HI! I've just started using Linux a month ago. I used Ubuntu at first but a few friends told me to switch to Debian, cause it is better....so I did..... I only have one problem ....I have an AsuS ATI Radeon 9250 and i can't seem to find a driver for it. At the moment i'm using the vesa driver ..but it is quite anoying to have 800*600 resolution in my 19''monitor. When i used Ubuntu i didn't have this problem (it worked perfectly). I've downloaded the driver from ati.com but it doesn't work .... when i configure my XF86Config-4 file with this driver and run startx it blocks everything and i have to reboot.

I really hope u can help me.

Have you tried the generic ATI driver that comes with XFree86/Xorg?

See the ATI Display Driver Installation on Debian instructions I have written regarding th installation of the ATI's proprietary display drivers.

Thanks for the documentation.....it works now...hope i don't have any other problems

It is Jan 07 and linux still does not like this graphics card. But here is the deal. I have been trying for days to get any form of linux to work I even went today and got the brand new Linux Format mag - new Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 6.10 both included - tried them both - would not work - tried multiple versions of Suse and even pulled out and old lycoris and xandros cd none of them would produce a graphical display after the install.
But I kept trying -- when I booted up with Overclockix Live CD "OH MY GOD!" I have a graphic desktop!! I had tried a standared knoppix cd the other night and it did not work but this one did. So then I went ahead and installed it on my hard drive and what do you know it was able to boot up into kde. The default boot selection did not work (whatever it was set to) but I picked kde and it worked. So if anyone else is having issues with ATI Radeon 9250 with Linux my suggestion is to try Overclockix.

I'm having problems with the same graphics card, only I'm running Fedora Core 6. It worked good with whatever generic drivers come with this distro, but it wasn't performing as well as it did when I used Windows. So I decided to download the ATI driver from the Livna repository, but the latest version doesn't support my card. I uninstalled that driver and grabbed the latest one from ATI's website that does support it (8.28.8). After installing it, I discover that I have more screen resolutions than before and feel proud to finally have it working, but then I notice that several programs don't work. I run them from terminal and I get this error:
How do I fix this? I'd like to be able to use my graphics card without having to switch distros. I've considered the possibility of buying a Radeon 9800, since it's newer, and probably (hopefully) more compatible.

Sorry, this is kinda out of the conversation, but I have to be sure of something. So it works fine under Ubuntu, right? did you have to install any drivers? If yes, where did you download it from?
I'm about to buy an AsuS ATI Radeon 9250 and I wanna be absolutely sure that it works.(This will be my first Linux system, so I have no idea about the drivers in Linux)

Thanks for your help and sorry for changing the topic

I just got one yesterday, and using the latest version of Ubuntu I can only get 800x600 resolution. Works fine in Windows. At the moment I'd recommend against buying one if you're really set on using Linux for anything. I haven't tried the drivers yet, though I will post again once I've tried them out.

Am somewhat disappointed with the card in Windows, as well; I liked having a 1440x950 resolution, but that is not supported. 1600x1200 is, but that's far too high of a resolution for my monitor (it's supported, but it ends up that I can't see anything).

I am very happy that I can finally play some games on the system, though.

Almost makes me wish I had one of these cards so that I could write up a definitive answer on how to set one up in linux.

I'm running the latest Ubuntu, and this card works great! I even have Compiz-Fusion and Emerald running. What are the specs on your card, trekkie1701c? Mine is the 256 MB model, and it's an official ATI one (as opposed to a third-party card with an ATI chipset).

Installation instructions are bunk for Ubuntu 7.10; ditto for ATI's driver - gives an error message during the installation.

However, after rereading some of the posts here, I decided to use the VESA driver, and it's working fine now.

Still not sure why it wasn't recommended automatically by dpkg, and I would love to know why it doesn't support as high of a resolution in Linux as my 10 year old card did; but at least my system's a little more up to date.

It doesn't support higher resolutions because the VESA driver is a generic driver that works with pretty much any video card out there. As such, it is also quite limited in capability.

I would try getting the ATI driver to work instead, because you will benefit from the higher capabilities of the card.

Hey guys, I'm getting a X Server: unable to detect error while installing 8.28.8 (AFAIK last drivers supporting 9250) on a debian unstable pc with vanilla kernel.

any clue on how to solve this?

i have the same problem, does anyone know the solution.

MM

That driver will only work with xorg up to v7.1
If you have a later version of xorg you have to use the open source driver.

Jim