My Little Ubuntu Guide

The problem with Suspend and Hibernate in Gutsy is that Gutsy is using CONFIG_SLUB=y in it’s kernel instead of CONFIG_SLAB=y, which Feisty used in it’s kernel. This is a problem with the fglrx driver, which worked fine in Feisty. Anyway, you can read more about this bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22/+bug/121653.

For now, here’s a fix, but it comes at a cost. Temporarily anyway. As I said, the FGLRX driver (i.e. xorg-driver-fglrx) doesn’t work right with the new kernel, BUT the ATI driver from www.amd.com does. The trade off is your Compiz-Fusion.

I’m going to try to get Compiz working with the official ATI driver as I get more time to work on it. But for now if you want Suspend/Hibernate you need to be running the official ATI driver.

So what you do is:

Preparation
Install Build Tools:

sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential debhelper debconf dh-make fakeroot libstdc++5 linux-headers-generic


Installation

Build Ubuntu packages from the installer by opening a terminal, entering the directory that you saved the installer to, and running:

bash ./ati-driver-installer-.run –buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy


where is the version number of the driver you downloaded. This will take a short time. After finishing, the installer will create several debs. Use the command “dpkg -i ” to install the debs:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb


After installing the kernel source and xorg driver, you will now need to compile the fglrx kernel module in order to get 3-d rendering. Do so with the following commands:

sudo m-a prepare,update
sudo m-a build,install fglrx-kernel
sudo depmod
sudo rm -f /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb


Configuration

Now open “System -> Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager” and select the enable box for “ATI accelerated graphics driver” and hit apply. Reboot now.

At next boot, Ubuntu will load an old version of fglrx, so you have to blacklist it by changing the following file as so:

sudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Now change it to say:
DISABLED_MODULES=”fglrx”

You’re finished! Now Reboot Again.

You are now running the ATI official driver with Direct Rendering working. I’ll figure out how to get Compiz to work with this soon.

After any kernel updates

After every update of the kernel (linux-image-), you will need to recompile the kernel module (make sure to get the latest linux-headers too) as explained under the installation section. After you recompile the module, you can regain direct rendering by logging into a console (ctrl+alt+f1) and typing:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop (kdm if you use Kubuntu)
sudo rmmod fglrx (even if this command fails, go on)
sudo modprobe fglrx
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start (again, Kubuntu users type kdm)


That’s it. Should work to get your Suspend/Hibernate working for now in Gutsy. As I said, I’ll update when I find a fix for all with the compiz working too.

Later!