How do I install ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics driver in 12.04 64 desktop?

Question

I have had difficulty installing the drivers and I'm open to running a newer version of Ubuntu. To get the ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 graphics working on an acer 5517 is there a way to do it that is reliable?

I have tried some PPA installs and had to reinstall Ubuntu, not a crisis but is there a way to get the drivers installed?

Is there a reliable way to install fglrx

This didn't seem to work Old Fglrx Driver - AMD Radeon HD 3200 - ubuntu won't start

Solution

You have a quite old card. If you go to the AMD page and go through the choices, you land here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=Legacy2&os=Linux%20x86_64

In the bottom, you have:

Description: Automated installer and Display Drivers for Xorg 6.9 to Xserver 1.12 and Kernel version up to 3.4

So, if you want to use the proprietary AMD drivers, you have to stay with a (very old) version of the kernel and X stack. Chances are that you have a newer kernel (try with uname -a) and X stack (dpkg -l xserver-xorg); fglrx drivers do not support this configuration. So you have two possibilities:

1. use the open-source drivers (should work reasonably well; supported by Ubuntu; this is my personal preference)

2. downgrade kernel and X stack (but here you'll be on your own --- and will come the time when there will be no security support for that).

Note that this situation come from an AMD decision --- the drivers are their and they decide what to do; probably supporting legacy drivers with newer kernels has become too expensive for them.

Comments

[Charles Daringer]

Thanks, you two are confirming that allot of the old suggestions and PPA links simply no longer work.