Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 18:32:32 +0200 From: Matthew Rezny <mrezny@hexaneinc.com> To: Niclas Zeising <zeising@freebsd.org> Cc: Thomas Mueller <mueller6724@bellsouth.net>, freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ports/156405: x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati driver: no hardware rendering Message-ID: <20130829183232.0000443f@unknown> In-Reply-To: <521F3002.4040104@freebsd.org> References: <D5.8E.14028.4459E125@hrndva-omtalb.mail.rr.com> <521F3002.4040104@freebsd.org>
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On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 13:26:58 +0200 Niclas Zeising <zeising@freebsd.org> wrote: > On 2013-08-29 02:26, Thomas Mueller wrote: > > From my previous post and Niclas Zeising's response: > >>> I could return to a text console in the dark and type "shutdown > >>> -r now" or even type the command to go back into X, successfully. > >> In general, this can work. It did last time I tested, but that > >> was some time ago so things might have changed. > > > > When I tried with new Xorg and KMS in 9-STABLE, my system froze > > immediately, not just the console. I finally managed to downgrade > > to the old Xorg after considerable difficulty. > > What hardware do you have? Are you sure that the system froze, and > not only that the console went black? Did you check any logs (dmesg, > xorg log, etc.) How do you load the kernel modules for the intel kms > driver? In general, you shouldn't need to load anything at all, X > loads the correct kernel module at the correct time during startup. > > > > I'd like to try again on a new computer, with FreeBSD-current/HEAD > > (10.0 is in the not-so-distant future?). > > 10.0 is slated to arrive in a few months. Be aware when trying new > hardware, however, that FreeBSD might be lagging somewhat in support, > especially when it comes to graphics hardware. > > > > With 3 TB hard drive and GPT, I have plenty of space and partitions > > to experiment, and probably less hazardous than the stablest > > versions of NetBSD. > > > >>> With serial ports becoming obsolete, what can one use for or in > >>> place of a serial console? > > > >> FireWire. I haven't tested myself, but have a look at > >> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug-dcons.html > >> for instructions on how to use FireWire as a console. > > > > This still leaves the question of how to set it up in terms of > > hardware. I don't think there are any FireWire consoles. > > > > Would I plug anything into the motherboard's FireWire port? I just > > thought of FireWire-to-HDMI cable but haven't looked to see if > > these exist. > > Check the guide. In general you plug the firewire cable from one > computer into another computer, and use the first one to debug the > second. > Firewire is a nice option in terms of speed, but it has some caveats. One is that both sides need to be FreeBSD AFAIK. Serial console works with any OS on the second device, or the second device could even be a dumb terminal if you have one of those still laying around. Another downside is lack of Firewire ports. Every PC motherboard I have at least has one serial port, at least as a header if not directly on the back. Not all have Firewire ports, maybe only half of them do. My laptop without serial has no Firewire either. There are some laptops that do have Firewire but no serial, so that can be a solution for debugging, though it's only possible if you have another system to tether it to so it's not a terribly practical way to get a console for regular use. The only box I have that lacks serial but has Firewire is a Mac. I tried to use the Firewire dcons when I was trying to get Xorg working on FreeBSD/ppc64. It didn't work out too well, but I inadvertently figured out that I could get the console to stay alive through OpenFirmware even when the FreeBSD managed console went dead. That helped immensely in testing. After trying two AGP cards and two old PCI cards, all with no luck, I gave up on Xorg and decided FreeBSD/ppc64 was a reasonable way to use the G5 as a server box should I need to, but it wasn't a solution to keep that machine as a viable desktop. Since then there has been a patch to fix PCI access on that platform so maybe Xorg would work, but I haven't had a chance to go back and test that again. > > >>> Would it work to have two xorg.conf files, one with Intel driver > >>> and the other with vesa? Then could you go back to a working > >>> console when using the vesa driver? > >> Once you've loaded the KMS awawre kernel module, there is no way > >> to get the console back short of a reboot of the system. > > > > But would starting X with vesa driver load the KMS awawre kernel > > module? > > No, using vesa driver won't load the KMS module, but once you've > loaded the KMS module, you can't get the console back short of a > reboot. > > > > What about "xorg -configure" which I might want to do the first > > time? > In general you don't need very much in terms of a config file any > more... It was some time since I set up my own X, so I can't > remember how xorg -configure works, you have to try yourself. > > Regards!
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