# Radeon HD 4350 - no DRI / only Software Rasterizer under FreeBSD 9.0?



## cryptix (Nov 27, 2012)

Hello,

I'm currently trying to setup Xorg to use DRI on my new (and first ever) FreeBSD 9.0 installation, without success.

I followed the Handbook Chapter 6.4 and used Xorg -configure to get a baseline configuration which detects my graphics card but when I try to load it, I end up with a blank screen (no signal) and broken pipes on my SSH sessions into the system. CTRL+ALT+F1 or any other key combo doesn't do a thing and since i can't connect over SSH anymore I'm forced to do a hard reboot.

I found two working ways of running Xorg, the first is using the VESA driver and the second is using the radeon driver with DRI disabled and setting AutoAddDevices to False. I haven't tried radeonhd as I've read that it's not supported, unmaintained and shouldn't be used.

I discarded VESA because it couldn't even drive the full resolution to my first screen.

The DRI disabled option is a problem for me because I'm used to a dual-head setup with both of the screens rotated 90 degrees and then joined together. (I use two 16:10 screens for this. Reading and editing long files/websites is marvelous on this setup.)


```
[cryptix@oObsi ~]$ xrandr --output DVI-0 --rotate left
xrandr: Configure crtc 1 failed
[cryptix@oObsi ~]$ xrandr --output DVI-1 --rotate right
xrandr: Configure crtc 0 failed
[cryptix@oObsi ~]$ xrandr --output DVI-1 --right-of DVI-0
xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1680x1680 (desired size 3360x1050)
```

If the rotation works it would be 2100x1680 but that is still lager than 1680x1680.
It won't work without DRI, I guess.

I followed the steps in this (http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=27038) thread since it deals with a similar card and the point was to get DRI working but it didn't work out for me in the end. (Same dead/paniced system when i try to load Xorg with DRI enabled.)

The first thing I succeed in was getting dmesg to tell me that DRM was detected on my card.


```
[root@oObsi ~]# dmesg | grep drm
[root@oObsi ~]# kldload radeon
[root@oObsi ~]# dmesg | grep drm
drm0: <ATI Radeon HD 4350> on vgapci0
info: [drm] MSI enabled 1 message(s)
info: [drm] Initialized radeon 1.31.0 20080613
```

But that's about all i could use from the before mentioned thread. WITHOUT_NOUVEAU has no effect anymore and my card is listed with vendor and product ID in /usr/src/sys/dev/drm/drm_pciids.h. 

I harvested this (http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=dhz800W7) Xorg.0.log from a run with DRI enabled over SSH using tail -F /var/log/Xorg.0.log and copying out of my terminal by hand. (After the reboot the file is empty because it wasn't cleanly closed, I guess).

Here is my current xorg.conf: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=80EJiCnw

From what i can see DRI initializes fine but sadly the log file doesn't point to the specific problem because the box crashes before it prints what the problem is.

I would be happy about any suggestion on what to try out next. Getting my ports tree to a state when WITHOUT_NOUVEAU was required seems to be a solution but i would like to have a verification of that before i continue to tinker in darkness on this. I would also be willing to get a 1394 cable and try to get a backtrace of the panic with dcons if it is of any help.
I would also be willing to try out older releases of FreeBSD if they are more likely to work. It's just that the most recent stable release seemed like the best option for a new installation.

Looks like I chose a bad time for my move from Linux to FreeBSD with the KMS issues hanging in the air but I'm still eager to keep trying!


Thanks in advance,

cryptix


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## wblock@ (Nov 27, 2012)

Adding

```
Option "Log" "sync"
```
to ServerLayout might help save the log file.


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## cryptix (Nov 27, 2012)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Adding
> 
> ```
> Option "Log" "sync"
> ...



Yes, it did! Sadly it didn't reveal any more output.


```
[  5976.282] (II) RADEON(0): Set up textured video
[  5976.288] (II) RADEON(0): [XvMC] Associated with Radeon Textured Video.
[  5976.294] (II) RADEON(0): [XvMC] Extension initialized.
```
Is still the last thing i see from the X server before it turns belly-up.

I tried to disable XvMC by adding 
	
	



```
Option "XvMC" "false"
```
 to Section "Device" but radeon doesn't seem to honor it.


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## wblock@ (Nov 27, 2012)

It's worth trying x11-drivers/xf86-video-radeonhd.  It's pretty much dead, but still works with some hardware.  On IRC, this additional patch was mentioned as working with a notebook with a Radeon 4200, RS880 chipset.


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## cryptix (Nov 28, 2012)

I just tried the unpatched x11-drivers/xf86-video-radeonhd. I get about two seconds of video and a distorted cursor before the machine hangs. Didn't expect that..

Here is a copy of the full xorg.0.log.

I find these three lines interesting:

```
[   104.225] (EE) AIGLX error: swrast exports no DRI extension
[   104.239] (EE) GLX: could not load software renderer
[   104.245] (II) GLX: no usable GL providers found for screen 0
```

I wasn't able to find the patch you suggested. All that my search-foo turned up was posts on the mailing lists that 'should' be committed to the ports but since I'm really new to FreeBSD i could be wrong.


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## wblock@ (Nov 28, 2012)

Sorry, forgot to actually add a link to the patch: http://bugzillafiles.novell.org/attachment.cgi?id=322707.  Looking at it, that probably won't help with your card.


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## cryptix (Nov 29, 2012)

I tried it but you were right. It wasn't a problem with AGP/PCI-E detection to begin with.

I also decided to chicken out and switched cards with a friend for a NV card. I tinkered around with this for about half a week and need to get back to my studies..

After I Installed x11/nvidia-driver, I got flawless DRI with rotation and what not..

I will try my ATI card again once there is progress on the KMS front, I guess.


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