RADEON GPU accel not working Debian 6.0.1

[Blacksmith]

The following error message is coming up.....

RADEON(0): GPU accel disabled or not working, using shadowfb for KMS

Graphics card is a Radeon 5870, works OK on FGLRX

I have a custom compiled kernel (3.2.9 also 2.6.39.1 has the same error) but the supplied Debian kernel does the same thing.

I have chased through all the docs including the radeon Build howto and as far as I can see it should be working. Help on the next step most apreciated.
I start to a console then run startx, kernel correctly sets console to 1920x1200, the following is part of the output of dmesg

[ 4.582642] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
[ 4.582733] radeon 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 24 (level, low) -> IRQ 24
[ 4.582788] radeon 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 4.582904] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (CYPRESS 0x1002:0x6898).
[ 4.582979] [drm] register mmio base: 0xFBBC0000
[ 4.583027] [drm] register mmio size: 131072
[ 4.583146] ATOM BIOS: GV
[ 4.583206] radeon 0000:03:00.0: VRAM: 1024M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000003FFFFFFF (1024M used)
[ 4.583277] radeon 0000:03:00.0: GTT: 512M 0x0000000040000000 - 0x000000005FFFFFFF
[ 4.583347] mtrr: type mismatch for d0000000,10000000 old: write-back new: write-combining
[ 4.583416] [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=1024M, BAR=256M
[ 4.583464] [drm] RAM width 256bits DDR
[ 4.583536] [TTM] Zone kernel: Available graphics memory: 423352 kiB.
[ 4.583588] [TTM] Zone highmem: Available graphics memory: 3109052 kiB.
[ 4.583640] [TTM] Initializing pool allocator.
[ 4.583699] [drm] radeon: 1024M of VRAM memory ready
[ 4.583748] [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.
[ 4.583802] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 1 (10.10.2010).
[ 4.583853] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
[ 4.583929] radeon 0000:03:00.0: irq 77 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 4.583933] radeon 0000:03:00.0: radeon: using MSI.
[ 4.584009] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.
[ 4.584057] [drm] GART: num cpu pages 131072, num gpu pages 131072
[ 4.584514] [drm] Loading CYPRESS Microcode

[ 5.501401] [drm] Internal thermal controller with fan control
[ 5.501482] [drm] radeon: power management initialized
[ 5.636159] [drm] fb mappable at 0xD0141000
[ 5.636208] [drm] vram apper at 0xD0000000
[ 5.636255] [drm] size 9216000
[ 5.636300] [drm] fb depth is 24
[ 5.636345] [drm] pitch is 7680
[ 5.636424] fbcon: radeondrmfb (fb0) is primary device(II) [KMS] Kernel modesetting enabled.
[ 6.064861] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 240x75
[ 6.070598] fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
[ 6.070599] drm: registered panic notifier
[ 6.070647] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.9.0 20080528 for 0000:03:00.0 on minor 0

part of Xorg.log


(II) [KMS] Kernel modesetting enabled.
(**) RADEON(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(II) RADEON(0): Pixel depth = 24 bits stored in 4 bytes (32 bpp pixmaps)
(==) RADEON(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) RADEON(0): RGB weight 888
(II) RADEON(0): Using 8 bits per RGB (8 bit DAC)
(--) RADEON(0): Chipset: "ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series" (ChipID = 0x6898)
(II) RADEON(0): PCIE card detected
(WW) RADEON(0): Color tiling is not yet supported on R600/R700
(II) RADEON(0): KMS Color Tiling: disabled
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 9, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID pci:0000:03:00.0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 9, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 9
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports pci:0000:03:00.0


(II) RADEON(0): GPU accel disabled or not working, using shadowfb for KMS

[Qaridarium]

The following error message is coming up.....

RADEON(0): GPU accel disabled or not working, using shadowfb for KMS

Graphics card is a Radeon 5870, works OK on FGLRX

i think debian 6 is to old. debian 7 will support this.
debian 6 is mostly a "ubuntu 10.04 " or older. maybe you check the functionality with an old Ubuntu version.
i my exoerience the radeon driver is no fun with old linux versions like debian6
i use kubuntu 12.04 right now with oibaf ppa.

try to use a newer linux. (i also wait for debian 7)

[pingufunkybeat]

The kernel bits look OK, but it could be that Mesa in Debian stable is too old to support HD5000 hardware (it's Mesa 7.7, which is ancient). Have you tried compiling a newer Mesa by hand? Mesa 8.0 has been out for quite a while now, with OpenGL 3.0 support.

You could also try pulling Mesa from sid or wheezy, which would give you 7.11, and that should support your card.

[curaga]

Don't forget to run recent video-ati and libdrm, too.

[whizse]

The easiest solution is probably to just dist-upgrade to unstable.

[Blacksmith]

Many thanks for the replies I suspected that Mesa was a little to old. I Debian testing and Sid both have the same version of Mesa (debian version 7.11.2). I will compile the newer versions of the ati driver, drm and Mesa. Downloaded all these a couple of days ago.

Have been using linux now for twenty years (Note 1) so am quite used to compiling various things.

Note 1: TWENTY years (kernel 0.96d).................... sssssiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhh,........ how time flies by!!!!!!!!

Blacksmith

[whizse]

The problem isn't Mesa (though it probably would be later on), it's the DDX ("2D driver") that's too old, xserver-xorg-video-radeon.

You really don't need to compile anything, Mesa 8.0 is available from experimental.

Twenty years is impressive! I have only around ten years myself (most of that time with Debian!).

[Blacksmith]

I have set up a test box using a spare an ASUS P7P55D motherboard and a Radeon 3870. Installed Debian testing via CD's down loaded 2nd week in april. Could not get the open source driver to work. Tried the standard debian kernel (3.2.0) and also a latter 3.3.1 (I think) kernel I compiled myself both came up with the same problem, when the kernel switched to graphics mode the display did switch resolution but the display (NEC FE 950+ crt) went mostly grey with a few coloured lines on it, there was no evidence of any text at all. The kernel did NOT lock up, reading the kernel log (dmesg) appeared to indicate that KMS in the kernel picked up the card and switched it correctly. The kernel is reading the displays exif data OK. Tried an Nvidia GTX 260. It work OK, the KMS switching on startup being perfect and Xorg.log indicating the GPU accelaration was working.

Unfortunately I do not have a decent internet connection so downloading a Ubuntu (or similiar) DVD to give it a try is completely out of the question. As the current machine is for experimental use I may try and compile some latter versions of the apropriate software to try and get it to work. Although why the kernel is corrputing the display when the KMS switching occurs I do not know.
Question does anybody know of the open source driver supports the 3870 correctly.

[Qaridarium]

I have set up a test box using a spare an ASUS P7P55D motherboard and a Radeon 3870. Installed Debian testing via CD's down loaded 2nd week in april. Could not get the open source driver to work. Tried the standard debian kernel (3.2.0) and also a latter 3.3.1 (I think) kernel I compiled myself both came up with the same problem, when the kernel switched to graphics mode the display did switch resolution but the display (NEC FE 950+ crt) went mostly grey with a few coloured lines on it, there was no evidence of any text at all. The kernel did NOT lock up, reading the kernel log (dmesg) appeared to indicate that KMS in the kernel picked up the card and switched it correctly. The kernel is reading the displays exif data OK. Tried an Nvidia GTX 260. It work OK, the KMS switching on startup being perfect and Xorg.log indicating the GPU accelaration was working.

Unfortunately I do not have a decent internet connection so downloading a Ubuntu (or similiar) DVD to give it a try is completely out of the question. As the current machine is for experimental use I may try and compile some latter versions of the apropriate software to try and get it to work. Although why the kernel is corrputing the display when the KMS switching occurs I do not know.
Question does anybody know of the open source driver supports the 3870 correctly.

i do have a hd3850 1 door away and it works well with the opensource driver.

just wait for debian7 then you will have great support.

[bridgman]

Any chance you're missing the HW microcode images ? I think Debian considers them as firmware and leaves them out by default.

It's hard to tell from the logs if that is the problem because of the gap in dmesg output, but IIRC there are some missing lines. Believe the package name is firmware-linux-nonfree.