Arch Linux

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

I have a laptop which has a integrated graphic card intel 4th generation (4600) and an AMD ATI R9 m265x (hybrid Intel/AMD graphics card) so I have just installed AMD ATI Catalyst proprietary ones by following
AMD Catalyst ArchWiki.

I have used "Installing from the unofficial repository" method so in my pacman.conf I have added below entry for [catalyst-stable]:

[catalyst-stable]
Server = http://catalyst.wirephire.com/repo/catalyst/$arch
## Mirrors, if the primary server does not work or is too slow:
#Server = http://70.239.162.206/catalyst-mirror/repo/catalyst/$arch
#Server = http://mirror.rts-informatique.fr/archlinux-catalyst/repo/catalyst/$arch
#Server = http://mirror.hactar.bz/Vi0L0/catalyst/$arch

Then I have update pacman's database and install below packages:

catalyst-hook
catalyst-utils-pxp
lib32-catalyst-utils-pxp

(No need to install catalyst-total-pxp as I have installed catalyst-utils-pxp)

After installing it, I have configured the driver, configuring X using below command:

# aticonfig --initial

In order to use PowerXpress support I have installed catalyst-utils-pxp package plus additional lib32-catalyst-utils-pxp.
To perform a switch into Intel's IGP I have also installed the mesa-libgl  package and Intel's drivers: xf86-video-intel  and intel-dri .

I have enable the automatic update by enabling the catalyst-hook.service with below commands since it automatically rebuilds the fglrx modules while the system shuts down or reboots (so I haven't to do it manually each time kernel is updated using Catalyst-generator):

# systemctl enable catalyst-hook
# systemctl start catalyst-hook

And finally I have blacklisted radeon module by creating "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklisted.conf" file which content is:

blacklist radeon

and also I have ensured that fglrx line is added in "/etc/modules-load.d/Catalyst.conf" file.

To avoid problems, I have rebuilt the fglrx module by doing (I know it is not necessary as it is done by catalyst-hook):

catalyst_build_module all

Once I reboot, arch linux does not boot. Last lines printed out are below and then it freezes:

...
Starting temp files linker to catalyst...
Starting Catalyst event Daemon...
[ OK ] Started Catalyst event Daemon
Starting Catalyst's fglrx kernel' module builder...
...
[ OK ] Started temp files linker for catalyst.
[ OK ] Started Catalyst's fglrx kernel' modue builder.
...
[ OK ] Started gnome Display manager.
...
[ OK ] Started Network manager.
[ OK ] Reached target Multi-User system.
[ OK ] Reached target Graphical Interface.
[ OK ] Reached target Network.

I have tried to put nomodeset as a kernel parameter but it does not work. Also, after reading ArchWiki, I have noticed that it is recommended to don't do this as I am using catalyst-utils-pxp because intel driver needs it so I have removed nomodeset parameter from kernel but It continues not working.

Any ideas?

Package versions:
Kernel version 3.17.6-1-ARCH

catalyst-hook 14.12-1
catalyst-utils-pxp 14.12-1
lib32-catalyst-utils-pxp 14.12-1

xorg-server 1.16.2.901-1

xf86-video-intel 2.99.916-3

Last edited by toni (2014-12-13 19:38:38)

Xabre

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 757

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

Won't help, but seems you have same issues as I do.

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

I forgot to say that I installed acpid as it is needed by atieventsd:

# pacman -S acpid

and then

# systemctl enable acpid.service
# systemctl start acpid.service

also I performed some other tasks:

# systemctl enable atieventsd
# systemctl start atieventsd

# systemctl enable temp-links-catalyst
# systemctl start temp-links-catalyst

Also I have checked boot messages using journalctl -b, and I have seen lines that do not seem ok:

fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (c) 2002-ATI technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.
Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint.

gdm-Xorg-:0[654] : This is a pre-release version of the X Server from X.Org Foundation
gdm-Xorg-:0[654] : It is not supported in any way.

gdm-Xorg-:0[654] : (EE) systemd-logind: failed to get session: PID 654 does not belong to any known session.

gdm-Xorg-:0[654] : (II) "glx" will be loaded by default
gdm-Xord-:0[654] : (II) LoadModule: "glx"

My xorg-server version is 1.16.2.901-1

Last edited by toni (2014-12-13 17:31:34)

ackt1c

Banned

From: Visalia, California

Registered: 2012-10-10

Posts: 241

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

initcpio

Last edited by ackt1c (2022-11-05 12:56:01)

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

I would Boot up the live CD mount your root partition and stop the services affecting your failure to boot.  Unfortunately I do not know how to disable services on a mounted Live partition.

There are no services affecting the boot process. If I type below command:

$ systemctl --state=failed

It says there are no modules failed during startup process.

ackt1c

Banned

From: Visalia, California

Registered: 2012-10-10

Posts: 241

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

Remove

Last edited by ackt1c (2022-11-05 13:21:47)

clfarron4

Member

From: London, UK

Registered: 2013-06-28

Posts: 2,165

Website

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

The only thing I can suggest is playing around with the different versions of Catalyst, Xorg and Intel Drivers until you get a setup that works and then just leave it. It's quite a tricky thing to get working from what I understanding.

---

Claire is fine.
Problems? I have dysgraphia, so clear and concise please.
My public GPG key for package signing
My x86_64 package repository

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

Examining again boot messages using:

# journalctl -b

I have noticed that below message is thrown:

Cannot add dependency job for unit atieventsd.service,
ignoring: Unit acpid.socket failed to load : no such file or directory

As far as I know, the ATI External Events Daemon (atieventsd) is a user-level application that requires acpid.socket but acpid.socket does not exist so I am not sure at all if it is the cause...... and unfortunately I have no idea on how to solve this....

Last edited by toni (2014-12-13 20:25:19)

Xabre

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 757

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

That seems like a problem with the /usr/lib/systemd/system/atieventsd.service.

[Unit]
Description=Catalyst event Daemon
Requires=acpid.socket

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/atieventsd --nodaemon

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Naturally, it fails as acpid.socket isn't started/doesn't exist/is not  part of acpid package.

However, /var/run/acpid.socket exists, at least on my system.

I think that Requires should be Requires=acpid.service instead, but am not 100% sure.

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

That seems like a problem with the /usr/lib/systemd/system/atieventsd.service.

[Unit]
Description=Catalyst event Daemon
Requires=acpid.socket

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/atieventsd --nodaemon

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Naturally, it fails as acpid.socket isn't started/doesn't exist/is not  part of acpid package.

However, /var/run/acpid.socket exists, at least on my system.

I think that Requires should be Requires=acpid.service instead, but am not 100% sure.

Yes, there is an error, instead of acpid.socket it should be acpid.service.

See the comment as I have done to Vi0L0 here. He says it will be fixed soon.

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

Re: arch linux doesn't boot after installing AMD ATI Catalyst

FInally I managed to boot arch linux.

I had to downgrade xorg-server from 1.16.2.901-1 to 1.15.2-1.
It seems there is a problem with Catalyst 14.12-1 and xorg-server 1.16.2.901-1.

Also I had to replace desktop manager from gdm to lightdm as gdm raises segmentation faults using xorg-server versions 1.16.2.901-1 and 1.15.2-1.

Finally I had to add an entry in pacman.conf:

[xorg115]
Server = http://catalyst.wirephire.com/repo/xorg115/$arch
## Mirrors, if the primary server does not work or is too slow:
#Server = http://mirror.rts-informatique.fr/archlinux-catalyst/repo/xorg115/$arch
#Server = http://mirror.hactar.bz/Vi0L0/xorg115/$arch

Then performs following actions:

1)  # pacman -Syuu catalyst-hook catalyst-utils-pxp
2) Uninstall all the packages xf86* such as xf86-video-intel, xf86-input-evdev,  xf86-input-synaptics, etc.
3) Install the packages uninstalled in step 2 and install them again using xorg115 repo, for example, # pacman -S xorg115/xf86-video-intel xorg115/xf86-input-evdev xorg115/xf86-input-synaptics

I have put a comment here.

Last edited by toni (2014-12-14 12:31:29)