Bug#741485: xserver-xorg-video-ati: System hang at boot with kernel 3.12+ with ati 4650 and xserver-xorg-video-ati

[Michel Dänzer <michel@daenzer.net>]

On Don, 2014-03-13 at 00:26 +0200, Alex wrote:
> 
> So the issue is that legacy drivers dont work anymore with old ati cards so we
> only have open source left but from kernel 3.12 and 3.13 that i have tested
> ati(radeon) driver doesnt work and freezes the system on boot up.

Does it freeze when X starts, or already before that (presumably when
the radeon kernel module is loaded)?

You can try adding radeon.modeset=0 to the boot loader kernel command
line to avoid the freeze. Then, preferably via ssh, you can stop X,
unload the radeon kernel module and load it again with

 sudo modprobe radeon modeset=1

and if possible start X again. This way you may be able to collect more
information about the freeze e.g. from /var/log/kern.log
or /var/log/Xorg.0.log.


-- 
Earthling Michel Dänzer            |                  http://www.amd.com
Libre software enthusiast          |                Mesa and X developer