Member Avatar for Duki

Hey guys,

I have Fedora6 installed on my Dell laptop. I am a complete noob at any Linux os. I have a few things that I would like some help with.

1. I have no clue how to install drivers (or programs for that matter). I need drivers for my graphics card (Radeon 9700?) and my scroll wheel on my Logitech mouse doesn't work.

2. I also need help finding the installation files for AIM, as I have a friend who can help, but phone-chat isn't very productive when issueing commands :confused:


Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm sure I'll have more questions later... xD

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by pty

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Two separate problems are visible in this thread: the Radeon-related display corruption after attempting a proprietary driver, and the AIM installer failing with an older C++ runtime dependency. originally tried the vendor driver; and offered useful starting points, but a few diagnostic and safety notes will help avoid chasing symptoms.

Common troubleshooting steps for the display artifacts are to inspect the X server log (/var/log/Xorg.0.log) for error/warning lines and to check the kernel ring buffer for module or build errors. Verifying whether 3D acceleration is active (with glxinfo) and temporarily switching to the open-source radeon driver will quickly show whether the problem is the proprietary module or hardware. Proprietary AMD/ATI modules must be built for the exact running kernel and match the X server ABI; a kernel or X update often requires reinstalling/rebuilding the module. Always keep a backup of /etc/X11/xorg.conf before edits, and try changing color depth or disabling compositing as quick isolating steps.

The AIM RPM failure means the installer expects an older libstdc++ ABI. Creating manual symlinks (as attempted) is brittle and can break other packages. A safer approach is to use the distribution’s packaged IM client or to install the distro-provided compatibility library package that supplies the older libstdc++ rather than forcing links. To inspect an RPM’s requirements use rpm -qpR package.rpm, and use the package manager’s “provides”/search feature to locate the right compat package.

Notes and cautions: avoid ad-hoc library symlinks, back up configs before changing X, and prefer distro-packaged or repository-supplied drivers/libs when possible. Useful diagnostics for helpers are the X log, kernel version, and any module build errors.

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Member Avatar for John A

I have no clue how to install drivers (or programs for that matter). I need drivers for my graphics card (Radeon 9700?) and my scroll wheel on my Logitech mouse doesn't work.

There's multiple ways of installing Linux programs and drivers. For open source programs, the most common way to distribute them is to use source code which you then have to compile. Other ways include using the built-in package manager that came with your distro (in this case, RPM) to handle the programs.

For your ATI card, the drivers are proprietary, so you'll simply get a binary which will install the drivers, not very different from installing software on Windows. First download the drivers from ATI for your Radeon, then follow the instructions.

I also need help finding the installation files for AIM, as I have a friend who can help, but phone-chat isn't very productive when issueing commands :confused:

Here's a link for AIM on Linux:
http://www.aim.com/get_aim/linux/latest_linux.adp

They provide good installation instructions there, so you shouldn't have a problem.

Hope this helps

Member Avatar for DimaYasny

what's really good in linux - everything is googleable ;)

Member Avatar for Duki

Well I've gotten somewhere with this. I found a site that said to type in this command, so I did.

# yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx kmod-fglrx glx-utils

My resolution is where I want it, but my screen looks like this:

[IMG]http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s33/ctote/Screenshot.png[/IMG]

I don't know if you can tell, but there are verticle lines on the taskbar. I can also tell when scrolling through web pages. :confused:

Here's a link for AIM on Linux:
http://www.aim.com/get_aim/linux/latest_linux.adp

They provide good installation instructions there, so you shouldn't have a problem.

I couldn't find anywhere to download the files. Do I just download the file files?

Member Avatar for John A

Don't really know why your taskbar looks so funky; perhaps you should try changing the color depth.

As for installation of AIM - here's the link:

So, just download the RPM file.
Then navigate to the file, and enter the command at the prompt:

rpm -i aim_file.rpm

Replacing aim_file.rpm with the name of RPM that you downloaded.

Member Avatar for Duki

Ok, well I downloaded this for the graphics card drivers:

but when I double click it, the program just opens and freezes. I have to log off to close it out.

Member Avatar for Duki

I just tried to install AIM and got this error

libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2 is needed by aim-1.5.286-1.i386

any ideas?
I ran this cmd: ln -s /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-2.so.3 /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2
Not sure what it did, but the installation still won't work

Member Avatar for pty

I just tried to install AIM and got this error

libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2 is needed by aim-1.5.286-1.i386

any ideas?
I ran this cmd: ln -s /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-2.so.3 /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2
Not sure what it did, but the installation still won't work

Instead of the official AIM client use Gaim (it will already be installed on FC6).

For Radeon drivers have a look at this: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#radeon

It should get you up and running.

To be honest, if you get stuck maybe try Sabayon Linux, its Gentoo based but comes with ATi drivers preinstalled and uses the same installer as Fedora.

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