Radeon 6870 startx xorg display problem

pauleibye · 09-12-2011, 08:08 PM

Hey there,

I just installed Gentoo and am trying to get my GPU to wirk with Gentoo. I did what the handbook told me to do for Radeon graphics cards in the kernel, compiled, all that jazz. When I reboot though I get flickering around the bottom 4th of the screen and the rest of the pixels are random colors, as you can see in the attached pictures. I'm really out of ideas here.

Also I did not have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ folder so I made it myself. I have xorg-server installed and the proper Radeon drivers as the installation manual says to do.

Does anyone have a clue?

Here are the pictures:
http://i56.tinypic.com/2e1xc21.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/2nla80z.jpg

jdkaye · 09-13-2011, 02:07 PM

Hi and Welcome to LQ!
I don't know if Gentoo has a /var/log/Xorg.0.log but if it does it may be worth checking for errors there (indicated by "(EE)".)
ciao,
jdk

pauleibye · 09-13-2011, 07:08 PM

It says that radeon chipset rewuired kms to be enabled in the kernel, but when I do I get the screen as shown in the previous pictures.

adamk75 · 09-13-2011, 07:11 PM

What kernel are you using? Hopefully at least the latest in the 3.0.* series, correct?

Adam

pauleibye · 09-13-2011, 07:36 PM

how would you go about to check? Also what would I emerge to get 3.0.*?

pauleibye · 09-13-2011, 07:45 PM

I'm using 2.6.39-gentoo-r3.

andrewthomas · 09-13-2011, 07:47 PM

Have you emerged x11-drivers/radeon-ucode?

Have you built the radeon module into the kernel and loaded the proper firmware for your card?

I believe that the following will work for BARTS

Code:

CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="radeon/BTC_rlc.bin"
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR="/lib/firmware"

If you want to use 3.0.4 then add the keyword ~amd64 or ~x86 to /etc/portage/package.keywords

Code:

sys-kernel/gentoo-sources ~amd64

or

Code:

sys-kernel/gentoo-sources ~x86

adamk75 · 09-13-2011, 07:48 PM

You can check the kernel version by running "uname -a" on the console. I really don't know how to specify what kernel you want installed when you emerge on gentoo as I've never used gentoo. I just know that HD6xxx support is very new in the open source drivers, and lots of fixes for those GPUs has gone into the 3.0.* kernels.

EDIT: And, yes, as andrewthomas pointed out, you need to have the firmware on your machine. If the radeon DRM is a kernel module, and you're not loading the module from an initrd/initramfs, then simply having the firmware installed should be enough.

pauleibye · 09-13-2011, 08:12 PM

andrewthomas could you clarify what I'm supposed to do to install 3.0.4? I'm new to portage and understood very little of what you said.

pauleibye · 09-13-2011, 08:25 PM

Nevermind. I added the line to the newly created portage.keywords.

When I emerge gentoo-sources it gives me the 2.6.39 kernel though...

turns out you dont need portage.keywords. All you need to do is add ACCEPT_KEYWORDS to /etc/make.conf and add ~x86_64 etc