Cannot get Ubuntu 13.10 to work with AMD Catalyst 13.12 - black screen

I have installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu 13.10 x64 and AMD Catalyst 13.12. When booting up, I see the Ubuntu logo splash screen for a second, then it just goes to a black screen. I am using the R9 290x graphics card.

Here is my install steps:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs dh-make dkms execstack dh-modaliases linux-headers-generic libqtgui4 lib32gcc1

sudo sh *.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/saucy

sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb

sudo aticonfig --initial -f --adapter=all

sudo reboot

Then system reboots, black screen.

Then I come upon this thread: patch

I remove my current installation of catalyst, reconfigure my xorg.conf.

I do the steps in the patch thread and then reinstall the catalyst 13.12 with the patch.

I get the same result: reboot and then black screen.

So I take a peek at the Xorg.0.log file and grep and see exactly this problem: Xorg.conf problem

I don’t have a folder called /usr/lib64 or /usr/X11R6..., so I do the recommended change:

cd /usr ; sudo ln -svT lib /usr/lib64

Then I created the folder directories:

mkdir /usr/X11R6
mkdir /usr/X11R6/lib64
....
cp /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/

I manually copied the fglrx_dri.so file to the X11R6 folders. This made the errors go away in the Xorg.0.conf files. I reboot, and same problem: see Ubuntu splash screen for a second, then black screen.

The system does seem to recognize the graphics card because when I do this:

sudo aticonfig --lsa
* 0.  01:00.0 AMD Radeon R9 290 Series

* - Default adapter

But when I do this:

sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --odgt
ERROR - X needs to be running to perform AMD Overdrive(TM) commands

So I try to start X:

sudo xinit

But it tells me that (EE) Server is already active for display 0

I tried turning off lightdm and restarting X:

sudo service lightdm stop
sudo xinit

Then I see the Lightdm saying it’s being started and a bunch of text prints out.. but it stops at:

....
Loading extension GLESX
Loading extension AMDXVOPL
Loading extension AMDXVBA

Now I don’t know how else to solve this.

fglrx                5294837  69
amd_iommu_v2           19068  1 fglrx

wget --referer='http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Linux+x86_64' http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/amd-catalyst-13.4-linux-x86.x86_64.zip