[SOLVED] Graphics hosed Catalyst Control Center driver issue

Ztcoracat · 02-09-2012, 05:33 PM

Hi
Approximately 2-3 weeks ago I lost all of my graphics in Ubuntu 10.04 : U.E.2.7 and a Senior Member of this forum aided me with instructions and commands to correct the problem.
Just before I lost all graphics I had installed updates.
At that time the Catalyst Control Center gave me an error message:

Code:

NO ATI driver is installed or ATI driver is not functioning properly

The Senior Member explained to me that I appear to have the fglrx installed but not configured to use it. He advised me to use the command I posted the output of a log in the past at pastebin.com however; I don't know if that /xorg.o.log is the same today.

Code:

ati config -- initial

And reboot. Not sure if this command should be performed again.

How would I know if that is my case again? .....And why would this graphics problem re-accure again?
This time a friend was playing Grand Theft Auto on my Windows partition and it locked up the system so I shut it down manually and rebooted. Could this have caused the loss in graphics again?

Any help and advise is always appreciated in a time of distress.
Thank you in advance

amani · 02-10-2012, 11:22 AM

Yes try that

or better still throw out the proprietary driver with

sudo apt-get remove fglrx*

Ztcoracat · 02-11-2012, 12:02 PM

amani,
Your instruction and command worked.
I opened my terminal and put in:

Code:

sudo apt-get remove fglrx

And restarted. When I rebooted Ubuntu I had all of my graphics back; the desktop cube and etc.

This loss of graphics has happened twice now.....for the future can you recommend to me steps and or commands that I could try if it happens again?
Perhaps I should do more research so I can be well educated with graphics.

I do not want to lose my graphic again; as you could image this is frustrating to a Ubuntu/Ultimate Edition user.
If your able to please enlighten me for the future

amani · 02-12-2012, 10:49 AM

You removed the proprietary driver fglrx (provided by AMD) and it got replaced by
'radeon' - the excellent free software.

If you do not install the proprietary driver, you will be fine.

But to have everything ok see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troublesho...from%20scratch

OR

sudo /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh # (if it exists)
sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*
sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

TobiSGD · 02-12-2012, 11:20 AM

Keep in mind that you will not have the same performance with the free radeon drivers as with the proprietary drivers. It also may be, depending on your graphics chip, that not all functions of it are supported by the free driver.

But anyways, if you have system lock ups in Windows that cause your Linux graphics driver to malfunction I would rather assume a hardware failure than a problem with the drivers.

Ztcoracat · 02-12-2012, 05:57 PM

amani:
Thank you for the websites and commands for the future it means a lot to me.

I recently composed a long description to the Ubuntu Community in the hopes that many will pull together with me and try to solve or help this continued repeat of graphical problems with games, updates and any other bizaree instances.
I can only hope that others will write to me.
Thank You again and have a good upcoming week.

TobiSGD:
You say that you assume a hardware failure than a problem with the drivers.
I am very suspicious that Windows may have conflicted with Rockstar Games ( the maker of Grand Theft Auto) Maybe a compatibility issue and as a reslult my system locked up resulting in loss of graphics in Ultimate Edition 2.7-

Also in the past my GIMP program (when installed on Windows) would consistanly crash and lock up as well.
Is there a way to tell/diagnose that indeed the Operating System Engineers/Programmers may have designed a program or device to aid but instead the aid perhaps is a detection device rather than a stepping stone?

I am very serious about my Operating System and caring for it for the future because my spouse is not familiar with Linux and also because it is my responsibility to manintain and repair and update.

TobiSGD · 02-13-2012, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ztcoracat

I am very suspicious that Windows may have conflicted with Rockstar Games ( the maker of Grand Theft Auto) Maybe a compatibility issue and as a reslult my system locked up

Possible, but I doubt it.

Quote:

resulting in loss of graphics in Ultimate Edition 2.7

How shoulds that be possible? Windows is not able to access Linux filesystems by default. So it is very very unlikely that that happened.

Quote:

Also in the past my GIMP program (when installed on Windows) would consistanly crash and lock up as well.

This is crucial information that you should have given in your original post. This makes a hardware failure even more likely.

I would recommend to do the standard hardware tests, like testing the RAM with Memtest and testing the harddisk with the manufacturers diagnosis tool.

Quote:

Is there a way to tell/diagnose that indeed the Operating System Engineers/Programmers may have designed a program or device to aid but instead the aid perhaps is a detection device rather than a stepping stone?

Sorry, but I don't get what you mean with this. Please explain.

Ztcoracat · 02-14-2012, 05:09 PM

I will Google the :

Code:

Memtest

I have never used memtest to test the RAM so I will have to find it. And the Manufactures diagnossis tool I will have to locate as well.

Code:

As long as I do not go to the Windows side of my partition my Linux machine and it's graphics are fine and works properly

What I am wondering; Is there a way to tell if Windows is causing the graphics card and chip or driver to produce these failures?

Ion Silverbolt · 02-14-2012, 08:42 PM

As stated, the open source Ati driver is much more stable. You really shouldn't need fglrx unless you want to run graphic intensive games under linux, or use vaapi acceleration for HD movies.

If you manage to rule out bad memory with memtest, you might also try running a version of memtest for graphics cards called memtestg80.

https://simtk.org/home/memtest

I have dealt with a couple of different bad graphics cards. Sometimes I think manufacturers go nuts and clock their cards higher than they should be clocked to get top dollar for them. This might be fine at first, but I think some cards lose their ability to run that fast as they age. Especially if they run fairly hot. If this is the case with your card, you might be able to make it stable again by underclocking it a bit. An old Radeon I had would lock up and produce artifacts unless I underclocked the memory in the CCC.

If you manage to rule out memory, try running in Windows for a while and underclock the GPU clock a little bit in the CCC. If you find a good stable speed, then we can help you further from there. You can underclock it in Linux if needed. It's just not as straight forward.

Your power supply may also be a culprit. Are you using a clean power rail to your graphics card from your power supply? I would suspect the graphics card more at this point, but this is something worth considering as well.

Ztcoracat · 02-15-2012, 03:43 PM

Ion Silverbolt:
I will try those things that you wrote.
Not sure if it's RAM but I will test today and see what happens.
Thank you for the website

I might underclock the card if it happens again. Haven't tried that yet.

Don't think it's the power supply as I purchased this computer 2 years ago brand new....but like you said it could be possible and worth considering.

I found the MemtestG80-1.t-linux 32.tar.gz (139 kb)v 1.1 binary for Linux
I am assuming that is the right one I need as I have a 32 bit processor.