You might have read my previous post on my experience moving from Kubuntu to OpenSuSe. I had to google to find out how to install the ATI driver for my ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 card. I did the driver installation thrice. Here are the steps to install the driver in Open SuSe 10.2.

1. Open YAST and go to Software Management. Search for kernel source, gcc and make and make sure they are installed. If not, install them.

2. Open a terminal. Login as root by entering su and root password.

3. Enter the following commands:

cd /usr/src/linux and press enter.

make mrproper and press enter.

make cloneconfig and press enter.

make modules_prepare and press enter.

make clean and press enter.

Update: If you have previous version of ATI driver installed, then follow the steps given by Mandeep Patel in the comments

Now open your web browser and go to ATI driver page, select Linux X86 (if your installation is 32 bit installation), select your card type and Click on GO button. Click on ATI Driver Installer and download the driver (in my case it’s ati-driver-installer-8.34.8-x86.x86_64.run).

I downloaded the file to download folder under my home directory.

Important: Note down the commands below before you continue. Once you issue the first command below this line, your system will switch to character mode. You won’t be able to access this page.

Open a terminal and enter the following command:

init 3

This will take you to character mode and will prompt you to enter username. Enter root as username and root password as password.

Now go to the folder where you downloaded the driver. In my case it’s cd /home/myname/download.

Now enter the following command:

sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.34.8-x86_64.run –buildpkg SuSE/SUSE102-IA32

This will create a rpm file. Now enter

rpm -ihv fglrx and press tab. It should fill the file name that was converted to .rpm.

Once it’s done, type the following command:

aticonfig –initial –input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Once done, enter

sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx (it’s zeor, not O).

This will open a monitor configuration utility. Make sure the resolution it displays is fine with you. Click ok.

It’s time to reboot your system. Enter reboot in the command prompt. It’ll reboot your system. You should see the right resolution once it’s rebooted. Open a terminal again after you login and type fglrxinfo. The command should display OpenGL Vendor string as ATI Technologies Inc and OpenGL renderer string as ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 (or whatever card you have). This shows that the installation went fine.

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