KMS + Radeon quick mini guide

[pheldens]

update 2009 12 23 added some ideas from the comments and kernel stuff for drm radeon testing


Since the dri wiki left some holes here's a short guide that worked for me.

Kernel =/> 2.6.32 works

build with dri/drm/radeon built in to avoid module probing order issues.
do not use any FB options, these potentially conflict with KMS.

for interrupts you need last kernel drm and a special extra kernel firmware

obtain last drm and git linux kernel tree (about 1GB download)
(this is quite big, drm-radeon-testing appears to be 2.6.32 plus the drm patches at moment of writing)

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/airlied/drm-2.6.git
git checkout -b drm-radeon-testing origin/drm-radeon-testing

Obtain R700_rlc.bin and built it in your kernel, or put it in firmware/radeon/ to load.
Either way make sure the kernel loads it at boot, else it will stall for 20s and fail to load it, dont panic it will boot further eventually so you can correct things.







force kms on in grub menu.lst:

kernel /boot/bzImage radeon.modeset=1

(also available as modprobe radeon modeset=1
but using modules gave me issues, modprobing drm first was reported to help in some cases)

Checkout and build git drm,xf86-video-ati (aka ddx),mesa

git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/mesa/drm
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa

The first time you have to autogen inside the respective trees, to generate configure files, install missing proto files and other dependencies when needed.

Now build it in this order:

 > cat builddri 
#!/bin/sh

cd drm
make clean
git pull
./configure --enable-radeon-experimental-api --disable-intel && make && make install
cd ..


cd xf86-video-ati
make clean
git pull
./configure && make && make install
cd ..

cd mesa 
make clean
git pull

# to enable opengl 2 beta code for r600
# export CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -DR600_ENABLE_GLSL_TEST"
# this is now the default since december 2009

./configure --with-dri-drivers=r600 --disable-gallium && make && make install
cd ..

Adjust r600 to your card family radeon,r300,r500 etc (see configure --help)

If everything built without error you can restart xorg.
Have fun.

[pheldens]

Oh yes if it went well you should boot into a huge graphical KMS console, which you can seamlessly switch with xorg if thats running.

In xorg you can verify hardware acceleration is working with:

> glxinfo | egrep 'OpenGL (version|renderer) string'
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R600 (RV620 95C5) 20090101 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE2 TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.5 Mesa 7.8-devel

[netkas]

Oh yes if it went well you should boot into a huge graphical KMS console, which you can seamlessly switch with xorg if thats running.

In xorg you can verify hardware acceleration is working with:

> glxinfo | egrep 'OpenGL (version|renderer) string'
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R600 (RV620 95C5) 20090101 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE2 TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.5 Mesa 7.8-devel

if you have kms working, you will get DRI2, not just DRI.

Also, it's better(more stable) to compile drm/radeon as modules and add this line to /etc/modules

radeon modeset=1

[pingufunkybeat]

Also, it's better(more stable) to compile drm/radeon as modules

Is it?

I've had no problems with stability.

[pheldens]

The reverse is true here for modules, as there are some autodetection order issues reported, in my experience, but once things have stabilized more it should become identical. Modules ofcourse have the added advantage you can upgrade them without rebooting.


DRI2 in the version string is a good verification check indeed, if you scroll the CODE box you see it at the end.

[zika]

~$ glxinfo | egrep 'OpenGL (version|renderer) string'
do_wait: drmWaitVBlank returned -1, IRQs don't seem to be working correctly.
Try adjusting the vblank_mode configuration parameter.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R600 (RV635 9598) 20090101  TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.5 Mesa 7.8-devel

(latest versions from ppa:xorg-edgers)

[jrch2k8]

add this after git the mesa 7.8 branch to get glsl and gl 2.0

As for GLSL, to get it you have to edit:

Code:
src/mesa/drivers/dri/r600/r600_context.c
and remove the two slashes at the beginning of this line:

Code:
//#define R600_ENABLE_GLSL_TEST 1
But do note it's commented out for a reason Only use for testing, it's not 'production ready' yet.
thx to moonraf for this info

[pingufunkybeat]

You can also add -DR600_ENABLE_GLSL_TEST to your CFLAGS, which does the same thing without having to edit the source code.

[tettamanti]

but using modules gave me issues, modprobing drm first was reported to help in some cases)

Smells like FUD The only problem is that you might end up with a blank screen if you forget to load fbcon (the framebuffer console). In particular the drm module is always loaded before radeon since the latter has a hard dependency on it.

[netkas]

Bleh, updated xf86-video-ati from git today, and X doesnt start anymore.