Installing ati.2 bianaries

[henryf]

Using Mandrake 8.2, I downloaded a tarfile from 'Gatos' . This file contains drivers and binaries for my ATI video card but I don't know how to install them.

These are the instructions from 'Gatos':

Backup your /usr/X11R6/ directory (or wherever you installed XFree 4.1.0
Make sure that /usr/X11R6 points to the directory where you installed XFree 4.1.0 . It could be a symlink, it could be a hardlink.
Change directory to /usr and unpack the archive:
tar zxvf ATI-4.1.0.i386.tar.gz
Please make sure to install ALL of the ati.2 binaries (if you compile apply make and install patches. If you just install the modules, it will not work.


Now, the above instructions may as well be written in martian. What's a symlink, or a hardlink
What does it mean to 'point to a directory'
How do you install the binaries / modules??

Been working on this for days. Please help
:(

[marvin]

Originally posted by henryf:
What's a symlink, or a hardlink
What does it mean to 'point to a directory'
A symlink (symbolic link) is an alias for another file/directory. Let's take an example. In a terminal window, type the following command

ln -s /usr/local/bin test

This will create a symlink named test that points to the directory /usr/local/bin. If you type ls test (ls is equivalent to dir in dos) the contents of the /usr/local/bin directory will be printed. If you type ls -l test it will print the filename as "test -> /usr/local/bin/" indicating that the file test points to the directory /usr/local/bin

If you remove the /usr/local/bin directory (don't do that!) the symlink *test will become a broken link, and trying to do cd test will result in an error. If the symlink test is removed, nothing will happen to the /usr/local/bin directory

A hardlink is when two files are kept separate but still have the same content. If the files A and B are hard linked and you edit the file A, the file B will also be changed. If you edit the file B, A will also change. If you remove one of the files A and B, the file that wasn't deleted will still have the same contents.

How do you install the binaries / modules??
The instructions tell you to verify that the /usr/X11R6/ directory is where XFree86 is installed, or at lest that /usr/X11R6 is a link to the directory where XFree86 is installed. Try typing

ls /usr/X11R6/bin/startx

and if lists the file /usr/X11R6 is where XFree86 is installed or it is a link to the directory where XFree86 is installed. If it couldn't find startx at that location, you could try the command

which startx

to find out where XFree86 is installed.

Next it tells you to backup the /usr/X11R6 directory. This is so you can "undo" the installation if something goes wrong. From the command line you can use

cp -a /usr/X11R6 <target>

to copy the /usr/X11R6 directory. Replace <target> with a path to where you want to create the backup.

Next you have to cd to the /usr directory and unpack the archive. Type

cd /usr

followed by

tar zxvf <path to ATI-4.1.0.i386.tar.gz>

to extract the files. The files from the archive will be copied (installed) to the correct locations.

HTH

[ 08 April 2002: Message edited by: marvin ]

[henryf]

Thanks a lot for your reply. It was very clear and even I can understand it. :D

[Timothy L. Miller]

If you get it working, let me know, I've been trying to get this working for a while now also.

[henryf]

Timothy:

Got sound but NO video ...dammit. Still working on it and I will surely let you know if and when and how.
:(

[henryf]

Timothy:
Success at last.
Here's what I did:
In shell, tupe xatitv
If you get a no such file response (as I did),
As root, in a shell, type rpmdrake
In the search field, type gatos
If it is not installed it will be on #2 install disk.
Install gatos (rpm)
Back in shell type xatitv and VOILA
You have to set it up of course.
let me kniw how you made out
:D

[Timothy L. Miller]

Wow, I never even realized it was on the install disks...
Got it working just fine, just I all the channels are wrong, still, nothing major...also I don't have anything above channel 67, but that might be what I have it set to. Gonna continue playing around with it.

[ 10 April 2002: Message edited by: Timothy L. Miller ]

[Timothy L. Miller]

Okay, got everything working 100% Just have to set up every channel manually...takes a long time, but works!! I've never been happier! No more windows on this computer!!