How do you install drivers for ATI Radeon in Ubuntu?

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zxc314 October 24, 2011

How do you install drivers for ATI Radeon in Ubuntu?

So I just installed Ubuntu onto an older Dell Inspiron 600m and cannot figure out how to install the ATI drivers, which would allow the entire OS to really run a lot more smoothly. Also would love some help with the Unity Launcher as it's giving me annoyances as well, but that is secondary as I think many of the annoyances are due to the lack of GPU helping out. Thanks for any help you are able to provide.

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frankspin 2011-10-24 20:05:04

While Linux, more specifically Ubuntu, has come a long way video drivers are still incredibly buggy for some older models. Ubuntu has handled Nvidia drivers better in my experience with ATI taking a little more work.

Are you getting prompted to install restricted drivers?

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thenns 2011-10-24 20:06:02

I found this link browsing the ubuntu forums
ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=764633

If I'm not mistaken, the graphic processors in those dells might not be powerful for all the eye candy that unity has.

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zxc314 2011-10-25 11:14:39

Yeah possibly but it would really help the whole OS just run more smoothly if I could at least get it working.

thenns 2011-10-25 11:17:47

how much RAM do you have and how fast is the CPU?

zxc314 2011-10-25 11:18:47

1GB of Ram and the CPU is 1.8Ghz I believe

thenns 2011-10-25 11:28:47

Even though you think that's enough, it still isn't. Unity takes a lot of resources. I recommend you install lubuntu. It uses a lightweight desktop environment.

You could always install gnome too.

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

zxc314 2011-10-25 19:26:18

That's frustrating, I thought it would be an okay comp. for day to day stuff. What would Gnome do for me? i.e. In what ways is it better/worse? Also I know Lubuntu is a lower requirement version but do you lose anything going that route?

thenns 2011-10-25 19:28:53

In my personal experience, when using ubuntu, gnome has worked best. It's a different desktop environment than unity, but it's a bigger project than unity. lubuntu would work great for your comp because of the lower specs, so you'll be able to run the OS a lot smoother.

zxc314 2011-10-25 11:15:27

No, but I really want the OS to run more smoothly and it's dragging it's feet a lot likely because of a lack of GPU support. Pretty frustrating.

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drkokandy 2012-01-19 00:02:42

Have you tried Unity 2D? I had trouble with the Unity interface after upgrading from 11.04 to 11.10. Unity would not run responsively, but Unity 2D ran great, as did GNOME (suggested previously).

Incidentally, a little while ago I wiped my drive and reinstalled Ubuntu 11.10 from nothing. Now (without any change to drivers I noticed) regular Unity runs just great. If you upgraded, consider reinstalling it fresh.

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How do you install drivers for ATI Radeon in Ubuntu?

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