This new release will make your experience with ATI and the Desktop Effects a bit easier (in Ubuntu and in its derivatives). The fglrx driver was not included in Compiz’s whitelist in Ubuntu Gutsy, therefore ATI users were not able to use the Desktop Effects. Envy is now able to solve this problem for you (but it will restore the old whitelist if you uninstall the driver from Envy, in case you’re wondering). Of course the Desktop Effects will work only if you use the ATI driver 8.42.3.

I have cut (and resized) the logo since it didn’t fit certain screens in low resolution (please remember that the textual install should fit any screen). Furthermore the following translations were added: Danish, Norwegian, Romanian, Taiwanese, Ukrainian.

Translators
Danish: Søren Bjerrum
Norwegian: Kjetil Rydland
Romanian: nokia
Taiwanese: Jose Sun
Ukrainian: Artem Gluvchynskyj

P.S. You can get Envy here as usual

Posted by Alberto Milone | November 7, 2007 10:25 pm
Filed under: Debian, Envy, GNU/Linux, Planet, Python, Ubuntu
Comments (61) |


61 Responses to “Envy + ATI driver (8.42.3) + Desktop Effects = Success”

  1. Christophe Says:

    Thanks for this great piece of software and this update (bit easier to set up my laptop). But I’m having a little annoyance on my desktop with the nvidia driver: I’m not able to enable compiz using the appearance options in gutsy. I have to run it with the command “compiz –replace”.
    Is there any way to still use gutsy’s way?


  2. tinin Says:

    Congratulations!
    This should be the default “restricted drivers manager” in ubuntu


  3. Marius Scurtescu Says:

    Installed latest Envy, using it installed the ATI driver. Restarted the system. Tried to enable Visual Effects, Normal, error says “Desktop effects could not be enabled”.

    Under Restricted Drivers enabled the ATI driver, restart again, same error for Visual Effects.

    Checked xorg.conf, it has the fglrx driver.

    The identifier for the video card is: “ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]”

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Marius


  4. albertomilone Says:

    @Christophe:
    I can enable compiz with the appearance options (with my Nvidia card).
    What happens exactly?

    @Marius Scurtescu
    You shouldn’t use Restricted Drivers Manager if you use Envy.
    Just install the driver through Envy.
    Then if you still can’t enable the Desktop Effects try typing:
    sudo depmod -ae

    then restart the Xserver and try to enable the effects again.


  5. Georg Says:

    Alberto,

    the download is broken, the server provides a 500 error.


  6. albertomilone Says:

    @Georg
    It seems to work now.


  7. Pharao Says:

    >ATI users were not able to use the Desktop
    >Effects.
    Desktop Effects work with the default installation with a Radeon 9200 mobile…
    (just as a side note)


  8. albertomilone Says:

    @Pharao
    I’m talking about the “fglrx” driver (i.e. ATI’s proprietary driver).

    ATI’s open source driver (”ati”) (the one you’re using) works out-of-the-box.

    I think the title is quite clear.


  9. Christophe Says:

    @alertomilone
    When I try to enable the desktop effects using the appearance settings, it gives me a dialog saying I need to enable the restricted drivers.
    Someone else is having this problem too: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=588450


  10. David Thomas Says:

    What would us ATI users do without you.


  11. jonny84 Says:

    Ciao Alberto,ho installato questa versione sul mio pc vecchio (usa i 96.43),però alla fine quando dice di configurare automaticamente lo xorg.conf,premo y,poi invio,ma non succede nulla.
    A cosa è dovuto?

    Grazie


  12. albertomilone Says:

    @jonny84
    Che vuol dire non succede nulla?

    si blocca?


  13. jonny84 Says:

    In pratica premo invio e va a capo,e da li non si schioda.
    Allora lo chiudo con ctrl-c però lo xorg.conf rimane quello vecchio.
    Premetto che ho usato l’interfaccia testuale


  14. albertomilone Says:

    puoi inviarmi il tuo xorg.conf? (anche via email, se vuoi)


  15. jonny84 Says:

    E’ quello di base del gutsy.

    Per semplicità te l’ho incollato qui:
    http://rafb.net/p/WZpPv221.html


  16. albertomilone Says:

    anche un altro utente mi ha segnalato questo problema. Credo dipenda da nvidia-xconfig (che Envy usa).

    Posso risolvere il problema implementando questa funzionalità a modo mio, senza usare nvidia-xconfig (nella prossima versione di Envy).


  17. Khoroshiya Says:

    Hello,
    The installation for the 8.42.3 was sucessful but i still get the “Desktop effects can not be enabled”.
    In a terminal when i try tu run compiz.envy
    it says :

    Checking for Xgl: not present.
    No whitelisted driver found
    aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity

    (by the way i’m not sure it’s the right command)


  18. albertomilone Says:

    @Khoroshiya
    run compiz (instead of compiz.envy)


  19. jonny84 Says:

    Ho fatto l’installazione grafica e mi ha riconfigurato lo xorg.conf senza problemi….mah


  20. Nicholas Says:

    Well, that’s somewhat weird.

    Envy now works in Russian, thanks for that BUT…

    1) The translation has a lot of mistakes which weren’t present when I sent you my translation.
    2) It doesn’t have my name in the translation section

    Seems as though Ivan Potapov (the third translator) reviewed the original translation by Anton Starikov (the first translator) instead of the one I sent you (the reviewed first translation), probably because you forgot to replace it on your LaunchPad translation site…


  21. albertomilone Says:

    @Nicholas
    I’ll look into this ASAP

    @All
    a NEW RELEASE of ENVY (0ubuntu12) should solve your problems.


  22. Khoroshiya Says:

    Hi,
    when run cmmpiz i get the following error :
    $ compiz
    /usr/bin/compiz: 228: Syntax error: “(” unexpected

    when i look at line 228 :
    verbose “Comparing resolution ($RESOLUTION) to maximum 3D texture size ($TEXTURE_LIMIT): “;

    the only ( is between quotes…
    i’m a bit confused

    thanks


  23. albertomilone Says:

    @Khoroshiya
    try Envy’s latest release (which I have just released).


  24. Khoroshiya Says:

    Hey sorry,
    i didn’t see your last post.
    it’s working now. thank you very much !!!


  25. pierluc Says:

    On Synaptic it’s write:
    “Envy is an application written in Python which will download the
    latest Nvidia driver or the Legacy driver (for older cards)
    (according to the model of your card) from Nvidia’s website and
    set it up for you handling dependencies (compilers, OpenGL, etc.)
    which are required in order to build and use the driver.”

    But Envy also install ATI driver…


  26. Lusanagi Says:

    it’s just a little modification that has to be done to the script, it doesn’t affect so no biggie
    hi alberto, great job with this tool, the only but I find is like on the previous version it doesn’t dettect my Radeon HD2600 pro


  27. albertomilone Says:

    @pierluc
    I’ll fix it

    @Lusanagi
    can you post the output of this command (so that I can see you card’s ID)?
    lspci -n | grep 300


  28. gazrang Says:

    This version(0.9.8) works great with compiz. But my firefox page-scrolling and overall responsiveness on Gutsy Gibbon got sooo slow. I’m on Gutsy Gibbon on ThinkPad T42(Mobility Radeon 9600)


  29. albertomilone Says:

    @gazrang
    I know, I reported the problem to AMD. (it depends on the driver)


  30. Tapia Says:

    Hi Alberto. Thanks for this. Now I can install the drivers for my ati HD2600xt, but envy still doesn’t recognize my card automatically. I have to use the manual installation option… but al least it works! =D


  31. shigoro Says:

    Hi!
    My ATI HD 2600 also isn’t recognized. Here the output of the command “lspci -n | grep 300″:
    01:00.0 0300: 1002:9581
    Greetings


  32. mitza Says:

    i have the latest kubuntu version, 7.10 and vhen i try ti install envy i get this error :
    “Unpacking envy (from envy_0.9.8-0ubuntu10_all.deb) …
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of envy:
    envy depends on gksu; however:
    Package gksu is not installed.
    envy depends on module-assistant; however:
    Package module-assistant is not installed.
    dpkg: error processing envy (–install):
    dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    envy”

    PLEASE HELP… i’m a newbie


  33. albertomilone Says:

    @shigoro
    thanks I’ll add your card id to Envy

    @mitza
    you have to enable all your repositories. You can read how to do it here:
    http://www.monkeyblog.org/ubuntu/installing/#enabling_extra_repositories


  34. Marius Scurtescu Says:

    Using the Restricted Driver Manager together with Envy was a pretty bad idea. Unselecting the restricted driver completely messed up X11. Uninstalling Envy did not help at all.

    Eventually recovered from an old xorg.conf backup file.

    No restricted driver, Envy installed ATI drive fine. When enabling desktop effects the whole screen goes white and that’s the end of it :-(

    Using the latest Envy: envy_0.9.8-0ubuntu13_all.deb.


  35. albertomilone Says:

    @Marius
    type:
    sudo envy –uninstall-all

    and restart the Xserver (or reboot)


  36. Coldwar55 Says:

    It seems I have done the same by manually installing the 8.42.3 drivers without Envy as well as adding fglrx to the WHITELISTED line in the Compiz file.

    However I get an error with the window manager that I can’t figure out when I try to enable Compiz.

    http://www.e-faction.com/Compiz_Error.jpg


  37. albertomilone Says:

    @Coldwar55
    1) can you post the output of this command?
    glxinfo | grep direct

    2) can you send me your /usr/bin/compiz via email?


  38. Coldwar55 Says:

    albertomilone,

    For some reason I got the window manager to work correctly now so compiz is enabled and seems to work however like everyone els is complaining, it is running rather sluggish. Choppy scrolling, etc.. . I’m guessing the fglrx driver isn’t completely ready for Compiz yet.

    If you wish I can still send you my Compiz file, however the only modification I’ve made was to add the “fglrx” to the WHITELISTED line.

    I running a Sapphire X1600 Pro AGP 256 MB Edition.


  39. albertomilone Says:

    @Coldwar55
    I have the same problem with my X1600… it’s definitely the driver


  40. Coldwar55 Says:

    I thought so, due to the numerous complaints I have seen on the Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Compiz and various other forums about sluggish performance.

    I just think it’s rather sad that my laptop with built in Intel Graphics is performing better than my desktop in the Graphics realm in Linux (In General).

    Thanks again for your help


  41. Jim Says:

    Albert. Thanks again for keeping this great tool up-to-date. I just tried to use envy on an iMac with an x1600 ATI card (just used the GUI and chose install ATI). The driver seems to install just fine but enabling desktop effects results in a white screen. If I wait about a minute I am returned to a regular desktop and effects are set back to none. Any ideas?

    Also, fwiw, on a default install (I’m using gutsy) I cannot enable desktop effects. I get an error about “composite extension” not available (not sure the exact error at the moment).

    Thanks again.


  42. daven72 Says:

    Ciao Alberto,
    ho una Sapphire HD 2600XT ed ho provato il tuo tool. Non mi riconosce la scheda. Allora ho provato a forzare l’installazione ma quando faccio il reboot che avviene regolarmente (sento il suono del login eseguito ecc…) ma ottengo uno schermo nero.
    Soluzioni da consigliarmi ? (uso Ubuntu 7.10 e dal forum ufficiale non ne sono venuto fuori.)
    Grazie mille in anticipo.
    Davide


  43. eugenio Says:

    Ciao grandissimo alberto,
    quando aggiorni envy alla versione dei driver 7.11 che sono ansioso di provarli!!!!! : )


  44. CyberAng3l Says:

    I am also experiencing the white screen problem after enabling the desktop effects.
    I am on a kubuntu gutsy 64bit and I have an ATI Mobility Radeon X700.


  45. Toni Blixt Says:

    I am also getting the white screen when enabling the desktop effects, and when i browse the screensavers that come with ubuntu, it lags -badly- with my ati x850 XP platinum card. but my older nvidia 5600 card performs lagfree on my other computer. Starting GL Desktop also gives me the same white screen. Thanks, Toni Blixt


  46. Peter Says:

    Alberto,

    Envy worked great on my new Gutsy upgrade, but I’m having the same problem Christophe was. I don’t think his last comment, #9 on this page, was ever answered, but lots of people seem to be having this problem. I have an nVidia 8600 GTS. Do you have any suggestions?

    Thanks for an otherwise great utility!


  47. londonartist Says:

    HI Alberto
    thank you for envy.

    will it install the new ATI 7.11 drivers for me?

    i use ATI X1400 mobile, so i still cant suspend/hibernate, Ati7.11 is supposed to fix that.

    londonartist(at)gmail.com


  48. Emma Says:

    I’m also with the white screen as the people above have said before. I only see the login screen and then it all turns to white.
    I’ve been told to try envy since Ubuntu says “your hardware does not need any propietary drivers”, but I have a 1440×900 monitor and I cannot see it at that resolution. My graphic card is Ati radeon hd 2400 pro AGP.


  49. albertomilone Says:

    @Emma
    boot in Recovery mode (from the GRUB menu) and type:
    envy –uninstall-all

    then type:
    reboot

    and boot as usual

    @londonartist
    sure

    @Peter
    Try to enable the Desktop effects, let Restricted Drivers Manager install the driver again, then (don’t reboot) use Envy again and finally reboot.


  50. K-Man Says:

    Hello all.
    A word on the latest ATI drivers (7.11) please? Thanks.


  51. K-Man Says:

    I withdraw my posting (#50) as it was already mentioned (# 49), my browser showed me only after refresh page.


  52. josebama Says:

    Thanks for all Alberto, envy is a very good package.

    I have a problem, and is that I’ve installed the ATI drivers from envy, and when I do fglrxinfo it says me that I have the mesa drivers. Is a strange thing because when I haven’t the ATI driver installed the maximun resolution I could reach on my sreen was 1280×1024 and hen I install the drivers 1680×1050 but I haven’t any graphic acceleration


  53. albertomilone Says:

    @josebama
    try typing:
    sudo depmod -a

    then restart the Xserver


  54. josebama Says:

    thankyou, I’ll try it this afternoon. Finaly I’ve solved it desinstalling xserver-xorg-all like said in a how-to, but now I have little black rows on the rigth-down corner, so I want to try your solution


  55. josebama Says:

    thank you very much!! you are the best!! I have tried it and it works!! and not only that, without black rows on the corner!! I am in debt with you!!


  56. Air1 Says:

    I too had the whitescreen problem after logging in.
    This happend after i installed the latest ati driver with envy.

    The following sollution worked for me (ati radeon 9800)
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=417161
    Do “lsmod | grep edac”. If you get output containing i82875p_edac and edac_mc, blacklist them:
    code:
    sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

    add lines:
    blacklist i82875p_edac
    blacklist edac_mc


  57. Nate Says:

    Great program, but I’m having one issue.

    I couldn’t get desktop effects to work on my Dell E1505 with an ATI Mobility x1400 card using the fglrx driver. I tried Envy, and it works, with one little issue; it cuts the screen in 1/2 and puts all kinds of garbage at the bottom. The mouse alignment is as if it is normal, so I have to run the mouse in the “garbage” area and watch the button in the top area until it highlights.

    Here’s a pic: http://www.plastikhosting.net/uploads/Natedogg/Screenshot.jpg

    Any ideas?


  58. Nate Says:

    Sorry, forgot to add that it only does this when I enable desktop effects. If I keep it set to “none” it’s fine.


  59. albertomilone Says:

    @Nate
    I think it’s a bug.

    Please, file a bugreport either here:
    http://ati.cchtml.com/show_bug.cgi?id=499

    or here:
    http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=508&type=web


  60. Andres Says:

    hola.
    nesecito la versiopn que me permite descargar
    Envy + ATI driver (8.42.3) + Desktop Effects
    donde esta el link de descarga??


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