ATI Linux Video Driver 9.9 Has Support for openSUSE 11.1

Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, announced on September 9th a new version of its versatile ATI Catalyst proprietary display driver for Linux users, for both x86 and x86_64 architectures. The ATI Catalyst 9.9 suite updates the software to version 8.65 and brings production support for openSUSE 11.1 and initial support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Server 10 SP3. Among the resolved issues in ATI Catalyst 9.9, we can mention:

· Desktop overlap issues were fixed for RandR 1.2, when a disabled GPU was enabled;
· The refresh rate in Catalyst Control Center is kept after a restart of the X server;
· On openSUSE 11.0 desktops, if the Compiz effects are enabled, the system no longer crashes if the user switches to a Virtual Terminal;
· On Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), the desktop will no longer appear without icons or menu when resuming from S3 and S4 in extended desktop mode (only for some configurations);
· Made the "Force maximum performance clocks" status in the Catalyst Control Center to function properly, if changes are applied to a single adapter for some ASICs;
· The CrossFireX settings in the Catalyst Control Center will be changed in real-time when CrossFire is disabled or enabled properly;
· Fixed a Catalyst Control Center segmentation fault when selecting a secondary display with CrossFire enabled;
· The X server will no longer crash making the mouse and keyboard inoperable when the second display is hotplugged;
· When switching to the CrossFire Diagnostic section in the Catalyst Control Center, the X server will no longer fail on some ASICs;
· If the screen is rotated with RandR 1.2, the "Identify" icon from the Catalyst Control Center will also be rotated;
· The "Identify" icon from the Catalyst Control Center no longer disappears when the resolution is changed.

Once again, lots of known issues remain unresolved for this release of the ATI Catalyst suite, especially for Ubuntu users!

Requirements:

· X.Org 6.8, 6.9, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 or 7.4;
· Linux kernel 2.6 or higher;
· glibc version 2.2 or 2.3;
· Support for POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm) is necessary for 3D programs;
· The following packages should be installed on your system: XFree86-Mesa-libGL, libstdc++, libgcc, XFree86-libs, fontconfig, freetype, zlib and gcc.

Also, please note that 64-bit users must have the 32-bit libraries installed before executing/updating the driver! Moreover, a GCC compiler, kernel-headers and kernel-source are required to build the modules and to enable 2D and 3D acceleration.

Supported operating systems:

· Red Hat Enterprise Linux;
· Novell SUSE Enterprise Linux;
· openSUSE Linux;
· Ubuntu Linux.

Detailed installation instructions for the ATI Catalyst installer can be found in this PDF file.

Download the ATI/AMD Linux Display Driver 9.9 right now from Softpedia.