X screws up everything. (Debian jessie, AMD flgrx on HD62900, but works without SUMO

kaz2100 · 10-30-2014, 02:09 AM

Hya,

Syetem
Debian jessie (amd64) on ASUS C60M1-I
Graphic is Wrestler [Radeon HD 6290] (this is what lshw says.)

Kernel is 3.16.5
fglrx is 1:14.9+ga14.201-1
X is 1:7.7+7

Everything was updated on 29/Oct/2014.

Situation
X screws up entire system (system hang, I assume). (ssh connection is lost, sleep & restart does not work.)

Startup screen complains about missing firmwares, so I added one by one (PALM_me.bin, PALM_pfp.bin, SUMO_rlc.bin, SUMO_uvd.bin) onto initramfs.
I followed this thread (quick and dirty method).

These firmwares are linked to kernel,

Code:

CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="radeon/PALM_pfp.bin radeon/PALM_me.bin radeon/SUMO_rlc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin"
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR="/lib/firmware/"

Once X is kicked in, screen blanks and ssh connection is lost. I do not think I found any trace under /var/log..

One workaround I found is "to remove two SUMO firmwares from initramfs". I am not sure why it works, but it does. One draw back is I do not see "the Penguin" on startup messages.

It looks good.

Code:

>glxgears 
6644 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1328.741 FPS
6468 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1293.486 FPS
6833 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1366.441 FPS
6862 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1372.386 FPS
>glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: ATI
server glx version string: 1.4
..

So far, I can survive, but I am not quite happy. Usually, system does not work without firmware, the other way around.

Question
Does anybody have similar situation?

cheers

widget · 10-30-2014, 06:10 PM

Have you looked in ~.xsession-errrors?

kaz2100 · 10-30-2014, 09:58 PM

Hya

Thanks for your reply.

I checked .xsession-errors. It has nothing in it.

I guess I missed one information. It looks like the following log is related.

Code:

Oct 30 12:32:16 pen dbus[2006]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit' (using servicehelper)
Oct 30 12:32:17 pen dbus[2006]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' (using servicehelper)
Oct 30 12:32:17 pen polkitd[2836]: started daemon version 0.105 using authority implementation `local' version `0.105'
Oct 30 12:32:17 pen dbus[2006]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1'
Oct 30 12:32:17 pen dbus[2006]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit'
^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^

These "^@"'s have some attributes, (escape sequence??), so that it is reversed or colored(??).

I guess it is system hang.

cheers.

kaz2100 · 03-05-2015, 02:28 AM

Hya

Situation is same with kernel 3.16.7-ckt2

cheers

widget · 03-06-2015, 02:48 AM

Strange.

Not sure what the interesting stuff there at the bottom is. You are probably correct in assuming that is when xorg packed it in.

Makes no sense to me at all.

If this keeps up, I suppose it will, reboot and see what dmesg will give you.

Not sure why you chose the firmware you did. I don't use that card though. My 6450 runs fine even without the non-free firmware package installed. That is a fairly old bug and I am sure it is corrected. I remember it as I held the package until the bug was cleared.

It may have been a different bug though but it was on initramfs-tools. Reason I say it could be a different bug is that this box did not exist yet and my last box had died at the time that bug was filed.

However, I really don't think that is the solution to your problem because I don't believe that this is related to that package. Besides, initramfs-tools is at version 0.116 in up to date Debian testing installs.

I think I would undo all your edits and install, or purge and then install, firmware-linux linux package making sure you have the nonfree repos enabled first. And then reboot.

If doesn't work it is time to pair off in bunches, scatter out in groups and, probably, panic. Well not that bad but will take some serious thought for sure.

kaz2100 · 03-09-2015, 12:31 AM

Hya,o

widget, thanks for your reply.

Yes, it works without firmware on initramfs (no PALM, no SUMO), but log says "failed to load these firmwares." And it takes longer (may be waiting for timeout for firmware loading) at clocksourse message.

Without firmwares, the "Tux" image does not show up on startup and font stays same.

With firmwares, the "Tux" images shows up and fonts change, but system freezes on startx.

Xorg.0.log says nothing about firmwares.

cheers

widget · 03-09-2015, 09:45 PM

I really have seen a lot of errors. I am good at breaking systems. I am generally modest about it. Just a skill I was born with.

Have never even heard of clocksource before. Ran a search on it. Wow. I have been missing out on a lot of excitement. Could be kind of jealose.

However it still seems to generally be a symptom of faulty install, configuration or communication with firmware in some manner.

Does your system boot to an older kernel?

kaz2100 · 03-12-2015, 09:56 PM

Hya,

Thanks for your comment.

I have kernel source (3.10 -- 3.16), but I have not had time to check yet.

cheers