Thinkpad W500 and xorg troubles

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Whenever I start xorg my computer experiences massive slowdown. I am fairly certain the slowdown is related to my graphics card. The slowdown continues when xorg has been shutdown and makes the computer essentially unusable unless I ssh in. When I do ssh in I experience no slowdown which indicates to me that its a problem with the GPU. Despite what the lspci -vv says the GPU is an AMD FireGL V5700. Here is the output of startx:

pilla · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:58 am Post subject:

Moved from Kernel & Hardware to Desktop Environments.
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Mike Hunt · Watchman Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 5287

Please post the output of

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Here is the information you requested:

yangman · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 57

"Switchable GPU" systems aren't supported under linux right now. Try disabling the Intel chip in your BIOS, and settle on one of the three ATI drivers instead of having all three listed.

ToeiRei · Veteran Joined: 03 Jan 2005 Posts: 1191 Location: Austria

As a small hint: If you don't use the ATI drivers, the card will not go to 'sleep' and just run on full power producing some heat. A fine thing: thinkwiki - a wiki about linux on thinkpads.

Rei
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Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Thanks yangman, but I already have the intel chip disabled in the bios. I tried removing those sections in my xorg.conf but that did not stop the massive slowdown. Thank you ToeiRei thinkwiki looks like an excellent resource I will have to check it out.

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

I tried removing the module with:

yangman · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 57

fglrx doesn't play nice with the open source drivers at all. You need to make absolutely sure that the module has not been loaded since the last boot. Just unloading it won't do.

In any case, post your complete Xorg.0.log.

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Here you are:
http://pastebin.com/d62e1863e

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Ok now I have tried kernel version 2.6.27-gentoo-r8 and also the current stable version of fglrx but I get the exact same problems (in addition to the annoying bugs the current stable version has). Still not really sure what direction I should be looking in for a solution.

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Ok this is weird, when I run glxgears i get about 500fps (which seems a bit low) and then everything runs relatively smooth, no slow downs or anything. Maybe the card is being agressivly underclocked to save power or something? Any way of checking if this is so?

Also after running dmesg I see the following entry:

yangman · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 57

No resource at that pastebin ID.

I can't help you with fglrx.

For the open source drivers, to get 2D acceleration, you'll need 2.6.30 kernel or newer. 3D acceleration support is still being worked on, and won't be available in a Mesa release for a while yet.

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Here is my Xorg.0.log:

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Tried a kernel generated using:

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Pappy here is the usual information, any help you can provide is appreciated:

http://pastebin.com/m4cc7c804

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:00 am Post subject:

Ok, we're going to do this scientifically. Your machine has a mix of Intel and ATI video. For the moment, since you expressed an inclination to this in your kernel, let's concentrate on getting the intel working.

To get this done, do this:
1) remove all xf86-video drivers, fglrx drivers included.
2) edit /etc/make.conf to include VIDEO_CARDS="intel". Remove all other cards mentioned.
3) emerge libdrm && emerge mesa && emerge xorg-server && emerge xf86-video-intel && emerge $(qlist -IC x11-drivers)
4) rename or remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
5) startx

See what happens at that point. If the intel works, problem solved. If not, you might have to change to VIDEO_CARDS="radeon", change emerge xf86-video-intel to emerge xf86-video-ati in step 3 above, and change the DRM support from Intel to radeon in kernel. Frame buffer support can remain unchanged, as it is set to VESA VGA, and won't be an issue.

Disclaimer: Somehow, a combination of the above steps will result in getting your X working properly. I have no direct experience with this setup, and it will probably require a bit of experimentation on your end to see where you solution lies. The above scenarios are ones I would try before hurling said object out my window, or giving it to a roommate who can stand windoze.

Click here for your new .config. Compile as is.

For the best results, please do the following:

1) Move your .config file out of your kernel source directory (/usr/src/linux- ).
2) Issue the command make mrproper. This is a destructive step. It returns the source to pristine condition. Unmoved .config files will be deleted!
3) Copy my .config into your source directory.
4) Issue the command make && make modules_install.
5) Install the kernel as you normally would, and reboot.
6) Once it boots, please post /var/log/dmesg so I can see how things loaded.

Good luck, and let me know where this leads.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

As you can see in the following dmesg:

http://pastebin.com/m4080bdec

There are a couple messages that concern me and that also appear to be causing delay in startup.

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Alright, sucessfully got both fglrx working on the ati card and intel working on the intel card (it has an integrated card and a discrete one) I can also switch between the two by changing options in the bios and one line in my xorg.conf. Not too shabby.

I also changed the clocksource to "clocksource=rtc" as a kernel parameter, this got rid of the unstable clock source warning in dmesg. It did not however get rid of the delay (10 seconds total to load the kernel which is slower than I'd expect but not unbearable) so unless anyone knows how to fix it or what its related too offhand then I will leave it as is.

Thanks for all your help Pappy!

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:42 am Post subject:

I've had that error, and I could never tell whether anything was wrong. I just ignore it now. Glad you got it going.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:46 pm Post subject:

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

The delay occurs right after tcp is registered. Here is a clipping of my dmesg where the delay occurs:

Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

I found something suggesting the use of the following kernel parameters in order to fix the crash:

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 5:06 am Post subject:

They're ok, but it would be better to figure out what's wrong as opposed to just shutting off ACPI. That's usually not a good thing for laptops. I would suggest googling the model number of your computer with the word, "Linux", or checking more into the forums. There are folks who know how to fix those things without overusing amend="".

Post /var/log/dmesg so I can get a possible idea of what's happening.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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Kruppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 120

Here is the dmesg in full.

http://pastebin.com/m78722a51

Yeah, I didn't like what I read about those kernel parameters. Seems like I could accidentally fry my cpu at worst. Not something I'm comfortable with.

For now I'm just using the xf86-video-ati drivers since they seem nice and stable. No crashes so far at least.

I did try the absolute newest fglrx which helped some but along with it came a whole slew of new bugs and oddities. Like running blazingly fast and fluid until I change workspaces (which caused a delay of about 4 seconds till something even appeared from the new workspace).