ATI Mobility Radeon 5470

[Steffodeb]

Dear Debian-Community,

After several days of testing, searching and tinkering - without any success- on my system, I decided to ask you for help. I try to get run the Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver on my laptop but it doesn't work.

So far I could find out:
I've an older ATI hyprid video card which isn't longer supported by the newest AMD driver suite. I found this information here: http://salinelinux.proboards.com/thread/790
There is an information from the official AMD support while their suggesting to use older drivers. Okay, I thought nice, there is my solution. But...
I tried the 12.1 driver and got the same issue like every time before with the newest driver suite.

Issue:
After driver installation via .run skrip and rebooting the system I get every time a black screen with a cursor in the top left corner. So it seems that Xorg isn't starting.
BTW: The got the same with the synaptic package installation.

Questions
1. Where could I get the "AMD 11.12 Linux suite"? On the official site I can go back only until 12.1.
2. (Maybe a stupid question) Do I've to remove first other drivers which are currently in use? If yes, what is the best way to do it?
3. Any other ideas what I can do?
4. How can I aktivate the free radeon / ati driver?

Currently I've installted the following drivers (by default after a fresh installation):
xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-mach64
xserver-xorg-video-r128
xserver-xorg-video-ati
intel-vaapi-driver

If I test which 3D accelerator ist working I get this:

Code: Select all

$ glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Mobile 
    GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility,

Out of some forum posts here I now that my video card is actually working with the proprietary driver. But I think the most people installed the driver at a time where the 11.12 or 12.3 was the standard driver for a synaptic packet installation.

My System:
CPU: i5
VideoCards: ATI Mobility Radeon 5470 (Hybrid)

Code: Select all

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Manhattan [Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series] [1002:68e0]

OS: Debian 7.4

[TobiSGD]

The Radeon HD5xxx series is still supported by the latest drivers, so those should actually work for you. Have you tried them, and if yes, what were the problems you encountered?

[Steffodeb]

As I wrote:

Issue:
After driver installation via .run skrip and rebooting the system I get every time a black screen with a cursor in the top left corner. So it seems that Xorg isn't starting.
BTW: The got the same with the synaptic package installation.

xorg.0.log

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(ww) fglrx (0): No matching Device section for instance (BusID:0@1:0:1) found
UkiDynamicMajor: failed to open /proc/ati/major
Invalid ATI BIOS from int10, the adapter is not VGA-enabled
Invalid video BIOS Signature!
Pre Init Adapter faild
Pre Init faild

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Loading GLX
Fatal: Module fglrx not found.
(ww) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID:0@1:0:1)
FATAL: Module fglrx not found.
(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) no screens found (EE)
(EE)

That's the logfile from 3 weeks ago. There I tried the newest driver with the Linux Mint Debian Edition. Now I'm using Debian 7.4 and have the same issues.
Unfortunately I've not an up-to-date log file due to the fact that I've to restore my sda6 after every mistaken installation.

I'm pretty sure that my dual video card isn't supported well with the newest driver. For that reason I'd like to try the 11.12 Version or the free ATI / Radeon driver. The free one is installed but I don't know how to use / activate it.

Here is what the AMD-Techsupport wrote:

From: TECH.SUPPORT@AMD.COM
Date: Friday, April 05, 2013 8:30 PM

One of the main issues with that specific laptop [HP Dv7-4170us], aside from the support offered by HP, is that the 4xxx series of cards was moved to Legacy status as of 12.4, which means that the 12.6/12.8/12.10/13.1 suites are all either going to disable the 5470 or the 4250.

This is a frustrating situation for Linux users (and PC users alike) who have this configuration, due to the WDDM requirements that were set for these cards by AMD/ATI and Microsoft during development.

What I would suggest is to try the 11.12 Linux suite (or the 12.3 Linux suite if you aren't reliant on HDMI audio) available from support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/previous/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx to see if that provides a solution to this issue.

With the Legacy/non-Legacy combination on your laptop, this will be the best option for now, but we greatly value feedback and using the http://www.amd.com/linuxreport form will generate an e-mail that is sent to the Linux driver team directly.

Best,
Steffo

[TobiSGD]

xorg.0.log

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(ww) fglrx (0): No matching Device section for instance (BusID:0@1:0:1) found
UkiDynamicMajor: failed to open /proc/ati/major
Invalid ATI BIOS from int10, the adapter is not VGA-enabled
Invalid video BIOS Signature!
Pre Init Adapter faild
Pre Init faild

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Loading GLX
Fatal: Module fglrx not found.
(ww) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID:0@1:0:1)
FATAL: Module fglrx not found.
(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) no screens found (EE)
(EE)

This looks like two different problems:
1. a missing xorg.conf (didi you run aticonfig after installation?)
2. the driver did not install correctly, therefore the fglrx module is missing

One of the main issues with that specific laptop [HP Dv7-4170us], aside from the support offered by HP, is that the 4xxx series of cards was moved to Legacy status as of 12.4, which means that the 12.6/12.8/12.10/13.1 suites are all either going to disable the 5470 or the 4250.

According to your lscpi output (if it is complete) you have switchable graphics using the integrated Intel HD videochip and the Radeon HD5470. There does not seem to be an AMD HD4xxx (or older) card in your system, so that advice from the technician simply doesn't apply.

[Steffodeb]

Yes I used now: sudo aticonfig --initial=dual-head -f

Now I did the installation again and I used this help site:
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Debian

Same issue: After reboot I've no UI. Only a blinking cursor in the left corner appears.
Unfortunately the removing script doesn't work...

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sudo sh /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh

...no file / folder! So I had to restore the whole LVM (sda6). -.-

Here is my xorg.conf after the aticonfig command:

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Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "aticonfig Layout"
	Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
	Screen         "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1" RightOf "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-1"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]-1"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
	Screen      1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
	Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
	Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1"
	Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]-1"
	Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-1"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection