ATI Rage Mobility framebuffer fails (blank) (atyfb mach64)

rabbitboy3 · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 2

I have an old laptop that I'm installing Gentoo on. I've got the system up and running in a basic way, and I'm trying to make the framebuffer for my video card work. It is an ATI Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x.

Just as an FYI, the VESA framebuffer does work at the best resolution possible. I compiled it directly into the kernel and used "vga=789" and "video=vesafb:800x600-24@60" in LILO and got an 800x600 display with high color, which is the best my old laptop does.

I wanted to try the graphic card's framebuffer, so I compiled the atyfb driver directly into the kernel, and removed the VESA framebuffer driver. I then changed my lilo.conf video setting to "video=atyfb:800x600-24@60". After a reboot, the kernel starts getting loaded, and the screen goes black. The system continues to bootup and run normally, I simply can't see anything.

The atyfb is apparently loading, and the fbcon driver is apparently switching over to use the atyfb driver on /dev/fb0. There aren't any errors in /var/log/syslog that I can see... everything looks like it loaded up just fine:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:12 am Post subject:

rabbitboy3,

Welcome to Gentoo.

I can't fix your problem but I can tell you that you won't need framebuffer at all for blender.
Linux has several different drivers for different things.
The console has the old 80x24 text driver and various framebuffer drivers that you have been playing with.
Xorg has another set of drivers (including framebuffer) which are used when it has control of the display.

The xorg framebuffer driver (which is different to the one in the kernel) has no acceleration at all, regardless of your graphics chip.
When you are using blender within xorg, you should use the xorg ati driver, which is as good as it gets for the mach64 chip.
Be sure to turn on agpgart and DRM support in the kernel, or Direct Rendering won't work
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

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

rabbitboy3 · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 2

Thanks, Neddy. I've actually used Gentoo before, but it was several years ago and on hardware that was a little more... robust than this little laptop. And that was with the 2.4 kernel... udev kinda threw me for a loop when I went to reboot the first time.

I have a hunch this will end up being a moot point. The VESA framebuffer works just fine for what I want to do with it (basic console ops, no Linux TV or anything), so I'll probably just continue using it and not worry about the mach64 (atyfb) driver. It'd be nice to know if anyone else has had this problem, though I suspect most people just use the VESA driver and may not even be aware there's something they can do directly with the hardware for framebuffering.

I'm planning on having two or three kernels, one that's stripped down and tweaked just for Blender (no sound, no Cardbus/network, etc, with DRM and with agpgart built-in, etc.), one for a general X windows system with no framebuffer consoles, and one for just regular console work with a frame buffer and no specific bells and whistles. This laptop's not going to have screaming speed and I won't be able to do everything, but it's somewhat useable even without the Xorg DRM drivers. Once I get them going it'll be nice to be able to take my projects on the road or to work if I want to.

I'd still like to know why it doesn't work or what I might have done wrong, but only because I'm kind of a tinkerer like that I guess.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject:

rabbitboy3,

Well, I have a 600Mhz compaq armarda with 128Mb RAM and the mach64 chip.
I played with the framebuffer for a while and just gave it up, like you, I could only get a blank screen
I use xorg with twm on it. I rarely use the console, so its just the plane old 80x24 text mode, which does not fill the screen (its 640x480) but the LCD does 1024x768
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

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

meush · n00b Joined: 09 Dec 2007 Posts: 8

I'm currently using ubuntu on my laptop (I need 2007.1 to have a new kernel that recognizes my HDD), and I have similiar issue.
Framebuffer works with Vesa 1024x768, but I have a 1280x800 screen. Fglrx supports desired resolution, but I neither see progress of system loading, nor can I access consoles under F1-F6. That's not good, as I need consoles, and I'm left only with gnome's terminal.

I didn't try to fix it, because it's ubuntu :p and I'm going install gentoo as soon as new liveCD is released. However, looking at your post I'm afraid that's not just ubuntu's problem :/

I don't know atyfb, but does anyone have experience with fglrx in gentoo?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:03 pm Post subject:

meush,

You don't have a mach64 graphics chip in a widescreen laptop.

The vesa framebuffer can be made to do widescreen modes but you need to hack it gently. I believe there instructions in /usr/src/linux/Documentation.

The kernel is the same (almost) for all distros, so it you make it work on one, its easy to port.

Oh, you can user the ubuntu CD to install Gentoo ... no need to wait on a new Gentoo liveCD
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

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

kion · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:03 pm Post subject:

Maybe that will help.

I'm using the similar laptop as NeddySeagoon (Compaq armada e500). My fb works just fine in kernel options build in.