On Mon, Aug 09, 2021 at 10:39:24AM +0200, solon wrote:
I'm using the open source radeon drivers that you get using contrib/non-free
and I've scoured google trying to figure out the problem. The only thing I
can come up with is that Gnome 3.30 is exceedingly slow,
The first thing you should do is identify your video chipset. Use
the command "lspci -nn" and look for "VGA" in the output. Also look
for any other lines that look like a video device, because sometimes
there's more than one, and sometimes they don't include the word "VGA".
The most important part of the output is the 8-hex-digit PCI identifier
code, usually enclosed in square brackets. Mine is [8086:5912] for
example.
Once you know what hardware you're dealing with, you can Google for
it and perhaps find solutions. Failing that, you can post it here
on the mailing list, and maybe someone else will have had experience
with a similar device, or will be better able to find solutions for
you on Google.
Unfortunately, sometimes you need to Google using the model names instead
of the PCI ID, because not all posted solutions include all the hardware
information.
In general, you're looking at three separate issues:
1) Many graphics devices require the installation of non-free firmware
blobs, in order to function correctly. In the absence of this
firmware, the symptom is usually "no 3D acceleration which makes
GNOME and other desktop environments run really slowly", or even
"GNOME and other DEs refuse to start, but I installed a display
manager, so now I'm stuck on a black screen with a cursor".
2) *Some* (not as many) graphics devices require the installation of
non-free drivers. This is usually the case with nVidia devices more
so than Radeons.
3) *Some* of the newest devices require a whole new kernel + X server +
Mesa stack.
So, knowing which device you're dealing with is critical here. It will
determine which of these things you need to do. (And you may need to do
more than one.)
In the best case, you only have to install firmware. You run a command
like "dmesg | grep -i firmware" to see what firmware is missing, and then
you track down which package contains that firmware, and you install it.
Then reboot, and voila.
If you have to install an nVidia driver, there are wiki pages that
should be helpful.
If you have to install a whole new kernel/X/Mesa stack, you might be
able to use buster-backports. But that will be a substantial investment
of time and effort that would probably be better spent upgrading to
bullseye (Debian 11) at this time, since bullseye's release is less than
a week away.