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lewashby 56 Junior Poster

I'm using LinuxMint 15.

I'm getting the following errors when I tried to install the AMD CATALYS 13.1 Legacy driver. Any ideas what's wrong and what I can do?

garrett@garrett-bedroom ~ $ cat /usr/share/ati/fglrx-install.log 
Detected a previous installation, /usr/share/ati/amd-uninstall.sh
Dryrun uninstall succeeded continuing with installation.
Check if system has the tools required for installation.
Uninstalling any previously installed drivers.
Forcing uninstall of AMD Catalyst(TM) Proprietary Driver.
No integrity verification is done.
restore of system environment completed
Errors during DKMS module removal
Uninstall fglrx driver complete.
For detailed log of uninstall, please see /etc/ati/fglrx-uninstall.log
System must be rebooted to avoid system instability and potential data loss.
/usr/share/ati/amd-uninstall.sh completed with 0

Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/fglrx/8.97.100.7/source ->
                 /usr/src/fglrx-8.97.100.7

DKMS: add completed.

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel.  Skipping...

Building module:
cleaning build area....
cd /var/lib/dkms/fglrx/8.97.100.7/build; sh make.sh --nohints --uname_r=3.8.0-19-generic --norootcheck....(bad exit status: 1)
[Error] Kernel Module : Failed to build fglrx-8.97.100.7 with DKMS
[Error] Kernel Module : Removing fglrx-8.97.100.7 from DKMS

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 8.97.100.7
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.
[Reboot] Kernel Module : update-initramfs
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Dani AI

Generated

Short answer for : the fglrx DKMS failure is almost always caused by a driver/kernel/Xorg mismatch. The AMD “Catalyst 13.1 (Legacy)” branch targets the older Radeon HD 2000–4000 family and, per AMD’s driver pages, is built for X.Org up to 1.12 and kernels up to ~3.4, so it will not build cleanly on the newer kernel/Xorg that Mint 15 ships. () (lizards.opensuse.org)

Checklist and quick diagnostics (run from a terminal):

lspci -nn | grep VGA
# check DKMS build log:
sudo less /var/lib/dkms/fglrx/*/build/make.log
# ensure build deps are installed if attempting a compile:
sudo apt-get install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r) dh-modaliases execstack

If the make.log shows API/struct compile errors, that’s the kernel/Xorg incompatibility rather than a missing package. (askubuntu.com)

Recommended fixes (safer order):

  1. Use the in-kernel open-source driver (radeon) — it’s the supported path for legacy cards on modern distributions. To restore it:
    sudo sh /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh   # if present
sudo apt-get remove --purge 'fglrx*'
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup  # if exists
sudo reboot

    The distro/packaging docs recommend the open-source stack for legacy GPUs. (wiki.debian.org)

If proprietary Catalyst is absolutely required, the choices are: run an older distro/kernel/Xorg that matches Catalyst’s supported versions, or hunt community patches/backports (risky and unofficial). Downgrading X or kernel or applying patches is fragile and not recommended for a desktop in regular use. For historical notes and community patch/downgrade guides, see openSUSE/Gentoo threads. (forums.opensuse.org)

Summary: the install log’s DKMS failure on a 3.8+ system points to incompatibility between Legacy Catalyst 13.1 and Mint 15’s kernel/Xorg. The practical solution is to remove fglrx and use the radeon driver or move to a platform whose kernel/Xorg match Catalyst’s supported range.

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