Edit: I have copied this from another thread, drama is very knowledgeable, many have had success using this how to. TheeMahn
updated to latested version on april 19th 2008 8:24a.m.
the ati restricted driver (fglrx) now includes aiglx finally. for those that dont know about aiglx it basically replaces xgl and allows you have direct rendering enabled even while running compiz/beryl.
the latest version of compiz has made things increasingly harder (at least with my card). surprisingly enough it isnt ati's fault this time. the blame goes to the compiz devs. in the past there was a file /usr/bin/compiz (well its still there but has changed drasticly). basically they removed the section for blacklist pcids. why i have no clue. i think it worked perfectly the way it was. yes you had to edit it from time to time (unblacklisting your card after you install fglrx) but it cased no problems. now since they removed thats ection you now have to completely remove everything compiz and emerald related before we can even start (i did anyway). why you ask? its simple because the pcid blacklist is no longer there compiz tries to start but due to incompatabilities your desktop shows then it kicks you right back out to gdm again. yes you could install from a shell but i think most people would rather not be stuck in a shell unless they had no choice.
that being said lets get this show on the road.
first things first. if you have compiz running shut it down. go to system-->preferences--> apperence click the visual tab and click none. this will shut off compiz.
next we will remove all traces of compiz and emerald. not to worry though we will add it back later.
run the following command in a terminal
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sudo apt-get purge emerald emerald-dbg libemeraldengine0 libemeraldengine-dev compiz compiz-bcop compiz-compcomm-plugins-main compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-core compiz-dev compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-gnome compiz-kde compiz-plugins gnome-compiz-manager libcm7 libcm-dev libcompizconfig0 libcompizconfig0-dev libcompizconfig-backend-gconf libcompizconfig-backend-kconfig libdecoration0 libdecoration0-dev libgnome-compiz-manager0 libgnome-compiz-manager0-dev python-compizconfig
now you may not have had everyone of these packages installed i just took this list from a search of compiz/emerald. this will remove any that are installed though. i HAD to do this for the reason stated above.
next step is removing all traces of fglrx so we have a clean slate. there are two ways of doing this depending on how you have installed it in the past.
if you installed through the restricted drivers manager do the following: simply open the manager and remove the check. but dont reboot when it asks you to.
if you installed either manually (using this guide or another one) or used envy do the following (if you used the manager it still wouldnt hurt to do this jus to make sure you got everything)
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sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
where it says driver change it from "fglrx" to "ati" then save this file
next do some cleaning.
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sudo apt-get purge xserver-xgl xorg-driver-fglrx-dev xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx-sources fglrx-kernel-source fglrx-control fglrx-amdcccle
now you can reboot.
now when your system comes back up you wint have any window decorations so open a terminal and do the following
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metacity --replace
now whatever you do DONT close that terminal or you will lose your decorations again. instead click file then open new tab. we will do all of our work from this new tab.
now we need to get some nessesary tools.
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sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential fakeroot dh-make debconf bzip2 wget debhelper libstdc++5 linux-headers-generic dkms
next we switch to /var/tmp and grab the installer.
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cd /var/tmp
grab the installer
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wget -c --no-check-certificate https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8-4-x86.x86_64.run
depending on your connection speed this might take 5mins or more (its about 50mb) you will see the progress in the terminal.
after it gets finished we will now use it to compile our packages (debs).
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sudo bash ati-driver-installer-8-4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy
this might take a min or 2 depending on the speed of your pc. once again the progress will show in the terminal. dont worry if it looks like its froze its really not.
after thats finished we need to Remove any old fglrx debs from /usr/src/:
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sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb
it might say directory doesnt exist. thats fine its nothing to worry about.
now install the packages.
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sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.476-0ubuntu1_i386.deb xorg-driver-fglrx-dev_8.476-0ubuntu1_i386.deb fglrx-kernel-source_8.476-0ubuntu1_i386.deb fglrx-amdcccle_8.476-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
after those install it will automatically build the kernel module. thats right we dont have to do it manually anymore thanks to dkms.
now reboot.
to get our decorations we need to start metacity exactly as before
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metacity --replace
go to file new tab as before
now we need to do some initial config of the driver. run the following two commands (one at a time)
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sudo aticonfig --initial --force
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sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv --force
now reboot again
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metacity --replace
file new tab just like the last two times.
now we need to do some light edits to xorg.conf.
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sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
change
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "0"
EndSection
to
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "1"
EndSection
if it doesnt exist just add it.
Under Section "ServerLayout", add this just above where it says end section:
Option "AIGLX" "True"
once again if it doesnt exist add it.
now its time to put compiz and emerald back on our system.
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sudo apt-get install compiz emerald compiz-fusion-plugins-main compizconfig-settings-manager libcompizconfig-backend-gconf libcompizconfig-backend-kconfig compiz-fusion-plugins-extra gnome-compiz-manager libcm7 libcompizconfig0 libgnome-compiz-manager0
now we need to make a small modification to /usr/bin/compiz so emerald will autostart
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sudo gedit /usr/bin/compiz
look for a line that looks like this
# Defines the decorator and arguments.
# Set it to empty to make the script use the best decorator for your environment
DECORATOR=""
DECORATORARGS=""
now change it so it looks like this
# Defines the decorator and arguments.
# Set it to empty to make the script use the best decorator for your environment
DECORATOR="emerald"
DECORATORARGS="--replace"
now save that file.
reboot (last time i promise)
now when you login compiz should auto start. we need to do a few checks though. open a window and check that your decorations are there. then grab it & move it around. if it wobbles compiz is working. if not then we have a slight issue that needs to be trouble shooted.
also run the following to commands to be sure they output what they should
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fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon Xpress Series
OpenGL version string: 2.1.7415 Release
your renderer string may not exactly match that. but the vendor and version strings should.
next make sure we have direct rendering
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glxinfo | grep direct
should output the following
direct rendering: Yes
if compiz is working and the last to commands output as i stated we can now get rid of the created files.
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cd /var/tmp
delete the files but running the following series of commands
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sudo rm -i /var/tmp/fglrx*
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sudo rm -i /var/tmp/ati*
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sudo rm -i /var/tmp/xorg*
it will ask you to confirm each one. hit y followed by enter.
thats the end of the process. if you run into any problems feel free to post and ill get back to you as soon as i can.
cheers
-drama
p.s. if anyone see anywhere this could be improved or thinks of anything (hints tips ect) dont hesitate to mention it.