Configure RADEON X550 on Kubuntu Edgy

Here I want to share how I configured my ATI RADEON X550 on Kubuntu Edgy.

I installed the driver in Kubuntu edgy manually. In short, download ati-driver-installer-8.31.5-x86.x86_64.run and follow the ATI linux driver guide.

Work in theory but give me pain before I get the 3D properly. Here the 'bad' messages:

helmi@hix2:~> vim /var/log/Xorg.0.log
...
[drm] failed to load kernel module "fglrx"
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] drmOpen failed
(EE) fglrx(0): DRIScreenInit failed!
(WW) fglrx(0): ***********************************************
(WW) fglrx(0): * DRI initialization failed! *
(WW) fglrx(0): * (maybe driver kernel module missing or bad) *
(WW) fglrx(0): * 2D acceleraton available (MMIO) *
(WW) fglrx(0): * no 3D acceleration available *
(WW) fglrx(0): ********************************************* *
...
helmi@hix2:~> glxinfo | grep 'direct rendering'
direct rendering: No
helmi@hix2:~> fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org

After googling, I realize that the driver don't match to the kernel

helmi@hix2:~> uname -a
Linux hix2 2.6.15-26-amd64-k8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Aug 3 03:11:38 UTC 2006 x86_64 GNU/Linux
helmi@hix2:~> gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20060928 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.1-13ubuntu5)

I compile the ATI driver using gcc-4.1.2 but my kernel compiled using gcc-4.0. So the workaround is (follow the guide, copied here as my future reference):

sudo apt-get install gcc-4.0
sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/gcc-4.0 /usr/bin/gcc

After doing the module-assistant steps, you may want to return gcc to 4.1 by default:

sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/gcc-4.1 /usr/bin/gcc

After reboot,

helmi@hix2:~> glxinfo | grep 'direct rendering'
direct rendering: Yes
helmi@hix2:~> fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON X550 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6174 (8.31.5)

Yey! Next is Xgl/Beryl ...

If you notice I use kernel 2.6.15-26, and Edgy use 2.6.17-10. That new kernel just refused to start properly and I too lazy to debug it - my current kubuntu just `work for me`