Updating Ubuntu on a Dell Inspiron 9400 with ATI graphics

I installed Ubuntu 6 on my Dell the other day, its out of date but I had the cd to hand.

Lastnight I upgraded to Ubuntu 7.04 and X (the graphics server) stopped working.

I logged in and ran the following to get it going again :


sudo aptitude install xorg-driver-fglrx

sudo aticonfig –initial

sudo modprobe fglrx

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

This

  1. installs the required graphics driver
  2. updates the graphics config
  3. loads the required driver
  4. restarts the graphics server with the new settings

It’s a pity 7.04 couldn’t degrade nicely and use the same driver 6 was able to work with. The resolution was poor but at least it was usable in graphical mode until you managed to figure out a solution.

Not everybody has an alternative PC to search for help online, or is comfortable with web browsing from the command console.

This entry was posted on October 3, 2007 at 11:23 am and is filed under Open Source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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