[gentoo-user] AMD Radeon R7 370 (Pitcairn) causing the bootup to hang

[gentoo-user] AMD Radeon R7 370 (Pitcairn) causing the bootup to hang

[Ashley Dixon]

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Hi gentoo-user,

I'm attempting to configure a mid-range video card: the Radeon R7 370.   Running
on the Pitcairn chipset and a member  of  the  Southern  Islands  family,  I  am
surprised at the complexity of setting up the Radeon driver in comparison to its
NVIDIA counterpart.

I followed [1] carefully.  Initially opting to compile AMDGPU into the kernel, I
emerged linux-firmware with the following files.  All of the relevant files were
added to the kernel's CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE string, using /lib/firmware  as  the
base directory.

        radeon/pitcairn_smc.bin
        radeon/pitcairn_ce.bin
        radeon/pitcairn_mc.bin
        radeon/pitcairn_me.bin
        radeon/pitcairn_pfp.bin
        radeon/pitcairn_k_smc.bin
        radeon/pitcairn_rlc.bin
        radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin
        radeon/TAHITI_vce.bin

Unfortunately, upon booting, the kernel hangs with the following message.   This
seems to be rather common, with a similar  complaint  being  discussed  at  [2].

        fb0: switching to amdgpudrmfb from EFI VGA

As this all occurs pre-OpenRC, I am incapable of creating an S.S.H.\  connection
to the machine from my laptop.  When booting the kernel with the `nomodesetting`
parameter, the X server reports the following after  a  successful  kernel  boot
(created when executing `startx`): [timestamps omitted]

        (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
        (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
        (WW) Warning, couldn't open module vesa
        (EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
        (II) RADEON: Driver for ATI/AMD Radeon chipsets:
                ATI Radeon Mobility X600 (M24), ATI FireMV 2400,
                ATI Radeon Mobility X300 (M24), ATI FireGL M24 GL,

                [...]

                ARUBA, TAHITI, PITCAIRN, VERDE, OLAND, HAINAN, BONAIRE, KABINI,
                MULLINS, KAVERI, HAWAII
        (II) modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
        (--) using VT number 7

        (II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supported.
        (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
        (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
        (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
        (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
        (II) UnloadModule: "radeon"
        (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
        (II) UnloadModule: "modesetting"
        (EE) Device(s) detected, but none match those in the config file.
        (EE) 
        Fatal server error:
        (EE) no screens found(EE) 
        (EE) 

In a fruitless attempt to fix this, I opted to instead load AMDGPU as  a  kernel
module.  That did not go far either, as apparently a bug exists  in  the  Radeon
drivers which causes OpenRC to hang when setting the system  time  according  to
the internal clock [3]:

       Setting system clock using hardware clock [Local Time]
       [hangs forever]

Any help with this would be appreciated.  I'm moving away from NVIDIA due to the
requirement of proprietary drivers to get any decent performance, however now it
feels as though the AMD drivers, although open-source, consist of too many  bugs
(such as hanging the boot-up process for some reason or another) to  be  of  any
actual use.  Whilst I'm aware  that  is  obviously  not  the  case  due  to  the
popularity of their  cards,  I  am  bewildered  at  how  difficult  this  seems.

Cheers.

[1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/AMDGPU
[2] https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1061750-start-0.html
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/Gentoo/comments/9oax20/

-- 

Ashley Dixon
suugaku.co.uk

2A9A 4117
DA96 D18A
8A7B B0D2
A30E BF25
F290 A8AA


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Re: [gentoo-user] AMD Radeon R7 370 (Pitcairn) causing the bootup to hang

[Adam Carter]

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On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 10:21 AM Ashley Dixon <ash@suugaku.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi gentoo-user,
>
> I'm attempting to configure a mid-range video card: the Radeon R7 370.
>  Running
> on the Pitcairn chipset and a member  of  the  Southern  Islands  family,
> I  am
> surprised at the complexity of setting up the Radeon driver in comparison
> to its
> NVIDIA counterpart.
>
> I followed [1] carefully.  Initially opting to compile AMDGPU into the
> kernel, I
> emerged linux-firmware with the following files.  All of the relevant
> files were
> added to the kernel's CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE string, using /lib/firmware
> as  the
> base directory.
>
>         radeon/pitcairn_smc.bin
>         radeon/pitcairn_ce.bin
>         radeon/pitcairn_mc.bin
>         radeon/pitcairn_me.bin
>         radeon/pitcairn_pfp.bin
>         radeon/pitcairn_k_smc.bin
>         radeon/pitcairn_rlc.bin
>         radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin
>         radeon/TAHITI_vce.bin
>

Did it load ok?
dmesg | grep -i drm.*firm
You should see;
[drm] Found UVD firmware Version etc
[drm] Found VCE firmware Version etc


> Unfortunately, upon booting, the kernel hangs with the following message.
>  This
> seems to be rather common, with a similar  complaint  being  discussed
> at  [2].
>
>         fb0: switching to amdgpudrmfb from EFI VGA
>

Here's what i get (R9 380)
# dmesg | grep -i fb0
[    1.302701] fbcon: amdgpudrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[    1.474076] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: fb0: amdgpudrmfb frame buffer device

What CONFIG_FB options are enabled? I dont have CONFIG_FB_EFI set to try
removing that.


> As this all occurs pre-OpenRC, I am incapable of creating an S.S.H.\
> connection
> to the machine from my laptop.  When booting the kernel with the
> `nomodesetting`
> parameter, the X server reports the following after  a  successful
> kernel  boot
> (created when executing `startx`): [timestamps omitted]
>
>         (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
>         (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
>         (WW) Warning, couldn't open module vesa
>         (EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
>         (II) RADEON: Driver for ATI/AMD Radeon chipsets:
>                 ATI Radeon Mobility X600 (M24), ATI FireMV 2400,
>                 ATI Radeon Mobility X300 (M24), ATI FireGL M24 GL,
>
>                 [...]
>
>                 ARUBA, TAHITI, PITCAIRN, VERDE, OLAND, HAINAN, BONAIRE,
> KABINI,
>                 MULLINS, KAVERI, HAWAII
>         (II) modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
>         (--) using VT number 7
>
>         (II) [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supported.
>         (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
>         (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
>         (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
>

I'd say that's the key. What CONFIG_DRM options are enabled?

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Re: [gentoo-user] AMD Radeon R7 370 (Pitcairn) causing the bootup to hang

[Peter Humphrey]

On Monday, 4 May 2020 01:21:09 BST Ashley Dixon wrote:

> Any help with this would be appreciated.  I'm moving away from NVIDIA due to
> the requirement of proprietary drivers to get any decent performance,
> however now it feels as though the AMD drivers, although open-source,
> consist of too many  bugs (such as hanging the boot-up process for some
> reason or another) to  be  of  any actual use.  Whilst I'm aware  that  is 
> obviously  not  the  case  due  to  the popularity of their  cards,  I  am 
> bewildered  at  how  difficult  this  seems.

I have a Radeon Pro WX 5100, which uses a Polaris chipset. I don't know 
whether it's Polaris10, ..11 or ..12 so I have all three installed. Together 
with linux-firmware 20200421 and a corresponding savedconfig file. I know it's 
not the same as yours, but there must be some similarities.

Referring to the Wiki you cite, I don't have AMDGPU support for SI or CIK 
parts. DRM_AMDGPU_USERPTR=y. Under Display Engine Configuration, only the first 
option shown in the Wiki is present in my kernel config (5.4.28), but it has an 
option DSC support, which is Y. HSA kernel driver is Y, not M. I don't have 
any PCI sound device entries since my on-board chipset failed.

It's important to set DRM_AMDGPU=y, not =m, so that the necessary drivers are 
all present at boot time. Or you could include them in an initramfs.

Do you have CONFIG_FB_EFI=y and CONFIG_FB_SIMPLE=y? Your problem may be in 
handing over the console to the frame buffer - I think I remember having 
difficulty here as well. CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set here.

Contrary to the Wiki, I don't have Laptop Hybrid Graphics set, because this 
isn't a laptop and I don't want any of the switcheroo it would bring in. Then 
again, the Wiki may just want it for debugging.

/etc/environment is empty here.

I hope that helps, even if only to eliminate some possibilities.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] AMD Radeon R7 370 (Pitcairn) causing the bootup to hang

[Ashley Dixon]

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On Mon, May 04, 2020 at 08:53:18PM +1000, Adam Carter wrote:
> What CONFIG_FB options are enabled? I dont have CONFIG_FB_EFI set to try
> removing that.

I can't disable FB_EFI as I want to use the E.F.I.\ framebuffer as my  terminal.
Nonetheless, I have just discovered I  am  a  useless  article  of  the  highest
degree; `dmesg` revealed the firmware should have been in  /lib/firmware/amdgpu,
as opposed to /lib/firmware/radeon.  I  should  have  figured  this  out  myself
sooner, although the entry  for  Southern  Islands  cards  at  [1]  should  also
probably be updated, considering it is focusing entirely on the  AMDGPU  driver.

Adam and Peter: Cheers for the help, and I  apologise  for  wasting  your  time.

[1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/AMDGPU#Incorporating_firmware

-- 

Ashley Dixon
suugaku.co.uk

2A9A 4117
DA96 D18A
8A7B B0D2
A30E BF25
F290 A8AA


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