Debian can't open GUI

[marko1610]

Hi, I have a problem with Debian that's been bothering me for 3 days now.
So, 3 days ago, I got a new Thinkpad and wanted to install Debian(Buster) alongside windows in dual boot
First, I tried with a small installation image. The installation worked fine, but when I booted up my laptop into Debian after the installation, it didn't boot into KDE. It was stuck in ttyl.
I tried the command: startx , but it didn't work.
Then, I downloaded the larger live image build that includes non-free firmware, reinstalled the OS from that image, and got the same result again.
I log into my user account in ttyl, and try: startx again, and it doesn't work, again.
The same thing happens when I try booting into the live version on the USB stick.
When I run startx , I get the following error:

xf86EnableIOPorts: failed to set IOPL for I/O (operation not permitted)
Check the log file at "var/log/Xorg.O.log"
...
xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: srever error

When I open the log at /var/log/Xorg.O.log, here is what I get:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iwcJhFe9xsEQXsZg6

I just don't know what's wrong or where to go from here.

[arzgi]

Did you search the forum before asking? That's the most often asked question here.

You need firmware for your GPU. Or your computer is to new for stable Debian.

[arochester]

What model of ThinkPad?

[marko1610]

I tried updating the package:
xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu
But it says it's already the newest version

And the laptop is a Thinkpad E14 gen2 AMD

[Head_on_a_Stick]

the laptop is a Thinkpad E14 gen2 AMD

No chance. That needs a newer Mesa version than is available for Debian 10. The kernel & AMD firmware from buster-backports will work with it but you won't get a GUI.

Debian testing starts the (soft) freeze early next year so you will probably have support when Debian 11 is released next summer (ish). Until then try Arch instead (pro tip: use btrfs and take a snapshot before upgrades so you can rollback in case of b0rkage).

You could try Debian testing now but it's a development branch rather than a rolling release so management can be more challenging.

[marko1610]

Oh, in that case I guess I'll wait.
Thanks a lot for the help, I've been trying to make this work for days now.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Actually I've just remembered that a Devuan beowulf user managed to get that generation AMD hardware working by adding MX Linux's AHS repositories (as per my HowTo guide on these boards): https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=25688#p25688

(Devuan beowulf is equivalent to Debian buster.)

[stevepusser]

So our AHS repos can be stitched onto Devuan and regular Debian? Nice!

Just a warning, now that Bullseye is going into the freeze, the AHS repos may not, so Mesa, etc in those repos may eventually be higher than in Debian 11. In that case, you'll won't be able to do a simple and graceful in-place update to 11, but may have to backup your /home and do a reinstall of Bullseye.

If you get it working now before the freeze, you can probably avoid that by then disabling the AHS repo, but you will need to enable it to get any 32-bit or -dev packages from it--those have to exactly match the versions installed on 64-bit.

[marko1610]

Well, it seems like too much work for now.
I guess I'll try arch or manjaro for the time being and wait for the soonest release of freeze, and jump right back to Debian.
Thanks a lot to everyone!