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I am having some trouble getting my native video driver(s) to function properly on my arch install. I've seen plenty of other forum posts that are related to my problem but I haven't had any success in implementing the solutions thus far. I'll try to remember to put down all the relevant details, but I apologize in advance if I forget something.
The PROBLEM
I cannot start X with xf86-video-intel or xf86-video-ati. I conceptually understand the issue with KMS, but I'm not sure how to overcome it. xf86-video-fbdev does work, but is not an attractive solution.
My goal
Ultimately it would be nice to use something like vga_switcheroo or similar to use either card on a whim. For now I will humbly settle for just getting the intel graphics to work over ATI. Battery life and quiet fans are more important to me than pushing my laptop to the bleeding edge of graphic capability.
Details
My computer has two video cards: intel and ati.
lspci |grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Whistler [AMD Radeon HD 6600M Series]pacman -Qs xf86-video
local/xf86-video-ati 1:7.0.0-1 (xorg-drivers xorg)
X.org ati video driver
local/xf86-video-intel 2.20.17-1 (xorg-drivers xorg)
X.org Intel i810/i830/i915/945G/G965+ video driversI don't know if this is relevant or not, but the hard drive has two partitions. sda1 is my /boot, and sda2 is an encrypted lvm volume. I only mention this because I have considered that the problem may be that some file is needed early on in the boot process and is located in the encrypted partition.
As of right now I am booting with gummiboot and I'd prefer to keep using it because I like it much better than refind and grub. At the very least, I would at least like stay with EFI STUB rather than the other options (ie bios emulation).
/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title Arch
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=/dev/mapper/vgroup-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:vgroup ro acpi_backlight=vendor i915.modeset=0 radeon.modeset=0 libahci.ignore_sss=1 elevator=noop/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
MODULES="ahci libahci ehci-hcd uhci-hcd ext4 vfat"
HOOKS="base udev fsck autodetect block pcmcia usbinput encrypt lvm2 filesystems"If I add "i915" to mkinitcpio.conf, I get the following error early on in the boot sequence but it does not affect anything (as far as I know):
[drm:drm_pci_agp_init} *ERROR* Cannot initialize the agpgart module.
DRM: Fill_in_dev failed.If I add "i915 intel_agp" or "intel_agp i915" to mkinitcpio.conf, I get the same error as above.
If I edit /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
...
options ... i915.modeset=1 i915.lvds_channel_mode=2 ...The booting sequence seemingly hangs after posting this:
i915 0000:00:02.0: Invalid ROM contentsI've tried many variations and this post is already pretty long, so I'll give it a rest now. Any help that could be sent my way would be VERY... helpful. Thanks!
Last edited by mightyplatapus (2013-01-12 06:43:34)
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http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux. … ral/674098
Take a look at this and see if there's anything helpful. I'd also have a look at /etc/modules-load.d and try adding intel_agp there.
Last edited by boblitz13 (2013-01-11 07:33:05)
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I tried the suggestions from that article but did not have any success. I have tried adding intel_agp to the modules list in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, /etc/modules-load.d/intel_agp.conf, and /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf but I still get this error at boot:
[drm:drm_pci_agp_init} *ERROR* Cannot initialize the agpgart module.
DRM: Fill_in_dev failed.I have also added 'blacklist radeon' to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf because I'm wondering if the ATI card is somehow affecting the intel card.
Any other thoughts?
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Here is part of /var/log/Xorg.0.log when I try 'startx'
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep \(EE\)
(EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "modesetting" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) No devices detected.
(EE)
(EE) Please also check the log file...
(EE)and
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep intel
(==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 1
(II) LoadModule: "intel"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
(II) Module intel: vendor ="X.Org Foundatioin"
(II) intel: Driver for Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets...Offline
I was able to "solve" my problem, but not in a way I prefer. This thread provided my working solution:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130994&p=2
Basically I used GRUB 2 instead of gummiboot, and edited my grub.cfg as suggested in the previously mentioned thread. Here is the relevant menuentry in grub.cfg:
menuentry 'Arch' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-core repo kernel-true-60716473-5a48-4ec4-ae46-b83ae379e897' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
outb 0x728 1
outb 0x710 2
outb 0x740 2
outb 0x750 0
insmod gzio
insmod part_gpt
insmod fat
set root='hd0,gpt1'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt1 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt1 70D6-1701
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 70D6-1701
fi
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/mapper/vgroup-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:vgroup ro quiet i915.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=0 i915.lvds_channel_mode=2 i915.lvds_use_ssc=0 acpi_backlight=vendor libahci.ignore_sss=1 elevator=noop
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
}The important bits are
The lines that begin 'outb' and their placement (directly under 'set gfxpayload=keep'). This explicitly turns off the ATI card and activates the intel card. I believe the ATI card was somehow interfering in my previous setup.
The kernel options: i915.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=0 i915.lvds_channel_mode=2 i915.lvds_use_ssc=0. Without this the computer will boot, but will not display anything after the initial grub screen. I was able to decrypt my lvm partition, login, and reboot successfully from memory in my first go around. Not recommended, but it works...
Generally the bootup sequence seems a bit more noisy, throwing two or three more errors (or are they just warnings?) than with gummiboot. Chief among the errors is this:
i915 0000:00:02.0: Invalid ROM contentsbut it does not seem to impact anything.
I'll keep working on getting to my ideal setup, complete with vga_switcheroo, but this is fine for the time being.
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