Is there an easy way to revert other than reinstalling Linux - Video Driver

[DaveLembke]

So I was messing around with making a Lower end Gaming system that runs on Linux since Steam and some other games out there have Linux ports and the system specs are an equal match like the indie games etc.

Here is the hardware specs:

Athlon 64 x2 4850e 2.5Ghz
2GB DDR2 800Mhz ( 2 x 1GB sticks )
AMD Radeon HD5450 1GB Sapphire Video Card PCIE 16x 2.0
250GB SATA II HDD
DVD-RW Drive
460 watt PSU

Installed Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon 32-bit

During installation I have to use the Compatibility Mode at launch of Linux Mint 17.1 Live pre-install environment otherwise it locks up with the default. ( * Must be a driver issue possibly with default Live )

Installed Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon 32-bit during the compatibility mode and all goes well. Entire hard drive wiped clean and clean install.

Rebooted system and removed the DVD-R so that it will boot to Mint 17.1 Cinnamon 32-bit. All goes well. Performed all updates. No problem there.

Installed Steam Client for Linux and no problem there. Downloaded some games to play and saw that the same games that I have run on same video card for a different almost equal, but lesser powerful Windows 7 build and similar Athlon 64 x2 4450B 2.3Ghz with AMD Radeon HD5450 512MB video card and 4GB RAM, the games were acting like they were not running on the AMD driver, but a generic driver for the video card. Poor performance.

So I went to AMD website and downloaded the Linux Ubuntu release of the video driver since Mint uses Ubuntu libraries for drivers, and installed the video driver. The catalyst driver for Linux then came up and said that I should use the older driver version. I chose to ignore this and install the latest. All I thought went well. But there was no change in game performance, so I decided to reboot.

Upon reboot the system crashed with XWindows failing to initialize due to a Graphics Driver problem dumping me to the command prompt. Looked online for ways to revert back to the prior video driver that worked. No luck. Ok time to wipe Linux again and reinstall fresh and bring it back to the state it was in prior to the latest Catalyst driver killing XWindows

So question i have is.... is there a easy way to revert back to prior driver when this happens or is the best method to just blow away the data and install fresh again like I did and avoid the latest driver for now and use the older driver that had an asterisk suggesting i use that one instead?

The performance hit between Linux Mint 17.1 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit might be due to OpenGL 3.2 vs DirectX 11, but given the games are not that demanding I was hoping that OpenGL 3.2 would be plenty powerful for those Linux ported or Linux native games.

[gixmoguy]

my knowledge is limited on linux but you could try using a command such as

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh -a which should completely reinstall the operating system

you'll lose everything though

[Geek-9pm]

So you already read this?
How to Install Hardware Drivers on Linux

Things are different on Linux. Most of the drivers for hardware on your computer are open-source and integrated into Linux itself. These hardware drivers are generally part of the Linux kernel, although bits of graphics drivers are part of Xorg (the graphics system), and printer drivers are included with CUPS (the print system).

That means most of the available hardware drivers are already on your computer, included along with the kernel, graphics server, and print server. These drivers are sometimes developed by hobbyists. But they’re sometimes developed by the hardware manufacturer themselves, who contributes their code directly to the Linux kernel and other projects.

In other words, most hardware drivers are included out-of-the-box. You don’t have to hunt down manufacturer-provided drivers for every bit of hardware on your Linux system and install them. Your Linux system should automatically detect your hardware and use the appropriate hardware drivers.

The CUPS is generally used on most Linux distros. But it is more about printers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUPS

The RPM system cam from Red Hat is is still around.
Reference:
https://kb.iu.edu/d/aheo
Fedora can do video in RPM.
http://www.fedorafaq.org/
The Unofficial Fedora® FAQ

Q: How do I enable 3D support for my ATI Radeon card in Fedora?
A: RPM Fusion provides ATI driver RPMs that are designed especially for Fedora.
NOTE: If you have nVidia drivers installed, you must un-install them before installing these ATI drivers.

Maybe you will get better answers on a specific Linux forum. 

[camerongray]

While it isn't super helpful, Linux support for AMD video cards is dreadful to the extent that I replaced my Radeon 7950 with a GeForce GTX 770.  A decent NVIDIA card comparable to a 5450 isn't going to be that expensive so you may want to look down that route as NVIDIA support under Linux is much better.

[DaveLembke]

Yah I think I am going to go with nvidia on this build.. the linux drivers for this card are poor. 5 frames per second on a game that under windows xp gets 30 fps with same hardware

[BC_Programmer]

Yah I think I am going to go with nvidia on this build.. the linux drivers for this card are poor. 5 frames per second on a game that under windows xp gets 30 fps with same hardware

Those 25 frames are worth it for the freedoms! 

[TheWaffle]

Hope this isn't too late.

So question i have is.... is there a easy way to revert back to prior driver when this happens or is the best method to just blow away the data and install fresh again like I did and avoid the latest driver for now and use the older driver that had an asterisk suggesting i use that one instead?

I had a similar problem to yours back in july. I am running Ubuntu 15.04 wtih a radeon hd6770. The opensource drivers sucked.
I tried installing amd's drivers from their website, but upon reboot it killed the xwindow system and sent me to tty1 to login.
I deleted /dev/X11/xorg.conf and when I rebooted the xwindow system worked again, but using the opensource drivers.
I then uninstalled the amd drivers I downloaded.
Some time later I installed the amd drivers through Ubuntu's Additional Drivers tool and it worked!

I know Linux Mint is derived from ubuntu, does this tool exist in Linux Mint?

Those 25 frames are worth it for the freedoms! 

You about it now, but I promise you: when the robots enslave the human race they'll be running on a property software. So


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[DaveLembke]

Thanks Waffle for your input. The problem you had is the same exact problem I ran into.

I ended up reinstalling Linux Mint 17.1 32-bit to this system but after first installing XP Home SP3 to 1/2 of the hard drive leaving the other half for Linux Mint 17.1 32-bit.

For the fact that I can play the games fine on XP on the same box and the AMD drivers are lacking. I might just use the Linux Mint 17.1 for times when I want the added security of Linux environment that is up to date with security. And just play the games on Windows XP Home SP3 that work better with Steam Client.

If I find an ok nvidia video card for cheap, I might upgrade to nVidia. I just recently bought a new video card for my 8-core FX8350 and gave the 260GTX to my older gaming system, and then pulled the Radeon HD5450 out of that system and placed it into this Linux box which prior was just integrated Radeon HD3000. The Radeon HD5450 is much better than integrated Radeon HD3000, and under Windows the games are ok at 25fps when lots are going on and 40-50 fps in game screens with not much going on.

Thanks for your input on this.