How can I get my ATI / AMD drivers to work with any kernel above 3.2.0.x?

Solution 1:

There are two driver options that usually work well:

• the opensource radeon driver
• the fglrx package from the official repository

A 64-bit kernel usually gets much better support in this case.

You can also try the 12.6 beta drivers from AMD.

If you need a guide, try the Unofficial Wiki for the AMD Linux Driver.

Do not install a new driver package over an old one. Remember to uninstall the previous package(s).

Solution 2:

I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 with kernel 3.2.0-26 and had a nightmare getting the ATI and catalyst drivers installed. I'm running a Radeon hd5xxx card and had tried and failed to install the drivers. This is what worked for me as I had a broken installation that wouldn't reinstall and gave me the same DKMS error.

I also followed the binary driver, but as it relies on the uninstall being OK, which mine wasn't, it was useless and refused to fix my driver. I finally amalgamated several fixes from different sites to get mine working.

I did this after using recovery console to get some display back. I had access to synaptic at the time so hopefully you have access.

First thing I did was to add a repository and added all the updates. Graphics failed as I expected.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3 

This added some libs that the main repository didn't have and fixed a few other issues too.

Then:

1. sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.BAK - for safety

2. sudo rm /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh - stops the purge from failing without doing anything at all.

3. sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx* (Had errors but carried on)

4. sudo rm -rf /usr/share/lib/fglrx

5. sudo rm -rf /usr/share/lib32/fglrx

6. open synaptic and mark fglrx for installation. This finally added the driver.

7. with synaptic again, add the ATI catalyst control center.

After reboot, I had issues with my dual screens but as catalyst was installed, I fixed this and now everything works. It even sorted out a flashing I got when moving windows across the dual screens or when activating rotation of desktop cube.