Solved Problems with Radeon

Hmm... thats interesting.
I recall having read something somewhere that it is possible to set the computer into a real text/graphics mode before or at start of booting, to avoid such problems. (Maybe it was this? Maybe there are similar options in FreeBSD?)

Edit: Maybe another thing to try?
 
Snurg said:
bxbzq could you please post the output of this command? pciconf -lv | grep -A4 vgapci


On T400?
Click to expand...

Here you go.
Code: 
root@bsd_t400:~ # pciconf -lv | grep -A4 vgapci
vgapci1@pci0:0:2:0:     class=0x030000 rev=0x07 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x2a42 subvendor=0x17aa subdevice=0x2113
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller'
    class      = display
    subclass   = VGA
--
vgapci0@pci0:1:0:0:     class=0x030000 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x1002 device=0x95c4 subvendor=0x17aa subdevice=0x210f
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]'
    device     = 'RV620/M82 [Mobility Radeon HD 3450/3470]'
    class      = display
    subclass   = VGA
 
Is there a BIOS option to use "Discrete" video?
Does it work if you change this setting?

There is also the possibility to switch between both graphics chips by software (called "switcheroo"), but I don't have experience with that.

In the (german) Thinkpad Wiki there are mentioned other problems, like the ATI chip dying and becoming unusable after a few years of operation. Maybe some of the information there might be useful in finding out what is wrong, so you maybe might want to look at the page using a translator?

Maybe other related info can be found here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T400
 
Snurg said:
Is there a BIOS option to use "Discrete" video?
Does it work if you change this setting?

There is also the possibility to switch between both graphics chips by software (called "switcheroo"), but I don't have experience with that.

In the (german) Thinkpad Wiki there are mentioned other problems, like the ATI chip dying and becoming unusable after a few years of operation. Maybe some of the information there might be useful in finding out what is wrong, so you maybe might want to look at the page using a translator?

Maybe other related info can be found here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T400
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips.
No, setting to Discrete in BIOS doesn’t help. It is possible that the ATI HD 3470 hardware is in bad shape, because the machine was vey unstable/slow couple of months ago when it had Windows 10 on it. I think I’m giving up trying to use the ATI card.
Next I’m moving on bring up the Realtek chip wireless network card. I’ll start a new thread in System Hardware.
 
Alexander88207 said:
The Xorg driver is not absolutely necessary if you have no problems with the default modesetting driver by x11-servers/xorg-server.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I did a fresh install of FreeBSD 13.1. PC graphics HW is an older ATI HD4850. I used pkg to install xorg and drm-kmod. Updated /etc/rc.conf entry to include kld_list="radeonkms". kldstat confirms it's loaded (along with required firmware). Added user to 'video' group.

Test 1: Ran startx and got a blank screen. xorg log shows EE failed to load module "ati", but modesetting and vesa load okay (vesa is later automatically unloaded to make modesetting the operational driver). Confirmed the modesetting and vesa drivers (but not ati/radeon) are present in /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers.

Test 2: Created a custom .conf file in /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d to specifically use the modesetting driver (Section "Device" Identifier "Card0" Driver "modesetting" EndSection). Still see a blank screen on running the startx command. xorg log confirms modesetting driver is selected and operational (and there is no ati driver load error message since it's not being searched for).

Test 3:Altered the .conf file to use the vesa driver instead, and this time startx generated a proper display of the xorg xterm/xclock windows. xorg log confirms vesa is the operating driver.

Finally, I installed the xf86-video-ati package which added ati and radeon drivers to the xorg driver library. Deleted the custom .conf. Startx fires up properly, and the xorg log shows the ati/radeon driver loaded and operational.

If I understand the above test results correctly, there appears to be an issue with the xorg modesetting driver?
 
Followup to my previous post. Did a fresh FreeBSD13.1 install on another PC equipped with AMD RX580 graphics HW. As before, used pkg to install xorg and drm-kmod. Updated rc.conf to include kld_list="amdgpu" which supports this newer card. On reboot kldstat confirms amdgpu kernel module is loaded.

This time around, running startx resulted in the proper xorg windows display straight away. xorg log still shows EE failed to load module "ati". Modesetting and vesa load and vesa is later automatically unloaded to make modesetting the operational driver. Confirmed the modesetting and vesa drivers (but not ati, radeon, or amdgpu) are present in /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers. So the xorg modesetting driver works with kernel amdgpu, but evidently an issue with it and radeonkms.
 
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