Jun

16

Installing ATI R128 – Reader Questions

June 16, 2009 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | 3 Comments
Posted in Q & A - Ubuntu

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...

"Danny", one of our readers asks:

"I have a ati r128 graphics driver. I dont see the driver in hardware drivers at all. The driver is a inf file. I dont know how to install it. Please help me!"

I don't have much information provided in the question (more information is always helpful and allows for better answers).  However, I hope the following will help.

First, the inf file is a Windows based file, you don't need that in Linux. I had an ATI Rage 128 card a while back, and a do remember having issues. If I recall correctly (this was a few years ago for me), the issue was that the card was not detected properly. In your case, I'd suggest that the card driver is not ATI, instead you'll want R128 because (again, if I remember correctly) X11 detects the card incorrectly.

If you're not sure what "X11" means, please see the article: X Window System

From their site:

"...The X Window System (commonly X or X11) is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for networked computers, and was initially developed as part of Project Athena. It implements the X display protocol and provides windowing on raster graphics (bitmap) computer displays and manages keyboard and pointing device control functions..."

Here's one approach you can take to try and fix this...

As mentioned, you need to ensure that R128 is the used driver. To accomplish this, please edit your xorg.conf file, but make a BACKUP FIRST! In fact, it's good practise to keep a backup of any data you find valuable, that way if you feel a need to reinstall your OS, you will not lose all your valuable files. So, ALWAYS keep a current backup of files you never want to lose - I learned this the hard way (more than once).

Here's the terminal command to do this:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Look for two lines that starts with:

Section "Device"
Identifier    "Configured Video Device"

Now ensure the following line (just under those) that says:

Boardname "ATI Rage 128"

is changed to reflect the real name of your video card.

Next look for the line that says:

Driver "ati"

and change it to say:

Driver "r128"

The other directives should be okay. Save the file and reboot your system: sudo shutdown -r now

I hope this information helps you overcome the driver issue.

If you like this post, why not share it?
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Reddit
  • Mixx
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • blogmarks
  • Twitter

Related posts:

  1. Getting Ubuntu – Reader Questions
  2. Upgrade Ubuntu Firefox to Version 3.6 – Reader Questions
  3. Google Earth and Chrome – Reader Questions
  4. Installing an Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 LAMP and FFMpeg Server With a GUI – Hardware Installation.
  5. Installing an Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 LAMP and FFMpeg Server With a GUI – LAMP installation with cgi-bin


Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Ghost Ghost on June 19, 2009 7:13 am

    Hello,

    I think my problem is the same as “Danny”.

    I installed a medievil Version of red hat Linux (6), a problem came when the Xconfigurator asked me to select my “card” which does NOT EXCIST on this version.

    I downloaded the “xf86-ati-6.8.0″ driver for my ATI Rage 128 onboard chip but I dont know where to install this and in what directory?

    any help would be grateful as I love this version of red hat =]

    Thank you in advange

  2. Ghost Ghost on June 19, 2009 7:15 am

    also my xorg file is not in my X11 dir either maybe becuase my system crashed when attemptin to run x.
    I think thats why the file is not set =[

  3. UbuntuLinuxHelp UbuntuLinuxHelp on June 22, 2009 8:12 am

    I just tested this last night on an older system with the older ATI Rage 128 card.

    The card was picked up during the install (Ubuntu Hardy – 8.04). I did not have to download and install any drivers. All I did was edit the xorg.conf as above (in the post) and the card was still working.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind