Hardware support

19 risposte [Ultimo contenuto]
Aero9000
Offline
Iscritto: 01/11/2016

Hi all,

First post. I'm typing this message from Trisquel 6. I tried to install Trisquel 7, but when the live CD is ready to go to the GUI all I get is a black screen. So I installed Trisquel 6 and tried to do a distribution upgrade, but that results in a bright white screen -- either way Trisquel 7 doesn't seem to work on my particular hardware. I then reinstalled Trisquel 6.

Relevant lspci output:
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS690M [Radeon Xpress 1200/1250/1270]

Is this VGA card no longer supported in Trisquel 7? Or if it is, how do I install the proper driver?

Thanks for reading.

lembas
Offline
Iscritto: 05/13/2010

Hello! I don't know if it's possible. When you get to such a black screen, try accessing virtual terminal 1 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1.

If that's succeeds, then you could try different kernel and xserver versions, there are some backports in the repositories.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Offline
Iscritto: 07/24/2010

jxself maintains a repository with Linux-libre 3.4 that should properly drive your AMD video board: https://jxself.org/linux-libre/

onpon4
Offline
Iscritto: 05/30/2012

What you're experiencing is a problem caused by upstream simplification in the Radeon driver. Someone has come up with some sort of fix; hopefully it will find its way into Linux-libre at some point.

jxself
Offline
Iscritto: 09/13/2010

"Someone has come up with some sort of fix; hopefully it will find its way into Linux-libre at some point."

To the extent that it it makes its way into mainline then it will as per the usual course of business of deblobbing the mainline kernel. But what fix are you talking of? Perhaps I can incorporate it into my kernels now.

onpon4
Offline
Iscritto: 05/30/2012

I could have swore you were distributing the patch already. It was some sort of hack to get things working and the person who came up with the patch, or maybe it was someone else, was saying there was no way it would make it into mainline Linux because of its hackish nature, but I don't know the details. (I don't have an affected system, so I never bothered looking into it.)

EDIT: Aha, I did hear about it from you! I was thinking of this:

https://trisquel.info/en/forum/making-radeon-kernel-module-work-again

jxself
Offline
Iscritto: 09/13/2010

Ah, OK. I suspected it might have been that but some of what you said made me wonder if it wasn't something else. Nevermind then. Moving on...

jxself
Offline
Iscritto: 09/13/2010

Ah, OK. I suspected it might have been that but some of what you said made me
wonder if it wasn't something else. Nevermind then. Moving on...

Aero9000
Offline
Iscritto: 01/11/2016

Hi all,

First post. I'm typing this message from Trisquel 6. I tried to install
Trisquel 7, but when the live CD is ready to go to the GUI all I get is a
black screen. So I installed Trisquel 6 and tried to do a distribution
upgrade, but that results in a bright white screen -- either way Trisquel 7
doesn't seem to work on my particular hardware. I then reinstalled Trisquel
6.

Relevant lspci output:
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
RS690M [Radeon Xpress 1200/1250/1270]

Is this VGA card no longer supported in Trisquel 7? Or if it is, how do I
install the proper driver?

Thanks for reading.

onpon4
Offline
Iscritto: 05/30/2012

I could have swore you were distributing the patch already. It was some sort
of hack to get things working, but I don't remember the details. (I don't
have an affected system, so I never bothered looking into it.)

jxself
Offline
Iscritto: 09/13/2010

"Someone has come up with some sort of fix; hopefully it will find its way
into Linux-libre at some point."

To the extent that it it makes its way into mainline then it will as per the
usual course of business of deblobbing the mainline kernel. But what fix are
you talking of? Perhaps I can incorporate it into my kernels now.

Aero9000
Offline
Iscritto: 01/11/2016

As Magic Banana pointed out, the solution may be found here: https://jxself.org/linux-libre/

Looking at that page, I noticed there is support for the 3.14 kernel series (among others). But Trisquel 7 (at least the LiveCD) is on 3.13. I started the software manager inside the live environment (running in VirtualBox), but I am not able to find a different kernel version. I searched for "kernel" and I searched for "linux".

OK, so the does the live environment not support adding additional kernels? (Not that there would be much point for doing that of course!). Or do I have to use a different search term? I would like to have everything covered in advance, before I slap the LiveCD into the laptop again.

UPDATE: Synaptic DOES show more kernels, but again none with matching version numbers.

onpon4
Offline
Iscritto: 05/30/2012

Magic Banana mentioned Linux-libre 3.4 - and older version, not a newer version. :) Linux 3.4 is a version of Linux prior to the simplification that broke blob-free Radeon driver usage.

jxself
Offline
Iscritto: 09/13/2010

The page you're looking at is a separate repository operated by a third party (me.) You're not going to find those packages in Trisquel until it's been configured to use that repository using the instructions on that page.

onpon4
Offline
Iscritto: 05/30/2012

Magic Banana mentioned Linux-libre 3.4 - and older version, not a newer
version. :) Linux 3.4 is a version of Linux prior to the simplification that
broke blob-free Radeon driver usage.

jxself
Offline
Iscritto: 09/13/2010

The page you're looking at is a separate repository operated by a third party
(me.) You're not going to find those packages in Trisquel until it's been
configured to use that repository using the instructions on that page.

lembas
Offline
Iscritto: 05/13/2010

Hello! I don't know if it's possible. When you get to such a black screen,
try getting to virtual terminal 1 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1.

If that's succeeds, then you could try different kernel and xserver versions,
there are some backports in the repositories.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Offline
Iscritto: 07/24/2010

jxself maintains a repository with Linux-libre 3.4 that should properly drive
your AMD video board: https://jxself.org/linux-libre/

onpon4
Offline
Iscritto: 05/30/2012

What you're experiencing is a problem caused by upstream simplification in
the Radeon driver. Someone has come up with some sort of fix; hopefully it
will find its way into Linux-libre at some point.

Aero9000
Offline
Iscritto: 01/11/2016

As Magic Banana pointed out, the solution may be found here:
https://jxself.org/linux-libre/

Looking at that page, I noticed there is support for the 3.14 kernel series
(among others). But Trisquel 7 (at least the LiveCD) is on 3.13. I started
the software manager inside the live environment (running in VirtualBox), but
I am not able to find a different kernel version. I searched for "kernel" and
I searched for "linux".

OK, so the does the live environment not support adding additional kernels?
(Not that there would be much point for doing that of course!). Or do I have
to use a different search term? I would like to have everything covered in
advance, before I slap the LiveCD into the laptop again.