Bug#632880: Not work GPU acceleration on AMD Radeon HD6570

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Гаврилов Михаил Витальевич wrote:

> Thanks. Installing firmware-linux-nonfree solve this problem.

Thanks for checking.

> Why firmware-linux-nonfree not included in default distribution?
> If you have some reasons not include firmware-linux-nonfree in default
> distribution, could you automate and simplify installing
> firmware-linux-nonfree in debian installer as an essential package for
> some devices?

The Radeon firmware is only provided by AMD in binary form, without
source code, so we cannot in good conscience include it in Debian and
promise to support it.  We do not have the relevant information about
how it works or ability to tweak its behavior.

However, it is useful software in practice so it is distributed on
Debian mirrors in the non-free section of the archive.  It is also
included in a non-official installer image:

 http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/

Could you say a little more about the symptoms you experienced?  Do
programs relying on GPU acceleration run slowly or do they crash?  If
the latter, this is definitely a bug and would be important to fix ---
Debian should not require external extras to be non-crashy.  If the
former, there is likely a documentation bug in that you did not know
why acceleration was disabled and where to look for the missing
software that would speed things up.  If you can remember where you
looked expecting answers, that would be very useful so we can add some
relevant documentation for the next person.

Thanks and sorry for the trouble.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan