How to Activate Graphics Drivers

Terrapinball · 02-26-2020, 03:22 PM

Hello,

I know I have drivers installed of both Intel (motherboard) integrated graphics card and AMD graphics card, however I am not seeing
"Kernal Drivers in Use"
which I believe is what I want to see where I see
"Kernel modules: i915" and
"Kernel modules: radeon"

Linux boots to a black screen when trying to load GUI. I can get to the command line now but I believe I need to activate(?) the graphics drivers?

Any help greatly appreciated

mrmazda · 02-26-2020, 03:44 PM

Code:

$ inxi -Gxx

will display both kernel driver(s) and X driver(s), e.g.

Code:

$ inxi -Gxx
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4th Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Micro-Star MSI
           driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:041e
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: intel
           resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.2 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes

plus X drivers available but not in use (unloaded).

amdgpu is probably what you want to see for both kernel and X drivers for your AMD GPU.

Terrapinball · 02-26-2020, 04:21 PM

Code:

$ inxi -Gxx
Graphics: Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:0126
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750/7670M/7690M]
vendor: Apple MacBookPro8 2 driver: N/A bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:6741
Display: server: X.org 1.20.7 driver: ati,vesa unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon tty: 180x56
Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G --display

How come the driver is listed as N/A ? Do the graphics cards not recognize the drivers?

Terrapinball · 02-26-2020, 04:29 PM

for both my Device-1: Intel and Device-2: AMD I return driver: N/A after running $ inix -Gxx

Does this mean the devices aren't recognizing or able to find the drivers?

Terrapinball · 02-26-2020, 04:34 PM

Code:

$ inxi -Gxx
Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:0126
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
vendor: Apple MacBookPro8 2 driver: N/A bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:6741
Display: server X.org 1.20.7 driver: ati,vesa unloaded: fbdev, modesetting,radeon tty:180x56
Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console Try -G --display

mrmazda · 02-26-2020, 07:05 PM

Advanced graphics data unavailable in console is the expected response when inxi is run from one of the console vttys instead of an Xterm or equivalent from within a running X session.

1002:6741 confirms the AMD/ATI device description as from the 2011-2012 era, using Terascale 2 technology, too old for amdgpu graphics. Thus the kernel driver should be radeon and the X driver either modesetting or radeon. 8086:0126 indicates Sandy Bridge Intel series, suited to either the intel DDX or the modesetting DDX for X.

I have no hands-on experience using dual graphics as you have, so can suggest little without knowing something about which distro you have installed, and even then I probably won't be able to contribute much.

When you boot to console and login, what is output from

Code:

cat /proc/cmdline

???

Terrapinball · 02-26-2020, 07:59 PM

Code:

BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-kali4-amd64 root=UUID=8d2def28-ca91-4a12-b5fb-62df84d666d4 to quiet splash i915.modeset=0 radeon.modeset=0

Kali Linux 2020.1 is the distro. I set the modeset to 0 to prevent booting to a black screen.

mrmazda · 02-26-2020, 08:44 PM

Nomodeset is a troubleshooting parameter that blocks both i915 and radeon kernel drivers as well as intel, modesetting and radeon DDX. *.modeset=0 has the exact same effect. Another workaround for the black screen needs to be found.

Instead of blocking modeset, try disabling plymouth. One or more of plymouth=0, noplymouth or plymouth.enable=0 should work. Removing quiet and splash may help if for no other reason than to display an error message that might be useful.

If none of these work, logs for a failed previous boot (without defeating KMS) can be obtained on a subsequent boot that does block KMS:

Code:

sudo journalctl -b -1 | pastebinit

Whether Kali includes pastebinit I don't know, but if a command not found results, either try installing it, or redirect the output of journalctl to a file, then upload the file to http://pastebin.com or equivalent, and provide the resulting URL here. Output from dmesg might be useful in similar manner:

Code:

dmesg > somefileofyourchoosing.txt

Upload also /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old, X's own log from the prior boot, also done without blocking KMS. Xorg.0.log.old and Xorg.0.log might be found also or instead in /home/username/.local/share/xorg/.