If there’s anything to be learned from this, it is that from now on, when I shop for new computers, I only look for those with Nvidia or Intel graphics hardware. I’ve never been a fan of ATi hardware but was hoping with the AMD leadership that support would improve. It apparently has not.

As much as I wish I could provide help to everyone suffering from this same dilemma, I can not. Since the comments are only more unanswered questions, I see no need to keep them open any further. Before I close them, I’ll try to point the last few in the right direction.

@Harald and Josue – Kubuntu does things slightly different with display settings. The few times I’ve tried using KDE, I’ve had issues that never manifested before when using Gnome. Both use the same X server, but they are different environments. I would suggest seeing what the KDE or Kubuntu forums have to say about that.

@mukesh – It’s probably that your ATi Radeon 3450 isn’t powerful enough to handle desktop effects at your desired resolution. Try reducing the resolution first. It has to do with a maximum allowable texture size. For instance, if your resolution is something like 1440×1050, and your maximum allowable texture size is 1024×1024, then you’re limited to using 1024×768 with desktop effects. My Thinkpad T41 is limited like that. However, when using the open source drivers, like the ati or radeon driver, I can have “normal” desktop effects at full resolution. It’s sluggish and not as pretty, but it’s better than nothing.

@dahve – Sounds like you had something else running that was locking the apt archive. You can’t have more than one package manager working at the same time (Synaptic, apt-get, aptitude, Restricted/Hardware Drivers). If any one of them has the archives locked, none of the others will be able to access them until the first one is closed.

@Paulo – Without knowing what kind of hardware you have, I would have to guess that it’s probably not supported by the fglrx driver, even though it may be listed.

@Robert – That’s a connection issue. Yes, you may “have internet connection”, but there may be an issue with the server. When you attempt to activate it, it should download the driver. You can try downloading the .deb file manually by visiting the xorg-driver-fglrx package page at Ubuntu.

To everyone else, head over to AMD/ATi’s support forums and inundate them with help questions. Tell them since they refuse to provide better support for Linux, you refuse to buy any more of their products. Maybe they’ll finally wake up.

I am using Kubuntu 8.10. Whenever I switch to the fglrx driver, restart, I am presented with a low res screen. (something like 800×640). This starts with the login screen. I then have to start the System Settings utility and select the Screen section. When I open the Screen settings my resolution switches back to the desired value.

Hardware: HP Compaq 6715b (AMD/ATI).

My Thinkpad T41 uses an Intel Pentium M 1.7GHz CPU and an ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] chipset which is controlled by the radeon driver. I had to close anything that wasn’t necessary to the recording to make it less slow and jerky. My Acer Extensa 4420 uses an AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core TK-57 1.9GHz CPU and an ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series] chipset which can use the fgrlx driver. The only slowness was when trying to use any of compiz’s desktop effects.

So slowness can be attributed to more than which driver is in use. See recordMyDesktop’s FAQ about steps to achieve better framerates and smoother videos.

pentium4 3.2ghz

ram ddr2 2gb

gpu HD2600XT powercolor

any ideas?

Hardware limitations may prevent it as not all AMD/ATI chipsets can perform the acceleration. I have a Thinkpad T41 where I have to reduce the screen resolution from 1400×1050 to 1024×768 in order for compiz to perform all the pretty effects. In this case, the chipset can’t handle textures larger than 1024×1024.

If this is a case of it having worked prior to Intrepid but not now, than there might be a bug that needs to be addressed. Launchpad’s fglrx section tracks bugs that need to be given to AMD.

If you have set metacity to perform compositing, then it might prevent compiz from taking control. Run gconf-editor from a command line (or using Alt-F2) and find /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager in the Configuration Editor. If it is checkmarked, remove it and try activating compiz again.

Although it’s rare, maybe it needs to be reinstalled.
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xorg-driver-fglrx

It’s hard to nail down a reason without knowing all of the information. Hopefully these tips can help others troubleshoot their issue.