Problems with KMS and Radeon 6870 on Slackware 13.37
 

I am having problems starting X windows on Slackware 13.37. When I attempt to 'startx' or 'xinit', I get an error telling me that KMS is required. I have attempted loading the radeon.d module, but to no avail. (I am going to retry that this evening, though). I will follow up with more details, such as the exact error messages and logs shortly, but do not have access to the problem computer at the moment.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thank you.

Hope this helps
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...ode_Setting.29

I had the same problems with my HD6870 on 13.37, install libdrm and Mesa from /testing, after that it should work.

Thank you for the quick responses. Is there anything else that must be done after installing the two packages? (I am just preparing to test your suggestions on a fresh install)

Installing libdrm and mesa went smoothly, but failed to solve the problem. A somewhat more complete description of the error messages I receive:

Something along the lines of "no display detected"

Followed by ...drm not supported...

and the ...requires kms...

(I am working at getting files of of the computer, and will post exact copies of the messages as soon as I can.

The Slackware 13.37 kernel is likely too old to support kernel modesetting on your GPU. HD6xxx support in the kernel really started to become usable with the 3.x.x kernels.

Adam

Ah, well. Thank you very much for your help. I an going to close the thread and try and get something to install.... Slackware, Fedora, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Debian, Backtrack, and others have all failed in one way or another. (Usually problems with the bootloader and RAID, but I digress.)

Debian is a good distro haven't had any problems with it other than the 1's I created via experimentation.
I'm using squeeze at present but I'd suggest wheezy as you can get the 3.0 kernel by adding "testing & experimental" to the repos.
Not to forget adding "contrib non-free"

If I remember correctly, Debian (squeeze) failed to install the boot loader. Obviously, there are many ways to manually install one, but at the moment, I am much to tired of having a broken computer to care to find them. (That and the fact I have an essay due the day after tomorrow that I haven't been able to type up).

Try Slackware -current, it works fine with my HD6870 and the free drivers.

Will do. My parents should be delighted by me tying up their internet connection for another five hour span. (Not that I care too much)