Quote:
in either case, I see no advantages to using the ATI Driver
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As I said earlier, I have a ATI Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder. I was unable to use the ati, radeon, or vesa drivers included with the distro, but you're certainly welcome to try them, as it would be easier than compiling the kernel sources...
Google returns a few good pages on installing the ATI driver. When you boot to the command line type:
lynx
www.google.com
lynx is a text web-browser - invaluable when X doesn't work.
If you can't get the distro drivers to work and decide to use the ATI driver, you'll need to compile the kernel sources.
This is a great time to upgrade the kernel and build a custom one if you haven't done this before...
"uname -a" will show you the kernel version
If you do decide to compile the kernel, you have a few options:
1) use the kernel sources for the kernel you're running.
You still need to compile this, but don't need to install it.
Read the README and INSTALL docs in the kernel sources, and know your hardware.
"dmesg" may be helpful to see what hardware linux detects
2) upgrade to a newer kernel/ build a custom kernel
This is always a good idea and will boost performance by removing unneeded drivers.
You will need to compile and install this kernel...once again read README and INSTALL and maybe google for "Debain kernel install"
Keep the old kernel around in case something goes wrong
In either case, when dealing with installing drivers, the kernel sources are always helpful...
I'll be online for a while today - AIM blanks632
Good luck