I've installed the latest proprietary (non-opensource ) driver from the ATI website for this card (= amd-driver-installer-12-6-x86.x86_64.run) and, after uninstalling whatever was there before, it goes through the installation process apparently OK - and comes up with the Catalyst control center in Preferences - which, when activated, then comes up with a message about no driver or corrupt file etc. But the installation process had checked the integrity of the 100meg-ish downloaded file and said it was OK

And then, when rebooting, it goes most of the way through the bootup process before coming up with a blank screen and "hanging".

After which in order to get back to a working desktop - like now - I have to go into the /etc/X11 directory from a bootable CD OS (I use PartedMagic) and rename/delete the xorg.conf file that the Radeon installer had created. To, presumably, get back to the "default"(?) X.

If necessary I'll post that "sideways-shunted " xorg.conf file that the ATI installer created.

I've gone through the same process a couple of times with the same "BSOD" result.

Any ideas about what else I need to install to get it to work OK?
Even though I'm not very keen on Unity/Gnome3 (why I'm so happy with Mint/Mate/Gnome2 and prefer it to the latest Ubuntu, which have I had a lookat/installed) I'd like to be able to have a look at Mint/Cinnamon for interest.

TIA uplines
PaulW

AMD FX-4100 Black cpu
Asus M5A97 EVO m/b (SATA3
8GB of Kingston 1600 RAM
Asus Xonar STX s/card - beautiful thing!
Radeon HD5450 vidcard
Seagate 1TB ST31000524AS (Mint12, XP, & ntfs "dump")
90G OCZ Vertex 3 (7 & FC14)
Asstd other whirlygigs and SSDs as needed

I had the same problem (same error message) after a kernel security update. I had been using the ATI repository and installed the RPM package. Running the ATI setup program fixed the problem in my case. In the interim, I was using the Radeon driver.

One thing to look at is the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf file. It may contain lines about the OS radeon driver that you should comment out. (however, I doubt this will help with the hardware not being detected.)

Try running "sudo depmod -a" just in case. It rebuilds the kernel modules.dep and map files. These may be needed for the install program to work.

The driver I installed was amd-driver-installer-12-4-x86.x86_64.run. (Radeon HD 4350). However, I just checked and it indicates the driver is now amd-driver-installer-12.6-legacy-x86.x86_64.run.
I wonder if the amd-driver-installer-12-4-x86.x86_64.run driver installer would work.

Another thing to try if possible is to roll back to a kernel version that you were using before.

Thanx for that jschiwal!

That file is nowhere to be seen in that directory - or any other that I looked for it in.

The install program seems to work fine in all ways. It's just when it goes through the "switch" to the apparently newly installed fglrx driver that it hangs - ie seems to not connect in some way.
Is there some way to do a "debug bootup" in linux/Mint? - ie going through each of the steps slowly one at a time?
I successfully used that debugging mode in winDoze once to find out what was causing it to "hang" - in that case an a/v app that needed to be uninstalled/reinstalled.

I tried a few of the earlier installation programs and they all gave the same result - the same xorg.conf and "hanging" .

The xorg.conf file that they all produce looks OK:
and this same xorg.conf file and driver installation worked fine on an install of Mint on another sdd - the one that I first tried the OS (Mint12) out on!
It's just on the install of it on my "main" sdd (that I'm now trying to get the Radeon driver working on) that the "hang" problem is happening.
I do have this "hanging"Mint sdd running as an IDE in BIOS setup - because I've also got XP on that drive - which (XP) doesn't show up if the drive is set to AHCI. But even when plugging it into one of the 4 AHCI ports nothing changes. Even tried uninstalling&reinstalling the ATI driver and Catalyst control centre while connected to an AHCI port - = no difference.

I haven't got an earlier kernel to roll back to! - this is the first Mint install that I've done
And, in fact, the first time I've gotten more than a 2.6 kernel - on the older Fedora that I preferred until now!

Any more ideas uplines!
TIA
PaulW

Is there any specific reason why you don't use the drivers from Mint's repositories? AFAIK, the AMD driver has problems with Debian based 64 bit distros, so I would try the one from the repositories, it may be that it is patched.

I don't know how to get at them! - being a bit of a linuxlearner
Or even how to find out which video drivers are being used in linuxes in general - or where they "live" in the filesystem. It's not nearly as transparent in that regard as winDoze!
Is it all that stuff in /var/log/xorg.0.log?? Which presumably makes the "default" X(?) able to handle whatever card it gets used on.

Where are these Mint repositories you mention? On the Mint site I presume?
But I can't find anything there about either opensource or proprietary video drivers .

After a bit of googling I found one site that said to write one's own xorg.conf file as follows:
- which I have done and which seems to have been "accepted" OK - ie at least it now seems to boot up OK with that xorg.conf.

However still comes up with the same as usual:
But, as I said earlier, how come another install of Mint12 on another whirlygig sdd accepted the proprietary ATI driver OK?? And runs fine with it - Catalyst control centre and all!
Am wondering if I should just do a fresh install (of 13 now, I spose) and check early on that the driver has installed OK - ie that the Catalyst contro centre is working OK.

BTW - I modified my "Solved" explanation/writeup on another similar, older post of mine about the root login question to say that one should turn off the modem/router first! Even after setting up a root password I guess?

OK, short explanation about installing software on Linux.
Unlike in Windows, where you have to get the software you need from the vendor's website, in Linux the maintainers of your distribution assemble repositories of software that is compiled, configured and tested to work with your distribution. These repositories are available through several tools, some commandline, some graphical, some specialized for a specific purpose. On Mint, for example, you have the Software Center, which gives you access to the repositories, and you have a specific tool for driver installations, called "Additional Drivers" (or Jockey, but you won't see that name in the menu). It is strongly recommended, especially for a newbie, to use those tools for any installation of software or drivers. You will find information about the usage of Mint and its tools in the Mint manual, which is available in several languages here: http://www.linuxmint.com/documentation.php

So my recommendation would be:
1. Uninstall the drivers you got from the website (start the installer with the --uninstall option)
2. Reboot, then start the additional drivers program and let it install the AMD drivers
3. Reboot and see if it works

In general, Linux is not Windows and the most difficult thing for newbies is that most of the knowledge they acquired about Windows (and DOS) computers does simply not apply to Linux. You have to unlearn your Windows habits to become a Linux user.

Thanx for all that - and for your general patience
That's just what I would like to do!
But after looking everywhere, as I have just been doing for quite some time , I can't find any "Additional Drivers" command anywhere in the system - including doing Searches etc.
I gather that it's supposed to be under System Tools>System Settings>Additional Drivers - but there is no such command/app on this installation - or on the other (Radeon-working) Mint12's menus. There's not even a System Settings sub-menu.

Sure - and I'd like to - but they both have their different uses/values and I'd like to keep/use/understand both! winDoze7 is a very good tailored/optimized-to-the-system OS, especially on an ssd!, while linuxes are much more "bulletproof" and user-configurable - albeit with a different mindset needed, as you say.
What made me shift to Mint from Fedora was its mostly-equivalent-to-7-ish 64bit "snappiness", coupled with its user-friendliness/suggestions, slight amount of system-optimisation, and its Gnome2 configurability.

Later edit:

MEA CULPA!!

It has all been my own idiotic fault

I twigged to the "answer" because when I was connecting up the (ATIbooting) sdd, GRUB would occasionally go to that sdd's Mint instead of the Mint that I was trying to "correct" ie they both had the same UUID. I confirmed this in GParted's info section.
So I eventually realised that what I'd originally done was to copy (via GParted) the working Mint12 that I had already installed onto the whirlygig "target" sdd that I wanted it to be on - and then had forgotten that I'd done this! So there is no wonder that its video wouldn't connect up - it was probably looking to the completely wrong address in memory!

So, there being only 3 partitions on that 1TB "target" sdd, I shrunk the copied Mint12 down to as small a size as it would go (>12M - surprisingly it still boots up fine - it's amazing how flexible linuxes are in this respect as compared to winDozes!) and created a new 50G partition onto which I did another clean install of the OS. Which now runs fine with the proprietary ATI driver happily installed.
And all other installations/downloads are also working much more quickly too!

So I guess the message to be taken from all this is to not get too carried away with how easily linuxes copy, resize etc and keep a clear grasp of the "architecture" of what one is doing - one's various OSs etc.

Many thanx again for all your hints, tips TobiSGD - and sorry to have wasted your time.

As usual I am writing up what the solution was before marking this thread solved in case others might get some tips from myt mistakes!.

Cheers
PaulW

Just for completeness, I just downloaded Mint 12 and looked for the "Additional Drivers" program. You will find it when you click on your username in the top right and choose "System Settings" in the menu.
A window will pop up where you can find the program in the hardware section.
It is always recommended to use that for installing drivers. If you use the driver from AMD's website the system will not start into graphical mode and you will have re-install the driver every time your kernel gets updated. This does not apply to Nvidia's proprietary driver if you use the latest version.

I remembered/realised last night, while doing the working clean re-install of Mint12, why I originally did the "copy of a working OS partition" to produce the "glitched"Mint OS" that I was trying to repair:
Sure, it only takes about 8 - 10 minutes to install Mint12 (on this SATA3 box), after having done a 10 minute wipe/"dd"ing>0 of the partition via Disc Eraser in PartedMagic - ie about 20 minutes altogether; but then it took me about 4 -5 hrs to download, install, and configure everything I wanted to get it into the working condition I expect/require.

Hence the attempt to just copy a working OSpartition - which appeared to work OK - except for the videocarddriver problem.
Which, BTW, (copying an OSpartition - AAMOI I make mine about 60ishG) works fairly well/easily with winDozes - with a bit of "repair"xyz/"bootrec"xyz and the need/necessity to backup the MBR(s) to a USB stick via MBRTool running in FreeDOS - in case one has to do "bootrec fixmbr" .
I can't find my username anywhere on any desktop - top left or anywhere! - after looking in both the functioning Mint12s I've got here and in both the Mate and Cinnamon GUIs! In Fedora it says in the taskbar what the user is logged in as - but nowhere can I find this in Mint12 after an hour or two of very intensive searching. And going from one of the booting Mint12s to the other to check, while writing this.
There's nothing in the top left except for a "hot corner" which one can put into the Cinnamon GUI.
My Mint12 ISO came offof the coverDVD of an Oz computer mag - sometimes I've found that these can differ from the "official" ones.

AAMOI one pleasant "improvement" after the clean install I did is that the 15G "shrunken"/"glitched" Mint12 is visible from the neighbouring "good" install - and files can be copied from one to the other - after the odd password entering - as one does/expectstodo in winDozes - the first time I've seen any linuxes be able to do this! - usually one has to go to a CDbooting external one (eg PartedMagic or Knoppix) to be able to copy/paste linux files from one linuxOS to another.
I prefer/like the Gnome2 desktop because of the excellent "system monitor" applet that one can install there with CPU,network, & sdd being updated every 100ms - I like to see what is going on.
Shouldn't be a problem now that I know how to do that OK.

I hope that the explanation/selfcriticism that I did (above) was in the approved/correct opensource/copyleft paradigm - ie when one figures out how one has made a hash of something write it down in case others can learn/benefit from it.
As I implied I had "tripped over my own cleverness" - coupled with an ageing memory - perhaps I need another 8G or so of RAM in the CPU of this meatmachine that it seems I maybe have to live in for a while longer

Why did you do that? This is not necessary at all.

Sorry, my fault, should be top right, not top left. I have attached a screenshot of Mint running in a virtual machine, have a look at the green circles. I just downloaded the Mint version labelled as linuxmint12-gnome-cd-nocodecs-32bit.iso, the first one in their torrent list.

I am somewhat surprised by this statement. I was able to do that since I am a Linux user, either by the auto-mounting feature of the bigger file-managers or just by mounting those partitions manually.

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I have been playing around with copying OSpartitions for a while now (my subset of the first 3 rules of computer use: (1)back up, (2)back up, and (3)back up) and I've found that, to avoid occasional odd inexplicable "glitches", it pays to wipe the area that one is copying onto.
When a partition is formatted all that happens is that the filesystem table at the end of the MBR gets rewritten and the original files are all still in place.
Hence the many "Recover Partition" softwares around - which can recover most data after quite a few overwrites! Am not sure if this only applies to whirlygig (=magnetic) drives - maybe ssds aren't so "recoverable"??
I know that this (wiping/"dd"ing>0) may well just be the "placebo " effect - but I usually do this and less "glitches" do seem to occur!
Yes - I can see what you're describing in what you can see on your desktop - but I've also posted a screenshot of my desktop with the Menu section open at System Tools - with no sign of any System Settings subsection and, as I say, even after doing a search for System Settings and much searching everywhere I can think of, I can't come up with anything Settings-related.
Mine is the 64bit Mint12Debian offof the APCmag July coverDVD - running Gnome 3.2.1 with the Mate (with Gnome2), Cinnamon, and XFCE GUIs available by choice at the login screen. Maybe it's a "sampler" distro because I see that the downloads from the Mint site are either for the Mate or Cinnamon GUIs - but not both. If so that (a "general" distro) is a good thing IMHO - it's a mag that generally gives good coverage to linux and is sometimes, perhaps, quite "evangelical" about it. Which must be a positive thing .
But I would like to know what package(s) I need to install to get to be able to see/change/upgrade the system settings.
Or do I need to do another "clean" install from the Mint site? - I hope not!
Yes I've done that fstab stuff too - and lately the ntfs-3g app for winDozes - but what I was saying was that it was the first time that another linux partition was automatically automounted.
And my delight in Mint, in some part, comes from the suggestions it often gives when incorrect commands are entered - including Audacity once suggesting importing "raw" audio data from a slightly corrupted partition - which I could then export in corrected form to the ntfs partition where I save my audio files (@96kHz16bit) - as a longtime EarlyMusic maker/enthusiast I put a very high value on the audio functionality of my computers - and I can hear/value the slight improvement that my new Asus Xonar soundcard gives over the MAudioMA192 that I've used (and enjoyed) for the last few years - about 10 - 12dB better S/N I think the Xonar gives.

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It seems, from a little looking around, that the jockeys (-gtk and -text) haven't been ported to Debian/LMDE/Mint12.
Though they are on the Maya (Mint13 Mate) install DVD, and show up when booting from that desktop/installDVD.
Which is probably why they aren't showing up on my Mint12 desktop!

Tried copying/pasting some of their executables and directories to /usr/bin &... - but obviously not enough to make them work.
Maybe I'd better do an update/install to/of 13?

I can cleearly see the jockey program on the Mint 12 install I have in a virtual machine. While jockey is not ported to LMDE (Debian based) it doesn't need to be ported to the main branch of Mint, since Mint is based on Ubuntu.

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