Arch Linux

sjb933

Member

Registered: 2007-01-18

Posts: 113

nomodeset or radeon.modeset=0 causing problems..

I was having stability issues and font graphical errors occurring on an old T42 laptop running an ATI card.  I was pointed in the direction of adding "nomodeset" or "radeon.modeset=0" to the kernel line.   I've also deleted my xorg.conf per the wiki page.  The stability issues are gone, and the font glitches are too.  However, now it seems as though some programs aren't updating their graphics correctly.

This is most obvious to me right now in Geany, as I'm using it a lot.  For example, notice the left pane here.

It hasn't updated correctly after switching tabs over there and/or messing around in another window.

However after I run my mouse over it, you can see what was supposed to be there:

This is quite annoying, but better than the crashes..

Any ideas?

sjb933

Member

Registered: 2007-01-18

Posts: 113

Re: nomodeset or radeon.modeset=0 causing problems..

I'd also like to point out that none of this happened prior to the last update, so there are 2 cases:

1.  Either KMS wasn't enabled by default in the older kernel, but I wasn't having the problems seen above... So I'd like to fix them.

2.  KMS was enabled by default before, but it didn't cause problems on my older radeon until a driver update.

If it helps to clarify at all, my other thread with the textual errors and what-not is here:  http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=84711

sjb933

Member

Registered: 2007-01-18

Posts: 113

Re: nomodeset or radeon.modeset=0 causing problems..

It's definitely something to do with the xf86-video-ati driver.  Using the vesa driver does not produce the same problems (but it is a little painfully slow).

MadTux

Member

Registered: 2009-09-20

Posts: 553

Re: nomodeset or radeon.modeset=0 causing problems..

KMS wasn't enabled by default in the previous kernel. But I think there was more than just the change to KMS. There was also the new xorg-server 1.7 and with that came a new ATI driver. So there is another potential problem and this is the combination of KMS on/off with the new xorg-server.