Installing ATI drivers

[Kevin J. Cummings]

Dotan Cohen wrote:
> Taking the hardware I have, is there a 'prefered' way to enable 3D so
> that I can use Google Earth? (Radeon X1400) I'll gladly do as
> recommended. Of course, I'd prefer to purchase hardware that supports
> open source, but that will be then next time I buy hardware. Learn and
> live, no? In the meantime, what can I do? If there is an open source
> alternative, then I'll happily use it.

I have a Radeon X1600 Mobility chipset in my laptop.
What I did:

Install fglrx X11 drivers and the appropriate kernel module.
Configure the xorg.conf file.  Make sure that it includes:

Section "Module"
	load "GLcore"
	load "glx"
	load "dri"

...

Section "DRI"
	Group 0
	Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
	Option "Composite" "Disable"  # this makes DRI work with fglrx
EndSection

GoogleEarth now runs just fine.

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)