Arch Linux

signor_rossi

Member

Registered: 2007-08-24

Posts: 257

[PARTLY SOLVED] Using radeon driver KDE4 and XFCE4 don't start up

I am currently trying to ditch fglrx on my X600 Mobility based laptop, the only reason for not having done so long ago being the PowerPlay functions not implemented in the free radeon driver. Fortunately today the radeon driver devs added initial power saving support for my and other cards to the radeon driver in git (HURRAY!)
http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzIwNg
Since some nice guy posted a PKGBUILD for the radeon git driver in AUR it was very easy to install it and try it out and it actually seems to do work (but keep in mind that it does not do all the fancy stuff fglrx could do, support is initial)!
The problem is that KDE and XFCE4 don't start up completely and I get only a black screen. with KDE4 I see the startup screen and notifications show up, but when the plasma workspace should appear I see only a black screen, yakuake though shows up when I press F12 and right click on desktop brings up the openbox menu (I am using openbox instead of kwin). With Xfce4 it is similiar. Note that I also tried with the radeon driver from extra, same result with that one too! twm starts up fine...
Anyone got any ideas?

Last edited by signor_rossi (2009-04-15 21:50:51)

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: [PARTLY SOLVED] Using radeon driver KDE4 and XFCE4 don't start up

I am currently trying to ditch fglrx on my X600 Mobility based laptop, the only reason for not having done so long ago being the PowerPlay functions not implemented in the free radeon driver. Fortunately today the radeon driver devs added initial power saving support for my and other cards to the radeon driver in git (HURRAY!)
http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzIwNg
Since some nice guy posted a PKGBUILD for the radeon git driver in AUR it was very easy to install it and try it out and it actually seems to do work (but keep in mind that it does not do all the fancy stuff fglrx could do, support is initial)!
The problem is that KDE and XFCE4 don't start up completely and I get only a black screen. with KDE4 I see the startup screen and notifications show up, but when the plasma workspace should appear I see only a black screen, yakuake though shows up when I press F12 and right click on desktop brings up the openbox menu (I am using openbox instead of kwin). With Xfce4 it is similiar. Note that I also tried with the radeon driver from extra, same result with that one too! twm starts up fine...
Anyone got any ideas?

Enable EXA in xorg.conf. This is mine:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "My Graphics Card"
    Driver      "radeon"
        Option      "DRI" "on" 
        Option      "ForceLowPowerMode" "on"
        Option      "AccelMethod" "EXA"
        Option      "EXAVSync" "on" 
        Option      "DMAForXv" "on" 
        Option      "ScalerWidth" "2048" 
        Option      "EnablePageFlip" "on" 
        Option      "RenderAccel" "on" 
        Option      "AccelDFS" "on"
        Option      "R4xxATOM" "on"
    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "DontZap"             "False"
EndSection

and everything works great.

Last edited by flamelab (2009-04-15 20:48:44)

signor_rossi

Member

Registered: 2007-08-24

Posts: 257

Re: [PARTLY SOLVED] Using radeon driver KDE4 and XFCE4 don't start up

That didn't work.
Then I tried with a clean KDE config and it worked! The funny thing is that this is the advice I always give others when they have problems with KDE...
Now let's see why XFCE doesn't work...

Thanks, signorRossi.

piete

Member

From: Brazil/Finland

Registered: 2008-12-05

Posts: 12

Re: [PARTLY SOLVED] Using radeon driver KDE4 and XFCE4 don't start up

Hi! I was wondering would the powersave be best implemented at bios level? Then at least we wouldn't have to worry about the heating. I have an HP NC8430 notebook with ATI Mobility X1600, and the default power state is heating the computer. In windows, I can handle it with Catalyst Powerplay, but in linux I have a long way before getting anything done and the computer already heats up.

Also, applying the default power state to bios would then be operating system and framebuffer/text/graphic environment independent. Any comments or experiences?

I have tried to find some experiences in the internet but so far with no success, planting seeds to very old threads on different forums. So far I have learned that at least the most common bios editors/dumpers don't work with my chip, so this needs some extra hacking, at least for my computer/chip.

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: [PARTLY SOLVED] Using radeon driver KDE4 and XFCE4 don't start up

Then I tried with a clean KDE config and it worked!

When I mucked around with fglrx and radeon and "desktop" settings -> enable desktop effects -> compositing type, I ended up with a black screen when logging in. Deleting ~/.kde4/share/config/plasmarc was enough to sort things out.