No hardware rendering on new installation ??

[mwncimawr]

I have installed Debian cinnamon but I have got a message saying that it is running in software rendering rather than hardware, can you help me, Im a newbie so please be gentle.

[mwncimawr]

My system details

[stevepusser]

If the command line doesn't freak you out, install inxi and report the output of

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inxi -G

for a better report that you can copy and paste here.

But if you're using the AMD free graphics driver, it requires non-free firmware. It's explained in the Debian wiki, but you can also directly download the package deb file and install it with "dpkg -i" or gdebi. https://packages.debian.org/stretch/fir ... d-graphics

[mwncimawr]

Thanks for your help, does this help ?



I don't quite understand the second point, sorry.

[mwncimawr]

I have gdebi installed, but i dont really understand it

[stevepusser]

From the link I gave you, download the deb package from the link as the bottom of the page. Open a terminal in the folder where the deb was downloaded, or navigate to it in the terminal, and run

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gdebi <name_of_deb_file>

Hit Tab to see if the terminal will fill in the name of the deb file for you after you enter "gdebi".

Most desktops will also let you right-click a deb file and choose "Open with". Choose gdebi-gtk to use the GUI. Make sure to restart your system after installing.

There is a chance that this won't help if the hardware is quite recent. The Stretch open AMD drivers date back to the last part of 2016.

[mwncimawr]

Thanks for you reply, I managed to download the package and then use open with, it came up that the package was already installed. I decided to reinstall and then restart the computer but it is still the same :

[Head_on_a_Stick]

^ Then you may have chosen hardware that is too new for the stable release — is it too late to exchange it for something older and cheaper?

[mwncimawr]

^ Then you may have chosen hardware that is too new for the stable release — is it too late to exchange it for something older and cheaper?

Well I bought it two years ago, its a Radeon R9 270x, hardly a cutting edge graphics card. It was fine in Linux Mint.

[stevepusser]

It now seems time to delve into the xorg startup log file. If you don't know what that is or how to get to it, a good web search engine is your friend; try searching for those keywords.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I managed to download the package and then use open with, it came up that the package was already installed. I decided to reinstall

I don't trust you.

Please post the full output of

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apt policy firmware-amd-graphics

[Wheelerof4te]

Why are you guys making him download a random .deb from the internet? Debian has firmware-amd-graphics in it's non-fre repo.
@OP:
Check this:
https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList
Copy the example list to your /etc/apt/sources.list file, but add contrib and non-free repos. Like this:

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deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free

Use nano to edit the file:

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nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Have only the example list I gave you, you don't need the deb-src lines.
Press ctl+x followed by y to save the changes.
Update the list:

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apt update

Install the firmware-amd-graphics package:

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apt install firmware-amd-graphics

Reboot:

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reboot

[stevepusser]

Umm...it's the deb directly from Debian. I must have have missed seeing you volunteer to talk a newbie through editing their software sources with nano and adding the non-free section and then disabling it afterwards instead...

[Wheelerof4te]

I know it's the .deb from Debian. I don't see how newbie would know which .deb file to download or even how to install it? And no, the fact that you linked that package page means nothing, you still haven't told him how to install it (be in a exact place where .deb is, use terminal).
BTW, apt has gained the ability to install local .deb files, use that instead:

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apt install ./path/to/somerandomdeb.deb

In contrast, I've included a step-by-step process to install the same thing and have it upgraded in the future via apt package manager.

In my example, he learns more about apt, which he should do anyway if he intends to use Debian.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Why are you guys making him download a random .deb from the internet? Debian has firmware-amd-graphics in it's non-fre repo.

Because messing with sources is risky, .debs will only be installable if they cause no conflicts.

I've included a step-by-step process to install the same thing and have it upgraded in the future via apt package manager.

No, you have actually instructed the OP to replace /etc/apt/sources.list with your posted version which contains no security repositories

You may well have posted a link containing a correct version but if the OP was lazy (imagine!) and just copy pasted your code box then their system would be denied any further updates from the Security Team.

Installing a firmware .deb (from the Debian repositories) is safer than messing with sources — even if your posted list was correct, a typographical error would have still b0rked the OP's system.

For the record:

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# apt edit-sources

^ That checks the file for errors before saving it.