Bug#696571: [squeeze -> wheezy regression] llano: display switches into ~60% snow ~40% white and becomes unusable

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Bob Proulx wrote:

> I have attached that information both without the nonfree firmware and
> with it.  Also for both the Sid kernel and the Experimental 3.6 one.

Thanks much.

[...]
>> If you can get a full log with "drm.debug=0xe" passed on the kernel
>> command line
[...]
>>           that would be useful, too.
>
> I can do this but it will take some setup.

No problem.  There's no rush.

[...]
> [    5.444138] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting disabled; it requires firmware-linux-nonfree.

This means the change

   * radeon: Disable KMS earlier if firmware is not installed (Closes: #607194)

kicked in correctly.  Do I understand correctly that the screen was
corrupted anyway?  Is this still without X?

I'm interested because without-firmware is the default situation when
new users install Debian, so it's best if we can ensure it works at
least well enough to open a browser and read about firmware.

Regards,
Jonathan