Now we are getting somewhere. As I was suspecting, the multiple device/monitor repetitions in the xorg.conf file do not occur in real debian X11 generated xorg.conf file.

Here's the issues I have now corrected: you should not need to use -! 6 now to use -d, I'm glad you thought to try the override.

The failure to install fglrx-control.

So we have a sequence of failures. Unlike with mint/lmde, it's now somewhat debuggable.

here is what I get when doing a test debian sid install of fglrx-control:



so both the packages are in debian sid/testing, as you can see. Then, a simuiated test install:



again, no issues. It's possible you are A: using bad repositories, or B: your network connection is failing during the install.

You can check this by leaving X, do: ctrl + alt + F1, then login as root, then do: service lightdm stop

which is what sgfxi does too, then do:


and look for any error messages. The -d means download only.

That's the first problem in the system, and it's not caused by sgfxi. The failure to let you use -d was a problem and that is now corrected.

fglrx is in fact running your system, at least that is what Xorg.0.log says, so the driver install worked, at least in part, even though the amd driver installer says it failed.

Solve the issue of why the fglrx-control is failing to download and install first.

Just so you understand it, so far there is NO similarity between the lmde failure and this failure, zero. No corrupted xorg.conf file, and if we can get the dkms stuff installed we can test the dkms part too.

radeon should work if radeon xorg driver supports your card.

Here's some general long term advice for running GNU / Linux and amd video cards. If you can avoid it, use nvidia, if you cannot avoid it, use older amd cards, avoid the new ones. Avoid new kernels, amd has terrible release cycle now, and only rarely does a new fglrx/catalyst stable release. The last one for example was 13.12 I believe. Betas are going to be beta quality, unlike nvidia, whose betas almost always work.

But you have too many separate issues at this point, you have to resolve them one at a time.

When logged in out of X with lightdm shutdown/stopped, do this simple test: ping google.com
and see if you get a valid IP address response. If you do, you have a working internet connection, if you do not, you do not have a connection, assuming you have ping. However, sgfxi always checks for connection too, and it will tell you if none is present, which makes me suspect your repos.

let me see your repos:

first:

then:

I will do this for sgfxi debugger too since this exposes more possible issues.
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Please note: new sgfxi has these debuggering data features added.

I also fixed some not working debugger stuff, so there should be more now.
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Thank you for this advice. Actually, i have long understand that i made the wrong choice. But there is no other way at this time...

The only problem with the repository (i think) is that the non-free repository was missing, and i corrected that, and it has later found the fglrx-driver

Here is my repos:




I don't know if the problem come from sgfxi, but what i know, is that this driver works fine with ubuntu on the other side on my hard drive, without any effort.
I was thinking, well, it should also work with debian.

It worked also with fedora 19. I guess i should follow your advice, and avoid new kernel when one is working fine.

I will test sgfxi -n and sgfxi -d, and sgfxi -B one more time.
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Using sgfxi-n , i have a black screen when starting x. Radeon has never well worked with my card, but it should, because this card begin to be old enbough now.

Using sgfxi-d , same issue as before.
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sgxi -B

Here is the error:

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The debugger file:

webcloud6.zaclys.com/public.php?service=files&t=a514e1fece64a31b6e2197041021c350
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Ok, piece by piece we are fixing some things. I can tell you a bit more, suggestions.

To truly test radeon, do this: sgfxi -n

which will remove all blacklisting etc, then try this:

rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf

then reboot so you boot into a kernel with modesetting/kms not blacklisted. Note that you should always upgrade debian testing fully to bring everything up to current with: apt-get dist-upgrade, that will pull in all pieces including new xorg stuff, but sgfxi will also pull in those new pieces if they were missing.

sometimes X works better today without xorg.conf with native xorg free drivers.

Further: it appears that lmde is using a broken xorg.conf generator, I had suspected that, but now it looks more likely.

I thought sgfxi checked for non free in repos but I will double check the code.

To add non-free just add to the regular lines: non-free, don't create a new line, that will result in doubled repo errors in apt.

deb ftp.ch.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

that means: use main, contrib, and non-free

sgfxi was supposed to do this automatically but apparently it did not work.

Do not add non-free to security repos. I do not know about the backports.

I am not aware of jesse having backports, by the way, it's testing/sid currently, there is nothing to backport. Once it goes stable, yes, maybe it's fine before, I don't know.

Here's a critical issues: dkms can only be used together with the distribution kernels, period. That is because the kernel and driver are matched. With fglrx this is obviously a problem once a distro goes stable, but again, you are using jesse so the version is I believe the new beta, not sure, but I think it is, in the dkms driver package. In other words, only use the -d dkms debian driver option if you are also using the debian kernel, this is not optional, they must both be the debian version for success, the fglrx debian package is tested only against the debian kernel.

I cannot tell you why the actual beta installer is failing, that is not related to sgfxi, that's a bug you have to file upstream with amd, and I can already tell you that is a waste of time.
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Ok, now the non free apt detection is working, but note that it only works with debian.org repos, there's too many other debian repos to handle so I'm leaving that as is.

But that failure did come from a situation I normally do not see, contrib being present and non-free being missing. Usually both are there or missing, now sgfxi handles this case properly, I think.

The sgfxi -B error is a matter for upstream, amd/ati, but they actually have a newer driver for beta now, but sgfxi does not have it due to packaging changes by amd, something they do constantly, the last one I cannot really handle cleanly so I'm leaving it alone to see what happens with amd driver packaging in the future. If it changes too much more I will just drop amd support in sgfxi, we'll see how it goes.

That's not related to this set of issues, but the new amd beta may be installable for you. The -B failure you are getting should not be related to the other issues, those are in the driver itself, sgfxi cannot fix those.

I expect, by the way, fglrx support to get increasingly bad from amd, and I can tell you firsthand, it's getting nearly impossible to support fglrx linux in sgfxi anymore, I can still do it a little, but amd is making it VERY hard, it's almost to my eyes as if they were trying to dump their linux support by making it worse every year.
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Ok. It seems to me that i have to give up with that. I really made a long effort, but it really take to much of my time, for something i am far away to understand. It works on ubuntu, so i will use ubuntu gnome.

What i don't understand:
Ubuntu is based on debian. With ubuntu, i only have to install fglrx-driver, and it works. Why is it not the same with debian?

Next time, i will not by an ati card, that for sure.

Thank you for the time you took for that.
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As to why, ubuntu is ubuntu and debian is debian, the two should not be thought of as the same.

Some packages in ubuntu are the same, most in fact, but only the same as of the date they were taken from the debian package pool.

Possible reasons it doesn't work: the driver needs a patch, the kernel is different, the driver and kernel are different.

Remember, in ubuntu, they release frozen pool, so when you install ubuntu, you are installing debian sid from about 3 to 9 months ago. The ubuntu kernel and drivers are released to work together.

You did provide a lot of helpful feedback and have let me fix some smaller issues in sgfxi, but the problem of fglrx in linux is far more serious than most people realize, I fully expect almost no support from amd in the future, they have already gone from their very bad and non functioning release cycle of one driver per month to about one driver every 4 months, maybe 5, no pattern yet since it takes longer for each new stable release.

I have for a long time thought of dropping fglrx support in sgfxi, which would be sad, but it's becoming non viable to support something that is increasingly starting to look like it's designed to not work in linux, at least amd couldn't make it worse if they actually tried.

The final thing on ubuntu, if you use the ubuntu fglrx package, and the ubuntu kernel, those are designed to work together, in fact, one of the only distros, along with redhat/fedora, that amd actually supports is ubuntu.
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