Here is a quick recipe to getting the latest and greatest radeonhd open source driver for the R5XX/R600 driver series, but this time with dri support. Ubuntu Hardy already has a radeonhd package, but as expected is not updated from the git repo, and does not include the dri extensions. This is an update on previous posts for gutsy and feisty.

Install compile tools and git:

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config git-core

Install driver dependencies, now with dri deps also:

sudo apt-get install libdrm-dev x11proto-gl-dev mesa-common-dev xutils-dev \
x11proto-xf86dri-dev x11proto-fonts-dev x11proto-randr-dev x11proto-video-dev \
x11proto-xext-dev x11proto-render-dev xserver-xorg-dev

Checkout the source code:

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

Last but not least, compile and install

cd xf86-video-radeonhd/
autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --enable-dri
make
sudo make install

And you’re all set. Don’t forget to change the driver to radeonhd on your /etc/xorg.conf.
I’ll try to follow this up with the -ati counterpart… For now, go test. Feedback welcome.