ati &envy

[mbjbdc]

does envy support the latest ati video cards i have just purchased a 3850

[Zero Prime]

I'm not sure about the latest drivers. I have read of a few problems with this card though. Some even had it working and then after installing other restricted drivers it stopped working. You can always try though and post your experience here.

[drama]

while i agree with prime it nvr hurts to give it a try. however my assumption after going through ati's website (these are the drivers envy actually uses) it isnt yet supported. i cant find this card in the card/driver selection list nor in the release notes. now im not saying that it wont work. im just saying as i have no experience w/ this card combined w/ the fact that its not listed on ati's website nor in the driver release notes for the latest version my i would assume it wont work. if you want to try it tho and get back to us w/ the results that would b great. before your try it though please either write down or print out the following. this should get you back to a usable desktop should something go wrong.

at boot let it start the boot sequence as you normally would. now if the login window doesnt show you should at least be in a shell (command prompt). basically jus a black screen with white lettering. login using your username & password.

type the following

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

this will reconfigure xorg (the graphical environment)

now your mouse doesnt work during this process but your keyboard does. tab moves between the various boxes

allow it to auto detect your hardware. when it asks for driver choose either ati or vesa. i would try ati first though. now a quick note as this also used to confuse me. while this is labled ati it is different from the driver envy tries to install. ati is the open source (default) driver. fglrx is the closed source driver (envy installs fglrx).

next accept all the rest of the defaults untill you get to resolutions. now pay extremely close attention here. ONLY select the resolutions that you kno for sure your monitor supports. when unsure its always safer to disable a resolution. use the arrow keys to scroll through various resolutions. an "x" detonates a selected resolution. use space bar to select and deselect. now dont enable or disable all resolutions. this would defeat the purpose.

next it will ask about sync rates. i usually select advanced here. this way it will autodetect the sync rates.

accept the rest of the defaults through the end of the program.

now we need to start gdm (graphical interface)

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sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

this should have you going again. if you have any problems please feel free to post back. hope this helps. cheers

-drama

[LeadFingers]

Before you try Envy, go get the latest from his site
Several members here have solved their driver problems this way.

If Envy doesn't play well with your Ati, (as sometimes they don't)
Your next choice should be Drama1981's Ati driver guide.
you might want to print this out Ati How-to

ps:... just to make life easier for yourself,
before you start playing with your drivers
make a back-up of your xorg.conf

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cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.911

Use capitol "X" in X11
if for any reason you can't get to your desktop
you can always roll back your xorg (to get you back to your desktop)
"Esc" at grub
selsct recovery mode

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cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.911 /etc/X11/xorg.conf

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reboot now

This should bring you back to your desktop, so you can start all over,
and try something else.