Problem with startx on macbookpro 2006

[alexanderbeerhoff]

Hi, I've been able to install debian testing on my old macbookpro 2006 with Radeon mobility X1600 GPU. I have problem starting i3wm (and other wm) using startx.
I'm able to end the boot process if I add nomodeset as boot parameter (while I don't have login prompt but have to ctrl-alt-F2).
I've .xsession in my home with

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exec /usr/bin/i3

and startx return errors:

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[   286.632] (II) AMDGPU: Driver for AMD Radeon:
        All GPUs supported by the amdgpu kernel driver
[   286.632] (II) AMDGPU(0): [KMS] drm report modesetting isn't supporte>
[   286.632] (EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
[   286.632] (II) UnloadModule: "amdgpu"
[   286.632] (EE) Device(s) detected, but none match those in the config>
[   286.633] (EE)
Fatal server error:
[   286.633] (EE) no screens found(EE)

This is my xorg.conf:

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Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "X.org Configured"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
        FontPath     "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "glx"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "Accel"                     # [<bool>]
        #Option     "SWcursor"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "EnablePageFlip"            # [<bool>]
        #Option     "SubPixelOrder"             # [<str>]
        #Option     "ZaphodHeads"               # <str>
        #Option     "AccelMethod"               # <str>
        #Option     "DRI3"                      # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DRI"                       # <i>
        #Option     "ShadowPrimary"             # [<bool>]
        #Option     "TearFree"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DeleteUnusedDP12Displays"  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DeleteUnusedDP12Displays"  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "VariableRefresh"           # [<bool>]
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "amdgpu"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     1
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     4
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     8
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     15
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     16
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

I have same problem with kernel 5.4 or 5.6 compile on my own (offttopic question: there is something weird if using localmodconfig didn't get USB mass storage enabled?)
Thanks for any suggestions and best regards

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Radeon mobility X1600 GPU

I think that should be using the radeon(4) driver rather than amdgpu(4).

my xorg.conf

Does it work if you remove that file? This isn't 2006

[alexanderbeerhoff]

Thanks for your answer. Removing xorg.conf got error message:

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Fatal server error:
Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify busIDs        for all framebuffer devices

Googling I found the bad idea to put radeon in /etc/modules, and now boot process stucks after loading kernel, then black screen (even with nomodeset).
Work in progress.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Which kernel drivers are actually loaded?

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lspci -knn | grep -iA3 'vga\|3d\|display'

[alexanderbeerhoff]

that command returns kernel module loaded: radeon.
In desperation I've tried to set driver of screen0 in xorg.conf to fbdev and then I've been able to bring up i3 with startx.
Anyway no trackpad working and wrong keyboard layout; there could have been problem with installer? (also user's folder isn't populated with folders, ie download, images, etc)

[Head_on_a_Stick]

there could have been problem with installer?

Perhaps. The only testing images available use the alpha2 version of the installer so there may be issues.

Try Debian stable instead, there's no point running a development branch on a machine from 2006 unless you actually want to help with the development of the next release.

[alexanderbeerhoff]

actually I've used the nonfree image of Debian installer then I've changed the sources.list file to testing.
The section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf that seems to work when driver is changed to fbdev, looks like:

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Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "Accel"                     # [<bool>]
        #Option     "SWcursor"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "EnablePageFlip"            # [<bool>]
        #Option     "SubPixelOrder"             # [<str>]
        #Option     "ZaphodHeads"               # <str>
        #Option     "AccelMethod"               # <str>
        #Option     "DRI3"                      # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DRI"                       # <i>
        #Option     "ShadowPrimary"             # [<bool>]
        #Option     "TearFree"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DeleteUnusedDP12Displays"  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DeleteUnusedDP12Displays"  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "VariableRefresh"           # [<bool>]
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "fbdev"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

[Head_on_a_Stick]

The fbdev(4) driver is for the framebuffer. Surely your card should be using radeon(4) instead?

Did it work as expected before you upgraded to testing?

[alexanderbeerhoff]

First thing done after installation was to change sources from stable to testing so no idea if problem is only in testing.
Using "wrong driver in X11" (fbdev) could make system fallback to "kernel driver"?
In spite of it's age (and some problem with battery charging), it's support for max 3Gb of ram, and being a 32bit system it's still quite usable (I've been able to fix keyboard and mouse problem under X11 adding keyboard.conf and mtracker.conf in xorg.conf.d folder)

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Using "wrong driver in X11" (fbdev) could make system fallback to "kernel driver"?

No, fbdev(4) is a DDX driver, which is not the same as a kernel driver.

Check for yourself by running this command from X:

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lspci -k

You will see that the radeon kernel driver is still being used.

Try your machine with Debian stable, testing tends to break. See also http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 2&p=655783

[alexanderbeerhoff]

I've tried with stable on mbp 2007 with Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT and everything works as expected (while with testing startx works when I put fbdev as driver option in /etc/X11/xorg.conf).