Problems with AMD / Radeon

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Moem
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Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Moem »

I'm having trouble getting an old laptop to boot. It boots fine from live USB, and can run the installer; I installed Mint 18 XFCE 32-bits on it. Here is an inxi report, that is slightly outdated: I installed more RAM since I made this, it now has 1GB (whoa!) I can currently not easily get an inxi report because it will not boot into the GUI; if absolutely needed, I can get one from a live boot.

Code: Select all

mint@mint ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: mint Kernel: 4.4.0-21-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.3.1)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.28) Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   System: FUJITSU SIEMENS product: Amilo A Series v: 1.0
           Mobo: 00000 model: 755CA5 v: 1.0
           Bios: American Megatrends v: 0.28 date: 09/16/03
CPU:       Single core mobile AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (-UP-) cache: 512 KB
           flags: (pae sse) bmips: 3175 speed/max: 1587/2071 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV250/M9 GL [Mobility FireGL 9000/Radeon 9000]
           bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 driver: vesa
           Resolution: 1024x768@0.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.8, 128 bits)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card VIA VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_via82xx port: d800 bus-ID: 00:11.5
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-21-generic
Network:   Card: VIA VT6102/VT6103 [Rhine-II]
           driver: via-rhine port: d400 bus-ID: 00:12.0
           IF: enp0s18 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 48.0GB (4.4% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST94011A size: 40.0GB temp: 47C
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: USB_Flash_Drive size: 8.0GB temp: 0C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 247M used: 35M (14%) fs: overlay dev: N/A
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 0.53GB used: 0.00GB (1%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 75.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 162 Uptime: 1 min Memory: 172.0/493.6MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.3.1
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.421) inxi: 2.2.35 
mint@mint ~ $
What happened:
I ran the installer with no problems. Then it would not boot: I got the logo, then the spinner, but the spinner started blinking slowly and then I got the error message that says that the display server has shut down 6 times in the last 90 seconds. It is likely that something bad is going on.
I read through about 10.000 forum threads and found information about boot parameters like nomodeset xforcevesa. I tried adding those to grub and managed to do that, but none of them helped. I tried several different ones.
Then I read that someone said they got around the problem by leaving the codecs and other things like Flash uninstalled. I reinstalled and left the checkbox for the codecs unchecked. The machine booted. :!:

I ran all the updates. I changed the kernel to the latest 4.4. I added the AMD64 microcode. The machine booted. There was much rejoicing.

I installed the codecs from the button on the welcome screen. I added half a GB of RAM. No more booting. As broken as before. Same error message.
It's not the RAM: I've swapped it out.

I can get into GRUB, I can get into a terminal, I can boot from USB. I am not at all familiar with the CLI but I can enter commands that people give me. I would be grateful for any help. Thank you for reading!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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Joe2Shoe
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Joe2Shoe »

Try this in Grub:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash noacpi"

Make all the others comments with an "# ".

Update Grub:
sudo update-grub

Reboot.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Moem »

Whoa, whoa. Sorry but... Can we please back this up a little?

- Do you mean: add this as a one-time modification in GRUB, by hitting e for Edit?

- "Make all the others comments with an "# "." All the others of what?

- Sudo update-grub: from a terminal I assume. Is that if it will boot like this? Would that make the change permanent?
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Moem »

If I boot to GRUB and hit e for Edit, and add 'noacpi' after 'quiet splash': no dice. Same result.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Joe2Shoe »

I would edit grub with: gksu gedit /etc/default/grub
But since you can't, I would use e for Edit on bootup.
I would add the following line in the appropriate place: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash noacpi"

Then I would "comment" all the other (GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="") lines that contain data between the quotes.
Then I would update grub, then reboot.

If this does not work, then edit Grub again and undo the above.

I have a 10 year old laptop with AMD/Radeon video chip and this is the only way to get it to boot.
Hope this helps.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Joe2Shoe »

Darn. Could be a bad RAM slot on the mobo, since it worked before (I installed the codecs from the button on the welcome screen. I added half a GB of RAM. No more booting. As broken as before. Same error message. It's not the RAM: I've swapped it out.)
I would remove the additional RAM that you installed, then re-install via USB/DVD and not install the multimedia codecs just to see if I could get it working again.
Then after it boots normally, I would install the additional RAM and reboot to see if it actually loads again, just to test the mobo RAM slots.
Then I would install the multimedia codecs.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Moem »

That's a good idea, to test the RAM slots and the codecs independently. I will try that.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Joe2Shoe »

I built a lot of systems with the old AMD Athlon single-core CPUs back in the day. A lot of the mobos had bad power capacitors (Soyo was a big one that closed its doors after a ton of bad caps on their mobos destroyed their business).
I replaced all the cheap Chinese caps with Japanese and/or U.S. caps and solved those problems.
Good luck.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Moem »

Well well! Here I am posting from the old thing, after a reinstall in which I declined installing the codecs for multimedia. Something in them messes this machine right up, apparently. When I booted it from the live USB again, it booted fine and ran as well as can be expected, so I concluded that both the RAM and the slots were probably okay. So it had to be the codecs.
I'm using Qupzilla to post this because neither Firefox nor Chromium will even run :lol: while Midori faints if you so much as look at it wrong. Qupzilla, at least, is stable. I can now present a more current inxi report, from an actual installation, strolling (running sounds way too fast) on the bare metal.

Code: Select all

 amilo@amilo ~ $ inxi -Fzx
System:    Host: amilo Kernel: 4.4.0-109-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.28) Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   System: FUJITSU SIEMENS product: Amilo A Series v: 1.0
           Mobo: 00000 model: 755CA5 v: 1.0
           Bios: American Megatrends v: 0.28 date: 09/16/03
CPU:       Single core mobile AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (-UP-) cache: 512 KB
           flags: (pae sse) bmips: 3988 speed: 1994 MHz (max)
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV250/M9 GL [Mobility FireGL 9000/Radeon 9000]
           bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1024x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI R200 (RV250 4C66) x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE DRI2
           GLX Version: 1.3 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card VIA VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_via82xx port: d800 bus-ID: 00:11.5
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-109-generic
Network:   Card: VIA VT6102/VT6103 [Rhine-II]
           driver: via-rhine port: d400 bus-ID: 00:12.0
           IF: enp0s18 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 40.0GB (17.1% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST94011A size: 40.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 36G used: 5.5G (17%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 1.07GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 75.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 154 Uptime: 9 min Memory: 277.6/1000.0MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 
amilo@amilo ~ $
Now my new question is:
What all is in the codecs package that gets installed if you tick the box for installation? I want to find out which package is the culprit so I can choose to install some of the others.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by greerd »

Hi Moem,

It might not be the codecs but the other drivers included in the 'install third party software..." (graphics and wifi) that are causing your problem. I guess you could install mint codecs and find out for yourself?

Cheers
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Joe2Shoe »

Glad you got it running. It's gotta be some of the codecs and/or drivers, then. I would replace the CMOS battery on that mobo, too, as they usually last only 3-5 years.
Good luck.
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by Moem »

greerd wrote: I guess you could install mint codecs and find out for yourself?
You might very well be right. Is that the 'Multimedia Codecs' package in the Software Manager?
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Re: Problems with AMD / Radeon

Post by greerd »

Yes, should be a mint-meta-codecs in there.
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