Hi,
I've been having problems with the FGLRX driver for a long time that appears mostly as corruption in Chrome. I fixed it once and posted the fix.
Well, it started again so I figured it removed the link I added but it was still there. After months I finally decided to tackle it and after two days I have it working. Maegia uses a patched driver that was meant for kernel 3.19.8 I think it is. I thought if I could build it against my running kernel 4.1.15-desktop-2.mga5 x64 it might work. Many use the Proprietary AMD Catalyst 15.9 (fglrx 15.201) driver and patch it.
There is an article for using it on Fedora 22 with Linux Kernel 4.1.6 here:
https://bluehatrecord.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/installing-the-proprietary-amd-catalyst-15-9-fglrx-15-201-driver-on-fedora-22-with-linux-kernel-4-1-6/Without patching:
That worked but I had problems getting it installed and I didn't use it long. After I got past the version.h error everything was ok, but against, I only used it enough to see if it worked and it didn't appear to have the problems I had before. I moved on to using the Proprietary AMD Crimson driver that they use on Fedora 23 with Linux Kernel 4.2.8 without patching it. That article is here:
https://bluehatrecord.wordpress.com/2016/01/10/installing-the-proprietary-amd-crimson-driver-on-fedora-23-with-linux-kernel-4-2-8/Again, you'll run into the missing version.h file error. I didn't know what this file contained but I figured it out. I forget, but I think it gives an error about the missing version.h file in:
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/usr/include/linux/
It could've been another location:
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/lib/modules/your kernel name/build/include/linux/
I am sorry, I just plain got confused and am not sure which it was, but when you get the error just make a file called version.h and put this in it.
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#define LINUX_VERSION_CODE 262415
#define KERNEL_VERSION(a,b,c) (((a) << 16) + ((b) << 8) + (c))
That's it. After figuring out what was supposed to be in that file the driver linked below compiles with no patching and appears to work. When you are done installing it be sure and do:
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aticonfig --initial
That sets up your xorg.conf file. The articles above are very helpful, but if you use the driver that you do not have to patch, our Xorg doesn't need to be downgraded like on Fedora because we are using Xorg 1.16.4 as of kernel 4.1.15-2. Here is the driver you use if you already know how to install it. Just make the version.h file in the right place, install it and do the aticonfig for your xorg.conf. The Crimson Edition 15.12 driver is here:
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Linux+x86_64That should work. They say that driver will build up to kernel 4.2+ and I haven't tried anything but 4.1.15-2 desktop x64. I don't know much about the TMB kernel but this may work for you. The 15.9 has to be patched and the Crimson Edition 15.12 is fglrx-15.302. That is the same one Mageia uses but the Maegia one is built against the 3.19.8 server kernel. Building it with my kernel seems to have fixed my problems. I'm not an expert, it took a lot of time to get this but now I can switch between the patched 15.9 or the unpatched 15.12 and they both seem to work fine. I'm using the 15.12 now.
AMD is just about to lose a customer. First, when my laptop was only 2 years old they dropped support for it in Catalyst and I hear the newer drivers are dropping my HD6870. That is why Mageia is using a patched driver. My 6870 is no slouch and I see no reason to drop it. Linux is used to revive old computers and I don't like them dropping support for two of my devices in 3 years. I know, we have the open source driver with a major performance hit for my 6870 and I won't stand for it. I'll buy an Nvidia card and be done with them for good. I know their are problems with Nvidia too but I'm sick of battling AMD and I switched my whole architecture from my Phenom II 955 to an I5-3570k and have never been happier. AMD left me no upgrade path, at least not one I was happy with so I sold my AMD parts while they had some value. This i5 is more than double the speed, cooler, less juice and I will not have to upgrade it for a long time.
From what I read the Nvidia driver works on cards as far back as 10 year or more. I'm looking at getting a 750 TI or so that is about the same performance as my 6870. The new Nvidia 900 series cards have "security" features so you can't take high performance firmware from a high end card and flash it into a lower end card. However, the guys working on the open source Nvidia driver say the security features go far far beyond what is needed just to keep you from cross flashing.
I don't want any of this to be construed against Mageia. It's not their fault these drivers don't just work and they work hard to make them run for us. I guess it's that I'm really tired of being a second class computer user behind Windows. Not that Mageia is seconds class but the support from manufactures. I know, there isn't many of us they say. That might change if stuff just worked every time. I buy only OCZ SSD's now too because they fully support Linux with diagnostics and flash utilities. I don't think they do on their cheaper SSD's butthey do on the Vertex 240GB 460's I have, 4 of them now and they are they older 460's, not the 460A's. I got them on clearance for $58 each. I got my wife's R7 Radeon 240GB SSD for $70 and it too was on clearance and has Linux software for it. I thought I'd throw that in there while I was on a rant. Oh, and I know, the R7 SSD is AMD, but it is just AMD branded, it's OCZ/Toshiba under the hood.
Good luck.