Using Ubuntu on HP 6515b ( ATI X1250 )

Posted in Linux, Ubuntu by Ankur on October 7th, 2007

So there are a lot of people having trouble installing Linux ( Ubuntu ) on those ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 or any other ATI card here is the solution ( i have given this example with ubuntu but it can be used with any other Linux distro ) first go to ATI’s site and download the driver then all we have to do is boot into your linux distro and just install the drivers, for that we will first need a copy of the drivers on HDD or flash drive, and then just cd into that directory and type
sh ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run
where ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run is the name of the driver file with me, it will start the install procedure just follow that and after the install just configure your resolution with
aticonfig --resolution=0,1280x800
as my resolution was 1280×800 your can be 1024×786 or some other just type what ever it is.
after this we just need to start the X server again type startx and enjoy every thing in graphical mode.

Note:- if you used a Live CD you will have to install the drivers 2 times first for the live CD and then for your system, enjoy!!!

Ankur Shrivastava

19 Responses to 'Using Ubuntu on HP 6515b ( ATI X1250 )'

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Viren Bhanot said, on October 25th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

Thanks mate. I’m the same guy who asked you for help.
I’ll give this a shot and pray that it works!
ubuntu newbie said, on October 29th, 2007 at 5:25 pm

Hello ,
I do have this problem with my X1250 and thank you verymuch for giving us elements of a solution, but when you write :

“first go to ATI’s site and download the driver then all we have to do is boot into your linux distro and just install the drivers,”

are you sure that they exist because i have searched the whole ATI site and no sign of a X1250 driver :s. If you did find it, could youy please tell me where or with which command ?
Ankur said, on October 30th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

well mate there are official Linux drivers available from ATI but they don’t offer 3D acceleration as of now there are some talks about they going to release it so lets hope for it
anyway you can find the drivers on the ati site http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html download it
boot from the CD then mount the disk where u have saved those drivers sh and u are done
Manish Sinha said, on November 16th, 2007 at 7:34 pm

Well done Ankur! Its quite a headache for a newbie if he/she doesnt know about the problem (what really did happen when the Xserver crashes)
Well i too didnt knew this method, even though i have been using for a year, and never ever faced this problem as my computer doesnt have a graphics card
Ankur said, on November 17th, 2007 at 2:26 pm

it displayed a message saying that there was something wrong and the x server failed to load, then it asks if i want to see the detailed log
Tuxhimself said, on November 24th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

yes - you want to see the detailed log to know what was wrong…
Fedora 8 on HP 6515b — Linux Users Group - Manipal said, on December 5th, 2007 at 12:19 am

[...] exactly did i solved these problems for installing ATI driver i have already explained it earlier here and here , so now moving to ndiswrapper you need to download the source code (the .tar.gz file) [...]
Fedora 8 on HP 6515b « My WaR WiTh WoRdS said, on December 5th, 2007 at 12:19 am

[...] exactly did i solved these problems for installing ATI driver i have already explained it earlier here and here , so now moving to ndiswrapper you need to download the source code (the .tar.gz file) [...]
sarit said, on January 7th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

Thanks for advice.
Have you ever got this problem on Debian 4.0 etch
on an AMD64X2 ?
I use HP Compaq 6515b with ATI radeonX1250 (the same as you).
#aticonfig –resolution=0,1280×800
#error at set screen resolution : screen0 does not exist
aticonfig : parsing the command-line faild.
sarit said, on January 7th, 2008 at 11:12 pm

By
#dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
Then don’t forget to cross mode 1280×800
BEFORE this command
#sh ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run

So Debian will display correct resolution.
Ankur said, on January 8th, 2008 at 4:02 am

hey i have tried it with Debian and it worked for me …..
anyway i have a better way to install drivers http://warofwords.wordpress.com/2007/12/29/3d-effects-on-ubuntu-710-on-ati-1250/
this post was just as a last resort as it wont give u AIGLX support the link i gave you is better
josh said, on February 7th, 2008 at 12:47 am

Ankur… thanks for the help in advance… I’ve got Ubuntu Gutsy… I’ve got the ATI driver burned onto a CD and onto a SD card… what I cannot do is find the file from the terminal… I put the Gutsy CD in… it tries to run… xserve dies… I hit CTRL+ALT+f1 and then try to find the ati file either on my second CD or on the SD card… NADA…

please help
Ankur said, on February 7th, 2008 at 12:55 am

well you need to mount the SD card first onto some folder
so first insert the card and type ’sudo -i’ to become root
then type ‘mkdir /mnt/free/’ now type ‘fdisk -l’ and try to find your SD card, which is sdb1 most of the time, now type ‘mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/free’ and then ‘cd /mnt/free’ and follow the above steps…. ( here i assumed you card to be sdb1 it can also sdc1 or something see the ‘fdisk -l’ output to know it……..
enjoy
josh said, on February 7th, 2008 at 1:08 am

thanks man… you rule!
kadu said, on February 13th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

hi ankur,

it works! thank you for your information.

greetings

kadu
farland said, on April 17th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

Hi,

I have tried this method with ubuntu 7.10 and I manage to launch live cd after restarting the X server. The installation went well but when it boots for the first time you can’t see anything on the screen, not even a CLI that would allow you to install the drivers.

Any suggestions?
beN said, on May 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 am

hey Ankur, thanks for posting - definately on the right track i think
–

ive got a samsung r60 with vista on one partition - its got 2gb ram and the same 1250 chip

when inserting the cd for ubuntu i’m getting the command line when the GUI fails

tried the sh ati-driver……run — got a return of - verifying archive integrity, all good. uncompressing…. extraction failed,,Signal caught, cleaning up

the driver is 40mb on a 128 stick - i figure maybe its trying to uncompress it in /mnt/flash and running out of space?

i tried adding –target /tmp to maybe try to get it to store it in ram temporarily as ive got 2gb - but the –target addition doesnt work

guys - vista is the worst thing ever - i need ubuntu on this thing bad - but i just cant get the live CD process underway - any help would be greatly appreciated
zzy said, on May 22nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm

hi i’m a newbie completely. i don’t know how to reach cd-rom driver or sd-card using terminal.thus, i have downloaded the driver file but i can’t run it. can u help??
gnugaze said, on June 5th, 2008 at 10:53 am

You wrote…”then all we have to do is boot into your linux distro and just install the drivers, for that we will first need a copy of the drivers on HDD or flash drive, and then just cd into that directory and type
sh ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run”

i want to ask :
1. what do you mean by “and then just cd into that directory”? where do i write it.. is it in therminal?
2. i’ve download the driver, log in to ubuntu and double click the ati driver installer (run in terminal).. and then a messege appear..somkind like ” i hav to be a super-user to be able to do that”, so how to be a super-user?
3. the visual effect on my ubuntu cannot be enable, how come? is it because the driver was not installed?

im sorry i’m a windows user (so im not familiar with the command)..but want to use ubuntu right now, please help! thnx.