How To Setup Radeon DPM On Ubuntu Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: How To Setup Radeon DPM On Ubuntu Linux

With the belief that the Radeon dynamic power management (DPM) support is in good shape, it's a great time to try out this feature of the open-source AMD Linux graphics driver. DPM has the capability of increasing the performance for some Radeon GPUs while for other GPUs it will lead to lower power consumption, extended battery life, and lower operating temperatures...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTQyNDE

[xpressrazor]

How do you boot to radeon garaphics drivers?

I installed ubuntu 13.10 daily, just to test radeon drivers. I have a dual graphics hardware (Intel/AMD). If someone has AMD cards on new intel hardware, they all have this setup. I installed 3.11rc1 kernel, enabled x-org ppa (at that time mesa was at version 9.1, if I remember it correctly). When I tried to boot with radeon.dpm=1 option, it clearly showed the missing firmware error.

I don't know if linux-firmware-nonfree would fix the missing driver problem, but I found the link where the radeon binaries were hosted (yes it was same as mentioned in the post). So I downloaded the binary drivers (using wget), copied them to /lib/firmware/radeon. After that I had to update initramfs ( else same error would come up), and rebooted. Previous error message was gone, but a black screen would come and stop there.

Even, if I boot with intel cards (without radeon.dpm=1), I cannot switch to AMD (same black screen would come) and I have to reboot.

Is there a way to boot directly into AMD graphics cards in a hybrid setup (using radeon drivers). Something like in windows (i.e using catalyst per application basis) is an ideal solution. However, if I could directly boot into AMD cards (with radeon drivers), and if it was good enough, I would give up catalyst driver, without second thought (despite some performance penalty).

[GreatEmerald]

I don't suppose there are any plans to have DPM backported to 3.10 in gentoo-sources any time soon, right? Probably will have to wait until the final 3.11 gets released... Can't wait to get rid of uvesafb on one netbook I'm maintaining.

[mrugiero]

There doesn't seem to be any ARUBA_smc.bin. Any ideas?

[verde]

The problem with the firmware is something temporary or it will fixed?

If this problem isnt temporary, there will be never out of the box DPM enablement.

Am i right?

[agd5f]

There doesn't seem to be any ARUBA_smc.bin. Any ideas?

APUs don't need smc ucode.

[agd5f]

The problem with the firmware is something temporary or it will fixed?

If this problem isnt temporary, there will be never out of the box DPM enablement.

Am i right?

What problem are you asking about? You need smc ucode for power management. The hardware doesn't work without it.

[mrugiero]

APUs don't need smc ucode.

Right, my bad, I thought of it as an IGP instead of an APU. Thanks.

[GreatEmerald]

Right, my bad, I thought of it as an IGP instead of an APU. Thanks.

Wait, why don't they need it, again?

[mrugiero]

Wait, why don't they need it, again?

I have no idea, but the article is clear in that "graphics cards" need the firmware update. This evidently doesn't include APUs.