Arch Linux

Awakening

Member

Registered: 2011-04-02

Posts: 7

Catalyst problems.Can't get to DE or TTY. Need help ASAP.

Hey guys,
I have an HP laptop running arch, The GPU is ATI - Radeon,
I had overheating probelm with the Opensource driver, it caused the GPU to get VERY hot such that i couldn't place it on my legs, the fan was always working at high speed and the Hot air stream from the left side of the laptop, the heat sink output, never stopped ,So i installed catalyst. The problem was gone.
Now i can't upgrade Xorg because of that, No problem, I ignored the packages in pacman, Then i upgraded the system including kernel, After a reboot BANG!
I can't get to GDM or any TTY, there's flashing screen, grey to black which stops after some flashes and nothing else, no keyboard shortcut works (As far as i tried e.g ctrl+alt+F1)
Here are my questions!

1- Does anyone else had the same problem with the Opensource driver?
2- Is there anyways to solve that problem? any workarounds or something ?
3- How do i get to a tty so i can remove the Catalyst and install the opensource driver? is there any grub parameters or something ?

I really need to get on track, there is an article which i have to work on.
Thank you.

milomouse

Member

Registered: 2009-03-24

Posts: 940

Website

Re: Catalyst problems.Can't get to DE or TTY. Need help ASAP.

Did you try any power-management with the open-source drivers? Check the wiki. I'm using 'dynpm' which keeps it really cool when idle, although I'm not a gamer. You could also try the 'profile' method.

Edit:  I haven't used Catalyst in a while so I'm unsure as to how to solve your current problem, sorry.

Last edited by milomouse (2011-04-15 20:54:23)

smika

Member

Registered: 2011-03-02

Posts: 25

Re: Catalyst problems.Can't get to DE or TTY. Need help ASAP.

Here the same problem after upgrading to catalyst-test from the aur repository. Please help.

milomouse

Member

Registered: 2009-03-24

Posts: 940

Website

Re: Catalyst problems.Can't get to DE or TTY. Need help ASAP.

Use a LiveCD (any Linux should work), mount your root drive, chroot into it, use pacman to fix problem.  Best I can think of right now.

Haptic

Member

Registered: 2009-09-03

Posts: 149

Re: Catalyst problems.Can't get to DE or TTY. Need help ASAP.

1. Have you looked at the ATI wiki and read the power management section? The open source driver will run your graphics card on max on default (I think).

2. Catalyst has to be rebuilt after every kernel update. There is a daemon in the AUR that can do this automatically for you. All this is in the Catalyst wiki.

Also, there is a repository for xorg19 that lets you update everything with no problem. You can also get the catalyst-test (which I guess you already got) that should let you update xorg without any problems.

3. Do you automatically start X? How do you start?

Last edited by Haptic (2011-04-16 06:28:26)

smika

Member

Registered: 2011-03-02

Posts: 25

Re: Catalyst problems.Can't get to DE or TTY. Need help ASAP.

Use a LiveCD (any Linux should work), mount your root drive, chroot into it, use pacman to fix problem.  Best I can think of right now.

Thanks this solved my problem:

Download knoppix
Make bootable USB
Start USB
In knoppix go to terminal and type: chroot /media/sda1 (or your whatever your root partition is)
cd /etc/X11
copy xorg.conf  xorg.conf.bak
mv xorg.conf.original.0 xorg.conf
reboot....

Now you can login again and solve the problems!

I my case... I must revove the catalyst kernel module en rebuild it again. Everything works fine now!

Thanks for all the help.

Last edited by smika (2011-04-16 11:14:48)

Awakening

Member

Registered: 2011-04-02

Posts: 7

Re: Catalyst problems.Can't get to DE or TTY. Need help ASAP.

Use a LiveCD (any Linux should work), mount your root drive, chroot into it, use pacman to fix problem.  Best I can think of right now.

Hey mate !
I followed your instructions & it worked. Came up with Ubuntu Live CD, Mounted & Chrooted to the actual root.
Thank you so much.
You helped me alot.
Thanks again.

1. Have you looked at the ATI wiki and read the power management section? The open source driver will run your graphics card on max on default (I think).

2. Catalyst has to be rebuilt after every kernel update. There is a daemon in the AUR that can do this automatically for you. All this is in the Catalyst wiki.

Also, there is a repository for xorg19 that lets you update everything with no problem. You can also get the catalyst-test (which I guess you already got) that should let you update xorg without any problems.

3. Do you automatically start X? How do you start?

Hi !
Your third question gave me a clue. After i came up with ubuntu & chrooted, changed the initab to default, run level 3 with no gdm, rebooted & i could login in TTY.

Actually i read the wiki right now , I'm using the opensource driver with low profile now:
echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile
But it's actually still hotter than with the Catalyst, or may be i'm just feeling this way?
You helped so much,
Thank you for your guidance.