Debian etch with ATI drivers?

[thetrooper]

Hi everyone,

I have been out of the linux scene for a while and I would like to get into Debian. I noticed that Debian etch is on a magazine cover disc so my question is this; how easy is it to get the ATI drivers installed so X is up and running?

I have heard in the past the you need to download and install these drivers from the command line (which is slightly beyond me tbh) due to ATI not submiting to GNU rules. Is it any easier with this version? Anyone know of a good tutorial?

Any advice would be great!

[briareos_kerensky]

Now Ati drivers have their graphic shell, but don't expect them to be exceptional, AMD' support of Linux is lackluster.

[kernow]

Their ati-specific tools are a pain, but their Xorg drivers are very good , as ATI might be lazy themselves, but end up giving all their older driver code away so Xorg can use it, some support DRI for 3D etc just via Xorg. Nvidia would never do such a thing, even for their really old cards, but their proprietary driver does the job usually. I just use normal Xorg drivers as I can't be bothered to rebuild the driver module each time for a new kernel.

[Phar]

Not sure if you've sorted this now but I use envy to install my ATI drivers, it downloads the latest drivers and sets them up for you as well without any hassle of the command line http://www.albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html