Debian 10.3: X does not start

[Klaus Jantzen]

On 3/29/20 4:53 PM, Ken Moffat wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 11:33:21AM +0200, Klaus Jantzen wrote:
>> On 3/27/20 9:39 PM, Alex Deucher wrote:
>>> On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 4:31 PM Klaus Jantzen <k.d.jantzen at mailbox.org> wrote:
>>>> On 3/25/20 7:25 PM, IL Ka wrote:
>>
>> Going through the "AtiHowTo" as suggested by IL Ka I made sure that all the
>> packages are installed and I modified the xorg.conf as indicated there.
>>
>> With "inxi -G" I get
>>
>> Graphics:  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Picasso driver: N/A
>>             Display: tty server: X.org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon,vesa
>> unloaded: fbdev,modesetting tty: 128x48
>>             Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console for root.
>>
> 
> I'm writing this reply on a machine using a Picasso (3400G in my
> case).  The driver needs to be amdgpu, which is what you were
> originally using, not ati/radeon
> 
>> Xorg.0.log is now
>>
>> =====
>> [     7.234]
>> X.Org X Server 1.20.4
>> X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
>> [     7.234] Build Operating System: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 x86_64 Debian
>> [     7.234] Current Operating System: Linux PC5 4.19.0-8-amd64 #1 SMP
>> Debian 4.19.98-1 (2020-01-26) x86_64
> 
>>
>> Looking at the list of the drivers for the AMD/ATI Radeon chipsets I get a
>> slight suspicion that the graphic chipset of the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G is not
>> supported by Debia/Xorg as I don't find any driver for the Picasso chipset.
>>
> 
> It's not supported by upstream 4.19.0, and I suspect new hardware
> like this has not been added to later stable 4.19 kernels (new
> hardware is outside the remit of stable).
> 
> When I got this machine I used SystemRescueCD to bring it up.  That
> was running some version of 4.19 and it tried to load the ati
> driver, although it did not support the chipset.  When I removed the
> ati driver to try to force it to use amdgpu the version of amdgpu on
> the rescue image appeared to be too old, i.e. it did not know about
> Picasso (or perhaps the kernel was the real problem).
> 
> In my case I downloaded a newer kernel (early 5.0 onwards associate
> Picasso with amdgpu).  So, I recommend that you use a 5.4 (i.e.
> stable series) or later kernel and ensure you have all the picasso
> firmware in amdgpu (I don't use an initrd, so I have all 11
> picasso*.bin files in /lib/firmware/amdgpu and my kernel has
> CONFIG_DRM_AMDGPU as a module so it initally boots using (from
> memory) to 80x25, then during the boot the screen blanks and
> eventually with comes back with much smaller text - I use
> CONFIG_FONT_SUN12x22=y to get text which is easier to read on a
> 1920x1080 screen.
> 
> I don't use debian, but I guess you could try using the kernel,
> amdgpu and latest amdgpu firmware from debian testing (firmware will
> be in nonfree I suppose).
> 
> ĸen
> 

Thank you very much for this information.

As I do not like the idea of playing around with kernel versions, 
testing etc. I will get a PCI graphic card (e.g. GeForce GT 710 Silent) 
that has the appropriate linux support and forget about the built-in GPU.

-- 
K.D.J.