[wellylug] Ubuntu 7.10 Ati help - Acer Aspire 5020 / Mobility Radeon X700

[Colin Templeman]

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Wayne Koorts wrote:

> I'm having issues with my Acer Aspire 5020 (model 5024WLMi) both with 
> booting the LiveCD and after installing. When I boot the LiveCD (this is 
> the 32-bit standard desktop CD) in normal graphics mode my screen goes 
> blank when it's supposed to be starting X. It's as if the screen is 
> actually turning off because the backlighting seems to be off.

Hi Wayne,

I too have had to jump through the hoops in the past with Ubuntu on my Acer
1692WLMi which also happens to have a X700 chipset.  I got Dapper working to my
satisfaction using incantations and Voodoo and skipped Edgy and Feisty when they
were released.  However, lulled by the promise of eye-candy in Gutsy (and having
backed up my Dapper install) I decided to try Gutsy Tribe 5.  Out of the box, I
had the same issue as you initially.  I only use the alternate install CD's as I
have no luck with the graphical install discs (black screens etc).  This is what
 I did to get going.  Just so you know though, I am now running restricted
binaries as I found them to be far more stable (if less ethical).  The open
driver kept freezing (as in totally) my machine.  YMMV.

First off, with this release you are no doubt aware that the maintainers have
enabled compiz by default although they have hidden a lot of the
under-the-bonnet tweaks.  Their officially supported release only works on the
open ati driver which (glxgears told me) is currently around 50% as fast as the
closed binary drivers.  However you should try them first I guess and see how
they work for you.

- From a completely fresh install using Gutsy Tribe 5 desktop CD, when I first
booted I too got a blank screen.  I rebooted to the recovery mode, checked apt
repositories and network connectivity and then at the console typed
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
(note - I was on physical cat5 to my router as wireless connectivity was a
"later" thing).
On next boot I got a graphical desktop up without any further twiddling (a vast
improvement on previous version installs) and was immediately prompted that a
restricted driver was available for my ati card.  Again - until you have tested
the open driver, I would advise resisting the urge to add this at this stage as
that's when things got 'interesting' for me.

There are some hidden switches that can be added to xorg.conf that enable
Powerplay states etc I can tell you about, but I am unsure if the open driver
supports them or not.  Oh and by the way, there is no need to use "radeon"
instead of "ati" in the xorg.conf driver statement as probing will automatically
use the correct driver.

[ BTW I found the following blog really useful: http://tinyurl.com/2l3lp9 ]

- --
Colin Templeman
On Tour in the UK

"Teach it Phenomenology, Doolittle".
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