fglrx does not load

[Martin Stolle]

Binary package hint: linux-restricted-modules

After rebooting my system, X, configured to use fglrx, is very slow.

After some debugging, it looks like the fglrx kernel module was not loaded. Trying to manually modprobe is results in:

"Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko"

In order to try to troubleshoot this, I ran "sudo depmod" and tried modprobe again (with -v):

"install /sbin/lrm-video fglrx"
"FATAL: Error running install command for fglrx"

looking at /sbin/lrm-video, it just runs modprobe --ignore-install, so tried that myself:

"FATAL: Module fglrx not found"

Weird... so I try reinstalling the package (apt-get remove --purge, apt-get install)

AHA! now "modprobe fglrx" works. Let's see what happens after a restart...

Again... no fglrx loaded. Trying to modprobe it:

"FATAL: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko': No such file or directory"

What's going on? It looks like there's a bug in linux-restricted-modules that makes the fglrx driver disappear after a reboot. Looking further into it, /lib/linux-restricted-modules/2.6.24-16-generic/ contains a bunch of modules, but only a few of them show up in /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile'. After a fresh package reinstall all of them are there but after a reboot, only some of them are. How come?

Thanks,
  Martin

[Martin Stolle (martin-stolle)]

Ok, now I feel slightly stupid. Turns out, before hardy heron, I had to use the ATI supplied driver, since the Ubuntu fglrx driver was too old for my gfx card. So I had disabled the fglrx driver in /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules

So there is still a (somewhat lesser) bug in that a new install of the linux-restricted-modules package will enable the fglrx (or presumably any) driver, even if it is blacklisted in the config file.

I think the package should check upon install the blacklist settings and not make modules available that will magically disappear after a reboot. Instead, it should print out a message: "disabling module XXX" and not set it up with the kernel. That would make debugging a whole lot easier and it would make the behavior more consistent (ie. no more disappearing modules after a reboot).

Thanks,
  Martin

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately.]

This bug was reported against the linux-meta package when it likely should have been reported against the linux package instead. We are automatically transitioning this to the linux kernel package so that the appropriate teams are notified and made aware of this issue. Thanks.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Actually moving this to the fglrx-installer package. Martin, can you comment if this is still an issue? If so, please feel free to change the bug report status back to "New". Thanks.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.