Convert from Nouveau to Radeon [SOLVED]

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

OK, this is going to sound strange... but I want to convert my system from nouveau to radeon.

I had old MB with an nvidia pci-e card but have recently upgraded MB and all components but I am trying to convert the kernel and software from the old install. I changed make.conf from VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau" to VIDEO_CARDS="radeon"; changed settings in kernel to radeon and installed radeon-ucode, but I still do not have a working X.

I rebuilt xorg-server will i need to re-emerge any other pkgs with the new make.conf settings? Is there anything else that would prevent the new configuration from working? Any info is appreciated!
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:30 pm Post subject:

phobos13013,

Show us what

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

I can post the log if its needed, but the quick answer is that the current Xorg is still loading the nouveau configuration. I am currently trying to get xf86-video-ati installed so I can generate a new xorg.conf with the proper settings, but the install complained of an inability to resolve xorg.freedesktop.org.... my NIC is having major issues which I am documenting here: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7773680.html#7773680

I am assuming I can get the xorg issues resolved if I can maintain a working network.
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

OK,
I have stumbled through updating at least the system recognized packages (by emerge --changed-use and associated preserved-rebuild, etc) despite network issues which i am deferring for now until I have a working X. I have Xorg looking for the ati configuration.... but I get an error that the number of created screens does not match those detected by the device.

/var/log/Xorg.0.log:

https://bpaste.net/show/49c2863d1a7b
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

OK, and then I removed .Xauthority from my users home directory to reset and now I get this:

https://bpaste.net/show/985cd6fa7dc7

trying to find nouveau again.
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

So the difference between the two is that just typing startx yields the error of the second kind

whereas typing Xorg :0 -configure generates the error of the first kind.....

Do I still have mismatching packages? I removed xf86-video-nouveau and preserved-rebuild after that with the new ati settings... but i seem to have a foot in both doors with both video card settings.
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

Further down the rabbit hole.... dmesg shows there is trouble with the firmware... cannot post a bpaste because my network is failed again and I cannot get it to come back up. But in dmesg, I get ouput that says it cannot load ARUBA_pfp.bin and probe of the device failed.

I had the radeon-ucode firmaware drivers installed but removed that and added the full boat of linux-firmware drivers.

I had the driver built-in to the kernel but couldnt get it to build when I pointed it to the lib/firmware/driver suite... so I just try it as module and it still gives me the same error in dmesg....

HELP!
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 9:17 am Post subject:

phobos13013,

One of your logs returns a 404 error
The other contains

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

Thanks Neddy, all rrally good info!!

Unfortunately I am out of commission as my building caught fire andni am not able to stay there.... May be a month or two until i am back at that box with power. Will try those recommends when time comes thanks again!
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:50 pm Post subject:

phobos13013,

As long as you and yours are safe.
Next time you post here, it will appear in my "your posts" seach, so I will see it.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

Neddy, thanks for the well-wishes!

I am back in my place with power; still some infrastructure issues with this place, but I am occupying it at least. My internet is down until the end of the month tho; I'd still like to get this box working at least with the video which shouldnt require any internet at this time.

So I am revisiting this issue. Here are some questions from your 2nd to last post, Neddy (or anyone who happens to read or follow the thread):

It is confusing and alarming that I am asking to run X as root.... I do not know how that has become enabled, but where is this happening? I am always starting X as a user; why is it seeking to run this config file (just looking in all places?)

I have gone through and removed or renamed every xorg.conf/new file on the system, but X still has the failed start.

Any hints of what to do to get X? I have a feeling it is an issue with the hardware/kernel interaction....
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

Oh and here is the latest Xorg.0.log to corroborate:

Buffoon · Veteran Joined: 17 Jun 2015 Posts: 1369 Location: EU or US

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 8:18 pm Post subject:

phobos13013,

To add to what Buffoon said, check the date/time in

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

Ok, thanks for the quick replies! So, I have confirmed that uname is pointing to the correct kernel, eselect also selects it, and boot is mounted with the vmlinuz file copied; however config and System.map are not there for that kernel version (4.0.5). Did i do a bad kernel conversion from 3.9 to 4.0?

Do i just rebuild the kernel and copy ALL output to /boot? How do I get config and System.map there?

Thanks
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Buffoon · Veteran Joined: 17 Jun 2015 Posts: 1369 Location: EU or US

You do not need .config and System.map to run your kernel.

You say uname -a prints the date and time you expect for your latest kernel?

If so, please use wgetpaste to pastebin your kernel .config.
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

OK, I just pasted it manually, so got it to work. Kernel config here:

https://bpaste.net/show/91c7e52948b6
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Tony0945 · Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 11:14 pm Post subject:

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

Well, I had switched that around a few times I think, so ended up on the wrong setting although I didnt know that was a requirement for radeon (been using nvidia for over a decade). Anyhoo, I rebuild that kernel with module built-in and i find out uname is pointing to the same kernel as before (which I am beginning to think was not the latest and greatest even then). The kernel version is right but not the build date. What am i missing...?
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

OK, found the problem.... eselect reports my kernel as 4.0.5 (only one availabile), /usr/src/linux only reports up to 4.0.5, no mention anywhere of 4.1.0 in directory, but menuconfig is configuring for 4.1.0... I do not have internet access to repositories, is there a way to fix this ghost kernel offline?! I do not understand how this happened...
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Tony0945 · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:08 am Post subject:

ls -l /usr/src to see what you have and which one the symlink is pointing to. Set the symlink manually to the one you want.

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

So that is the thing... symlink, eselect, /usr/src/ all of them only list or point to linux-4.0.5, uname reports it I suspect as of the last time I built under that kernel. Somehow, this ghost kernel, 4.1.0 got on my system and I upgraded to it, but its not there... maybe I need an emerge sync, altho i cannot do that since I am offline to that box atm.

Any idea how to get menuconfig from thinking its in 4.1.0 when every thing else says 4.0.5?
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phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

Oh no, please ignore me about the kernel version, I was confused in menuconfig about where i saw the version number, it is in fact 4.0.5 systemwide... its just that uname still lists a kernel built back in July even though I just rebuilt it. Where is the disconnect?

To add some fuel to the fire, this is the radeon output of dmesg:

Tony0945 · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:22 am Post subject:

phobos13013 · Apprentice Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 277 Location: PNW

As in grub2-mkconfig? That is done I am sure it is being installed.... what else is there?
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