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I've recently and after testing several distros moved back to Ubuntu (I loved Debian, but Ubuntu felt more complete).

So the problem here is that I currently own an HP laptop (3315ep) with an ATI graphics card (5550m), which is available as a high performance card, paired with the included Intel card and it should be able to switch between them if (Switchable Graphics within the CCC).

How do I install my graphics card and the available Catalyst Control Centre in a fresh 12.10 install?

From what I've read there are some compatibility issues with X, kernel, Unity and the stable version of ATI drivers (hence the beta drivers availability), but since the posts are about 1 to 2 months old I do not know if that is the correct method any more (the related kernels in such threads are not the most recent). I've tried such methods, but after installing both the stable and the beta drivers from the ATI website, Unity breaks after logging in, and no window manager seems to work either, neither does fglxrinfo return any valid information.

Thank you for your time.

3 Answers 3

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Download the installer from AMD's website (as of this post, the latest stable version is 13.1 which I don't believe is available from the PPA at this point), run the installer (you'll need kernel headers, gcc, and a few other things, just look at the log when the installer fails). Make sure you build Ubuntu debs from the installer rather than installing directly from the amd script. There are a few dependencies that the installer won't tell you about unless you build debs. Without those it won't work with dpms (your display shutting off to save power) and you'll want to chuck your computer out the window (been there).

I'm running fglrx 13.1 right now with no issues (apart from 100% CPU usage when the display shuts off (it's a bug that will hopefully get fixed soon, but you can get around it by setting the vsync option in catalyst control to "on unless application specifies otherwise")).

Catalyst Driver (64 bit)

Wiki Instructions

Launchpad Bug for 100% CPU usage on dpms standby.

Workaround #1 works for me.

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  • Thank you for your answer, and I've tried this but It still seems that fglrx is not recognizing my card, and if I force aticonfig --initial I end up in Low Graphics Mode. I'm running out of options, which is terrible because I need to use my VGA/HDMI ports, and not the graphics card itself.
    – Skyxer
    Feb 26, 2013 at 18:10
  • Try hitting e on the grub screen and adding nomodeset to the kernel line, then hit F10 to boot those commands. If that works you'll have to exit your grub.cfg file. Mar 7, 2013 at 21:30
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Open Software Center and on it's menu go to Edit -> Software Sources.

When Software Sources opens up, go to the **Additional Drivers tab and install the drivers from there.

You could also just type Software Sources in Dash

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  • After doing so, I am not able do access Catalyst Control Center. It says no AMD card is installed, and after rebooting Unity seems to not be working.
    – Skyxer
    Dec 29, 2012 at 22:40
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This worked for me.

sudo apt-get purge fglrx
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Reboot and then Install proprietary drivers via Software Sources

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