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Description of problem: Attempting to use the radeon driver with Fedora 15 beta does not work. When Fedora tries to autodetect the video setup (when xorg.conf is missing) this results in a totally blank screen: not even a blinking cursor. Attempting to use the proprietary Catalyst 11.4 driver (i.e. fglrx) also does not work. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Fedora 15 beta How reproducible: Remove xorg.conf or configure xorg.conf with the Catalyst installation tool. Steps to Reproduce: 1. rm /etc/xorg.conf 2. reboot 3. observe results Actual results: A totally blank screen: not even a blinking cursor. Expected results: A login screen. Additional info: I've attached my Xorg.0.log. And yes, I've deleted nomodeset from the kernel line in grub.conf. My monitor is a Panasonic plasma TV running of a Denon home theater receiver. My video card outputs HDMI to the receiver and DVI direct to the TV. Neither input works. Perhaps the driver is attempting to set a resolution that my receiver or TV cannot display? Thanks to all the hardworking Fedora and Xorg hackers! You have the gratitude of at least one humble user :-)
Created attachment 498897 [details] Xorg log
This looks like the problem: [ 236.115] (EE) RADEON(0): Timeout trying to update memory controller settings ! [ 236.115] (EE) RADEON(0): You will probably crash now ... -- Fedora Bugzappers volunteer triage team https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers
Changing the title to something a bit more informative. -- Fedora Bugzappers volunteer triage team https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers
(In reply to comment #0) > How reproducible: > Remove xorg.conf or configure xorg.conf with the Catalyst installation tool. Unfortunate thing about binary only drivers (both nVidia and AMD ones; and especially if you install tarball from the vendors website, not RPM-packaged drivers) is that they tend to corrupt even non-driver parts of Xorg. Before any further testing please run rpm -Va xorg-x11\* mesa\* to check that your system hasn't corrupted Xorg components. Thank you
Thank you for your help, Matej. I ran that command. It appeared to complete, but did not print any message. Then I tried again (i.e. rebooted) with the same result: a totally blank screen: no cursor and no mouse pointer. I also tried appending the kernel boot argument radeon.agpmode=-1, which did not help either.
We you add nomodeset kernel parameter, does it help? But that's just workaround, to collect at least some logging information, boot with 3 as a kernel parameter and WITHOUT nomodeset and WITHOUT xdriver=vesa. Are you able to log in to the text mode? If not, add xdriver=vesa to the kernel command line and reboot. Either way, when logged in the text console, start X with the command startx. If it fails, still /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of dmesg program from the failed attempt to start X would be useful. We will review this issue again once you've had a chance to attach this information. Thank you very much in advance.
Created attachment 500333 [details] Xorg log
Created attachment 500334 [details] dmesg output
Dear Matej, Thanks for your reply. I added "3" (without the quotes) to the kernel line in grub.conf. Is that correct, or should it be the value of some parameter, i.e. "foo=3"? Also there is no "nomodeset" or "xdriver=foo" on that line. In any case, I can boot to text mode fine. When I execute startx the machine locks up. There is a blank screen with no cursor. X cannot be killed with ctrl-alt-del or ctrl-c, and I cannot change to another VT with ctrl-alt-f2 etc. I've attached the Xorg.0.log and dmesg output as requested. Thanks again, John
please use the fglrx uninstall script. it probably added a blacklist for radeon, and you need to rebuild the initramfs to let things work like before.
Hi Dave, Thanks for your help. I can easily uninstall fglrx, but have no clue how to rebuild initramfs (or even what it is). Can you explain, or point me to an already existing explanation please? Thanks, John
Probably the safest way is to run yum reinstall kernel it should take care of it.
I just installed the released Fedora 15 (formatted the partition before installing) and the problem persists. I have not installed fglrx. I created an xorg.conf with the contents: Section "Device" Identifier "Card0" Driver "vesa" EndSection I can boot to runlevels 1 & 3 fine. However when I run startx I get this error message: Refusing to touch device with a bound kernel driver Sigh. Any clues? thanks again for your help so far!
I think you should attach these logs from your current install (remove the xorg.conf file, so you want be using vesa) as well, it might help. This part of the log seems really strange to me, I don't think it should happen. [ 922.967] (EE) RADEON(0): [dri] RADEONDRIGetVersion failed because of a version mismatch. [dri] This chipset requires a kernel module version of 1.17.0, [dri] but the kernel reports a version of 2.9.0.[dri] If using legacy modesetting, upgrade your kernel. [dri] If using kernel modesetting, make sure your module is [dri] loaded prior to starting X, and that this driver was built [dri] with support for KMS. [dri] Disabling DRI. -- Fedora Bugzappers volunteer triage team https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers
OK, I removed xorg.conf entirely and Xorg now starts, apparently using the vesa driver as I cannot increase the screen resolution beyond 1024x768. Thank you for that advice. Now, can someone tell me either: 1. Will this bug receive relatively high-priority attention? When searching for a solution on the Internet I've come across opinions that using ATI hardware on Fedora has traditionally problematic. I thought this was weird, considering they have open-sourced lots of their code (in comparison to nVidia). 2. I'm considering just giving up and buying a video card that's guaranteed to work on Fedora 15. Is there a list of such cards? I've been using an nVidia card with Fedora 15 using the nouveau driver, but am suffering a few kernel oopses. I'd be very grateful to avoid this hell. This is 2011: can one buy a video card that's guaranteed to work well with GNU/Linux ? Please don't interpret the above as complaining. I've very grateful to all you talented hackers for producing something that is Free, and works amazingly well, apart from this issue.
(In reply to comment #16) > OK, I removed xorg.conf entirely and Xorg now starts, apparently using the vesa > driver as I cannot increase the screen resolution beyond 1024x768. Thank you > for that advice. Please attach xorg log from this run. The log probably contains some info on why did it use vesa. > > Now, can someone tell me either: > > 1. Will this bug receive relatively high-priority attention? I can't tell since I'm not an Xorg developer. > > 2. I'm considering just giving up and buying a video card that's guaranteed to > work on Fedora 15. Is there a list of such cards? I've been using an nVidia > card with Fedora 15 using the nouveau driver, but am suffering a few kernel > oopses. Did you report those? -- Fedora Bugzappers volunteer triage team https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers
After applying the latest updates the Xorg radeon driver now works! Thank you very much to the Xorg hackers, and the volunteers who helped triage and otherwise assist me with this bug. Unfortunately the screen is clipped with this driver, so I can only partially see the top menu bar. That's a matter for a separate bug though ... So please close this bug. Thanks again from a grateful user, John