Video on a Compaq 6715b (ATI x1250) under Fedora 7 and 8

When you install Fedora on the Compaq 6715b you’ll be greeted with no X windows thanks to the ATI x1250 graphics card. I looked around for a quick and easy installation procedure and never found one. Hopefully this helps someone.

Step 1: Install the livna repository

wget http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-7.rpm (change to 7 to an 8 for FC8)
rpm -ivh livna-release-7.rpm

Step 2: Install the drivers

yum install glx-utils kmod-fglrx xorg-x11-drv-fglrx

You will probably need to restart if this is a fresh install since there will likely be a kernel upgrade.

Step 3: Now once you’ve logged switch to runlevel 5 to start X

init 5

Step 4: Change the default run level so X will load at boot:
Open /etc/inittab and change the line at the top that reads

id:3:initdefault:

to read

id:5:initdefault:

Congratulations your video card should be working now. Watch for a follow up coming soon on getting the wireless on this laptop working.

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