Bug#694777: Wheezy Beta4 installs but X server unusable
On Fri, 30 Nov 2012, Lou Poppler wrote:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee
ATI RV610 [Radeon HD 2400 XT] [1002:94c1]
Subsystem: Dell Optiplex 755 [1028:0d02]
Kernel driver in use: radeon
[ ... ]
Various online research brings me to
http://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo
which looks like I should install some non-free firmware for this card.
I find this in the running dmesg:
root@ivanovad:/var/log# dmesg |grep -i firmware
[ 8.322395] r600_cp: Failed to load firmware "radeon/RV610_pfp.bin"
[ 8.322442] [drm:r600_startup] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware!
I am happy to report that installing the non-free firmware blob fixed
my problem, everything worked correctly upon the next wheezy boot.
Perhaps the installer could warn the user if her video card is among those
listed in AtiHowTo and the installer doesn't see the firmware supplied
somewhere by the user. Perhaps just a referral to the wiki page ?
However, the instructions at AtiHowTo didn't quite work as written:
: The firmware in question, id est the CP/PFP microcode, can be installed
: by first enabling the non-free repository for your Debian release
: and issuing the following command:
:
: aptitude install firmware-linux-nonfree
I added " contrib non-free" to my sources list entries, and tried the command:
: root@ivanovad:/etc/apt# vi sources.list
: root@ivanovad:/etc/apt# aptitude install firmware-linux-nonfree
: Couldn't find any package matching "firmware-linux-nonfree". However, the following
: packages contain "firmware-linux-nonfree" in their description:
: firmware-linux-free
: Couldn't find any package matching "firmware-linux-nonfree". However, the following
: packages contain "firmware-linux-nonfree" in their description:
: firmware-linux-free
: No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
: 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
: Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
I ran aptitude interactively. I think I probably did a [u] update.
When I searched for it, I found this package listed as "p" status
[purged? I think], so I gave it a "+" and a "g", and it installed OK then:
: root@ivanovad:/etc/apt# aptitude
: Selecting previously unselected package firmware-linux-nonfree.
: (Reading database ... 125749 files and directories currently installed.)
: Unpacking firmware-linux-nonfree (from .../firmware-linux-nonfree_0.36_all.deb) ...
: Setting up firmware-linux-nonfree (0.36) ...
: update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
: Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
: update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64
: Press Return to continue.
I don't know if the update was implicit in the wiki-page's instructions,
but if so that wasn't clear to this non-expert.
Anyway, I'm happy now. I hope my pitiful example is helpful to those who
follow after me....
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