From owner-freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Mon Apr 13 12:32:02 2020 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-x11@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB9FB2BD572 for ; Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:32:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bennett@sdf.org) Received: from mx.sdf.org (mx.sdf.org [205.166.94.20]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) client-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "mx.sdf.org", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4917KY6Twnz4Y3D for ; Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:32:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bennett@sdf.org) Received: from sdf.org (IDENT:bennett@miku.sdf.org [205.166.94.6]) by mx.sdf.org (8.15.2/8.14.5) with ESMTPS id 03DCVxhb017920 (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256 bits) verified NO) for ; Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:32:00 GMT Received: (from bennett@localhost) by sdf.org (8.15.2/8.12.8/Submit) id 03DCVxkN022232 for freebsd-x11@freebsd.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2020 07:31:59 -0500 (CDT) From: Scott Bennett Message-Id: <202004131231.03DCVxkN022232@sdf.org> Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 07:31:59 -0500 To: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Radeon 5770, graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod, and graphics/drm-fbsd11.2-kmod User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 6/20/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4917KY6Twnz4Y3D X-Spamd-Bar: + Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=none; dmarc=none; spf=none (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of bennett@sdf.org has no SPF policy when checking 205.166.94.20) smtp.mailfrom=bennett@sdf.org X-Spamd-Result: default: False [1.62 / 15.00]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; FAKE_REPLY(1.00)[]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; IP_SCORE(-0.23)[ip: (-0.73), ipnet: 205.166.94.0/24(-0.37), asn: 14361(-0.01), country: US(-0.05)]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; PREVIOUSLY_DELIVERED(0.00)[freebsd-x11@freebsd.org]; TO_DN_NONE(0.00)[]; AUTH_NA(1.00)[]; RCPT_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-0.15)[-0.154,0]; NEURAL_SPAM_MEDIUM(0.10)[0.103,0]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[sdf.org]; RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE(0.00)[20.94.166.205.list.dnswl.org : 127.0.10.0]; R_SPF_NA(0.00)[]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:14361, ipnet:205.166.94.0/24, country:US]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; RCVD_TLS_ALL(0.00)[]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2] X-BeenThere: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: X11 on FreeBSD -- maintaining and support List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:32:02 -0000 I sent this reply without realizing that the headers were different, and the message only went to Niclas instead of to the list. I am posting to the list now from a not-quite-final version I had saved, but it should be nearly identical. I have corrected one spot I fixed in the version that went to Niclas. Niclas Zeising wrote: > On 2020-04-12 12:42, Scott Bennett wrote: > > Is an MSI-built card with a Radeon 5770 supposed to be supported by > > graphica/gpu-firmware-kmod and graphics/drm-fbsd11.2-kmod? > > > > I believe so, but I don't have the hardware to test. > drm-fbsd11.2-kmod is fairly old though, and only works on 11. Any > reason you haven't updated to FreeBSD 12? Yes. To date, every attempt to build 12.1-STABLE on my 11.3-STABLE system has failed in seconds. I have no idea how I can upgrade to 12.1-STABLE until I can build it. I do emphatically *not* intend to install from scratch again, especially not given the thoroughly braindead ZFS installation option in the FreeBSD installer. I bit the bullet *once* just to get to root-on-ZFS under 11.1, and it required a *lot* of work to get it configured the way I wanted it because of the idiot installer. Further, 11.2 introduced kernel memory management bugs that people began complaining about on the mailing lists within the first few days. Now the project is planning 11.4 without ever having fixed the bugs. 11 hasn't been a production-quality system since 11.1. The upshot of the bugs is that my 8 GB machine is only good for one or two buildworld or portmaster -a runs before it needs to be rebooted. I run a tor relay, and I can't justify frequent reboots. gpu-firmware-kmod and drm-fbsd11.2-kmod appear to work beautifully, except for one little problem. If xorg is running, then after some random uptime between 3 hours and 35 hours, the GPU apparently hangs, turning my screen light blue with very pale blue vertical pinstripes two pixels wide and separated by somewhere around eight or ten pixels all the way across the screen. It's reasonably pretty, but not what I want. Messages prefixed with "drmn0: " are placed into /var/log/messages, informing that the GPU is not responding and that the system will be rebooted in 10 seconds. When the 10 seconds have elapsed, the system crashes down into the BIOS, which goes through a reset and stops, waiting for approval to continue because one of the fan power connectors on the motherboard is not currently in use. An orderly shutdown is *not* done, so I have to pick up quite a few pieces to get things running again. These crashes do not occur as long as I don't run xorg and just use the default eight virtual consoles, i.e., character mode only. Thus, for the fifth time since I began using FreeBSD at the beginning of 2005 (5.2.1-RELEASE), I do not have safely usable graphics on my system. That leaves me with only lynx(1) as a web browser and many other applications I can't run. mplayer, for example, is only good for audio files, not video files. Even though NetBSD just introduced ZFS in 9.0, mprime, which I run, is not available for any other BSD besides FreeBSD. Also, it's not clear to me that pools upgraded to the features introduced in FreeBSD 11.2 can be used with whatever level of ZFS is currently imported into NetBSD. So NetBSD isn't an option for me. AFAIK, none of the other BSDs have ever implemented superpages either. So, for the nonce, I am stuck with FreeBSD. I apologize for the venting, but FreeBSD has ruined graphics support for long periods of time repeatedly. The third time I was without working graphics for over two years. I am really, really tired of this. The frustration of losing graphics time after time for a decade and a half is just overwhelmingly corrosive. In spite of all this BS, I have long advocated FreeBSD to other people, but I guess I should take a breather on doing that for a few years to wait for the quality of FreeBSD to improve lest my personal and professional credibility take a dive. Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett at sdf.org *xor* bennett at freeshell.org * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * * -- a standing army." * * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * **********************************************************************