Bug#641176: xserver-xorg-video-radeon: Radeon 9200SE, Detected VRAM RAM=0M, BAR=0M

[Will Set <debiandunes@yahoo.com>]

Monday, September 19, 2011 9:18 AM  Michel Dänzer wrotew:
> On Mon, 2011-09-19 at 15:55 +0300, Tomi Leppänen wrote: 
>>  ma, 2011-09-19 kello 12:53 +0200, Michel Dänzer kirjoitti:
>>  > On Son, 2011-09-18 at 11:38 +0300, Tomi Leppänen wrote: 
>>  > > la, 2011-09-17 kello 06:10 -0700, Will Set kirjoitti:
>>  > > > 
>>  > > >   Saturday, September 17, 2011 6:49 AM Tomi Leppänen wrote:
>>  > > > > pe, 2011-09-16 kello 15:43 -0500, Jonathan Nieder 
> kirjoitti:
>>  > 
>>  > > I wonder why my grub is just some colorful crap on bottom of my 
> screen.
>>  > > I can't really edit anything on fly but I have to always make 
> changes
>>  > > to /etc/default/grub and then issue update-grub. That may have 
> something
>>  > > to do with this bug.
>>  > 
>>  > It's further indication that the problem may stem from the BIOS, 
> or
>>  > possibly even the hardware itself.
>> 
>>  If it helps, I have a Nvidia GeForce 2 MX (AGP) and it seems to work
>>  completely. (though that card doesn't support interlacing)
>>  I can get dmesg for that too if needed but it takes probably a bit
>>  longer.
> 
> I don't think that'll buy anything at this point.

Problem  iirc, both your other video cards -- ATI Rage 128VR and Nvidia GeForce 2 MX (AGP) --  have less than 64 MB of VRAM.
I've found with my old AGP cards, 64MBs  VRAM to be a minimum for mode switching as a general rule.
Mobos with video onboard have different limits.
I'm starting to see other pentium 4 limits with the newer 3.0.0 kernels,
so I'm not really surprised having troubles trying 3.0.0 kernels

And the PCI card is  IMHO way to new to be used in the PCI slot of that old mobo. 
The video card has almost as much processing power as the mobo does.
I'll bet the mobo's chipset can't access even half that Radeon 9200SE's resources.
> 
> 
>>  > > I also noticed that all of my memory is LOWMEM. Though graphics 
> card
>>  > > doesn't change that (tried with ATI Rage 128VR that has 
> trouble with DRI
>>  > > on Debian 6).
>>  > 
>>  > Does that card basically work though? Do you also get PCI related 
> errors
>>  > in dmesg with it?
>> 
>>  Yes, it does work.
> 
> Then it seems most likely that the problem is with the BIOS or the card.
> At this point I don't see many options left other than trying if the
> card works in another machine or with another OS, or maybe trying to
> re-flash the ROM image on the card if that's possible.

I agree, especially if the BIOS is not being changed to reflect the PCI socket is being used for video 
instead of the mobos AGP slot.
http://www.gigabyte.lv/products/mb/specs/ga-6bxe.html?&print_page=1

I'd suggest using a Debian Live CD while testing, 
especially with older and oddly mixed hardware.
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/i386/iso-hybrid/
>