Software Rasterizer used on PowerPC system with Radeon card after Lucid upgrade

[Andrew Engelbrecht]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

After upgrading from karmic to lucid, I am unable to enable visual effects. running "glxinfo | grep render" gives:

direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer

whereas with the karmic live cd, I get:

direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R300 (RV350 4E50) 20090101 AGP 4x PowerPC/Altivec TCL

This is my card:
0000:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]

If you need any more details, let me know.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.0-1ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-powerpc 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-powerpc ppc
Architecture: powerpc
Date: Mon Apr 26 11:02:01 2010
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release powerpc (20091027.2)
Lsusb:
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 05ac:8203 Apple, Inc. Bluetooth HCI
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=/dev/hda3 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.7.1-1ubuntu2
 libdrm2 2.4.18-1ubuntu3
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.0-1ubuntu5
 xserver-xorg-video-nouveau N/A
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: ppc
 kernel: 2.6.32-21-powerpc

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Interesting. I'm running the Lucid RC on a 32bit x86 system and I get:

glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R300 (R350 4E48) 20090101 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL DRI2

lspci | grep ATI
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]

Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.0-1ubuntu5

[Andrew Engelbrecht (leaf-node)]

Could that be because yours isn't a "mobility" version?

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Possibly, but I was thinking more along the lines of it being due to you using the PowerPC platform.

[Andrew Engelbrecht (leaf-node)]

I don't know if this would play a factor, but when I did the dist upgrade to lucid, the keyboard and mouse froze, so I couldn't answer the dialogs that came up during the "cleanup" stage of the installation process. I had to hold down the power button to restart. So maybe some configuration didn't finish.

I'll try running the Live CD when the official relase happens on the 29th and see if the problem still exists.

[Andrew Engelbrecht (leaf-node)]

I've been looking at my current Xorg.0.log and one that I saved from the Karmic Live CD bootup.

Here's a difference that I noticed:
Karmic:

(WW) RADEON(0): Unrecognized BIOS signature, BIOS data will not be used
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID pci:0000:00:10.0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 6, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 6
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports pci:0000:00:10.0
(II) RADEON(0): [dri] Found DRI library version 1.3.0 and kernel module version 1.31.0

Lucid:

(WW) RADEON(0): Unrecognized BIOS signature, BIOS data will not be used
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID pci:0000:00:10.0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns -1
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card1
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns -1

...

drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card14
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card15
(EE) RADEON(0): [dri] RADEONDRIGetVersion failed to open the DRM
[dri] Disabling DRI.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

It's almost certainly due to it being powerpc architecture. You could see if disabling KMS makes any difference.

Beyond that, ppc is not an architecture we put a lot of time into supporting, so we're not likely to look into this bug. If you want to pursue getting it solved, I would recommend going upstream with it.

[Andrew Engelbrecht (leaf-node)]

Disabling KMS worked, although I needed to provide my own xorg.conf file. (Otherwise, the screen goes crazy)

For those who are trying to fix this issue on their own computer, here's what I put in /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf :

options radeon modeset=0

I attached the xorg.conf file I'm currently using.

[Demetrius Lolos (dlolos1)]

I have the same problem and I need some help, I'm new to linux.

I'm trying to disable KMS, but I don't know how. There is no radeon-kms.conf under /etc/modprobe.d/, nor do I know how to create one.

I also don't know how to create a xorg.conf file. Can someone help, or at least point me in the right direction?

[Andrew Engelbrecht (leaf-node)]

For those who have this issue, check this thread in the ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1460926&page=2

[Andrew Engelbrecht (leaf-node)]

I've played with this a bit (after some updates to lucid) and I found that I don't need an xorg.conf anymore. It seems like all that is needed to get around this issue is to disable KMS for the graphics card.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

I can confirm that I get the software rasterizer on current Precise, running on a PowerBook G4 with a M7 (r100) card. I think this is because the atyfb frambuffer driver is loaded (compiled into the kernel) and it blocks KMS from working, which is needed for the gallium mesa driver. However, when I disable the atyfb driver with the "video=ofonly" boot option and use KMS, the machine easily locks up, or goes nuts switching modes at a rate of around once per second.