Open-Source ATI R600/700 3D Driver Almost Working

[agd5f]

@bridgman and @agd5f

The Option "EXANoDownloadFromScreen" did actually help. No visible corruptions anymore, but with ForceLowPowerMode turned on the computer freeze when login out, shutting down or suspending. I have to hold down the power button to shut down.

When it isn't enabled everithing works.

So, how much does the ForceLowPowerMode option do more than de other options? Can I leave it disabled?

You don't have to enable any of the pm options. ForceLowPowerMode runs the card at lower clocks all the time. DynamicPM only lowers the clocks when the displays go to sleep (dpms off). PM is very tricky to get right on all boards. I suspect we may need to change clocks more gradually in limited steps rather than changing the clock completely in one go or some additional delays are needed here and there.

EDIT: as noted by bridgman, the PCIE lane changing code is probably to blame on multi-GPU cards. You could test by removing the calls to set the PCIE lanes in the pm code in radeon_pm.c in the ddx.

[agd5f]

Hmm, similar situation as above, trying to use the git radeon driver to get my fan speed a bit lower, I'm getting a different issue though. The xorg.0.log isn't showing anything too unusual but the screen just turns black as soon as X starts up. The fan then slows down so it seems to be working, but Xorg locks up and I have to ssh in to shut down my PC.

It's an R700 (4870 X2), I'm wondering if something that ForceLowPowerMode is doing is messing with the PLX chip between the GPUs.

Not likely that it's messing with the PLX chip. More likely, the clocking changes have to be synchronized between GPUs or something like that.

[tball]

@bridgman and @agd5f

The Option "EXANoDownloadFromScreen" did actually help. No visible corruptions anymore, but with ForceLowPowerMode turned on the computer freeze when login out, shutting down or suspending. I have to hold down the power button to shut down.

When it isn't enabled everithing works.

So, how much does the ForceLowPowerMode option do more than de other options? Can I leave it disabled?

[RoboJ1M]

OT: fglrx power saving

Hi,

Apologies for this being off topic but I've got another question about Ubuntu 9.04 and fglrx and I thought I'd ask it while the ATi brains were about.

On my server, which as mentioned uses a 790GX + SB750 chipset, the monitor blanks when not being used but never seems to go into DPMS off (light never flashes, screen still glowing with backlight bleed, comes back on instantly when mouse moves)

Not sure if this is fglrx not playing nice or an Ubuntu setting I can't find.

Also, thanks to the person who posted a ppa fix to the slow maximise problem.

bridgman: A realy OSS radeon driver question, how did unravelling the UVD2 on the 780G go? Can it be made available without compromising the DRM (the bad kind) part? Is it the same UVD2 as on the 790GX?

Regards,

J1M.

[Vash63]

Nah, it runs fine in Windows at very low speeds, plus the black screen is instant, the second X starts up, which isn't indicative of a heat issue. In Windows the default 2d speed is about 30% fan, in Linux without ForceLowPowerMode it's 100% and sounds like a jet engine.

[JeanPaul145]

Hmm, similar situation as above, trying to use the git radeon driver to get my fan speed a bit lower, I'm getting a different issue though. The xorg.0.log isn't showing anything too unusual but the screen just turns black as soon as X starts up. The fan then slows down so it seems to be working, but Xorg locks up and I have to ssh in to shut down my PC.

It's an R700 (4870 X2), I'm wondering if something that ForceLowPowerMode is doing is messing with the PLX chip between the GPUs.

I'm thinking that a GPU that's not properly cooled will lock up. And since you've got 2 of them (and both are hotheads ), the high fan speed might be mandatory.

[Vash63]

Hmm, similar situation as above, trying to use the git radeon driver to get my fan speed a bit lower, I'm getting a different issue though. The xorg.0.log isn't showing anything too unusual but the screen just turns black as soon as X starts up. The fan then slows down so it seems to be working, but Xorg locks up and I have to ssh in to shut down my PC.

It's an R700 (4870 X2), I'm wondering if something that ForceLowPowerMode is doing is messing with the PLX chip between the GPUs.

[Pfanne]

thats what i kinda love about you amd guys!
while neither driver is perfect (and i dont hold it against you + you can see the progress and the work that is being done) you still answer questions and help out with the people and their problems and questions!
big thanks!

[tball]

Thank you both. I will try and report back.
Great to have direct contact with the devs :-) Thats one of the reasons I love oss.

[agd5f]

I get funny (purble) colors at icons and my icons in the kde-startment is corrupted. It is specially when enabling ForceLowPowerMode i see the corruptions?

Could it be the new clock in the chip is making my gpu too slow to redraw surtain things before it is drawned to the screen?

I need the low power mode, because else my laptop is getting too hot (not that it crash, but I don't like it).

Without the ForceLowPowerMode, the driver works flawless.

Probably the pcie lanes as Bridgman noted. You could try commenting out the calls to change the pcie lanes in the driver. The corruption is probably due to EXA DFS. DFS is kind of flakey, especially when PCIE lanes are reduced, so you can try disabling DFS (Option "EXANoDownloadFromScreen")