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[SOLVED] ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:58 am
by ausmuso
I keep running into trouble trying to install the ATI proprietary driver on my LMDE system.
I can download the necessary linux headers , modules and other packages. But then I am not able to kill the X-Window system. I tried switching to a virtual console and enter
sudo init 1
When I then enter
/sbin/modprobe -r radeon drm
I get an error message advising that the radeon module is in use.

I receive the same message when booting into recovery mode. The problem seems to be that at level 1 the framebuffer is already being used, as witnessed by the lines:

[ 5.590471] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 160x64
[ 5.601027] fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
How do I get into a "pure" console mode that doesn't use the framebuffer?

Re: ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 3:38 am
by richyrich

Re: ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:22 pm
by ausmuso
Thanks Richyrich, but unfortunately this doesn't work for me. The thread says:
If you have any programs open, they will all be closed. Save everything and get ready to go to the command line only. Make sure you've printed these instructions or written down the remaining commands in this tutorial.

Type the following command:
sudo /sbin/init 1

This will close all your programs and drop you into a console where you will be prompted to press Control-D or enter your password.

Do not press control-d. Instead, type your password. You are in single user mode. You will now be given a command line and your X session will be dead. This is what you want.

4. Unload the radeon and drm modules:
/sbin/modprobe -r radeon drm
If I do this, I get an error message that the moule radeon is in use. This is because the framebuffer - which uses the radeon driver - is still used, even in single user console mode.
This is precisely where my problem is. Further ideas, anyone?

Re: ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:33 pm
by richyrich
. . browse through this LMDE section, and look for/find/read up on info about the smxi /sgfxi scripts

Re: ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:10 pm
by richyrich
I hold down the Shift key at boot time, and at the Grub menu, choose Recovery Mode -> then the next menu, I arrow down to Root login . . I login with my sudo password (not Ctrl+D), and that is where I end up : init 1

Re: ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:27 pm
by ausmuso
richyrich wrote:. . browse through this LMDE section, and look for/find/read up on info about the smxi /sgfxi scripts
I did, richyrich. Wow, great stuff!

Re: ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:30 pm
by ausmuso
richyrich wrote:I hold down the Shift key at boot time, and at the Grub menu, choose Recovery Mode -> then the next menu, I arrow down to Root login . . I login with my sudo password (not Ctrl+D), and that is where I end up : init 1
Thanks again, richyrich

however, if I follow your instructions exactly, the same thing happens as always: I DO finish up at runlevel 1, gdm3 is NOT running and I DO get a sort of terminal, but an unusual one in that it has a small typeface, it shows a funny animal with a funny quote, and the "root" (#) sign is red. If I want to unload the radeon and drm modules I still get an error message advising that the radeon module is in use.

Meanwhile, I've taken the lazy way out. I dropped an NVidia graphics card into the PCI Express x 16 slot, installed the NVidia proprietary driver and bingo . . . prefect graphics!

Funny though . . . I've been with Linux since 1999, I've never had a problem with NVidia but every time I run into ATI Radeon we seem to be at loggerheads. I guess ATI Radeon and me just don't get on!

Anyway, let's consider the problem solved.

Re: [SOLVED] ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 11:22 pm
by richyrich
great ! glad to hear of your success ! :D . . me too, none of my boxes or boards have ati . .

note - sometimes the Nvidia installer asks the user to switch to telinit 3 ? huh ? . . once I've logged into init 1 (as above), I type telinit 3 (enter), then re-log in to run level 3 with my own credentials, cd .. to the proper folder where my nvidia.run file is located , and start the next run command with sudo or if some prefer sudo su , to become the superuser, then the run command . . both work for me . . regards ,
Image

Re: [SOLVED] ATI Proprietary Driver Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:41 am
by h2-1
Just as info, both nvidia and ati force as default behavior the loading of their kernel module. Starting in init 1 has no bearing on this, since the module is loaded at boot, basically, or shortly after that process starts, so whoever is posting that advice might want to update their methods and actually test what they are suggesting, it takes a lot more than that to block radeon or nouveau kernel modesetting modules, sadly.

sgfxi has all the blacklisting stuff required automated, including rebuilding initramfs, which is also needed usually.

To blacklist radeon kms you need to add this to the grub boot line, sgfxi does this correctly when you install fglrx or nvidia, but if you have to get into a session with no radeon running, edit the grub kernel line and add: radeon.modeset=0 nomodeset

the nomodeset is just to be one the safe side, but you need the radeon.modeset one, or nouveau.modeset=0

This stuff is hard to keep up with because the stuff changes almost every year, at least it has so far, but that's where it's at now.

There's a reason sgfxi has many hundreds of lines of code dealing just with modeset blacklist and blacklist removals, this stuff is a royal pain the butt to deal with, but last I checked, sgfxi should do the job fairly smoothly, definitely for nvidia, which is now thoroughly checked, and I think for fglrx too, at least last time I checked it. I believe also the debian nvidia driver, at least, will blacklist nouveau, which requires a reboot, but I'm not totally sure about that, but I do know sgfxi does, in several ways, because one hasn't been enough to block that gunk.

Like other users here, however, I don't put myself in a situation where I have to use ati cards unless I can use old ones, then the radeon driver from xorg is just fine, my preference in fact, but that's for older ati cards, much older.