[SOLVED] New AMD rx590 graphics card black screen

rooman · 03-28-2020, 02:13 PM

[drm: amdgpu_init [amdgpu]] ERROR VGACON disables amdgpu kernel modesetting
This the error message I saw on booting my new card.

Now I'm stuck; the network is not available either, screen stays black with blinking cursor. The system seems to be up and drives are mounted when I boot in safe mode.
The card is recognized by the text mode configurator DRAKCONF but the proposed driver does not work, X does not start.

business_kid · 03-29-2020, 01:06 PM

Seeing as you've no network, I had a quick look.

ERROR VGACON seems to crop up with loads of newer AMD cards, and seems to be related to messy code in the proprietary driver not cleaning up correctly with resulting memory leaks. What driver are you running? Have you tried the opensource one?

Also, adding the nomodeset option seems to hold things together; In /etc/inittab, you can alter the default runlevel with the 'initdefault' setting. It's usually 4 or 5, but if you set 3, you get multiuser console mode, with text consoles on tty1-6. Then you run startx as a user, and it opens tty7, and your X session starts there.

tofino_surfer · 03-29-2020, 01:22 PM

Your profile lists your distribution as:

Distribution: Mandriva 2007.0

Hopefully you are not still using this as Mandriva has been discontinued since 2011. Please post your current distribution as it will affect the advice you are given.

tofino_surfer · 03-29-2020, 08:24 PM

Quote:

What driver are you running? Have you tried the opensource one?

AMD abandoned their proprietary Linux drivers years ago. The AMD Catalyst proprietary driver is no longer supported and does not support the RX series.

The RX590 is supported by the open source AMDGPU driver.

Quote:

In /etc/inittab, you can alter the default runlevel with the 'initdefault' setting. It's usually 4 or 5, but if you set 3, you get multiuser console mode, with text consoles on tty1-6.

Most modern distros use systemd by now and /etc/inittab is not used. Mageia, the successor to Mandriva uses systemd.

Code:

# inittab is no longer used.
#
# ADDING CONFIGURATION HERE WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON YOUR SYSTEM.
#
# Ctrl-Alt-Delete is handled by /usr/lib/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.target
#
# systemd uses 'targets' instead of runlevels. By default, there are two main targets:
#
# multi-user.target: analogous to runlevel 3
# graphical.target: analogous to runlevel 5
#
# To view current default target, run:
# systemctl get-default
#
# To s# inittab is no longer used.
#
# ADDING CONFIGURATION HERE WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON YOUR SYSTEM.
#
# Ctrl-Alt-Delete is handled by /usr/lib/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.target
#
# systemd uses 'targets' instead of runlevels. By default, there are two main targets:
#
# multi-user.target: analogous to runlevel 3
# graphical.target: analogous to runlevel 5
#
# To view current default target, run:
# systemctl get-default
#
# To set a default target, run:
# systemctl set-default TARGET.target
et a default target, run:
# systemctl set-default TARGET.target

mrmazda · 03-30-2020, 02:50 AM

Drakconf automatically generating an xorg.conf file is an anachronism that too often creates files that are not only unnecessary, but at times block proper X operation. The easy way around this is to empty /etc/X11/xorg.conf, making it 0 bytes, then setting the immutable flag on it:

Code:

sudo chattr +i /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Doing so may well cause X to work as upstream intended, in your case using the amdgpu DDX driver, and working as you expect.

Nomodeset as a boot parameter should enable you to perform needed adjustments, but it will block all competent X drivers. Once repairs have been made, its use needs to be discontinued.

Something else to try (test): add nokmsboot to the kernel cmdline at the Grub menu.

rooman · 04-13-2020, 04:02 PM

I've passed the deb side of the force and tried Ubuntu.An upgrade from 18.04 to 19 and a reinstallation of the amdgpu driver did the trick.
Graphics are now working very well, between 60 and 80 fps in Flightgear.
Thanks guys.