Build Linux drivers for ATI 6450 on FC15

The 6450 is a great card, it’s cheap, cool and needs only 8 Watts. Powered by Renewable Energy I can use this card as yet another point made against energy waste. Let’s get it to run in Linux, shall we?

I sold my iMac and build two high performing Intel SandyBridges with Intel SSD’s from the proceeds. I decided there’s no going back to Windows nor MacOSX, that would be a step back. So Linux it is. Fedora Core 15 with Gnome3 was released yesterday, so I take that one.

I will use the propietary drivers for now. Of course people will recommend you to use the open-source drivers. I heard kmod-catalyst or akmod are the best at the moment.
 

Become root for the ease of use of this tutorial.

yum update
Reboot.

yum install kernel-headers kernel-devel gcc
Check if lib/modules/`uname -r`/source is correctly linked to build and if the kernel headers with the correct kernel version (uname -r) are in the build directory. Maybe you have to reboot into the correct kernel version first after doing update.
 

Download the drivers from the ATI homepage and finally install them.

bash ati-driver-installer-11-5-x86.x86_64.run
Check in Ati install log if the drivers compiled a kernel module against the kernel headers with cat usr/shr/ati/fglrx-install.log

Reboot and test your install.

fglrxinfo

This is what you want to see in the end:

display: :0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6450
OpenGL version string: 4.1.10750 Compatibility Profile Context

Test your framerate:

fgl_glxgears

You should see at least 200/300 FPS (depending on your GPU) in Gnome3

Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
1539 frames in 5.0 seconds = 307.800 FPS
1838 frames in 5.0 seconds = 367.600 FPS
1828 frames in 5.0 seconds = 365.600 FPS
1835 frames in 5.0 seconds = 367.000 FPS

This is what I got in KDE with Compiz-Fusion

Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer8002 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1600.277 FPS
7999 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1597.831 FPS
8106 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1621.128 FPS
6598 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1319.523 FPS

If you f*ck up during install and cannot back into the system you have to check with your BIOS and boot from USB or LiveCD and try to fix your drive or re-install. With nowadays Processor power and a SSD a OS reinstall should take below 60 seconds. Try to beat that while charging no money for your OS, Microshaft and Crapple!

For instance I did reboot without checking if ATI did compile a kernel module (you will need that one!). So my OS (FC15) hanged during the boot sequence when entering init.rd, maybe when switching to runlevel 5. I therefore booted to the live usb stick and mounted my system disk, which can be a bit confusing if you are new to Logical Volume Groups.

pvs
lvdisplay /dev/VolumeGroupName
vgchange -a y VolumeGroupName
mkdir /mnt/system
mount /dev/VolumeGroupName/lv_root /mnt/system/

You now can edit either edit Xorg mnt/system/etc/X11/xorg.conf or switch of automatic boot to the XServer with /etc/inittab. However, in Fedora Core 15 the Init Dameon is legacy (there goes the usefullness of your LPIC or RHCL certification). So we have to link to the text-mode, which was referred to as initlevel 3.

ln -s /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Now after reboot it could be necessary to uninstall the ATI drivers, too. I, however recommend re-installing Fedora if that's an option for you. Remember to keep your important files somewhere hidden on a USB HDD or NAS during re-install and cutting edge experiments like this.

Remove ATI propietary drivers

sudo yum remove xorg-x11-drv-ati

Force them to vanish (could lead to errors)

sudo /usr/share/ati/amd-uninstall.sh --force

Reinstall propietary ATI drivers.

sudo yum install xorg-x11-drv-ati

Reconfigure xorg

yum groupinstall "X Window System"
yum install xorg-x11-server-Xorg xorg-x11-server-common

Overall it can be quite the hassle to getting OpenGL work in Linux, especially if you are a newbie. However it's absolutely worth the effort. I ditched Gnome3 because it's absolutely bollocks. I use KDE with Compiz-Fusion now and it's absolutely goregous (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4wB3GUemVw).

Suddenly MacOSX or Windows 7 feels like going by foot, while KDE 4.6.3. with a 2.8 Linux Kernel empowered by yum package management feels like riding a Full Suspension Bike. So good bye WindoZe and WackOS, I am home.

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