How do I force the installation of the recommended video drivers in Kubuntu 14.04 LTS

[Shabakthanai]

Drivers will not install in my OS. Kubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit, XFX 7850 R7850 2GB DDR5, 32GB SDRAM nVidia, and AMD 8-core @ 4.2Ghz.

Three drivers are available, one is recommended, but none will install.

Apparently I am left using default drivers. The system works partially, but the 3D capabilities are not working.

They worked fine in other versions of kubuntu, but not in the 14.04 LTS.

I was advised by an acquaintance to eliminate the other versions of Kubuntu and use the LTS, which I have done, but the most stable system apparently can not do what other versions do. That is why I am asking if I can, and if I am able to force the installation of the recommended video card driver.

[Shabakthanai]

The recommended driver is xserver-xorg-video-ati. In MUON, the closest driver available is entitled, xserver-xorg-video-nouveau.

I do not know the risk of installing this driver without further advice. Thanks for your current input. Is it advisable to install this driver? If not, where might I find the correct driver?

There are various issues around river installation but in my experience NOT for 14.04.

But you are not able to select and install the recommended driver via the System Settings.
Try to do it via Muon (or whatever package manager you use).

Simply type in and the available versions will show up, select the one you want, have it installed and reboot.

[Shabakthanai]

steven@steven-K1404:~$ lspci -nn | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Pitcairn PRO [Radeon HD 7850 / R7 265 / R9 270 1024SP] [1002:6819]
steven@steven-K1404:~$

Dear Teunis, this card shows as available when I use the Driver Manager, but when I select it, it does not install. All 3D features are absent. Those are the features I would like to enjoy. Probably previously mentioned earlier in this post, but a reminder is that my OS is Kubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit. My video card is XFX R7850 PCI Express 3.0 2GB DDR5 DD Radeon. Everything seems to work fine but 3D presentations. Those show as 2 separate images on each monitor, of which I have three monitors, 32", 27", 24". My 3D HD Movies play this way.

steven@steven-K1404:~$ lspci -nn | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Pitcairn PRO [Radeon HD 7850 / R7 265 / R9 270 1024SP] [1002:6819]
steven@steven-K1404:~$ dmesg | egrep 'drm|radeon'

(I deleted all data that seemed to be OK and only include the ERROR's) to shorten the reply.

[ 2.937401] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid [drm]] *ERROR* EDID checksum is invalid, remainder is 102

[ 17.497454] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid [drm]] *ERROR* EDID checksum is invalid, remainder is 112
[ 17.526937] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid [drm]] *ERROR* EDID checksum is invalid, remainder is 159
[ 17.556356] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid [drm]] *ERROR* EDID checksum is invalid, remainder is 51
steven@steven-K1404:~$

When I entered the code: LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo, there were a few entries that said slow
at the end of the line. There were so many entries that I mention this way to keep the volume of data down.

When I checked the man radeon pages, my card is shown as supported. I don't understand all the data provided, but I do not see any entry that would indicate why my 3D might not be supported. Does any of this indicate additional help for the diagnosis. I do not understand the checksum is invalid w/remainder entries or how to repair, if there is a repair. Can you explain? Thanks! Sorry to be so burdensome.

ATI is an AMD brand and totally separate from nVidia.
Nouveau is the open source driver for nVidia and again totally separate from nVidia.

So if you are sure you have an ATI video card please install the ATI driver.

Right now they (AMD_ATI) are withdrawing their closed source drivers (AMD Catalist) to have them replaced by open source (Radion).
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

This page gives instructions on how to install the xserver-xorg-video-ati package.
It also has instructions on how to find out the card you actually have:

lspci -nn | grep VGA

In my limited ATI experience they are pretty good.

[Shabakthanai]

Thanks my friend. It required the installation of a few more dependencies but finally worked. By-the-way, I tried Muon, but that did not succeed. It worked from shell w/the other installation of dependencies. You are most appreciated.

Have you tried to install xserver-xorg-video-ati from a package manager like Muon or Synaptic?

Or simply:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati