I finally got around to installing the video card driver for my onboard ATI Radeon HD 3200 (on an Asus M3A78 PRO). Earlier, this involved manual download and even compilation. However, now, the driver is in the RPMFusion non-free repository (see Fedora 14 installation post for details on getting that).

All I had to do, was to install the package, and run the proprietary Catalyst Control Center to configure the screen.


sudo yum install xorg-x11-drv-catalyst
sudo amdcccle

Note that for a single desktop over dual displays, you'll have to enable Xinerama under Display Options. Before you do that, confirm that the driver and card works with dual display over multi-desktop.

While you're working with this, you might have to restart X a few times. Instead of rebooting the whole machine, you'll save a lot of time by booting into runlevel 3 instead. Edit /etc/inittab, and swap 5 for 3. Remember to set it back once you're done.


sudo emacs /etc/inittab

#id:5:initdefault:
id:3:initdefault:

glxgears now gives a FPS count around 1550, which is significantly better than the 60 FPS without the driver. It was a bit embarrassing when the my mobile (MeeGo on Nexus S) had a higher count than my desktop.