Hello friends, hopefully this helps someone.
Recently I have had to fire up a backup PC to do some work with and have found technology has left my old beast behind somewhat. The following is an example of a working 10 year old PC running fairly recent Kubuntu and ATI/AMD proprietary display drivers. I'm not wanting to debate why, I'm just documenting this as there is some misinformation out there.
Hardware:
Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
Product Name: K8T Master2-FAR
Dual Opteron 242
4G RAM
VIA K8T800 AGP x8
HIS ATI HD4670 AGP Graphics (rv730)
Software:
Kubuntu 12.04.5 x86_64
ATI/AMD Legacy Catalyst 13.1 (amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13.1-legacy-linux-x86.x86_64.zip)
Kernel 3.2.0-68-generic
X.Org X Server 1.11.3
KDE 4.13.2
According to many on line sources this combination isn't supposed to work. It does, and without much tinkering at all.
In ones reading and foolhardy experimentation they will discover AMD do not support HD4xxxx (rv730) cards with the latest Catalyst drivers. These are now legacy. ATI/AMD you suck btw.
Sept 2014
Rules for Catalyst 13.1 for ATI 4670 AGP:
- 12.04 Precise is the last supported distro version.
- Must install from media 12.04.0 or 12.04.1. Anything later uses incompatible Xorg and Kernel versions.
- Must run "X.Org X Server 1.11.3". No newer.
- Must run "3.2.0-xx-generic". No newer. (Unconfirmed)
- If something touches the kernel/dkms/xorg in any updates the fglrx* debs/script must be re-installed.
- Must hold the fglrx packages from updating.
- All working and updated running 12.04.5
The crux of it is we are best to stay with Precise 12.04. Anything newer install media than 12.04.1 uses newer kernels and Xorg which are incompatible. If you install from 12.04.1 and then update to 12.04.5 there is no problem. Download the ATI/AMD binary driver and install it. I converted it to debs and then installed using dpkg.
This might help:
Don't bother with "sudo aticonfig --initial". Will tell you no supported adapters found. Just continue on, make sure you have no existing xorg.conf in /etc/X11/.
You will need to reboot as the kernel/initrd has been modified. If your lucky on reboot X will start and you may see the "AMD Unsupported Hardware" watermark bottom right of screen. To check your using fglrx rather than the open source radeon: lsmod |grep -i radeon or lsmod | grep -i fglrx (among a dozen other ways to check).
Start up a konsole terminal and run "sudo amdcccle" if you want to configure the card/driver further.
Don't forget to put a hold on packages fglrx* otherwise apt will update to newer/other fglrx versions and you will stuff the whole lot up. Google how to hold packages from updating.
Also important to note if your kernel/initrd is touched by anything in the future you will have to reinstall the fglrx drivers/debs again (no big deal, keep them handy).
To remove the watermark Google search it. Running a certain bash script worked for me.
In the end a usable system that is still getting updates (LTS). By no means is this system fast after 10 years. I've disabled all Desktop Effects, installed the "kde no fat" package and the 2D is still ordinary in my opinion by today's standards! Good luck! Send private messages to get my attention for help in the future with this post. Moderators move this post elsewhere if required.
Update: As soon as I set the window manager to openbox rather than kwin everything became very usable. No more glacial window resizing.
Recently I have had to fire up a backup PC to do some work with and have found technology has left my old beast behind somewhat. The following is an example of a working 10 year old PC running fairly recent Kubuntu and ATI/AMD proprietary display drivers. I'm not wanting to debate why, I'm just documenting this as there is some misinformation out there.
Hardware:
Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
Product Name: K8T Master2-FAR
Dual Opteron 242
4G RAM
VIA K8T800 AGP x8
HIS ATI HD4670 AGP Graphics (rv730)
Software:
Kubuntu 12.04.5 x86_64
ATI/AMD Legacy Catalyst 13.1 (amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13.1-legacy-linux-x86.x86_64.zip)
Kernel 3.2.0-68-generic
X.Org X Server 1.11.3
KDE 4.13.2
According to many on line sources this combination isn't supposed to work. It does, and without much tinkering at all.
In ones reading and foolhardy experimentation they will discover AMD do not support HD4xxxx (rv730) cards with the latest Catalyst drivers. These are now legacy. ATI/AMD you suck btw.
Sept 2014
Rules for Catalyst 13.1 for ATI 4670 AGP:
- 12.04 Precise is the last supported distro version.
- Must install from media 12.04.0 or 12.04.1. Anything later uses incompatible Xorg and Kernel versions.
- Must run "X.Org X Server 1.11.3". No newer.
- Must run "3.2.0-xx-generic". No newer. (Unconfirmed)
- If something touches the kernel/dkms/xorg in any updates the fglrx* debs/script must be re-installed.
- Must hold the fglrx packages from updating.
- All working and updated running 12.04.5
The crux of it is we are best to stay with Precise 12.04. Anything newer install media than 12.04.1 uses newer kernels and Xorg which are incompatible. If you install from 12.04.1 and then update to 12.04.5 there is no problem. Download the ATI/AMD binary driver and install it. I converted it to debs and then installed using dpkg.
This might help:
Code:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic sudo apt-get install build-essential sudo apt-get install dh-make dh-modaliases execstack libc6-i386 lib32gcc1 dkms sudo ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13.1-legacy-linux-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/precise sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb
You will need to reboot as the kernel/initrd has been modified. If your lucky on reboot X will start and you may see the "AMD Unsupported Hardware" watermark bottom right of screen. To check your using fglrx rather than the open source radeon: lsmod |grep -i radeon or lsmod | grep -i fglrx (among a dozen other ways to check).
Start up a konsole terminal and run "sudo amdcccle" if you want to configure the card/driver further.
Don't forget to put a hold on packages fglrx* otherwise apt will update to newer/other fglrx versions and you will stuff the whole lot up. Google how to hold packages from updating.
Also important to note if your kernel/initrd is touched by anything in the future you will have to reinstall the fglrx drivers/debs again (no big deal, keep them handy).
To remove the watermark Google search it. Running a certain bash script worked for me.
In the end a usable system that is still getting updates (LTS). By no means is this system fast after 10 years. I've disabled all Desktop Effects, installed the "kde no fat" package and the 2D is still ordinary in my opinion by today's standards! Good luck! Send private messages to get my attention for help in the future with this post. Moderators move this post elsewhere if required.
Update: As soon as I set the window manager to openbox rather than kwin everything became very usable. No more glacial window resizing.