Archive for May, 2009

Last weekend, an update to the Linux kernel was sent through the hardy repositories… As I usually do I am eager to update when the little red arrow comes up in the notification bar. I ran the update and it asked for a restart so I did. After GRUB loaded, I found a nice little error message saying “Undefined video mode number: 2f6″. I currently have a Quad-Core Dell Vostro with 4GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 2600HD running Hardy. Hardy doesn’t support multiple monitors which I have so I had to install the ATI fglrx drivers to get them to work, these drivers were the main source of my problems.

This isn’t the first time I have had this problem after a kernel update but they have never been hard to fix. So I turned to Google to find the answer…

After almost 2 days of scouring through forums and blog post and trying endlessly to find a permanent fix to the problem (or at least until the next kernel update). I was about ready to go and buy a nVidia card . Then it hit me that I heard Jaunty(9.04) improved support for multiple monitors dramatically so I booted up my live cd in a last ditch effort to save my ATI card. The live cd automatically detected both monitors and I was able to get them working perfectly without installing anything. I then proceeded to backup my system and do a fresh install with Jaunty and EXT4. I have been running the open-source drivers that currently run only in 2D mode which is a bummer to some people but I don’t need the 3D effects.

(Updated: If you need 3D effects check out the new ATI drivers.)

In the end  I got to upgrade my system which was something I was planning to do when i had some time.

BTW, The ATI propitiary drivers for jaunty are still in early development and leak a lot of memory making the system almost usable.

I would love to here any other experiences with ATI cards I know they are just trouble for most people running Linux.