How To Setup Radeon DPM On Ubuntu Linux

[Ruse]

Well, I copied all the files from the web address into the folder and that's it.
I'll try updating the initramfs. Brb.

Update: It didn't work. Not attaching a new dmesg/log as the messages were the same 100%.
(I did: sudo update-initramfs -u -v -k all)

[agd5f]

Well, I copied all the files from the web address into the folder and that's it.
I'll try updating the initramfs. Brb.

Update: It didn't work. Not attaching a new dmesg/log as the messages were the same 100%.
(I did: sudo update-initramfs -u -v -k all)

All of the firmware for your card needs to be in the initrd (if you are using one) or if you are building the driver into the kernel (rather than as a module), you need to also compile the firmware into the kernel. If you run `make install` from the kernel tree, it should update your initrd automatically. If you are trying to build the driver into the kernel, you will need to mess with the CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE stuff in the kernel.

[Alderon]

Seeing that you're around here: please allow me to ask if there are still known problems with Radeon HD 6870s?

[Ruse]

All of the firmware for your card needs to be in the initrd (if you are using one) or if you are building the driver into the kernel (rather than as a module), you need to also compile the firmware into the kernel. If you run `make install` from the kernel tree, it should update your initrd automatically. If you are trying to build the driver into the kernel, you will need to mess with the CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE stuff in the kernel.

I used these commands (like I always did):

make-kpkg clean
INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1 CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=9 fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd kernel_image kernel_headers modules_image

(9 = cores+1 -> max CPU usage / fastest time for me).
What did I miss? I updated the firmware while I was on the stock kernel, so it should be in the new kernel...

[agd5f]

Seeing that you're around here: please allow me to ask if there are still known problems with Radeon HD 6870s?

It should work fine.

[agd5f]

I used these commands (like I always did):

make-kpkg clean
INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1 CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=9 fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd kernel_image kernel_headers modules_image

(9 = cores+1 -> max CPU usage / fastest time for me).
What did I miss? I updated the firmware while I was on the stock kernel, so it should be in the new kernel...

I'm not sure. I've not use make-kpkg. I'm guessing it's not including any firmware in the initrd. It looks like all of your ucode is missing according to your log.

[Alderon]

It should work fine.

Hmm ok, I guess I'll rip my rig apart tomorrow and replace my 6870 with a backup 5770 that I've still laying around, to corner out what's going on.
Thanks for the information and taking the time to answer my question!

[Hokasito]

One of the steps to setup Radeon DPM is this, as explained on this entry:

Utilizing Radeon dynamic power management support requires updated firmware for the graphics card. The latest Radeon microcode/firmware can be downloaded from this directory. The new DPM firmware files needed are the *_smc.bin files from June. If you're unsure of your specific graphics card codename, you can generally find it from looking at the OpenGL renderer string with glxinfo or look at your dmesg for the missing firmware filename. You could also just download all of the firmware files too. The file(s) need to be placed within /lib/firmware/radeon. If you try to use Radeon DPM without the firmware, acceleration will end up being disabled for the GPU and there's a notice of the missing firmware in dmesg.

I have a Mobility Radeon HD 3650 card (R600) and I activated DPM few months ago. It seems it's working (fan speed and temperature are the expected ones) but I have a problem that I explained in Oibaf PPA thread (read the issue here). I don't know if the problem is that I'm using an outdated firmware, because there aren't *smc.bin files for R600, only a *rlc.bin file.

[Ruse]

There are two problems:

- Oibaf's PPA is in a much worse state than it was in the time of the article got posted.
(Back in those days I could use it on my VM, on my laptop and desktop. Now X does not even load on any of those boxes. Yeah, I removed the PPA and everything related since then, but it's just sad.)
- The 3650 and other r600 cards are known to have problems. adf tried to fix these by randomly disabling features (I don't blame him), but got nothing further. The bugtracker is 10 pages long already. People trying to do everything they can but there is no solution or permanent fix which works for everyone.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66963

I mean Alex really did everything he could, but there is some black magic involved in the r600 power management.
There is a reason why AMD just drops every GPU support after two-three years.

"Shit s?xx", as my Turkish friend would say.

Solution?
I threw out my ThinkPad and got a new Nvidia based beast. Same for my desktop, returned my 7870OC and now I have drivers (both platforms AND BSD). What a joy. (Gave away the 4850 to a friend of mine since he uses Windows 7.)

[ogyct]

My question is, when can we expect this feature be enabled by default?