Problem installing ATI Drivers - kernel 2.6
 

Dear Folks, I have recently decide to move to Linux and purchased a two dvd set of debian 3.1 in October 05. By default it installs with a 2.4 version kernel which doesn't support USB disks/ camera which is a main feature of my intended use.

I have a ATI Radeon X600pro pci express video card and downloaded the driver files from the ATI site. These seem to install ok with a 2.4 kernel on a 32 bit setup. However here is the problem I'd like help with:

I read I'd need to install kernel 2.6 to get usb support and this worked - camera recognised - brill. But I can't get a GUI of any form despite trying hard reading books and forums. This is what I have:

AMD Athlon64 3200+, Abit AN8 ultra motherboard, ATI radeon x600pro video card, ps2 mouse, std 104 keyboard.

When the system boots I just get 'could not start x', and I have to use text console. I've tried dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86, and tried lots of different options to get x going , including choosing vesa, vga, allocating 256000 kB memory (even though the x600pro has 256 MB of its own ram), but I can't get x going.

If I try installing the driver with the ati installer to create a debian 3.1 package it fails with Make:dh_testdir command not found, Make: *** [build] error 127

If i try installing with the ati installer but not using the package create options the error is 'no kernel development environment'


Here is some more info on kernel 2.6.8-11 AMD generic
and the ATI driver is ati-driver-installer-8.19.10-x-86_64.run and fglrx64-4-3-0-8.19.10-1x86_64.rpm

If I reboot with the 2.4 kernel x works ok

I'd much appreciate any help you may be able to offer, Many thanks,
Paul

mmm, first of all, a shot in the dark: install linux-headers-<version-here>. To build the debian package you need to install debhelper. If that doesn't work, try to post the last messages from /var/log/Xfree86.log (or something like that), and some more messages from the build attempts