KMS + Radeon quick mini guide

[DanL]

I'm running a Karmic install with the X Server from the xorg-edgers PPA and the rest of the stuff built from git.

EDIT: It's a partition that I play around with and probably won't remain that way for long. I just really wanted to type 'glxinfo' and see the string "OpenGL 2.0"

[monraaf]

Thanks for the guide. Instead of drm-next, I used the 2.6.33-rc1 kernel from Ubuntu mainline PPA.

Progress:

OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R600 (RV710 9540) 20090101  TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 2.0 Mesa 7.8-devel

Keep hacking!

Hi, are you running Lucid or Karmic with the Lucid PPA? Reason I'm asking is because the PPA page says something about a new X Server incompatible with Karmic.

[DanL]

Thanks for the guide. Instead of drm-next, I used the 2.6.33-rc1 kernel from Ubuntu mainline PPA.

Progress:

OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R600 (RV710 9540) 20090101  TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 2.0 Mesa 7.8-devel

Keep hacking!

[Dard]

Thank you, that solved my problem.

I was under the wrong assumption that the radeon module had to be built in for KMS to work. I was wrong. Now that I load it as module, KMS works. Thank you.

[dolphin77]

I used your lines.
Didn't work. Still stopping at boot looking for firmware, still no KMS.
I use the debian Kernel 2.6.32 from experimental branch, building with the standard way of make-kpkg kernel_image.

Why not blacklist radeon module in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

root@darkstar:/usr/src# cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf  | grep radeon
blacklist radeonfb
blacklist radeon

and load it later, when root filesystem is mounted?

I am on Slackware, so I load the module from /etc/rc.d/rc.modules

root@darkstar:/usr/src# cat /etc/rc.d/rc.modules |grep radeon
/sbin/modprobe radeon

I am not familiar with Debian, but I think there should be something similar.

[Dard]

I used your lines.
Didn't work. Still stopping at boot looking for firmware, still no KMS.
I use the debian Kernel 2.6.32 from experimental branch, building with the standard way of make-kpkg kernel_image.

[forum1793]

This is what my kernel config looks like for that area and it worked for me with hd3200 (780g) (I think R600 but not sure).

#
# Generic Driver Options
#
CONFIG_UEVENT_HELPER_PATH="/sbin/hotplug"
# CONFIG_DEVTMPFS is not set
# CONFIG_STANDALONE is not set
# CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD is not set
CONFIG_FW_LOADER=y
CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE=""

I didn't need to move any firmware as it was created by kernel. But situation might be different for your hardware. I don't know.
Edit: this was for 32-rc8. Haven't tried yet with the 32 release.
Edit2: I also didn't do initrd

[Dard]

Is it really necessary to make an initrd?
I never created one and the tutorials I have found make it seem pretty difficult.
And if it is necessary, what are those kernel parameters actually good for?

Anyway, from the output while building the Kernel it really looks like the firmware is actually included:

  MK_FW   firmware/RV710_pfp.bin.gen.S
  AS      firmware/RV710_pfp.bin.gen.o
  LD      firmware/built-in.o
  LD      vmlinux.o
  MODPOST vmlinux.o
  GEN     .version
  CHK     include/linux/compile.h
  UPD     include/linux/compile.h
  CC      init/version.o
  LD      init/built-in.o
  LD      .tmp_vmlinux1
  KSYM    .tmp_kallsyms1.S
  AS      .tmp_kallsyms1.o
  LD      .tmp_vmlinux2
  KSYM    .tmp_kallsyms2.S
  AS      .tmp_kallsyms2.o
  LD      vmlinux

PS: I use Debian testing.

[Kano]

Most likely it is loaded in the initrd and there the firmware was not copied.

[Dard]

Hello!

I have succeeded to install 3D with the radeon drivers, but not KMS.
My problem is that KMS wants to load the firmware file on boot time and doesn't have access to the file system yet.

So I am supposed to build the firmware into the kernel, but it doesn't seem to work.

What I did is:

CONFIG_UEVENT_HELPER_PATH="/sbin/hotplug"
# CONFIG_DEVTMPFS is not set
CONFIG_STANDALONE=y
# CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD is not set
CONFIG_FW_LOADER=y
CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="radeon/RV710_cp.bin radeon/RV710_me.bin radeon/RV710_pfp.bin RV710_cp.bin RV710_me.bin RV710_pfp.bin"
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR="firmware"

I put the firmware files in both the firmware and a created firmware/radeon directories, just to make sure they are found.
After building, I see .gen.S and .gen.o files in those directories, so I assume they have been found and built in.

But after calling lilo and rebooting, it's the same thing all over. Booting stops when it tries to locate radeon/RV710_pfp.bin and continues after some time. After that: no KMS, no direct rendering, no XV.

Can anybody tell me what I did wrong?