Arch Linux

kralyk

Member

Registered: 2009-04-27

Posts: 72

Can't get X to work with Catalyst

Hi everyone!
After I've updated kernel to 2.6.29, xorg-server to 1.6 and Catalyst to 9.4,  my X stopped working.
It simply freezes upon startup, leaving only blank black screen.

I tried downgrading back to original versions of both kernel and catalyst and even xorg-server, but the problem always remained.

Now I've made brand new clean Archlinux installation, but again no succes whatsoever with Catalyst.
(and no I dont want opensource drivers yet)
My graphics card is R700 (Radeon HD4870)

I have followed wiki's instruction when setting up my system, is that ok?.
Without fglrx installed, the X worked fine on vesa.
But when I installed catalyst-utils and catalyst I got this from X -configure :

X.Org X Server 1.6.1
Release Date: 2009-4-14
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.29-ARCH x86_64 
Current Operating System: Linux vojta 2.6.29-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Apr 17 14:14:28 CEST 2009 x86_64
Build Date: 15 April 2009  11:01:49AM
 
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
    (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Apr 27 19:42:57 2009
(II) Loader magic: 0x15c0
(II) Module ABI versions:
    X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
    X.Org Video Driver: 5.0
    X.Org XInput driver : 4.0
    X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(II) Loader running on linux
(--) using VT number 7

(--) PCI:*(0@1:0:0) ATI Technologies Inc RV770 [Radeon HD 4870] rev 0, Mem @ 0xd0000000/268435456, 0xfe9e0000/65536, I/O @ 0x0000c000/256, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
List of video drivers:
    fglrx
    vesa
(II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//fglrx_drv.so
(II) Module fglrx: vendor="FireGL - ATI Technologies Inc."
    compiled for 1.4.99.906, module version = 8.60.3
    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
(II) LoadModule: "vesa"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//vesa_drv.so
(II) Module vesa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
    compiled for 1.6.0, module version = 2.2.0
    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 5.0
(II) System resource ranges:
    [0] -1    0    0xffffffff - 0xffffffff (0x1) MX[b]
    [1] -1    0    0x000f0000 - 0x000fffff (0x10000) MX[b]
    [2] -1    0    0x000c0000 - 0x000effff (0x30000) MX[b]
    [3] -1    0    0x00000000 - 0x0009ffff (0xa0000) MX[b]
    [4] -1    0    0x0000ffff - 0x0000ffff (0x1) IX[b]
    [5] -1    0    0x00000000 - 0x00000000 (0x1) IX[b]
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01@00:00:0
(WW) Falling back to old probe method for fglrx
(II) ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Version Identifier:8.60.3
(II) ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Release Identifier: 8.602                                
(II) ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Build Date: Apr  1 2009 15:01:03
(II) PCS database file /etc/ati/amdpcsdb not found
(II)   Creating PCS database from initial defaults instead
(WW) This ATI Proprietary Linux Driver does not guarantee support of video driver ABI higher than 2.0
(WW) Video driver ABI version of the X server is 5.0
(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0@1:0:1) found
(**) ChipID override: 0x9440
(**) Chipset Supported AMD Graphics Processor (0x9440) found

Backtrace:
0: X(xorg_backtrace+0x26) [0x4efd76]
1: X(xf86SigHandler+0x39) [0x49be99]
2: /lib/libc.so.6 [0x7f47ee28d150]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//fglrx_drv.so(atiddxProbeMain+0x34b) [0x7f47edab226b]
4: X(xf86CallDriverProbe+0xe4) [0x46d974]
5: X(DoConfigure+0x1a4) [0x4927e4]
6: X(InitOutput+0x9b8) [0x46e6a8]
7: X(main+0x20e) [0x4336ee]
8: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0x7f47ee279546]
9: X [0x432d29]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11.  Server aborting


Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
     at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.

Any ideas?
(I checked dmesg and fglrx is being loaded all right.)

Faxanadu

Member

Registered: 2006-07-20

Posts: 18

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

Right now the Catalyst drivers (9.4 and previous) don't work with the kernel 2.6.29, so you have to downgrade to kernel 2.6.28 in order to use Catalyst.

E0x

Member

Registered: 2009-04-24

Posts: 14

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

check if you have hal running before startx ( o how ever you start X ) , now the exist a new input system for xorg 1.6 http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xor … otplugging

RobbeR49

Member

From: Columbus, OH

Registered: 2006-01-17

Posts: 178

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

Right now the Catalyst drivers (9.4 and previous) don't work with the kernel 2.6.29, so you have to downgrade to kernel 2.6.28 in order to use Catalyst.

The 9.4 drivers work just fine with 2.6.29, I am using them right now.

kralyk X didn't start for me straight away when I upgraded to xorg-server 1.6, I had to recompile catalyst and catalyst-utils.

Also, I wouldn't mess with X -configure, if you want to try my xorg.conf it's fairly minimal and works fine for me with an HD4850:

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

Section "Device"
 Identifier           "Radeon HD4850"
 Driver               "fglrx"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier           "Screen0"
 Device               "Radeon HD4850"
 DefaultDepth         24
EndSection

Section "DRI"
 Mode                 0666
EndSection

kralyk

Member

Registered: 2009-04-27

Posts: 72

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

Guys I already resolved this problem, but thanks for your tips anyway.

Im not sure how I exactly did it, it was kind of weird...
I uninstalled catalyst completely and tried out opensource drivers instead (just for the sake of using X again possibly)
and it worked. I uninstalled the opensource drivers and installed back catalyst 9.4 and for this time, it for some reason worked!

The cause of my problems might have been the lack of ati-dri package, which was installed during open source drivers installation process.
Is that possible? Does catalyst require this package in order to work correctly?

Faxanadu

Member

Registered: 2006-07-20

Posts: 18

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

Well man if you have Catalyst to 9.4 running with kernel 2.6.29 and xorg-server to 1.6, tell us what did you do?, i have tried with the AUR drivers, also with the propietary driver and nothing happens. I have a Radeon HD 4870 X2.

kralyk

Member

Registered: 2009-04-27

Posts: 72

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

Alright, these are the steps I took:
1. Updated the system completely  (kernel 2.6.29, xorg 1.6 etc.)
2. Uninstalled catalyst and catalyst-utils completely
3. installed OS drivers - xf86-video-ati (which also installs libgl, ati-dri and maybe couple of other packages as dependencies)
4. removed (or backup) xorg.conf so that none was present
5. made sure HAL was installed, loaded and working
6. reboot
7. At this point X worked (with KDE) in 2D without problems. Compiz didnt, but thats ok.
8. generated xorg.conf with X -configure
9. uninstalled OS drivers and libgl (with -Rd when needed)
10. installed catalyst-utils, catalyst and added fglrx to modules in rc.conf
11. reboot, check whether fglrx is loaded ok (dmesg | grep fglrx) and ran aticonfig --initial
12. at this point X, kdm and compiz-fusion worked without any problems

Last edited by kralyk (2009-04-29 14:14:44)

svb

Member

Registered: 2009-02-06

Posts: 1

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

I second this!
This method works well for me. Thanks, kralyk!

venky80

Member

Registered: 2007-05-13

Posts: 1,002

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

does this method work for 2.6.30?

---

Acer Aspire V5-573P Antergos KDE

sp219

Member

Registered: 2009-02-15

Posts: 22

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

does this method work for 2.6.30?

Yes. Worked like a charm for me on 2.6.30.
edit: This will not work on 2.6.30 SMP kernels, but it should work on regular 2.6.30 and x86_64

Last edited by sp219 (2009-07-20 07:25:25)

tjwallis

Member

Registered: 2008-11-29

Posts: 8

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

This happened to me too when I upgraded to the latest kernel and xorg, I think ntfs-3g had something to do with it to. But this solution worked great It should be added to the wiki so the next person doesn't have to spend 3 hours trying to fix it. Good job on the fix I don't know what I would have done without it.:D

panosk

Member

From: Athens, Greece

Registered: 2008-10-29

Posts: 241

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

Thanks so much. Your steps seem to work fine. You made my brother happy :-).

ThatAlienwareGuy

Member

Registered: 2009-09-10

Posts: 6

Re: Can't get X to work with Catalyst

kralyk, I would like to mention that:

3. installed OS drivers - xf86-video-ati (which also installs libgl, ati-dri and maybe couple of other packages as dependencies)

does not automatically install the dependancies such as libgl and ati-dri if previously installed (at least, it didn't for me).
I had to pacman -S them and then reboot in order to fully get to the kde desktop. Without dependancies (just the xf86-video-ati) it would start loading then snap back to the login screen.

I haven't yet correctly installed the fglrx catalyst drivers (9.8), keep getting a black screen which requires a hard power-off.