derek:b3studios

Installation of the binary ATI Linux driver, always seems to be a pain in my ass. I try out generally 3-4 distributions of Linux a week. I always seem to run into the same problem with every ’special’ distribution, they don’t like the driver packages - or there is no documentation to help! That is the case with DreamLinux 2.2 MMGL. DreamLinux is a merge of several distrbutions, along with some sprinkled in love of great applications to pull it all together. While DreamLinux may have some short comings, it makes up for them more than enough, with its XFCE 4 desktop, and Engage Dock bar, and all the Multimedia goodies throwen in at the start. Its based on Debian with a Kanotix Kernel, this means that it isn’t always obvious what needs to be done to get something running with in this distro.

The biggest misfortune for DreamLinux, is the small team of developers behind it. With a group of 4 people (last I found a count), keeping the distro up to date, seems to be a little hard to do. The ATI installation script that is provided, is SEVERAL releases behind. Since 8.40 had made leaps past 8.36, it is a MUST to have the latest drivers available. However, because of the special nature of this distribution - I found it a little daunting to compile the driver into a package manually - and install. After all, we started saying this distro is Debian + Kanotix, did you know it likes to use the Ubuntu/edgy package for driver install!?

So now my mini tutorial on 8.42.3 and DreamLinux.

Obtain updated Kanotix Debian fglrx script.


cd /usr/local/bin
sudo rm install-fglrx-debian.sh
sudo wget http://kanotix.com/files/install-fglrx-debian.sh
sudo chmod 755 install-fglrx-debian.sh


Now that you have the updated script, press CTRL+ALT+F1 to switch to a text terminal (to get back to your X session, CTRL+ALT+F7). Log in to the Text Session as your self. Run the following command:

Now once the script is finished running, it should restart Xorg, and you should be all set and running with the latest 3D driver.

To check type


fglrxinfo


If you return Vendor: ATI you are good to go. If Vendor: Mesa, try again!