I recently bought a laptop (Toshiba Satellite L675) as it had ATI graphics and so could run Second Life clients under Linux. I've downloaded the Phoenix Viewer and installed the needed multilib so it could run at all.
On my first SalixOS install I must have accidentally done something needed as while Phoenix complained of hardware limitations, it ran without an obvious problem beyond that - or I wasn't very observant. Figuring that using the ATI drivers (fglrx) would get rid of the hardware limitation notice, I followed the guide to installing them (version 10.10) and Phoenix no long complained, but rendering was amiss. There were holes in the avatar(s) and walls would blink in and out of existence. I tried rolling back and zorched the video. No big deal, install went quick enough and I should be back to something working... or so I thought.
On my second install I repeated that, but Phoenix flickered horribly - nothing else on the system did - and it complained about hardware. This flicker was not mere "in world" rendering going goofy, but the whole window going black rapidly. I tried installing the ATI drivers again (now a newly released 10.11) and while the hardware squawk stopped, the flicker did not, though it slow down.
Unsure of my wiping the system thoroughly, I did it again, taking time to change filesystem formats so that a format would be a sure thing. Again, hardware complaints and flicker. So, the ATI drivers again, and with the same result. The Phoenix Window will flicker over other windows that it ought to be behind, as well.
Clearly I have managed to miss something. Do I need to adjust something not mentioned in the HOWTO? Have I bought hardware that just can't handle the job under Linux? I've also read some that there are open source (non-fglrx) drivers that ought to work, possibly better, but what I have seen seems not to cover the HD 4200. By now I've read so many differing accounts that I wonder if I can keep any of it straight. Should I try to open source drivers, and how? What is installed by default doesn't work well enough for this.
Thank you for your time.