Getting older RADEON cards to work without nomodeset

lebutter · 2019-07-26 15:31:19

I have had to use the nomodeset option to be able to boot the Arch install and complete a basic install.

However, the fundamental issue remains and resurfaces once the freshly installed OS reboots.

I have an older ATI Radeon (Northern Islands) that used to work a few years ago when i was running with Gentoo. I remember having to do a few tweaks into the kernel to get it to work (adding some firmware binaries for that Radeon card model).

What's currently running out of the box with the present Archlinux kernel ? How do i go about running with the historical open-source "radeon" model for my card ?

Lone_Wolf · 2019-07-26 22:01:02

What I remember from nomodeset cases I was involved in, the cause was mostly incorrect user configuration and/or buggy uefi/bios firmware .

AMD family naming is confusing,

https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/#index5h2 indicates your card can be ARUBA (Trinity/Richland), BARTS, TURKS, CAICOS, CAYMAN (engineering name).

One table down we can see what ISA they use :

Cayman, Aruba VLIW4
Barts, Turks, Caicos VLIW5

Both types can only use the radeon kernel module .

The radeon kernel module is mature for most cards it supports and gets very little commits.
keep in mind that mature doesn't equal no bugs .

Boot last arch install iso, check lspci -k .
if it lists radeon as module in use for your card, you're good to continue.

If it doesn't do that, post lspci -k , dmesg and/or journalctl -b .
Use a pastebin client to post them.

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2019-07-26 22:01:56)

lebutter · 2019-07-27 18:05:05

Here it is:

https://i65.servimg.com/u/f65/15/63/53/97/output11.jpg

Note that everything starts with an IVRS entry not found problem, which does not occur if i boot on the current Gentoo's USB install image !

Last edited by WorMzy (2019-07-27 18:27:56)

WorMzy · 2019-07-27 18:27:35

Lone_Wolf wrote:

Use a pastebin client to post them.

Quoted for emphasis.

See also: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code

EDIT: That wasn't even the requested output...

Last edited by WorMzy (2019-07-27 18:29:50)

Arch Linux

#1 2019-07-26 15:31:19

Getting older RADEON cards to work without nomodeset

#2 2019-07-26 22:01:02

Re: Getting older RADEON cards to work without nomodeset

#3 2019-07-27 18:05:05

Re: Getting older RADEON cards to work without nomodeset

#4 2019-07-27 18:27:35

Re: Getting older RADEON cards to work without nomodeset

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