Linux Catalyst Tutorial Still Valid?
#1
My last server install was a while ago when it was 14.04 (not 14.04.2) and I'm not sure if the tutorial steps will still produce a functional install as listed.

I'm in the process of a new headless install after a fiasco of trying to get Catalyst 14.9 working on a desktop distro. One of the things I am fairly sure of from said fiasco is that 14.9 does not work with X server > 1.5 (possibly it is > 1.6, but AMD specifies 1.5 is the highest version). There is a different method of returning the X version string in later versions that causes the driver compilation to fail.

On the linux server tutorial it says to use 14.04.2. It doesn't really matter if it is subversion 2 or 0 because server doesn't come with X and you have to get it from the Trusty repo anyways.

The version on the Trusty repo is X 1.7. From my experience the drivers will not compile against that version of X, short of perhaps patching the AMD installer.

This is probably my 5th or 6th fresh install so I'm hoping to not botch this one too by getting a bunch of incompatible packages and have to start over again because debian package manager is brutal when things get sideways... makes me yearn for the days when everything was compiled from local source.

I guess the question is... anyone here done a Ubuntu server install with AMD 14.9 drivers recently, as described in the tutorial, without issue... or did you have to patch the amd installer or use legacy repos?

Just FYI... going through the tutorial exactly step by step the installer log says the following packages are missing:
dh-modaliases
execstack
debhelper
lib32gcc1

I'll let you guys know if it requires a patched driver or legacy repo/package of Xorg soon.

Ok, so I think you're SOL these days with a 14.9 driver install on a headless without using an old repo for your package manager or patching the installer.

Everything was going together nicely to my surprise... fglrxinfo shows all the right stuff, clinfo shows the right stuff, the gears test is running at the right speeds...

Everything except for amdconfig.

$ amdconfig --adapter=all --odgt
No protocol specified
amdconfig: This program must be run as root when no X server is active

sudo -i
# amdconfig --adapter=all --odgt
No protocol specified
ERROR - X needs to be running to perform AMD Overdrive(TM) commands

Of course is running because I have the unity login screen now and I can run the gears test also.
# ps aux | grep X
root 2131 1.2 4.6 308404 95392 tty7 Ss+ 19:29 0:08 /usr/bin/X -core :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch

I'm pretty sure when it checks for Xorg it is looking for the proper version string that existed up until 1.5 (or possibly as late as 1.6).

I'll try to uninstall the drivers, patch the installer and reinstall and see what happens.

My bad... it was due to xhost + not getting ran. I put in /etc/rc.local and now all is good. I was getting the X error before on unpatched installer because that issue only affect GDM, not lightdm.

So to answer my own question... the tutorial is still valid for 14.9 on a server install outside of those 4 dependencies that are not installed already on a fresh install.
#2
Those four packages are not required to install the driver, only to build a .deb package. And actually if you remove multiarch support, it is impossible to install lib32gcc1 (actually this is like the only step in the wiki guide that is 12.04 specific, on 14.04 you have to use dpkg to remove multiarch support.)

If you want to build a .deb without those dependencies, see https://github.com/stricture/fglrx

Otherwise, just tell the installer to install the software without building a package as the wiki instructs you to do.