[gentoo-user] DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[gentoo-user] DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[JingYuan Chen]

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Hello,

I had installed Gentoo in my laptop  successfully last weekend. My laptop
is Toshiba Satellite L840. I found that my VGA card is Radeon HD 7670M
using "lspci -k" command. Therefore, I refer to Gentoo's Radeon wiki page
to configure 4.1.15-r1 kernel with TURKS firmware and emerge linux-firmware
atom.

However, my new kernel can not load TURKS successfully. I notice that there
is an error message with DRM in dmesg's output. It shows
[drm:evergreen_init] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware.

Why Evergreen ? Is not Northern Islands ? I am sure that the filename I
gave is TURKS's firmware in menuconfig.

How could I make the dmesg's error message more verbose to debug ?

Are there some configurations should I check again ?

p.s. I built it in kernel not in modules.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Phil

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Re: [gentoo-user] DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[Mick]

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On Sunday 27 Mar 2016 00:23:21 JingYuan Chen wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I had installed Gentoo in my laptop  successfully last weekend. My laptop
> is Toshiba Satellite L840. I found that my VGA card is Radeon HD 7670M
> using "lspci -k" command. Therefore, I refer to Gentoo's Radeon wiki page
> to configure 4.1.15-r1 kernel with TURKS firmware and emerge linux-firmware
> atom.
> 
> However, my new kernel can not load TURKS successfully. I notice that there
> is an error message with DRM in dmesg's output. It shows
> [drm:evergreen_init] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware.

So the kernel *wants* to load the Evergreen firmware blobs.


> Why Evergreen ? Is not Northern Islands ? I am sure that the filename I
> gave is TURKS's firmware in menuconfig.

Sure, but the kernel seems to think that the hardware is evergreen for some 
reason.  The Radeon HD 7670M apparently is based on the same chipset as Radeon 
HD 6650M:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7670M.69483.0.html

so it may be that the foundry it came out of was of an Evergreen batch.


> How could I make the dmesg's error message more verbose to debug ?
> 
> Are there some configurations should I check again ?
> 
> p.s. I built it in kernel not in modules.
> 
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Regards,
> Phil

I would first check that you have in your menuconfig the complete space 
separated Turks stanza:

radeon/BTC_rlc.bin radeon/TURKS_mc.bin radeon/TURKS_me.bin 
radeon/TURKS_pfp.bin radeon/TURKS_smc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin

and make sure there are no misspellings in there.  If it still complains, then 
replace these with the Evergreen (or whatever dmesg complains about) and try 
booting again.

BTW, have you tried booting different kernels, or LiveISOs to see what they 
detect the hardware as?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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[gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[James]

JingYuan Chen <phil.cyc <at> gmail.com> writes:


> I had installed Gentoo in my laptop  successfully last weekend. My laptop
is Toshiba Satellite L840. I found that my VGA card is Radeon HD 7670M using
"lspci -k" command. Therefore, I refer to Gentoo's Radeon wiki page to
configure 4.1.15-r1 kernel with TURKS firmware and emerge linux-firmware atom.
> However, my new kernel can not load TURKS successfully. I notice that
there is an error message with DRM in dmesg's output. It shows
[drm:evergreen_init] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware.
> Why Evergreen ? Is not Northern Islands ? I am sure that the filename I
gave is TURKS's firmware in menuconfig.
> How could I make the dmesg's error message more verbose to debug ?
> Are there some configurations should I check again ?
> p.s. I built it in kernel not in modules.
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Look directly into /lib/firmware/radeon/ and make sure you do not have
a typo somewhere.

Building directly into the kernel is a really good idea for video drivers.

Another tool you may want to check out, is Rich0's kernel crash dump page::

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel_Crash_Dumps


Last, when all else fails and is actually quite easy is to find a
liveCD/DVD, from any distro that boots your lappy with the radeon driver
that works. Then you parse about to find the one it uses. Some of these
drivers are very close in the components and vendor card vendors have
a 'malaise' of dis information surrounding the exact specs of the video
components in there hardware, particularly laptop and tablet vendors.


Just keep looking around, trying different ones out and something will
work, eventually.

'lspci -k' show video driver details use on a generic livedvd booted system.

A livedvd was created to give away at a recent california conference but I
did not see it posted anywhere on the Release Engineering project pages.
There are other gentoo derivative distros with livedvd you can bootup
to help find the correct driver.



good hunting,
James

Re: [gentoo-user] DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[JingYuan Chen]

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Mick,

Thanks for your response and suggestion !

When compiled the new kernel, there was no error message. I can use the new
kernel to boot my laptop successfully. So that I am sure that the relative
firmware filenames I gave are correct.

I will try another kernel version or Evergreen firmware this weekend.


Thank you !



Regards,
Phil

On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 12:47 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sunday 27 Mar 2016 00:23:21 JingYuan Chen wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I had installed Gentoo in my laptop  successfully last weekend. My laptop
> > is Toshiba Satellite L840. I found that my VGA card is Radeon HD 7670M
> > using "lspci -k" command. Therefore, I refer to Gentoo's Radeon wiki page
> > to configure 4.1.15-r1 kernel with TURKS firmware and emerge
> linux-firmware
> > atom.
> >
> > However, my new kernel can not load TURKS successfully. I notice that
> there
> > is an error message with DRM in dmesg's output. It shows
> > [drm:evergreen_init] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware.
>
> So the kernel *wants* to load the Evergreen firmware blobs.
>
>
> > Why Evergreen ? Is not Northern Islands ? I am sure that the filename I
> > gave is TURKS's firmware in menuconfig.
>
> Sure, but the kernel seems to think that the hardware is evergreen for some
> reason.  The Radeon HD 7670M apparently is based on the same chipset as
> Radeon
> HD 6650M:
>
> http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7670M.69483.0.html
>
> so it may be that the foundry it came out of was of an Evergreen batch.
>
>
> > How could I make the dmesg's error message more verbose to debug ?
> >
> > Are there some configurations should I check again ?
> >
> > p.s. I built it in kernel not in modules.
> >
> > Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Phil
>
> I would first check that you have in your menuconfig the complete space
> separated Turks stanza:
>
> radeon/BTC_rlc.bin radeon/TURKS_mc.bin radeon/TURKS_me.bin
> radeon/TURKS_pfp.bin radeon/TURKS_smc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
>
> and make sure there are no misspellings in there.  If it still complains,
> then
> replace these with the Evergreen (or whatever dmesg complains about) and
> try
> booting again.
>
> BTW, have you tried booting different kernels, or LiveISOs to see what they
> detect the hardware as?
>
> --
> Regards,
> Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[JingYuan Chen]

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James,

Thanks for your response and suggestion !

Rich0's kernel crash dump page is interesting to me. I think that I could
find some useful information in it. I used Gentoo Live DVD to install
Gentoo into my laptop. I will use it to check VGA configuration again this
weekend.


Thank you !



Regards,
Phil

On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 1:06 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

> JingYuan Chen <phil.cyc <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>
> > I had installed Gentoo in my laptop  successfully last weekend. My laptop
> is Toshiba Satellite L840. I found that my VGA card is Radeon HD 7670M
> using
> "lspci -k" command. Therefore, I refer to Gentoo's Radeon wiki page to
> configure 4.1.15-r1 kernel with TURKS firmware and emerge linux-firmware
> atom.
> > However, my new kernel can not load TURKS successfully. I notice that
> there is an error message with DRM in dmesg's output. It shows
> [drm:evergreen_init] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware.
> > Why Evergreen ? Is not Northern Islands ? I am sure that the filename I
> gave is TURKS's firmware in menuconfig.
> > How could I make the dmesg's error message more verbose to debug ?
> > Are there some configurations should I check again ?
> > p.s. I built it in kernel not in modules.
> > Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
> Look directly into /lib/firmware/radeon/ and make sure you do not have
> a typo somewhere.
>
> Building directly into the kernel is a really good idea for video drivers.
>
> Another tool you may want to check out, is Rich0's kernel crash dump page::
>
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel_Crash_Dumps
>
>
> Last, when all else fails and is actually quite easy is to find a
> liveCD/DVD, from any distro that boots your lappy with the radeon driver
> that works. Then you parse about to find the one it uses. Some of these
> drivers are very close in the components and vendor card vendors have
> a 'malaise' of dis information surrounding the exact specs of the video
> components in there hardware, particularly laptop and tablet vendors.
>
>
> Just keep looking around, trying different ones out and something will
> work, eventually.
>
> 'lspci -k' show video driver details use on a generic livedvd booted
> system.
>
> A livedvd was created to give away at a recent california conference but I
> did not see it posted anywhere on the Release Engineering project pages.
> There are other gentoo derivative distros with livedvd you can bootup
> to help find the correct driver.
>
>
>
> good hunting,
> James
>
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[JingYuan Chen]

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Hello Mick & James,

I found that I made a big mistake after I installed kernel 4.4.6. My laptop
still used kernel 4.1.5 to boot. It come as a surprise to me.

Therefore, I check the configuration of grub2 and fstab. Then I found that
I forgot to modify mount options in fstab.
The option of my boot partition was set as noauto. So that I don't use the
kernel compiled by myself at all.

After correcting these errors, I can use Radeon driver to execute X window
now. Althought wasting more time to find out the answer, I think that I
learn more with gentoo.

Thank you for your help !

Regards,
Phil
On Mar 29, 2016 9:32 AM, "JingYuan Chen" <phil.cyc@gmail.com> wrote:

> James,
>
> Thanks for your response and suggestion !
>
> Rich0's kernel crash dump page is interesting to me. I think that I could
> find some useful information in it. I used Gentoo Live DVD to install
> Gentoo into my laptop. I will use it to check VGA configuration again this
> weekend.
>
>
> Thank you !
>
>
>
> Regards,
> Phil
>
> On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 1:06 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> JingYuan Chen <phil.cyc <at> gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>
>> > I had installed Gentoo in my laptop  successfully last weekend. My
>> laptop
>> is Toshiba Satellite L840. I found that my VGA card is Radeon HD 7670M
>> using
>> "lspci -k" command. Therefore, I refer to Gentoo's Radeon wiki page to
>> configure 4.1.15-r1 kernel with TURKS firmware and emerge linux-firmware
>> atom.
>> > However, my new kernel can not load TURKS successfully. I notice that
>> there is an error message with DRM in dmesg's output. It shows
>> [drm:evergreen_init] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware.
>> > Why Evergreen ? Is not Northern Islands ? I am sure that the filename I
>> gave is TURKS's firmware in menuconfig.
>> > How could I make the dmesg's error message more verbose to debug ?
>> > Are there some configurations should I check again ?
>> > p.s. I built it in kernel not in modules.
>> > Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>
>> Look directly into /lib/firmware/radeon/ and make sure you do not have
>> a typo somewhere.
>>
>> Building directly into the kernel is a really good idea for video drivers.
>>
>> Another tool you may want to check out, is Rich0's kernel crash dump
>> page::
>>
>> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel_Crash_Dumps
>>
>>
>> Last, when all else fails and is actually quite easy is to find a
>> liveCD/DVD, from any distro that boots your lappy with the radeon driver
>> that works. Then you parse about to find the one it uses. Some of these
>> drivers are very close in the components and vendor card vendors have
>> a 'malaise' of dis information surrounding the exact specs of the video
>> components in there hardware, particularly laptop and tablet vendors.
>>
>>
>> Just keep looking around, trying different ones out and something will
>> work, eventually.
>>
>> 'lspci -k' show video driver details use on a generic livedvd booted
>> system.
>>
>> A livedvd was created to give away at a recent california conference but I
>> did not see it posted anywhere on the Release Engineering project pages.
>> There are other gentoo derivative distros with livedvd you can bootup
>> to help find the correct driver.
>>
>>
>>
>> good hunting,
>> James
>>
>>
>>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[Mick]

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On Wednesday 04 May 2016 13:06:45 JingYuan Chen wrote:
> Hello Mick & James,
> 
> I found that I made a big mistake after I installed kernel 4.4.6. My laptop
> still used kernel 4.1.5 to boot. It come as a surprise to me.
> 
> Therefore, I check the configuration of grub2 and fstab. Then I found that
> I forgot to modify mount options in fstab.
> The option of my boot partition was set as noauto. So that I don't use the
> kernel compiled by myself at all.

You do not need to mount /boot in fstab to be able to boot, but you *do* need 
to mount it when you're installing a new kernel.  My /boot is also noauto in 
fstab.  I mount it manually when I need to edit it, or install new kernels.


> After correcting these errors, I can use Radeon driver to execute X window
> now. Althought wasting more time to find out the answer, I think that I
> learn more with gentoo.
> 
> Thank you for your help !
> 
> Regards,
> Phil
> 
> On Mar 29, 2016 9:32 AM, "JingYuan Chen" <phil.cyc@gmail.com> wrote:
> > James,
> > 
> > Thanks for your response and suggestion !
> > 
> > Rich0's kernel crash dump page is interesting to me. I think that I could
> > find some useful information in it. I used Gentoo Live DVD to install
> > Gentoo into my laptop. I will use it to check VGA configuration again this
> > weekend.
> > 
> > 
> > Thank you !
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Phil
> > 
> > On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 1:06 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> >> JingYuan Chen <phil.cyc <at> gmail.com> writes:
> >> > I had installed Gentoo in my laptop  successfully last weekend. My
> >> 
> >> laptop
> >> is Toshiba Satellite L840. I found that my VGA card is Radeon HD 7670M
> >> using
> >> "lspci -k" command. Therefore, I refer to Gentoo's Radeon wiki page to
> >> configure 4.1.15-r1 kernel with TURKS firmware and emerge linux-firmware
> >> atom.
> >> 
> >> > However, my new kernel can not load TURKS successfully. I notice that
> >> 
> >> there is an error message with DRM in dmesg's output. It shows
> >> [drm:evergreen_init] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware.
> >> 
> >> > Why Evergreen ? Is not Northern Islands ? I am sure that the filename I
> >> 
> >> gave is TURKS's firmware in menuconfig.
> >> 
> >> > How could I make the dmesg's error message more verbose to debug ?
> >> > Are there some configurations should I check again ?
> >> > p.s. I built it in kernel not in modules.
> >> > Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> >> 
> >> Look directly into /lib/firmware/radeon/ and make sure you do not have
> >> a typo somewhere.
> >> 
> >> Building directly into the kernel is a really good idea for video
> >> drivers.
> >> 
> >> Another tool you may want to check out, is Rich0's kernel crash dump
> >> page::
> >> 
> >> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel_Crash_Dumps
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Last, when all else fails and is actually quite easy is to find a
> >> liveCD/DVD, from any distro that boots your lappy with the radeon driver
> >> that works. Then you parse about to find the one it uses. Some of these
> >> drivers are very close in the components and vendor card vendors have
> >> a 'malaise' of dis information surrounding the exact specs of the video
> >> components in there hardware, particularly laptop and tablet vendors.
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Just keep looking around, trying different ones out and something will
> >> work, eventually.
> >> 
> >> 'lspci -k' show video driver details use on a generic livedvd booted
> >> system.
> >> 
> >> A livedvd was created to give away at a recent california conference but
> >> I
> >> did not see it posted anywhere on the Release Engineering project pages.
> >> There are other gentoo derivative distros with livedvd you can bootup
> >> to help find the correct driver.
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> good hunting,
> >> James

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Wed, 4 May 2016 13:06:45 +0800, JingYuan Chen wrote:

> I found that I made a big mistake after I installed kernel 4.4.6. My
> laptop still used kernel 4.1.5 to boot. It come as a surprise to me.
> 
> Therefore, I check the configuration of grub2 and fstab. Then I found
> that I forgot to modify mount options in fstab.
> The option of my boot partition was set as noauto. So that I don't use
> the kernel compiled by myself at all.

We've all done that. Now I mount /boot as ro in fstab. That way, if I
forget to remount it before installing a kernel I get an error message
instead of the kernel just disappearing.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Is that "woof" feed me; "woof" walk me; "woof" there's a burglar? What??

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[gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[James]

Neil Bothwick <neil <at> digimed.co.uk> writes:


> > Therefore, I check the configuration of grub2 and fstab. Then I found
> > that I forgot to modify mount options in fstab.
> > The option of my boot partition was set as noauto. So that I don't use
> > the kernel compiled by myself at all.

> We've all done that. Now I mount /boot as ro in fstab. That way, if I
> forget to remount it before installing a kernel I get an error message
> instead of the kernel just disappearing.



Perhaps a documentation bug should be filed against the handbook or other
gentoo doc explaining some of the security and other approaches
and *why* various approaches are used with mounting strategies for /boot/ is
warranted?

That way, if folks miss it, we can just refer them to the docs and elaborate
a bit. Me, I like to keep lots of kernels around for a variety
of reasons. Maybe in the GSoC effort (Kernelconfig) is a better place to
implement some explanation on the choices of what to do with /boot/ ? [1]


Anyway, I'm glad to hear that all is fine now.

James


[1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code/2016/Ideas/kernelconfig

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[JingYuan Chen]

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When grub or new kernel was installed in boot partition, their permission
can be determined by umask.

Why set boot partition as noauto or ro in fstab ? What's the advantage ?
On May 5, 2016 1:46 AM, "James" <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

> Neil Bothwick <neil <at> digimed.co.uk> writes:
>
>
> > > Therefore, I check the configuration of grub2 and fstab. Then I found
> > > that I forgot to modify mount options in fstab.
> > > The option of my boot partition was set as noauto. So that I don't use
> > > the kernel compiled by myself at all.
>
> > We've all done that. Now I mount /boot as ro in fstab. That way, if I
> > forget to remount it before installing a kernel I get an error message
> > instead of the kernel just disappearing.
>
>
>
> Perhaps a documentation bug should be filed against the handbook or other
> gentoo doc explaining some of the security and other approaches
> and *why* various approaches are used with mounting strategies for /boot/
> is
> warranted?
>
> That way, if folks miss it, we can just refer them to the docs and
> elaborate
> a bit. Me, I like to keep lots of kernels around for a variety
> of reasons. Maybe in the GSoC effort (Kernelconfig) is a better place to
> implement some explanation on the choices of what to do with /boot/ ? [1]
>
>
> Anyway, I'm glad to hear that all is fine now.
>
> James
>
>
> [1]
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code/2016/Ideas/kernelconfig
>
>
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: DRM Problem : Radeon HD 7670M

[Alan McKinnon]

On 05/05/2016 12:22, JingYuan Chen wrote:
> When grub or new kernel was installed in boot partition, their
> permission can be determined by umask.

That is incorrect. Permissions are what you see with ls -l or stat.
umask is nothing more than a convenience for the user to set a default

>
> Why set boot partition as noauto or ro in fstab ? What's the advantage ?

Because many people do not want /boot mounted at all during use. That 
volume is only ever needed in 2 cases:

1. During boot when a kernel is loaded
2. Installing a new kernel image and updating a boot loader or config

Many people like to keep /boot unmounted during normal use when updating 
is a deliberate action and the sysadmin must do it. It helps prevent 
accidental mistakes and wayward processes doing stupid things.
It's a good viewpoint and you'll see why folks do it the next time you 
render your own machine unbootable



>
> On May 5, 2016 1:46 AM, "James" <wireless@tampabay.rr.com
> <mailto:wireless@tampabay.rr.com>> wrote:
>
>     Neil Bothwick <neil <at> digimed.co.uk <http://digimed.co.uk>> writes:
>
>
>      > > Therefore, I check the configuration of grub2 and fstab. Then I
>     found
>      > > that I forgot to modify mount options in fstab.
>      > > The option of my boot partition was set as noauto. So that I
>     don't use
>      > > the kernel compiled by myself at all.
>
>      > We've all done that. Now I mount /boot as ro in fstab. That way, if I
>      > forget to remount it before installing a kernel I get an error
>     message
>      > instead of the kernel just disappearing.
>
>
>
>     Perhaps a documentation bug should be filed against the handbook or
>     other
>     gentoo doc explaining some of the security and other approaches
>     and *why* various approaches are used with mounting strategies for
>     /boot/ is
>     warranted?
>
>     That way, if folks miss it, we can just refer them to the docs and
>     elaborate
>     a bit. Me, I like to keep lots of kernels around for a variety
>     of reasons. Maybe in the GSoC effort (Kernelconfig) is a better place to
>     implement some explanation on the choices of what to do with /boot/
>     ? [1]
>
>
>     Anyway, I'm glad to hear that all is fine now.
>
>     James
>
>
>     [1]
>     https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code/2016/Ideas/kernelconfig
>
>
>