HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

dvh · 2009-07-07 03:59:30

I am trying to solve an issue with xf86-video-intel on my mac, and I think that this UXA mode might help. I am using kernel 2.6.30, but I thought the procedure from the start of this thread might still apply. When I followed all of the directions (screwed up a couple of times on the way), I can get KMS enabled and UXA started, as evidenced by the Xorg.0.log. But, when X starts, I don't get a decent display. I only see a couple of pixels lit in the center of my screen, and nothing else. I am unable to switch to a separate console, so I must hard reboot to recover. Can anyone advise as to whether or not I should be doing somehing different with 2.6.30?

I have also read about some potential issue with "tiling". Does my display symptom match that issue? can I disable the tiling mode?

thanks for any help you can offer. As I said, I am not just trying to experiment here, but I have issues with my display freezing with the latest intel drivers

-dvh

dvh · 2009-07-08 05:05:36

turns out that the "pixels" I see are the "massive mouse corruption" as described in this: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=269554. seems as if I now need to wait for the 2.6.31 kernel to resolve this issue. I am not new to linux, but relatively new to arch...so, is there a way to get and use a kernel from a testing or unstable repo, while staying with the latest stable everything (except of course, dependencies from the new) else?

-dvh

Dr4go · 2009-07-08 18:51:03

Well... in this case I would consider you to download the newest stable kernel from linux.org, download also the newest 2.6.31 RC, copy the the effected files from the 2.6.31 kernel (probably the whole drm stuff) to the latest stable kernel and build your own custom kernel. Then do a make modules_install, copy the kernel to /boot/ and add a new entry for that kernel to the grub. Have fun.

Last edited by Dr4go (2009-07-08 18:52:06)

Chadi · 2009-07-15 03:11:07

@dvh:
Check this, I don't know if the problem you encounter is related.

tom5760 · 2009-07-15 04:51:46

dvh wrote:

I am not new to linux, but relatively new to arch...so, is there a way to get and use a kernel from a testing or unstable repo, while staying with the latest stable everything (except of course, dependencies from the new) else?

I have the same issue as you. What I did for now was build the kernel26-git and the xf86-video-intel-git package from the AUR. After installing these, KMS works great. Once kernel 2.6.31 goes into the main repos, I'd switch back to them.

Good luck!

SomeGuyDude · 2009-07-15 16:06:07

tom5760 wrote:

dvh wrote:
I am not new to linux, but relatively new to arch...so, is there a way to get and use a kernel from a testing or unstable repo, while staying with the latest stable everything (except of course, dependencies from the new) else?
I have the same issue as you. What I did for now was build the kernel26-git and the xf86-video-intel-git package from the AUR. After installing these, KMS works great. Once kernel 2.6.31 goes into the main repos, I'd switch back to them.
Good luck!

Last time I tried to compile a kernel I had to set about a thousand different flags one by one and it just plain didn't work for me. Is the AUR package a simple "yaourt -S and enjoy" deal or do I have to build this thing piece by piece again?

flamelab · 2009-07-15 16:19:15

(For the ATi users) I managed to enable KMS for my ATi card with 2.6.31 Yes, it's not only possible for the Intel cards.

kernel26-git, with CONFIG_DRM_RADEON_KMS=y
libdrm-git with experimental radeon api
xf86-video-ati-git
mesa-git (I used the mesa-kms PKGBUILD though from AUR) with gallium radeon enabled.

And almost everything works great (3d, Xv overlay etc etc), fast VT switching, even Plymouth."Almost", because powersaving is somehow disabled.

ATi X1600.

Last edited by flamelab (2009-07-15 16:25:31)

tom5760 · 2009-07-15 21:27:29

SomeGuyDude wrote:

Is the AUR package a simple "yaourt -S and enjoy" deal or do I have to build this thing piece by piece again?

Yep, just run yaourt, and go get some coffee. Works fine.

Dr4go · 2009-07-16 06:28:00

SomeGuyDude wrote:

Last time I tried to compile a kernel I had to set about a thousand different flags one by one and it just plain didn't work for me. Is the AUR package a simple "yaourt -S and enjoy" deal or do I have to build this thing piece by piece again?

Well... if you want / like to have a custom compiled kernel it is _indeed_ wise to go through all the flags... It took about two months 'til I got my current kernel config file (sometimes I forgot things to add / realized later that for example the burner didn't work or such things).

But... if you don't want to do that there is still another way... just copy the .config file of your arch kernel to the custom compiled kernel.

SomeGuyDude · 2009-07-16 12:45:25

Tried the git kernel26 and the intel-video. Starting X yielded a black screen with a cursor that didn't move.

Well, I suppose a functioning Openbox setup is better than nothing.

gabe_ · 2009-08-07 15:10:50

Thanks to the wiki, I have KMS enabled, and working... However, I can't figure out how to force X to use 96dpi. Any tips?

My settings in xorg.conf are ingored:

Section "Device"
   Option      "NoDDC"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   DisplaySize  270 148
EndSection

/usr/bin/startx is also ignored:

defaultclientargs="-dpi 96"

It should be noted that with KMS disabled, these settings work fine, and my fonts are perfectly sized, and rendered at 96dpi. With KMS enabled, I get awkwardly sized fonts. 'xdpyinfo | grep resolution' returns something like 112dpi.

CaptainShanks · 2009-08-07 19:14:53

gabe_ wrote:

Thanks to the wiki, I have KMS enabled, and working... However, I can't figure out how to force X to use 96dpi. Any tips?
My settings in xorg.conf are ingored:
Section "Device"
   Option      "NoDDC"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   DisplaySize  270 148
EndSection
/usr/bin/startx is also ignored:
defaultclientargs="-dpi 96"
It should be noted that with KMS disabled, these settings work fine, and my fonts are perfectly sized, and rendered at 96dpi. With KMS enabled, I get awkwardly sized fonts. 'xdpyinfo | grep resolution' returns something like 112dpi.

Do you use Gnome or KDE? To get things working in Gnome, put this under the [servers] tag in /etc/gdm/custom.conf:

[server-Standard]

command=/usr/bin/Xorg -audit 0 -dpi 96

If you use KDE, find the ServerArgsLocal string in /usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc under the [X-:*-Core] tag and change it to look like this:

ServerArgsLocal=(whatever was there before) -dpi 96

Hope that helps

gabe_ · 2009-08-07 19:49:23

CaptainShanks wrote:

Do you use Gnome or KDE?

Thanks for the reply, but sadly I don't use Gnome, or KDE.

Crows · 2009-08-07 20:01:30

Adding:

Xft.dpi: 96

to ~/.Xdefaults may work for you.

makimaki · 2009-08-07 20:07:21

gabe_ wrote:

CaptainShanks wrote:
Do you use Gnome or KDE?
Thanks for the reply, but sadly I don't use Gnome, or KDE.

Try putting

xrandr --dpi 96

in your .xinitrc.
I login from the terminal and had the same problem as you when I turned KMS on. The above solved my problem.

gabe_ · 2009-08-07 20:13:37

That seems to have done the trick.

Thanks, Crow!

Crows · 2009-08-07 20:37:58

No problem. I've come to love that file when I'm using anything other than Gnome/KDE. It would be nice if something other than firefox cared about the stuff in fonts.conf.

pseudonomous · 2009-10-27 19:51:30

Hi everyone, 2 Questions:

I've recently tried out intel KMS w/ a dell mini 10v (gma 950), and if I use the "late start" method described in the wiki, things seem to works exactly as they did without KMS enabled, is there some way that I can check if KMS is enabled? (I tried "dmesg | grep ntel" and "dmesg | grep kms" and "dmesg | grep mode", then gave up)

I've also tried the "early" method from the wiki, but then I get a 640x480 X11 environment, which I can't fix with xrandr , it just does nothing, But if I use the KDE display settings, I can fix the resolution. I can't, however, get the KDE display settings program to let me setup dual-head monitors (I have trouble with this ussaully not working without KMS, but then xrandr works, so I use it instead). Anybody have any ideas on what I could do to fix this?

Thanks!

Edit:

I've xrandr working, apparently with "early" KMS enabled my outputs are now named LVDS1 and VGA1 instead of LVDS and VGA.

Edit:

Related to the above remark, I can know set proper resolutions with 'option "PreferredMode "XxY"' in xorg.conf, this may cause me problems if I try to hook up a lower
resolution monitor, but I suppose I'll cross that bridge whan I come to it.

Edit:

The fact that with "early" KMS I can use clone-mode monitors in the TTYs and TTY switching is much faster leads me to believe that my "late" KMS setup is not really kernal mode setting. So I'd still like to see if I can get this to work.

Last edited by pseudonomous (2009-10-27 20:40:41)

Arch Linux

#76 2009-07-07 03:59:30

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#77 2009-07-08 05:05:36

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#78 2009-07-08 18:51:03

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#79 2009-07-15 03:11:07

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#80 2009-07-15 04:51:46

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#81 2009-07-15 16:06:07

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#82 2009-07-15 16:19:15

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#83 2009-07-15 21:27:29

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#84 2009-07-16 06:28:00

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#85 2009-07-16 12:45:25

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#86 2009-08-07 15:10:50

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#87 2009-08-07 19:14:53

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#88 2009-08-07 19:49:23

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#89 2009-08-07 20:01:30

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#90 2009-08-07 20:07:21

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#91 2009-08-07 20:13:37

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#92 2009-08-07 20:37:58

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

#93 2009-10-27 19:51:30

Re: HOWTO: Enable KMS with the stock 2.6.29-ARCH kernel

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