Linux gurus: Question regarding fglrx

Agent_Foxtrot · January 24, 2012, 2:55pm

I posted the following question on Ubuntu Forums, but it hasn’t generated a lot of response. I know there are a lot of Linux users/smart people on these boards, so maybe someone can help. Original post found here.

Agent Foxtrot at Ubuntu Forums:

Hi, everyone.

I rebuilt a youngish-but-problematic computer (HP Pavilion d4000) with some new parts and decided to use Ubuntu as the OS, which I installed from a boot disk last night onto a virgin HDD. The computer is connected to a Samsung 42" LCD TV.

The first issue is sound, or lack of it. I originally had a DVI-to-HDMI cable going from the computer to the TV and a simple audio cable going from the sound card to the TV’s audio input port. No sound. After a bit of research, I found that DVI doesn’t transmit sound, but HDMI does, so I switched to a plain HDMI cable. No sound. I then read that while HDMI can send dual-channel video and audio, there are no standards established and not all TV’s split the channels. It would be odd that my TV doesn’t, as it receives audio via HDMI just fine from my PS3 and Xbox 360.

This leads to the second issue. Further research prompted me to try installing the proprietary ATI/AMD fglrx drivers. I opened the Additional Drivers window and attempted to activate the driver with post-release updates, but I keep getting an error message stating, “Sorry, installation of this driver failed.” and points me to /var/log/jockey.log. I opened the log in vi, and from what I can understand (which isn’t much), I’m missing a module nvidia_127, whatever that is.

So I tried to activate the section option, fglrx without the post-release updates. Doing so causes the system to hang at the Ubuntu startup screen. I was forced to deactivate that driver.

So do any of these problems sound familiar to anyone? If it helps, the graphics card is a Radeon HD 3450. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

PS - Are there any other drivers/programs you would recommend I install?

Any ideas?

si_blakely · January 24, 2012, 3:33pm

Try following this.

Si

Agent_Foxtrot · January 24, 2012, 6:13pm

Pardon my ignorance, but that’s for nVidia. Aren’t nVidia and Radeon two different companies?

Gary_Robson · January 24, 2012, 7:45pm

[moderating]
Thread title changed from “Ubuntu gurus: Question regarding fglrx” to “Linux gurus: Question regarding fglrx” at the OP’s request.
[/moderating]

si_blakely · January 24, 2012, 7:55pm

:smack:

I searched on the nvidia_127 error, which threw me. Sorry.

I’ll get back to you

Si

si_blakely · January 24, 2012, 10:45pm

Manual steps here, follow option 2. There are some debugging options, too.

I use the Radeon (opensource ATI) drivers, as my X1300 has fallen of the supported list for fglrx, but even there, I needed to find a customised version with disabled page-flipping. Video drivers can be a hassle.

Si

goldmund · January 24, 2012, 10:55pm

si_blakely’s advice is sound. Generally directly downloading the drivers will get you newer drivers than distro-packaged ones will.

If the manual install fails again, can you please try this? Try the driver install again, but open a terminal window rather than double clicking it. In the terminal window, do:

sudo /path/to/downloaded/ati/installer 2>&1 | tee /tmp/ati-install.log

Obviously putting the right path in there. This will display the output of the installer, as well as saving it to /tmp/ati-install.log. Could you post here (preferably via pastebin.com since some of the logs will be large-ish) the contents of:

/tmp/ati-install.log
/var/log/Xorg.0.log
as well as any log file the installer may create on its own

This will make it a lot easier to help troubleshoot.

ETA: Also, this will show you any errors when the X server starts: grep ‘(EE)’ /var/log/Xorg.0.log | less

Agent_Foxtrot · January 25, 2012, 2:43pm

Thank you both. Three questions:[ol]
[li]Is installing this driver actually likely to fix my sound issue?[/li][li]If not, why is the standard audio cable I’m using from the sound card to the audio jack of the TV not working?[/li][li]Is there any particular reason you can think of as to why the Additional Drivers installer isn’t working?[/li][/ol]Thanks again.

goldmund · January 25, 2012, 10:48pm

[ol]
[li]I’m going to guess no. While the HDMI port is on your video card, the HDMI audio output is a separate driver. The HDMI output should actually show up as another sound card on your machine. Check your mixer settings. If you don’t see it, try “sudo modprobe hda-intel”, which I believe is the HDMI audio driver used for ATI cards. [/li][li]If you’re using an HDMI input for video the TV likely only accepts audio over HDMI with that input selected. Are the audio inputs on the back of your TV visually “grouped” with the HDMI port? e.g. Both bordered by a box saying “input 3” or similar? I know my TV will let me do this if I use the VGA input, but not HDMI.[/li][li]Please try the commands I posted above to generate more log output, and post that. Without that there’s nothing to do but guess. :)[/li][/ol]

Good luck!

Agent_Foxtrot · January 30, 2012, 4:26am

Hey, all, back again. I booted up the computer to try the fixes suggested in this thread, but now I’m running into a new problem: Ubuntu hangs at the startup screen. So far, it’s been 30 minutes and no change. Reboots do nothing. I’ve tried accessing the GRUB menu by holding down Shift, but it still goes to the startup screen. Any advice?

goldmund · January 30, 2012, 2:16pm

Try hitting Escape several times after the BIOS/POST screens to see if that gets you into the GRUB menu.