS485 IGP
• Xpress 1200 / AMD 690V / RS690C IGP
• Xpress 1200 / AMD M690V / RS690MC IGP
• Xpress 1250 / AMD 690G / RS690 IGP
• Xpress 1250 / AMD M690 / RS690M IGP
• Xpress 1250 / AMD 690G / RS600 IGP for Intel
• Xpress 1270 / AMD M690T / RS690T IGP

RS485

lspci returns ATI Technologies Inc RS485 [Radeon Xpress 1100 IGP]. Splash screen bug #136582 affects release 7.10 but not 8.04.

Ubuntu 8.10 and later

Since Ubuntu 8.10 3D and desktop effects works out of the box with the open source -ati driver.

Ubuntu 8.04 and previous

The user can choose between two drivers: The open source -ati driver and the closed-source fglrx driver. Enabling 3D acceleration requires extra user configuration anyway.

Enable DRI -ati

Direct rendering has been turned off by default for RS48x/RS690 since revision 6.7.194 of xserver-xorg-video-ati due to missing features and unresolved bugs in the mesa library. The situation has changed with the release of Ubuntu 8.10, where DRI is supported out of the box. Ubuntu 8.04 users can update to a backported mesa package from Andrius Štikonas PPA and enable DRI in the driver shipped with Ubuntu 8.04.

1. Add these software sources and update your mesa packages.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/stikonas/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/stikonas/ubuntu hardy main

2. Add these options to respective sections in xorg.conf

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
        Option          "DRI" "true"
        Option          "GARTSize" "64"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode 0666
EndSection
        
Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

3. Restart the X server by logging out and back in, or typing sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart.

4. Check status flag

$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"

5. Check functionality by invoking glxgears.

$ glxgears

Enable DRI -fglrx

The proprietary binary driver produced by AMD/ATI is commonly known as fglrx. It can easily be installed using System->Administration>Hardware Drivers.

2. Restart xserver by logging out and back in, or typing sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart.

3. Check status flag

$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"

4. Check functionality by invoking glxgears.

$ glxgears

5.Change overlay type to Xvideo if video upscaling looks blocky. $ sudo aticonfig --ovt=Xv

Desktop Effects

Desktop effects don't work by default up to Ubuntu 8.04. To make them work the user has to enable the Direct Rendering Interface and AIGLX with the open source driver as described above. The second alternative is to install the proprietary driver fglrx.

1. Enable Direct Rendering Interface or install fglrx

2. Enable AIGLX by adding options to xorg.conf

Section "Device"
        Option          "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Option          "AIGLX" "true"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection

3. Add this line to .config/compiz/compiz-manager

SKIP_CHECKS="yes"

4. Restart xserver by logging out and back in, or typing sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart.

5. Finally turn on desktop effects in menu Preferences>Appearance>Visual effects.

External monitor

External output works with open driver. Use xrandr to configure. Display device hot plugging work, outputs must be configured manually. See driver documentation for more information