Hello community,

first things first: my computer is an aspire 5738zg with a ati mobility radeon hd 545v GPU

i am really a newbie, as you might see immediately. And up to now i was only a os-user (WIN7). But after installing linux mint 18.01 cinnamon i was forced to several forums recently and have not received a satisfying answer so far, although i am already one step further.

The problem, i think, is my graphics card (ati mobility radeon hd 545v RV710) which might be too old to be supported with installing AMD/ATI CATALYST drivers.

And now, so i was told, my graphics are rendered on my cpu, which affects the performance of my whole laptop. Too much work to do for it and it overheats and creates spontaneous shutdowns.

But as I learned too, my GPU should have 3d acceleration. So why aren't the graphics correctly processed on the GPU. Ok, the built in screen on my laptop is broken somehow, so i plugged in a Samsung S19D300NY monitor via VGA output and it is working. Built in camera is still working too. So i assume the graphic card is working. Or isn't that so?

At least i wanted to get rid of the rendering mode problem. So i went to the the panel and wrote some guided and edited (copy/paste) commands:

sudo update-pciids #optional command, requires internet

lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display'


This showed me my graphic card. Then i entered the next command:

dmesg | egrep 'drm|radeon'

Which showed me the following initialization reports of my GPU, which (sorry) i am unable to interprete, but because things are initialized and detected, i assume are correct:

[ 1.635927] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[ 1.705172] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
[ 1.716820] fb: switching to radeondrmfb from VESA VGA
[ 1.717315] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (RV710 0x1002:0x9553 0x1025:0x0205).
[ 1.717333] [drm] register mmio base: 0xF4000000
[ 1.717334] [drm] register mmio size: 65536
[ 1.717477] radeon 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 512M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000001FFFFFFF (512M used)
[ 1.717480] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 1024M 0x0000000020000000 - 0x000000005FFFFFFF
[ 1.717483] [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=512M, BAR=256M
[ 1.717484] [drm] RAM width 64bits DDR
[ 1.717600] [drm] radeon: 512M of VRAM memory ready
[ 1.717602] [drm] radeon: 1024M of GTT memory ready.
[ 1.717625] [drm] Loading RV710 Microcode
[ 1.721277] [drm] radeon: dpm initialized
[ 1.721447] [drm] GART: num cpu pages 262144, num gpu pages 262144
[ 1.741080] [drm] PCIE GART of 1024M enabled (table at 0x000000000025E000).
[ 1.741246] radeon 0000:01:00.0: WB enabled
[ 1.741252] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 0 use gpu addr 0x0000000020000c00 and cpu addr 0xffff8800350c8c00
[ 1.741255] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 3 use gpu addr 0x0000000020000c0c and cpu addr 0xffff8800350c8c0c
[ 1.742372] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 5 use gpu addr 0x000000000005c598 and cpu addr 0xffffc90000c1c598
[ 1.742375] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[ 1.742376] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
[ 1.742379] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: MSI limited to 32-bit
[ 1.742422] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: using MSI.
[ 1.742454] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.
[ 1.789391] [drm] ring test on 0 succeeded in 1 usecs
[ 1.789398] [drm] ring test on 3 succeeded in 2 usecs
[ 1.964367] [drm] ring test on 5 succeeded in 1 usecs
[ 1.964375] [drm] UVD initialized successfully.
[ 1.964893] [drm] ib test on ring 0 succeeded in 0 usecs
[ 1.964920] [drm] ib test on ring 3 succeeded in 0 usecs
[ 2.612102] [drm] ib test on ring 5 succeeded
[ 2.613606] [drm] Radeon Display Connectors
[ 2.613610] [drm] Connector 0:
[ 2.613612] [drm] LVDS-1
[ 2.613614] [drm] DDC: 0x7f68 0x7f68 0x7f6c 0x7f6c 0x7f70 0x7f70 0x7f74 0x7f74
[ 2.613615] [drm] Encoders:
[ 2.613616] [drm] LCD1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY2
[ 2.613618] [drm] Connector 1:
[ 2.613619] [drm] VGA-1
[ 2.613621] [drm] DDC: 0x7e40 0x7e40 0x7e44 0x7e44 0x7e48 0x7e48 0x7e4c 0x7e4c
[ 2.613622] [drm] Encoders:
[ 2.613623] [drm] CRT1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1
[ 2.613625] [drm] Connector 2:
[ 2.613626] [drm] HDMI-A-1
[ 2.613627] [drm] HPD1
[ 2.613629] [drm] DDC: 0x7e50 0x7e50 0x7e54 0x7e54 0x7e58 0x7e58 0x7e5c 0x7e5c
[ 2.613630] [drm] Encoders:
[ 2.613631] [drm] DFP1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY
[ 2.709160] [drm] fb mappable at 0xD045F000
[ 2.709163] [drm] vram apper at 0xD0000000
[ 2.709164] [drm] size 4325376
[ 2.709165] [drm] fb depth is 24
[ 2.709167] [drm] pitch is 5632
[ 2.709279] fbcon: radeondrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[ 2.709404] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
[ 2.722284] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.43.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0


After i checked for the driver packages and got some irrelevant messages with (already installed and so on):

sudo apt-get install mesa-utils


I then typed:

LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo

And the answer was as follows which are only the first 8 lines:

name of display: :0
libGL: OpenDriver: trying /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/tls/r600_dri.so
libGL: OpenDriver: trying /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/r600_dri.so
libGL: Can't open configuration file /home/ndray/.drirc: No such file or directory.
libGL: Can't open configuration file /home/ndray/.drirc: No such file or directory.
libGL: Using DRI2 for screen 0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes

What does that tell me? What should i learn from that? What can i do to fix it? Can i fix it at all?

Please help me. I am really desperate! Take me by my hand and make me less ignorant. Enlighten me, please. Thank you,

bagheera

Install fglrx instead?

or use the boot code radeon.dpm=1 according https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

graphic card has nothing to do with webcam.

I think you have an Intel GPU on the CPU and an external ATI chip on the mobo. The Intel graphics is somewhat more cpu intensive, so the machine switches over to the ATI chip when there is sufficient battery power or if the machine is plugged in.

I agree you should try fglrx.

Hi, guys,

AwsomeMachine, and floppy_stuttgart, thank you very much, answering immediately. But i thought, i could get some more infos, due to the fact, that i am coming from the ubuntu-links you are suggesting. I did - as i showed in the initial post - some guided terminal-commands, but then for me the guidance expires, or at least i don't understand the next step, which should be done now. As far as i understand the whole problem, the mesa driver, which is active now and causes or executes the 'direct rendering mode' is the/a default driver. Is this correct?

'fglrx':
(please, forgive me mixing up vocabulary here, but i am really a newbie concerning all the internal structures of hard- and software).

Please, tell me if i am wrong... As far as i understood it. The fglrx-driver is the one, which is linked to the catalyst 'environment'. And as far as i understood it, especially this is not supported by linux mint 18.01/ubuntu 16.04 anymore. And furthermore there are different versions of fglrx/catalyst-drivers, so the question for me is, how do i pick the right one and how do i get it? Or is it just easy and i should get the latest version?

Understand, i don't want to wreck neither the linux i just installed (and by the way i really like very much) nor my graphic-card or anything else. And if i have to install drivers, so to say system-software by hand, i also should know/be able to uninstall the whole thing again, if it doesn't work. Which also could turn out to be a problem, if the graphics are corrupted and i don't have a display animore, after i installed the wrong driver, due to the fact, that in some solutions i read something about changing the GRUB-files, which are the files providing informations for the system to boot properly. If i cannot see anything on my monitor, how can i correct the software then? Which i just don't know yet. That is the reason why i think i need more explicit guidance, let's say step by step.

Ok, now both of you suggest, i should install fglrx. Which info is true now? Well, i am confused. To be clear, i know i am not the first one who encountered this radeon-driver problem, there are a lot of threads in the forums, and i will be reading more and more of them. Just opened some more links. And i try to dig deeper into this problem, but i feel like i am getting stuck right under the surface, as if there is just a thin layer of soil and directly underneath i hit the solid rock, so far.

'step by step'-guidance:

I really need more explanation for the suggested steps i should take. Because i don't understand neither the commands nor do i know which level of linux i am accessing with them. Also, I want to be able to look for and understand relevant information, which linux is giving me. Maybe i'm asking too much, here.

But, generally i really appreciate the possibility to have access to and gaining more and more control over the OS via the terminal and the command line. That has already been beneficial. For example right after installing mint i had no desktop-icons on my screen. And after some research on the live version from the usb-stick i managed to fix it.

All right, thnx again. I am heading off now to some other related links, hoping to get some further infos, to solve the problem once and for all. And gain some insight to be helpful myself, for people with related problems in the future.

Byebye,

bagheera

please, we need this output from lspci:
copy-paste it here, between code tags, please.


probably your cooling ducts/fans are clogged. try cleaning them.

how old is this laptop?

1002:9553 seems to be a common hit for the vendor:model of similarly named cards. There were a whole lot of ATI cards that were deprecated circa kernel 3.4.x, which was the last kernel with a proprietary driver available. But most of those were well supported by the radeon open source driver. I can't seem to find that GPU on amd's support pages, so it's probably of that ERA. Which means that you're probably wasting your time trying to install anything Fglrx or Crimson.

Seems like it's a variant of the HD 45## desktop part. I used to have the HD 4550 desktop card and it was one of those deprecated. A visiontek model that had a fan that never really worked right, and it basically melted itself after about a year or more of use. Use the radeon driver, efforts beyond that will end in sadness. A card from when the 55nm process roamed the earth. Although the hd 4550 was good for 1080p video on what was a 1.9GHz dual core x2 circa 2007.

Hi ondoho,

is this the output you wanted/needed? I hope so.

Clogged airducts/fans, yes, maybe!!! Even propably!!!

How old? I'm not so sure, but somewhere around 2011/2012 it was when i bought it.


bagheera

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-arti...ase-Notes.aspx may offer some relief.

fglrx is the same as the catalyst driver. This was proprietary driver when ATI ran the company. When AMD took over ATI, the level of support changed and eventually tapered off. Just before they stopped putting out a proprietary driver, the name changed from catalyst to crimson. Instead of googling catalyst, you could try crimson. The current state of the proprietary driver is called amdgpu. However, I could not get this driver to work on my radeon laptop. It only seems to work on newer amd chipsets.

Did you try the open source driver? This goes by the name gallium and is already compiled into the kernel. It is supposed to work out of the box. I would try booting a Ubuntu or Fedora Live CD. If it boots up correctly with the correct resolution, it means that they found your card and configured it correctly. If those two CDs work, it may be a problem specific to Mint.

You could try the following command:
If everything is working, it should look something like this:
The big advantage of the proprietary over the open source driver, at least in my experience, is that the GPU runs cooler and faster. At the moment, however, only the gallium works on my computer.

Hi, Shadow_7,

The Mob. R hd545v, is one of those you say, but came out in 2010. It seems you are right, there may not be any other way. If i wanna stay with the os mint 18.01, i'd might use either the radeon driver and get over it, or buy a new compi, with a more modern graphic card.

Thnx so lot for, trying to help,

bagheera

Ola muchacho,

concerning the code line, i quoted, do you mean from one of the live-versions, you suggested, or from the installed mint, i have?
Concerning your final lines, does it then make any difference at all, whether i use the opengl-driver compared to the radeon-driver, if they both work on drm (which i interpret as direct rendering mode) and as such occupy the cpu, as you report? Does it make any difference?

bagheera

p.s: thnx for providing information.

hi, once more,

looked it up and as far as i can see, it doesn't support my graphic card, although it's for ubuntu 16.04. It all seems to lead to a dead end...

bagheera

I bought the HD 4550 sometime around 2006 - 2010. I needed HDMI out for an old desktop. Probably closer to 2009. Don't let the radeon driver fool you, it's quite capable, more capable in some regards. The proprietary AMD driver only works in 24 bit color. The radeon driver supports 16 bit modes and more resolutions out of the box. With roughly equal performance (for older cards). There are other routes to get the same functionality of amdcccle if that's the concern. xcalib, xrandr, xbacklight, and other tools.

Both. That code line is standard for finding out which driver is providing opengl capabilities. Opengl is a graphics standard for providing 3D rendering similar to windows DirectX. This feature can be facilitated either by the proprietary AMDGPU driver or the open source gallium driver. The code line is showing you that I am obtaining 3D rendering via the gallium driver. As I mentioned, my GPU is too old for the proprietary driver.

ok the card is from 2009.
http://gpuboss.com/graphics-card/Mob...Radeon-HD-4570
https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-AT...0.13885.0.html
it was classified as low-to-mid range then.

it should be ok for normal use, but not gaming nowadays.

if the fglrx/catalyst driver doesn't support it anymore (is this confirmed?) you can
a) use an old Xorg version and an old version of fglrx (not recommended)
b) stay with the radeon driver (recommended)

you should still check if the radeon driver fully supports this card (how?).

then try to improve your 3d rendering; and your clogged fans.