How To Setup Radeon DPM On Ubuntu Linux

[brosis]

so it is 2.34...

[ 4.298894] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.34.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

Its outdated, you will encounter bugs. If you consider reporting these bugs, they will be ignored by upstream because versions are outdated.
You absolutely need to build latest stack. Or you use catalyst. Or you use different VGA.

[gradinaruvasile]

Its outdated, you will encounter bugs. If you consider reporting these bugs, they will be ignored by upstream because versions are outdated.
You absolutely need to build latest stack. Or you use catalyst. Or you use different VGA.

Umm. I have it too with the latest git kernel (built yesterday). I also have drm, xf86-ati, glamor, mesa built from latest git.

$ git describe --tags
v3.12-rc6-35-gb403b73

$ dmesg | grep "Initialized radeon"
[    6.248173] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.34.0 20080528 for 0000:00:01.0 on minor 0

So, the "radeon" you see there is in fact some internal version of the kernel driver since i have the latest stack.

Do you have something newer there?

[Tyler_K]

Try:

/sbin/modinfo radeon |grep version

[brosis]

Try:

/sbin/modinfo radeon |grep version

Nah, module version stamp matches the kernel version numbering.
However, radeon kernel driver part (kernel module) outputs real version in dmesg (when loaded).

Do you have something newer there?

Definitely not, I am experimenting with Debian Testing now. I have 2.33, and it has old HyperZ bug still here. xP
Thanks for your input, probably Debian Sid has backported some of the 3.12 patches? Poor upstream...
What I mean, is that if using and reporting such a heavily developed driver, its necessary to use latest version in order to be able to contribute.
I am not even trying to dictate which versions you should be running guys, just stating the obvious..

[Tyler_K]

Nah, module version stamp matches the kernel version numbering.
However, radeon kernel driver part (kernel module) outputs real version in dmesg (when loaded).

yes, and he has a v2.34. The old 2008 date stamp is (and don't quote me on it) likely the date for KMS intro; see

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/linux/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon_drv.c?h=drm-fixes-3.12

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/linux/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon_drv.h?h=drm-fixes-3.12

[Tyler_K]

hi all,

I've just installed the kernel 3.11 that just landed in unstable. I activated the DPM using radeon.dpm=1 option on the kernel command line.

How can I check it is working ? I have nothing special on my syslog

dmesg |grep dpm

nothing?

[brosis]

yes, and he has a v2.34. The old 2008 date stamp is (and don't quote me on it) likely the date for KMS intro; see

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/linux/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon_drv.c?h=drm-fixes-3.12

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/l...drm-fixes-3.12

Thanks,

just compared:
1) the date "20080528" from radeon_drv.c (Interface version) is same for all drivers (3.8 - 3.12-next)
2) Interface version is not outputted into dmesg, only KMS version (radeon_drv.h)
3) KMS version is:
3.13-next-wip - 2.34
3.12-fixes - 2.34
3.11-fixes - 2.34
3.10-fixes - 2.33
3.10-next - 2.33
..
3.9-fixes - 2.30
3.9-next - 2.29

This means,
1) date can be ignored
2) Radeon drops "KMS Version" in dmesg,
3) KMS version over different kernels may be same, but improvements are present regardless.

Which in turn means - get latest kernel, if you have 2.33 (KMS), but Kernel 3.11, you are still are missing a lot from (equally KMS-Version'ed) Kernel 3.12.

Which finally means - get latest (if !Kernel-x-fixes), then Kernel-x-next) for best results.

So, Debian did not patch back the Radeon improvements, its normal 3.11 with all the old bugs in DPM.

[jery]

sorry, I was not available for a few days ...

the DPM is correctly enabled. it seems to work as I can hear my video card fan blowing more when I start a game.

by the way the perf are already great. I added the R600_DEBUG=sb env variable.

Annd now I can play civ5 on wine with oss driver.

(by the way, my relevant hardware is [email protected], 4GB of DDR2 and HD6770)

[Melcar]

Using DPM with the defaults (balaced power state, auto performance level) my card runs on average 10*C warmer. I can see that it switches to the lowest power state when idle, but temps are still up compared to Windows. I'm thinking it's the fan profiles. Been looking into BIOS mods for my HD7850 (VBE7) and sucesfully changed the fan profile so the fan spins a bit faster. Works on Windows like a charm, but on Linux the driver seems to be using some other fan profile. I modified the BIOS so the fan starts at 20% (10% pre-moded value) and rev up to 50% at 60*C (in the remoded BIOS the card has to reach 80*C for the fan to spin that fast). Any way to manually change the fan speed and/or to monitor speeds?
Also, UVD works, but it uses some weird clocks I do not recognize from when looked into the BIOS. In Windows the card uses a core clock of 450MHz I believe, but when I checked while I was watching a movie in my Kubuntu session, the driver was reporting a UDV clock of 720MHz on the core. Maybe there are some other frecuency tables on the BIOS that VBE7 does not expose? Or maybe the "balanced" and "auto" perfomance levels just don't behave like I expect (i.e same way the Windows driver does). I will try playing with the other power states.

[Ibidem]

radeon.dpm=1

may not work with a Debian stock kernel--or any kernel that uses radeon built as a module, unless there's some special magic in your init version.

module.parameter=value

is only for builtin modules, to the best of my knowledge.
So you would need to do something like:

echo "options radeon dpm=1">>/etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf

If you want a lower clock, see if you can use the "battery" state.