Catalyst 10.8 fails to install completely on lucid

[kaify]

Been using the open source 'radeon' driver on my system up until now because of a bug effecting nforce4 chipsets on motherboards. Last month's release of Catalyst 10.7 fixed that bug, and I attempted to install 10.8 on a fresh install of lucid 32-bit.

Whenever I installed fglrx, the command 'aticonfig' is apparently not found. I'd have to run the following to remove the failed install or else I'd run in low graphics mode on next reboot:

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx_* fglrx-amdcccle* fglrx-dev* xorg-driver-fglrx

This is odd considering the binary is located in the proper place and manually executing it at that location results in the following message:

sudo aticonfig --initial
Unable to open /etc/ati/control, please reinstall the driver.
aticonfig: No supported adapters detected

I've attempted to install fglrx through multiple ways, failing every time. So far, building deb packages straight from the official ati installer, using ubuntu's X-SWAT PPA, and Kano's script.

My lspci output: http://pastebin.com/UrrgscR8

My system specs:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600
ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB
ASUS A8M2N-LA mothboard

In retrospect, I've installed hardy onto a separate partition and installed cataylst 9.3 and everything had installed correctly.

[Kano]

I guess he already did so and messed up the system. When there is no /etc/ati/control then the drivers are partly removed already.

[Dandel]

I actually had this issue a while back and have a fix that works... here's the steps that i took to repair the system..

Step 1) identify the fglrx packages...

dpkg -l | grep fglrx

the output should be something like:

ii  fglrx                                                2:8.762-0ubuntu1                                Video driver for the ATI graphics accelerato
ii  fglrx-amdcccle                                       2:8.762-0ubuntu1                                Catalyst Control Center for the ATI graphics
ii  fglrx-dev                                            2:8.762-0ubuntu1                                Video driver for the ATI graphics accelerato
ii  fglrx-modaliases                                     2:8.762-0ubuntu1                                Identifiers supported by the ATI graphics dr

step 2) use dpkg to purge the packages. Based on the previous list, the following command should work.

sudo dpkg -P fglrx fglrx-*

step 3) update apt.

sudo apt-get update

step 4) issue the command to check for broken packages:

sudo dpkg -C

step 5) reboot.
step 6) install driver.

[kaify]

Man I feel like a complete idiot for not trying the first comment before.

I mean, I've done that with previous attempts months prior, but as said hosed my system. It sort of stuck to not use the automated normal install.

Thanks guys you've solved my issues.

[kaify]

Yeah, I didn't figure using the automated installer would work if building debs from it wouldn't, but I was wrong. Thanks again.

[monraaf]

I used to use the plain fglrx installer all the time, till Lucid. Since Lucid I'm using packages only because of the alternatives hacks introduced in Lucid. I could be wrong but I don't think the plain installer is aware of the alternatives system and will hose your system.

Of course it doesn't really matter if you've already hosed your system in the first place