Getting AMD-ATI refreshrate and resolution set (KMS,SOLVED)

hika · Last edited by hika on Fri Nov 18, 2011 8:28 pm; edited 2 times in total

I am getting a bit fed up. I had it quite decent set up, but I had to exchange the board for another with a an AMD-ATI instead of nvidia chipset. (The networkcard was unstable probably bad soldering, and they didn't have the same model anymore)
I'm quite versed in X-less Linux, but now I want Gentoo on my new working machine!

Now I have a MSI760 GM with AMD-ATI chipset. Here the lspci output

hika · Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 4:08 am Post subject:

It seems either nobody has encountered this problem or nobody knows how to solve it.

I've continued experimenting and got it kind of working, although I get a strange error using the fglrx driver. With the Xorg driver it now works.

I've setup my kernel to load my firmware (don't forget to set the firmware directory /lib/firmware i.s.o. firmware)
further in Device-Drivers->Graphic Support
I set /dev/agpgart to module including the AMD-GART
I set DRI to module including the ATI Radeon
I enabled framebuffer support, but only with VESA and EFI support. Without them you don't get a console.
In Console display driver support I enabled everything, except rotation
If I let the kernel choose like this it loads the ATI fglrx module and the basic agpgart module and I get a high resolution (1280x1024) console.
If I force the AGP and DRI radeon modules its halfway during boot switches back to 1024x 768
This doesn't matter for X. Without configuring I get the same problem as before.
But if I put a file with my monitor definition in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
20-philips.conf

wcg · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2009 Posts: 588

(NB: I do not have an ATI gpu, so I cannot test this personally.)

There was mention on the kernel list of something trying to load
firmware at boot, before the filesystems were mounted. This does
not work if it is looking for the firmware in some directory on the
root filesystem. The alternatives suggested were to build the firmware
into the kernel (I have not had to do this, but I have seen the
options for it in make menuconfig), or put the firmware in an
initrd (what path?).

edit:
Look in dmesg after boot. If your system is having this problem, there may
be a report there about it.
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TIA

hika · Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 2:02 pm Post subject:

Thanks, for the reply. I have the firmware compiled in kernel and it boots ok with the fglrx and agpgart modules (although there is no agp, but fglrx demands it). The problem comes with X.
It starts ok as described before with the xorg-radeon driver. With the fglrx driver it either crashes with a segmentation fault, crashes linux altogether or runs fine. I haven't been able to find a reason why it does either of the three. So I stay for now with the xorg driver.

It could maybe be because it is an integrated video card and on type listings I don't see the exact model number.

I don't need heavy graphics, so it is not realy important. The most important was a decent refresh rate and good resolution on the console. In some time I'll look further for I hate it when things don't do what I want. Also it could be the console is not using fglrx but the vesa framebuffer, for it refreshes quite slow. If I leave that out I don't get a console at all. Do you maybe know how to check and possibly force the fglrx kernelmodule on the console. Maybe some boot parameters? Or do I than need a boot ramfs with the fglrx and agpgart modules? I haven't ever tried working with that. Maybe that would also make the X drivers more stable.
I have mostly worked with servers, where I don't care about graphics and where I had all drivers in kernel.

Hika

dE_logics · Advocate Joined: 02 Jan 2009 Posts: 2253 Location: $TERM

For starters -- quit fglrx, it won't work. And that's official.
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wcg · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2009 Posts: 588

Some systems have an agp bus in the chipset, even if there is no
agp slot. That is how they connect up their integrated gpu. You
still need agp enabled in the kernel to get a usable console.

How about disabling CONFIG_FB_VESA, enabling
CONFIG_FB_RADEON, and using the Xorg driver?

I use the Nouveau kernel driver and Xorg driver with an Nvidia gpu.
Nouveau has a built-in frame buffer and does not need a separate,
hardware specific CONFIG_FB_* driver enabled nor CONFIG_FB_VESA
or CONFIG_FB_UVESA. I pass "video=640x480-8@75" on the grub.conf
kernel command line to get it to switch to an 80x30 display at 75hz
during boot. I already knew the monitor and gpu would support that
resolution and refresh rate from testing it in xfce's settings menu on
a kernel with DRI/KMS disabled and Xorg using the old, no longer
maintained nv driver.

Note that the intel framebuffer driver for the integrated gpu in old
i810/i815 chipsets ignores that video refresh rate and configures
the display at 640x480-8@60, even though xfce says it will support
75hz and the Xorg DRI driver works at 75hz on that same ancient pIII
motherboard. So YMMV on passing video= parameters to kernel hardware
specific fb drivers via the kernel command line.
_________________
TIA

wcg · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2009 Posts: 588

PS:
To find out whether your radeon gpu revision specifically works with any
of these radeon drivers and particular kernel versions, what kernel config
options you need for it, etc, you can ask on the dri-users mailing list:
http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/MailingLists
(Even if no one here has experience with your specific gpu, the dri-users
list may have readers that know that chip.)
_________________
TIA

hedmo · Veteran Joined: 29 Aug 2009 Posts: 1305 Location: sweden

hika

as far as i can say is fglrx or xorg-drivers is up to you but the first thing i had been told "do not mix them" i like the fglrx (a bit of a gamer)
but i dont have a good console.i have read that if you want to have a good console and fglrx go with vesa.about agpgart,you dont need it in the kernel (fglrx has its own).i did put it away in the kernel one day when i played with one of my kernels before and it did work.i have the default setting in the gpu section in the kernel buy yes i have set the agpgart to all build in (old habit ) . it did not matter to me if the console was bad so i did not worked forward with it.i did get a good console with the xorg-driver and KMS but as you say "bad startup resolution and refreshrate" so i switched back.

hope there is some help for you in my post

regards hedmo

hika · Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 6:49 pm Post subject:

Now it has become even weirder. Because of what you all said I thought I just go back to the radeon both in kernel and X. Before I was running the kernel with Vesa framebuffer and fglrx then loaded automaticaly later. If I start-up wit a kernel with radeon build-in and no vesa-fb I go back to the old problem. The only supported resolutions are up to 1024x768 on 60Hz. It seems I can only get decent resolution and stability with the combination kernel vesa-fb (where fglrx probably just hangs on doing nothing) and the Radeon X driver. Weird! If I look at the log it says other resolutions are unsupported???

I go look further on internet.

Thanks for the hints.
I don't know if I gave the modelnr according to lspci. It is integrated on the board. ATI 760G (Radeon 3000)

Hika

hika · Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 2:44 am Post subject:

OK, I got somewhat wiser. The original problem is caused by the build in framebufferdriver in the Radeon DRI kerneldriver (radeondrifb). I found out that in /proc/fb you can see which frame buffer device(s), if any is/are active for the console. I can only get two fbdrivers activated; the radeondrifb and the vesa. The old radeon fb driver never shows. Just activating fb console support and activating the Radeon DRI driver doesn't activate framebuffersupport and X than works OK on the xorg radeon driver. If however in the kernel I activate "Enable modesetting on Radeon by default" the radeondrifb gets loaded. Reading the help screen I see it doesn't support the newer hardware. Why the fb support only gets loaded if it isn't supporting the hardware???

I'm looking further.

Hika

hika · Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:41 pm Post subject:

OK, narrowed it down further. Since I read a lot of problems with the radeon driver I will update this thread.
The problem is KMS or kernel mode setting. If enabled X doesn't look any further than what KMS says, even ignoring manual settings. I already discovered that libdrm has a useflag to compile it against libkms, but setting that and recompiling doesn't solve the problem.
Possibly I have to recompile other dependent modules.

I'll look further. Any suggestions are welcome!

Hika

chithanh · Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:50 pm Post subject:

If you use KMS you should not use any of the framebuffer drivers. radeondrmfb is the fb emulation of KMS.

Your xorg.conf is so full of cruft it is not even funny. Get rid of it entirely, you don't need it. For proper kernel configuration including firmware, see http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml

hika · Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:55 pm Post subject:

You're right, the problem is that, when using KMS, my monitor is no longer detected and in X I have to stay at 1024x758x60Hz.

Hika

chithanh · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 1:42 pm Post subject:

Firstly you have to choose between open source driver (then you should use KMS) and the proprietary driver.
If you use the open source driver, the kernel module must be compiled in or loaded before X starts. For compiling in you also need firmware built-in, see the guide linked above. And you must prevent the fglrx module from loading.

hika · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:23 pm Post subject:

I know and have done. I'm relative new to desktop linux, I worked mainly with X-less servers, but I'm learning fast and always read manuals.
I recently discovered to check dmesg and it seems KMS finds my monitor EDID invalid. I get a whole row of errors on reading and it falls back to defaults. Without KMS X just probes the monitor and gets it good. I know in Catalyst I can manually set my monitor capabilities, but I can't get fglrx stable. KMS does not seem to have a manual override option. I'm going to try with adding modelines to xorg.conf, but it seems X just stops thinking when it encounters KMS.
How do I go with the consoleframebuffer with fglrx. Do I use vesa or what? I haven't seen fglrx take over the console.
For now the only working combination is the Radeon driver without KMS and vesa for console framebuffer. Works ok, but the console is slow.

Another probably only half related issue is something with fonts that pops up on both my machines when KMS is enabled. It could have to do with nationalization(euro font 15) . If KMS is enabled I get a smaller font and xrandr on more complex settings gives an error "BadName (named color or font does not exist)"? With KMS disabled it works OK. I haven't yet been able to locate the source of that error.

Hika

chithanh · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:56 pm Post subject:

For KMS on the console you can pass the resolution via the video=... kernel parameter. (e.g. video=1024x768)

In xorg.conf, you need to add a ModeLine option to your Monitor section (see man xorg.conf for details). Modelines can be generated with cvt. For example:

hika · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:54 pm Post subject:

The modelines detected by X (if not using KMS as shown in Xorg.0.log) are different then the ones given by cvt, but they work both. I'll stick to the ones probed.
I'll see if trying to set with the video parameter will work. fbset refuses any but those default ones.
Can I set frequency, too? Like video=1280x960x@75?
With KMS I have to load radeon as module, else it sometimes freezes. Do I set it in /etc/conf.d/modules or as kernel parameter in LILO?

Hika

chithanh · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 6:24 pm Post subject:

If booting stops for about 60 seconds when the radeon driver initializes, this often means that you don't have the correct firmware included in the kernel. See the xorg-config guide linked above.

The video=... parameter accepts more than just the resolution. See http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/KernelModeSetting near the bottom (applies to radeon too).

hika · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 7:12 pm Post subject:

You're right about the firmware, but I'm getting confused. The kernel complains about the firmware, when compiling.
In the log I see the module loading the RS780 firmware.
lspci gives ATI 760G Radeon 3000. It's an integrated videocard.
As the X server configuration HowTo said I had put in R600_rlc.bin and R700_rlc.bin
And now during compiling the kernel says "old recipe for goal", but is compiling it. Is that because I use kernel 2.6.38 for some other reasons?
Anyway I'll see if it boots and sets the video, as module it doesn't.

Hika

hika · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 8:26 pm Post subject:

The freezing is something else, but not important for it takes the "video=VGA-1:1280x960 -32 @75" parameter in /etc/conf.d/modules. So I can load it as module.
It locks just after loading DRM when "switching to clocksource tsc", maybe a hpet problem and should I disable that in the bios.

Now it is waiting to see if all stays behaving. The screen refresh seems to be better.

Thanks for the input. In my experience with troubleshooting two think for four people. At least!

Hika