[SOLVED]debian jessie radeon r7 370 black screen

[inanexxii]

hey everyone,

im fairly new to linux, but its been a good month or two so i decided to post here instead of in 'beginner questions'. im also a python developer during the day for my job, so im very comfortable with computers and working in the cli.

whenever i initially made the switch to linux and installed debian a few months ago, i went through the process of configuring the x server for my 2 nvidia geforce gtx 460s. i was able to set up 4 monitors (2 monitors to each card) with xinerama and sli disabled along with a second xorg.conf for a single monitor and sli enabled. i was able to develop with multiple screens for the initial login, and jump into another tty to start up the single monitor config for gaming or watching videos. i have 6 monitors that i would like to use however (2 more), and after learning all nvidia gpus before the 600 series only support 2 active monitors, i went out and bought 2 ati radeon r7 370s.

im in the process of installing the graphics drivers now, but im running into problems. ive searched google relentlessly but to no avail. i have only 1 370 inserted and only 1 monitor connected (hdmi 1920x1080 asus), but unless i specify 'nomodeset' in the grub2 options i boot into a black screen with no blinking cursor or the ability to switch to another tty nor the ability to reboot using ctl+alt+delete. i followed https://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo for the open source drivers, and https://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary but each yield the same result above.

any help on this matter is greatly appreciated. let me kno if you need more info and i will be happy to provide it.
best regards, inanisxxii

EDIT: Make sure to completely remove your nvidia drivers before switching to ati.

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sudo apt-get purge nvidia-*

also, if youre installing https://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary then you have to manually install the catalyst control center. if you have any resolution or monitor problems go into the ccc and fix them there!

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sudo apt-get install fglrx-control

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I don't understand what the problem is; why can't you just boot with "nomodeset"?

[inanexxii]

i can; that is the only way i can boot into lxde without a black screen. i would like to be able to setup my 6 monitors tho, and to be able to use opengl to play games (currently only 1 monitor works and an opengl error is thrown whenever i try and start steam). thank you for your reply.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

an opengl error is thrown whenever i try and start steam

If this is your problem then you need to change the thread title to improve your chances of receiving any meaningful assistance.

You should also post the *exact* error message (using code tags) and describe *exactly* how you installed Steam.

[inanexxii]

well i kno why steam is throwing the opengl error though, because the graphics driver arent working. the same thing happened with my nvidia setup whenever xinerama with mutiple monitors was enabled (why i had to have a single monitor setup for opengl to work properly). in my understanding the 'nomodeset' grub2 boot option enables the super basic vesa graphics driver, and while it is useful for debugging it is not so useful for actual everyday tasks (like wanting to setup a multi monitor workstation or for playing games/videos). so my main problem is trying to get either the open source radeon driver or the proprietary ati fglrx driver to work. thank you for your reply.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

in my understanding the 'nomodeset' grub2 boot option enables the super basic vesa graphics driver

No.

That parameter disables Kernel Mode Setting.

What is the output of:

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lspci -knn|grep -iA2 'vga\|3d'
glxinfo|grep rendering

[inanexxii]

sorry for the late reply. i got the proprietary ati drivers to work tho! i forgot to remove the proprietary nvidia drivers; just did so, reinstalled the ati drivers, and rebooted. the open source radeon still booted to a black screen, but i believe it is because the 370s chipset is only supported by the proprietary.

here are the outputs of your commands:

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user@home:~$ lspci -knn|grep -iA2 'vga\[3d'
user@home:~$ glxinfo|grep rendering
direct rendering: Yes

steam starts up okay and it seems like i can play some valve games (ie opengl is working). the only thing now is that the resolution is at 1776x1000 even though its set at 1920x1080 in amdcccle (catalyst control center). should i make a new post for that, or does anyone have any ideas? thank you for all your help so far.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

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user@home:~$ lspci -knn|grep -iA2 'vga\[3d'

Typo...

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lspci -knn|grep -iA2 'vga\|3d'

Anyway, this should just confirm which driver is in use.

EDIT: For your resolution problem, look at the output of:

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xrandr

If the resolution is not listed, perhaps the monitor is feeding back an incorrect EDID data block.

Add a custom mode by following this guide:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xr ... esolutions

[inanexxii]

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user@home:~$ lspci -knn|grep -iA2 'vga\|3d'
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Curacao PRO [Radeon R9 270] [1002:6811] (rev 81)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:2015]
	Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci

sorry about that. it seems like it was detected properly:

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user@home:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920
DFP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DFP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DFP3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DFP4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DFP5 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 531mm x 299mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  50.00    59.94    60.00    50.00    59.94  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1776x1000     50.00    59.94    50.00    59.94  
   1680x1050     50.00    59.95  
   1400x1050     60.00    50.00  
   1600x900      60.00    50.00  
   1280x1024     50.00    75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      50.00    59.89  
   1280x960      50.00    60.00  
   1366x768      50.00    59.79  
   1360x768      50.00    59.79  
   1152x864      50.00    59.94    75.00  
   1280x768      50.00    60.00  
   1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.94  
   1024x768      50.00    75.03    70.07    60.00  
   1152x648      50.00    59.94  
   800x600       50.00    72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
   720x480       50.00    60.00    59.94  
   640x480       50.00    75.00    72.81    66.61    59.94  
DFP6 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DFP7 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
CRT1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1280x1024     60.02 +  75.02  
   1280x960      75.02    60.02  
   1280x768      75.02    60.02  
   1280x720      75.02    60.02  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    59.94  

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Check the settings on the monitor.

EDIT: Do you have the firmware-linux-nonfree package installed?

[inanexxii]

Check the settings on the monitor.

EDIT: Do you have the firmware-linux-nonfree package installed?

yeah along with firmware-linux-free. the monitor had a default settings of 10% underscan for some reason... im going to mark this thread as solved!

thank you Head_on_a_Stick for all your help!