This file represents the
"Linux Drivers Download and Quickstart Installation Guide"
for the ATI FireGL 8700/8800 graphics adapters.

Notes on (C), (R), (TM) and related topics:
- "ATI", "Radeon", "Fire" and "FireGL" are owned by ATI Technologies Inc.,
Canada due to trademark registration or other applicable regulations.
- "Linux" is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
- Above described and all other trademarks, registered names and suchlike
mentioned herein are owned by their respective owners, even if not
explicitely marked at any location or just mentioned without extra note.

0. Index
--------

0. Index
1. Purpose of this file
2. Linux/XFree86 components and versions
3. File descriptions
4. Sample download configurations
5. Installation steps

1. Purpose of this file
-----------------------

This is a brief description of the different components
of the ATI FireGL 8700/800 XFree86/Linux driver package.
Here you will find some hints on what you need to download
befor you can install, startup and run your XFree86 system.

2. Linux/XFree86 components and versions
----------------------------------------

Information on basic parameters of your target system.

*** How to match the XFree86 version?

Currently ATI FireGL drivers for Linux are available for
XFree86 4.1.0 and XFRee86 4.2.0.
The drivers will only work with the XFree86 versions for which
they were built and will verbosely refuse to run on other versions.

To find out which XFree86 version you do have, please
download the script 'Check.sh' from our servers and run it:

sh Check.sh

This will report the XFree86 version that is present
on your system.

You can obtain XFree86 full releases or updates from
(1) http://www.XFree86.org or
(2) the download site of the vendor of your Linux distribution

*** How to match the c runtime library version?

Currently ATI provides Linux drivers for only one version
of the c runtime library:

- glibc22 (also known as libc62)

To find out which c library you have, download the script
'Check.sh' and run it:

sh Check.sh

This will report the c runtime library version that is present
on your system.

*** Which packaging format are the drivers available?

ATI FireGL provides the driverrs in only one standard packaging
format. Its the widespread RPM packaging standard which is well
known in the Linux community. Respective files are named "*.rpm"
and are just called RPMs. Its assumed that this is the method
that serves the needs our customers best.

The typical characteristics of the provided package formats are:

- RPM package (rpm):

RPMs also have some advantages in normal use:
with nice GUI tools you can easily manage updates, installation checks,
repairs and removal of packages.
Since most Linux distributions have based their code on the RPM
system, RPM is considered the up-to-date method. You may need to
download the readme.txt for instructions in addition to the driver RPM.

Customers that need specific variations of this packages should
be able to extract this package on a Linux compute and repackage
it into the packaging format and chunk size that matches their needs.

3. File descriptions
--------------------

Note: The list below is based on the current driver version 2.5.1
This version number will change when later driver versions get released.

* general files:

fileinfo.txt - this file - providing hints on what to download.

readme.txt - useful information on installation and general topics
plus some tips and tricks for common applications.

Check.sh - helper script that reports on your system configuration.

* sample RPM packages with support for specific glibc and XFree86 versions:

fglrx-glc22-4.1.0-2.5.1.i586.rpm
- RPM for glibc2.2 and XFree86 4.1.0, the display driver
and shell tools do belong to driver version 2.5.1

contents of such an RPM archive (just for informational purpose):
- the display driver, including a driver specific library for drm support
- the display driver control panels for KDE, also runable on GNOME desktop
- in later versions: a tarball with the sources of the display panels
- a set of precompiled kernel modules
- shell scripts, sources and a library for building a custom kernel module
- the OpenGL client library for linking into the drm system.
- a libGL.so.1.2 that is Mesa *and* DRM enabled from XFree86 4.1.0
- misc tools for configuration and status queries
- misc documentation, licenses and helper files.

4. Sample download configurations
---------------------------------

* Example

You have to initially download Check.sh and run it on your target machine.

Your system capabilities are the X-Server "4.1.0" and the c library "glibc2.2".

You should now download these files:

- readme.txt
- fglrx-glc22-4.1.0-2.5.1.i586.rpm

Continue with installation as described below or look at readme.txt
for a more detailed description on the driver, installation and other things.

5. Installation steps
---------------------

You should not run any grafical mode while doing the installation, especially
you should avoid doing the following installation from inside an X11 desktop.

Log in as user "root".
- If you are sitting in front of the computer then an immedeatet login is
possible and you are using the so called "console".
- If you are connecting via network service (e.g. telnet/rsh/ssh)), then
you are working "remote". In this case the user "root" might not be
allowed to login for security reasons, but you need an other (shell allowed)
user account first to get access rights to the machine.
- If you are already logged in as a non-root user then you can upgrade your
access rights to root by entering "su -l" and answering the later password
question correctly. The given option enforces the environment to be totally
taken from the startup scripts of the root account. The environment from
the previous user gets cloaked while you are still root.

To install the rpm package, invoke the "rpm" program like this:
rpm -i <name_of_your_rpm_file>

If there is already a driver installte that serves the same purpose
then you may need to override the problem by entering:
rpm -i --force <name_of_your_rpm_file>

The rpm installation will try to install one of the precompiled kernel
modules if your setup matches one of them. If there is no match, then
it might try to build such a module whilst the installation process.
For this a set of matching kernel includes are required to be on the
machine. If even this fails, you have to look at the readme.txt for
details on how to build a custom kernel module by yourselves.

Finally you have to run the installed program "fglrxconfig" in order
to setup the XFree86 grafics system with the installed driver.

Note:
- After the installation is done the open root access should be closed
by entering "exit" on the command line.

Hints:
- For more information on the rpm program, refer to its man page.
- For more information on the rpm concept itself refer to the
documentation of your specific linux distribution.