Bug 97527 – ATI Drivers lock the machine when more than 768MB ram is present

• Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Jean-Christophe Choisy 2005-06-30 11:59:05 UTC]

Hello.
I've been trying to make use of the proprietary ati drivers for quite some time,
and on many different distros, to no avail. Until yesterday, when I came across
this : http://ati.cchtml.com/show_bug.cgi?id=146

So, the laptop is an Asus V6VA20RW-Pro, powered by a Mobility X600, and what
happens is that the X server will lockup right after DRI installation when using
more than 768MB of ram. If I boot the kernel with 'mem=768m', the drivers work
perfect, as expected. I have 2GB of ram in this laptop by the way.

I submited a 'Linux Driver Feedback' to ATI, but in the hope that some talented
gentoo-dev would know how to fix this in some future ebuild, I decided to create
a gentoo bug report too.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install ati drivers
2. Startx
3.

Actual Results:  
The computer locks up.

Expected Results:  
I should get a nice KDE desktop :)

This problem have been verified in gentoo linux, fedora core 4, archlinux and
slackware, using both custom and factory-provided kernels, and using many many
different xorg.conf files and options. It is definitly a bug in the fglrx kernel
module, since when dri is disabled or when the module is not loaded, the driver
loads perfectly, but you get no acceleration.

[Comment 1 Jean-Christophe Choisy 2005-06-30 12:02:37 UTC]

Created attachment 62345 [details]
XOrg Log when booted with 'mem=768m'

This is a working xorg log, when booted with mem=768m
The files come from fedora, but trust me, gentoo's one were exactly the same.

[Comment 2 Jean-Christophe Choisy 2005-06-30 12:03:32 UTC]

Created attachment 62346 [details]
My xorg.conf

[Comment 3 Jean-Christophe Choisy 2005-06-30 12:16:05 UTC]

Created attachment 62347 [details]
XOrg log when booted with full Ram enabled (2GB)

This is the xorg log when the machine hangs, kernel booted without any
'mem=XXXm' parameter. The machine locks up completely right after DRI
Installation (whatever that is).

[Comment 4 Luca Barbato 2005-06-30 14:06:21 UTC]

I cannot test it, sorry

[Comment 5 Joshua Baergen (RETIRED) 2005-07-02 08:53:59 UTC]

If this is a bug in so many distributions, this is not the place to solve it -
especially since the drivers are binaries.

Get ATI to fix this, and maybe get them to make their drivers work with 2.6.12
while you're at it :P

[Comment 6 Thomas Schlesinger 2005-07-02 09:17:41 UTC]

The Ati-drivers 8.14.13-r1 *do* work with gentoo-sources 2.6.12. 

[Comment 7 Joshua Baergen (RETIRED) 2005-07-02 09:30:32 UTC]

Ya, I realized that a few moments after saying it.