ATI 4850 on 13.04 64bit

Question

To those that can help,I am guessing that you have seen a variant of this problem many times before. However after doing my best to try to use the various fixes mentioned across various pages, I have finally given up! The problem is that I cannot run unity - because I cannot install the legacy drivers properly in 13.04. When I input sudo apt-get install fglrx-legacy step after doing the previous 3 steps (which seem to run fine) I get the following output:

$ sudo apt-get install fglrx-legacy
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  fglrx-amdcccle-legacy fglrx-legacy-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed
  fglrx-amdcccle-legacy fglrx-legacy fglrx-legacy-dev
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/72.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 24.6 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Selecting previously unselected package fglrx-legacy-dev.
(Reading database ... 201264 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking fglrx-legacy-dev (from .../fglrx-legacy-dev_2%3a8.97.100.7-makson1~raring2_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking fglrx-legacy (from .../fglrx-legacy_2%3a8.97.100.7-makson1~raring2_amd64.deb) ...
One or more files have been altered since installation.
Uninstall will not be completed. See /etc/ati/fglrx-uninstall.log for details.
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/fglrx-legacy_2%3a8.97.100.7-makson1~raring2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Selecting previously unselected package fglrx-amdcccle-legacy.
Unpacking fglrx-amdcccle-legacy (from .../fglrx-amdcccle-legacy_2%3a8.97.100.7-makson1~raring2_amd64.deb) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/fglrx-legacy_2%3a8.97.100.7-makson1~raring2_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Any help is much appreciated. I am an Ubuntu noob. Thanks.

Solution

Run:

sudo dpkg --configure --pending

And report back what was the result. It is a package manager problem but I would be surprised if you could use that driver on your system. As far as AMD is concerned you have legacy hardware. When people use these proprietary drivers there seems to be lot of problems with hardware that falls into this category because AMD has dropped the support.

Try using open source drivers:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon

But remember that when you try different drivers you should have only one installed at a time or there will be trouble.

Comments

[Radu Rădeanu]

After you get that error, try apt-get -f install to force an install of the files that didn't get loaded because of the error. Then try apt-get upgrade again, apt-get -f install back and forth until only the package that has the error is left.

[Radu Rădeanu]

Now, to solve the unmet dependencies, check this: How do I resolve unmet dependencies?

[Jack Mayerz]

Provide your set up please. Processor, GPU and model.

[Jay]

I have the driver as you, to be honest I am not sure exactly what Gallium is but I am not complaining as long as it works! I don't play games so I dont know whether I have the same problem as you regarding that. Are you running unity?

[Jack Mayerz]

support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/legacy/Pages/… By the way, what exactly do you mean by "can't start unity"? do you boot up to a black screen without login prompt?

[Jack Mayerz]

This is not a driver problem In virtual terminal Ctrl+Alt+F1 run unity --reset then reboot. If it doesn't work run sudo apt-get update then sudo apt-get upgrade then sudo apt-get --reinstall install unity followed by unity --reset and unity --replace.

[Jack Mayerz]

Sorry, forgot this is 13.04, reset is deprecated, replaced. What's interesting is the error output for unity --replace. Try running sudo apt-get install unity-panel or apt-get --reinstall install. Better yet is to search for unity in Synaptic (if you have it) sudo apt-get install synaptic and install unity-panel. Did the legacy drivers work for your GPU? If you haven't customized your desktop then I'd suggest reinstalling unity, /questions/131016/.

[Tanel Mae]

I suggest you start a new question about not being able to use multiple displays as we have made progress and now there is clear focus. Include the information you have gathered (the fact that you made fresh install + output from those terminal commands). After that we could delete our comments here to clean up this mess.

[Jack Mayerz]

that's a repository issue. Install from Synaptic instead of apt-get, it'll resolve on its own.

[Jack Mayerz]

Yes, just so we can clean up the conversation and make them a bit more on point, maybe you can just google for reps or make sure you have additional and restricted authenticated first.

[Jay]

After reinstalling 13.04 the system has managed to install the open source drivers which seem to be working fine under gnome. I cant boot unity but that is a separate issue for which I have set up another question for. Just FYI the driver installed on my system is Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV770