ATI Installer HOWTO for openSUSE users

openSUSE 11.3

If you want or need to use the latest and greatest ATI driver, continue here . 
Otherwise use

  YaST -> Software -> Software Repositories  -> Add

  Protocol: http
  Server Name: : www2.ati.com
  Directory on Server: suse/11.3

to add the ATI http server as additional installation source.
Now use

  YaST -> Software -> Software Management

to install the ATI/fglrx driver. The appropriate fglrx packages will be
autoselected, if your card is supported. These should be:

  x11-video-fglrxG02 + ati-fglrxG02-kmp-<kernel_flavor>

If no additional packages are autoselected, your card is not supported
by the driver (RPMs) at the moment.

openSUSE 11.2

If you want or need to use the latest and greatest ATI driver, continue here . 
Otherwise use

  YaST -> Software -> Software Repositories  -> Add

  Protocol: http
  Server Name: : www2.ati.com
  Directory on Server: suse/11.2

to add the ATI http server as additional installation source.
Now use

  YaST -> Software -> Software Management

to install the ATI/fglrx driver. The appropriate fglrx packages will be
autoselected, if your card is supported. These should be:

  x11-video-fglrxG02 + ati-fglrxG02-kmp-<kernel_flavor>

If no additional packages are autoselected, your card is not supported
by the driver (RPMs) at the moment.

Use "sax2 -r" for X.Org configuration.

Manual driver installation 

Since ATI driver release 8.16.20 the ATI installer needs to be used
to create SUSE/Novell RPMs. Download the ATI installer from the ATI 
website.

  http://www.ati.com --> Support & Drivers --> Download graphics drivers

It is possible to create RPMs for the following SUSE/Novell distros.
This information has been retrieved by using the installer itself:

  ./ati-driver-installer-11-1-x86.x86_64.run --listpkg

[...]
SuSE Packages:
        SuSE/SLE10-IA32
        SuSE/SLE10-AMD64
        SuSE/SLE11-IA32
        SuSE/SLE11-AMD64
        SuSE/SUSE111-IA32   (openSUSE 11.1-IA32)
        SuSE/SUSE111-AMD64  (openSUSE 11.1-AMD64)
        SuSE/SUSE112-IA32   (openSUSE 11.2-IA32)
        SuSE/SUSE112-AMD64  (openSUSE 11.2-AMD64)
        SuSE/SUSE113-IA32   (openSUSE 11.3-IA32)
        SuSE/SUSE113-AMD64  (openSUSE 11.3-AMD64)
        SuSE/SUSE-autodetection (autodetect!)

Example:
--------
Create a RPM for SUSE 11.3 (AMD64) by using the installer.

  ./ati-driver-installer-11-1-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg SuSE/SUSE113-AMD64

Afterwards install the created RPM by using the rpm command. In the
mentioned example above this would be:

  zypper install fglrx64_7_5_0_SUSE113-8.812-1.x86_64.rpm

The postinstall script of this RPM will try to compile the required
kernel module. If this fails, you'll get a message how to proceed.

On openSUSE < 11.3 you still need to configure the driver with SaX2.
Details can be found in /usr/share/doc/packages/fglrx/README.SuSE.

Recompilation of the kernel module will be done automatically during
boot when necessary, e.g. after a kernel (security) update.