Ubuntu HOWTO: 3D Acceleration in ATI Mobility Radeon M6 LY (and possibly others)

First, check to be sure that we have the 3D Acceleration drivers installed:

sudo apt - get  install libgl1 - mesa - dri

Next, open the xorg.conf file. This file controls how the graphical display acts:

sudo gedit  / etc / X11 / xorg.conf

Find the part of the configuration of the log that says Section "Device". Notice that the entire configuration is seperated into sections. Each Section configures a different thing. We are looking for the Section that configures your video card.

Make a copy of the entire Section, then add "#" to the beginning of the lines of the first copy, like the example below:

before

Section  " Device "
    Identifier     " ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility M6 LY [Radeon Mobility 9000] "
    Driver         " ati "
    BusID         " PCI:1:0:0 "
EndSection

after

#Section  " Device "
#    Identifier     " ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility M6 LY [Radeon Mobility 9000] "
#    Driver         " ati "
#    BusID         " PCI:1:0:0 "
#EndSection

Section  " Device "
    Identifier     " ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility M6 LY [Radeon Mobility 9000] "
    Driver         " ati "
    BusID         " PCI:1:0:0 "
EndSection

Add the following Options to the second copy of the Section "Device":

    Option         " BusType "   " PCI "
    Option         " AGPMode "   " 4 "
    Option         " AGPSize "   " 32 "  #  default :  8
    Option         " AGPFastWrite "   " false "  # More stable  this  way.
    Option         " SWcursor "   " true "  # More stable  this  way.
    Option         " EnablePageFlip "   " true "  # Faster.
    Option         " EnableDepthMoves "   " false "  # More stable  this  way.
    Option         " RenderAccel "   " false "  # More stable  this  way
    Option         " AccelMethod "   " XAA "  # or XAA, EXA, XAA more stable
    Option         " DDCMode "
    Option         " SubPixelOrder "   " NONE "
    Option         " ColorTiling "   " false "  # More stable  this  way.
    Option         " DynamicClocks "   " true "
    Option         " bioshotkeys "     " True "
    Option         " XAANoOffscreenPixmaps "   " true "  # More stable  this  way.

Look for the Section "Module", and insert these modules if they don't exist already:

    Load     " dri "
    Load     " extmod "
    Load     " glx "
    Load     " GLcore "

Reboot.

Once log in again:

glxinfo  |  grep direct

If it says "direct:Yes" congrats!