It took me so long to setup fglrx driver for ATI Mobility X300 in my laptop, IBM Thinkpad T43. Actually, the ATI open source driver comes with Xorg 7.2 works very well except only 3D acceleration. The open source driver does not support 3D acceleration for ATI Mobility X300. As a result, Google Earth is useless because I can't even drag the earth to see my home. There are so many howto but none of them worked for me even this one. Now I found the exact problem and its solution to make fglrx 8.35.5 work perfectly on Ubuntu Feisty.

Actually, my instructions are based on the howto I mentioned above. Please read it for more detail.

1. Disable Composite extension by adding below lines in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

   Section "Extensions"
       Option  "Composite" "Disable" 
   EndSection

2. Install necessary tools.

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5
   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) wget

3. Download ATI driver.

   mkdir -p ~/fglrx
   cd ~/fglrx
   wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.35.5-x86.x86_64.run

4. Remove existing *.deb.

   rm xorg-driver-fglrx*.deb
   rm fglrx-kernel-source*.deb
   rm fglrx-control*.deb

5. Create .deb packages.

   sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.35.5-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/feisty

6. Install the .deb packages.

   sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx*.deb
   sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source*.deb
   sudo dpkg -i fglrx-amdcccle*.deb

7. Remove exisiting fglrx driver in /usr/src.

   sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

8. Patch the display driver.

   cd ~/fglrx
   wget http://whoopie.gmxhome.de/linux/patches/2.6.20/fglrx-8.35.5-for-2.6.20.patch
   cd /usr/src
   sudo cp fglrx.tar.bz2 fglrx.tar.bz2-original
   sudo tar xvjf fglrx.tar.bz2
   cd /usr/src/modules/fglrx
   sudo patch -p0 < ~/fglrx/fglrx-8.35.5-for-2.6.20.patch
   cd /usr/src
   sudo tar cvjf fglrx.tar.bz2 modules/fglrx

9. Compile and install fglrx module.

   sudo module-assistant prepare
   sudo module-assistant update
   sudo module-assistant build fglrx
   sudo module-assistant install fglrx

10. Disable fglrx bundled with linux-restricted-module by adding fglrx to /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common.

    DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"

11. Regenerate module dependencies.

    sudo depmod -a

12. Modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf to use fglrx instead. You may safely use my configuration as follows.

    Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Default Layout"
        Screen         "Default Screen" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"
        InputDevice    "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice    "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice    "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice    "Synaptics Touchpad"
    EndSection
    Section "Files"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
        FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
    EndSection
    Section "Module"
        Load  "bitmap"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "ddc"
        Load  "dri"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "freetype"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "int10"
        Load  "type1"
        Load  "vbe"
    EndSection
    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "CoreKeyboard"
        Option      "XkbRules" "xorg"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc104"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
    EndSection
    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "CorePointer"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
    EndSection
    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver      "synaptics"
        Option      "SendCoreEvents" "true"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/psaux"
        Option      "Protocol" "auto-dev"
        Option      "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
    EndSection
    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "stylus"
        Driver      "wacom"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/wacom"       # Change to 
        Option      "Type" "stylus"
        Option      "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
    EndSection
    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "eraser"
        Driver      "wacom"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/wacom"       # Change to 
        Option      "Type" "eraser"
        Option      "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
    EndSection
    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "cursor"
        Driver      "wacom"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/wacom"       # Change to 
        Option      "Type" "cursor"
        Option      "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
    EndSection
    Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Builtin LCD"
        HorizSync    28.0 - 70.0
        VertRefresh  43.0 - 60.0
        Option      "DPMS"
    EndSection
    Section "Device"
        Identifier  "ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]"
        Driver      "fglrx"
        Option      "VideoOverlay" "on"
        Option      "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
    EndSection
    Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Device     "ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]"
        Monitor    "Builtin LCD"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     1
                Modes    "1400x1050"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     4
                Modes    "1400x1050"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     8
                Modes    "1400x1050"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     15
                Modes    "1400x1050"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     16
                Modes    "1400x1050"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1400x1050"
        EndSubSection
    EndSection
    Section "DRI"
        Mode         0666
    EndSection
    Section "Extensions"
        Option      "Composite" "Disable"
    EndSection

13. Optionally, add fglrx to /etc/modules. Note that you should not need to do it but give it a try if fglrx is not loaded automatically.

    lp
    psmouse
    sbp2
    sr_mod
    rtc
    fuse
    fglrx

14. Reboot your computer.

15. Verify that everything goes well by running glxinfo and you should obtain something like below.

    $ glxinfo |grep OpenGL
    OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
    OpenGL renderer string: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300
    OpenGL version string: 2.0.6400 (8.35.5)
    OpenGL extensions:

All done! If you have any problems, please consult /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

Tags: ubuntu, feisty fawn, ati, amd, fglrx, radeon