Can't install ATI proprietary drivers in 12.10

Solution 1:

I started with a clean 12.10 install (not an upgrade) My card is a Radeon HD 5450

First thing I done was to install Linux-source and Linux headers

sudo apt-get install linux-source
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

I noticed that many with Nvidia cards were having to do this and am sure I saw mentioned some-where that it also helped ATI users.

Like everyone else if I installed either of the proprietary drivers after reboot I was able to login but lost unity.

One thing I did notice is that installing the driver did not install Catalyst control centre (not sure if it is the same for everyone else)

So I installed Synaptic package manager and installed fglrx-updates from there

Now the Catalyst control centre was installed.

Upon rebooting however instead of being able to login with no Unity the system was hanging at the splash screen.

So I applied nomodeset and this time it booted with Unity present

Here is the result of fglrxinfo

And here is what software sources says

With nomodeset applied I might not be getting the splash screen on boot up but fglrx-updates is working well. I would go as far as to say that it is performing better than it was in 12.04

More info

Grub offers me 2 kernels

3.5.0-18-generic and 3.5.0-17-generic

The later one '18' is good, the older one '17' still loads without Unity

Solution 2:

For those who have hybrid systems (ATI/intel) and fglrx has stopped working in 12.10, then the problem might be like the one described here (fglrx incompatibility with the recent version of the intel driver): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer-updates/+bug/1068404

What I would suggest would be

1. Remove all the fglrx* packages:

   sudo apt-get purge fglrx*
   

2. Add my PPA in your repositories list:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:andrikos

3. Update your package information:

   sudo apt-get update 
   

4. Update the fglrx and intel drivers:

   sudo apt-get install fglrx xserver-xorg-video-intel
   

5. Don't forget to enable the fglrx driver

   sudo aticonfig --initial --force
   

Solution 3:

I went to terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F1 for example) and did :

sudo apt-get remove fglrx

Now my computer is pretty slow but a least I can use it and wait for the problem to be fixed.

Solution 4:

I found the problem. On upgrade of Ubuntu 12.04 -> Ubuntu 12.10, the contents of lightdm.conf in /etc/lightdm/ are completely erased. Installing or reconfiguring lightdm does NOT install this file here, so lightdm does not know how to go about displaying itself. You must do the following:

sudo apt-get purge fglrx lightdm && sudo apt-get install lightdm ubuntu-desktop && sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

insert the following text:

[SeatDefaults]
user-session=ubuntu
greeter-session=unity-greeter
allow-guest=false

Save the file via CTRL + X and sudo reboot. You may not have to uninstall fglrx, but I do not know.

Solution 5:

This works for me.

    sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Go to amd.com and download their latest beta driver (which was just updated to 12.11). Run and install.

Please note that the stable driver will not work with unity.

Then head here to get a script to remove the watermark: http://areyoueye.net/?p=187

Slainte!