Just an update on a previous post, since the radeonhd driver is already in a usable state. This is a short, to the point tutorial of how to get the new radeonHD on Ubuntu Gutsy.

Get the necessary build tools:

sudo apt install build-essential autoconf automake libtool git-core

Checkout the code:

git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-radeonhd/ radeonhd

Get the driver dependencies:

sudo apt-get install  x11proto-fonts-dev x11proto-randr-dev x11proto-video-dev \
x11proto-xext-dev x11proto-render-devxserver-xorg-dev

Go into radeonhd dir:

./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr && make
sudo make install

Now put “radeonhd” on the driver option in the your device entry in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If it doesn’t work properly, remove all monitor related entries from xorg.conf . That means both monitor entries and the monitor stuff in the screen sections.

That’s it. Enjoy your open source driver.