Solved AMDGPU Polaris FreeBSD13-rc1 - module not found

B

broozar

Hi everyone, I think I am having trouble getting my Radeon RX 550 to work 100% on fBSD13.

What I have done:
- Install Xorg, Mate, a login manager, etc.
- Install drm-kmod
- sysrc kld_list+="amdgpu"

What works:
- logging into Mate desktop, everything seems nice and fluent, even WebGL content works fluently
- kldstat shows me that amdgpu.ko and a number of amdgpu_polaris12*.ko are loaded
- /etc/rc.conf shows kld_list="amdgpu"

What seems off:
- the driver is listed as vesa/modesetting when I look it up using glxinfo and inxi

What does not work:
I tried adding a conf file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d:

Code: 
Section "Device"
    Identifier "AMD"
    Driver "amdgpu"
    Option "DRI" "3"
    Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

When I reboot with this file, my login manager does not load. The Xorg log says, "could not load amdgpu: module does not exist". But naturally, kldstat shows that the module has been loaded. Any suggestions what's wrong with this file?
 
broozar said:
- logging into Mate desktop, everything seems nice and fluent, even WebGL content works fluently
Click to expand...
Don't try to "fix" something that obviously works correctly.
broozar said:
The Xorg log says, "could not load amdgpu: module does not exist".
Click to expand...
X.Org driver != kernel driver. The "modesetting" X.Org driver already gives you accelerated rendering with kernel drm.

edit: for a specific X.Org driver see next post ;) still unsure what additional benefits it will provide.
 
jardows said:
Many people seem to recommend using the modesetting X11 driver instead of the amdgpu X11 driver, but I'm not certain why.
Click to expand...
For normal users it should be sufficient to use modesetting.

For advanced users could only be a problem that a feature such as FreeSync is missing, there must then AMD users use xf86-video-amdgpu so that one can use eg FreeSync. However, they are in the process of gradually adding everything to modesetting. So in 10 years or more who knows those packages could get obsolete.
 
Alexander88207 said:
...could only be a problem that a feature such as FreeSync is missing, there must then AMD users use xf86-video-amdgpu so that one can use eg FreeSync.
Click to expand...
This, together with the OP's observation that the vesa graphics driver was being used, might be a hint.

But my suspicion is that the <modesetting> setting might actually mean using the vesa driver.
Unlike the OP, few people actually check which graphics driver is being used, as soon as it "works", and don't notice at all when the fallback vesa driver is being used.

Another possibility might be that the amdgpu kernel module is the kernel modesetting module designed to communicate with the [PMAN=]xf86-video-amdgpu[/PMAN] driver as the actual driver, which itself communicates with xorg.

I am really curious what the OP will find out :)

Edit: Is the user in the "video" group?
 
Zirias said:
X.Org driver != kernel driver.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I did not know that! I almost exclusively run nVidia systems, where the driver installation is rather different. This is my first FreeBSD installation using an AMD card.

jardows said:
Did you install the X11 driver? x11-drivers/xf86-video-amdgpu/
Click to expand...
:oops: sorry... I did not. Needless to say everything works now. Thank you!

Snurg said:
Unlike the OP, few people actually check which graphics driver is being used, as soon as it "works", and don't notice at all when the fallback vesa driver is being used.
Click to expand...
I am actually working on a new version of my DarkMate install script, which allows for selection of the graphics driver (nVidia/amdgpu/radeon/intel). I bought the RX 550 mainly for this reason. Plus, I am really curious how the different drivers and manufacturers compare. The vesa driver feels very snappy, dragging windows around has no delay, but I get major tearing when scrolling or moving something too fast on screen. Amdgpu introduces a bit of delay when dragging windows around, something I know very well from the nVidia drivers. However tearing is completely gone with amdgpu and everything feels smoother, at the cost of a bit of responsiveness.

All in all, I was quite impressed with the vesa/modesetting driver, especially the good 3D performance was very unexpected. If anyone got tips for getting rid of the tearing, please let me know.
 
Snurg said:
But my suspicion is that the <modesetting> setting might actually mean using the vesa driver.
Click to expand...
No. Vesa will be used if NO drm devices (provided by a kernel driver) are available. Otherwise, you'll get accelerated rendering.
So, specific X.Org drivers are nowadays only needed for specific things (yes, probably such as this TearFree option). The manpages for these X.Org drivers might clarify.
 
Snurg said:
But my suspicion is that the <modesetting> setting might actually mean using the vesa driver.
Click to expand...

If the drm driver is loaded correctly and no xorg config have been created the modesetting driver modesetting_drv.so will be loaded.

+ Bonus to Zirias correcty answer :)

If no drm driver (amdgpu/radeonkms/i915kms.ko) is loaded:

Vesa will be used on legacy boot configurations and loads automatically too.

Scfb will be used on UEFI boot configuartions and needs to be specified in an xorg configuration. Driver "scfb" etc...
 
Last edited:
Thank you all for your helpful answers!
I am getting a better understanding slowly :)

broozar said:
I am actually working on a new version of my DarkMate install script, which allows for selection of the graphics driver (nVidia/amdgpu/radeon/intel). I bought the RX 550 mainly for this reason.
Click to expand...
Awesome! ?
I looked at your postinstaller on github, and got some nice suggestions for my project (cgi based postinstaller).
Currently I am working on the configuration of the graphics cards after their autodetection.
And I feel quite annoyed that a few years I sold that box of many graphics cards I had collected when I had the opportunity to gut a batch of PCs being retired. :(
Now without all these cards, these discussions about how to get this or that card configured correctly help me getting their configuration right... so, again thank you all!
 
Funny... I got everything working just by following these instructions: (https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics#AMD_Graphics, the AMD GPU section). My card is an Asus RX 550 4GB. One thing to add to these instructions: the line

Code: 
kld_list="/boot/modules/amdgpu.ko"

absolutely needs to be the very last line of /etc/rc.conf for the whole thing to work. This same thing has worked fine for me on FreeBSD 12, 13-CURRENT, and now 13-RELEASE.
 
astyle said:
absolutely needs to be the very last line of /etc/rc.conf for the whole thing to work
Click to expand...
I have the following in the middle of file. rc.conf contains just a set of variables. I don't think the order matters.
Code: 
kld_list="ig4 iichid amdgpu amdsmb amdtemp linux64 linux"
 
bakul said:
I have the following in the middle of file. rc.conf contains just a set of variables. I don't think the order matters.
Code: 
kld_list="ig4 iichid amdgpu amdsmb amdtemp linux64 linux"
Click to expand...
After looking at my config some more, I realized that what matters is that order does matter for the amdgpu.ko - it's in /boot/modules/ directory, not /boot/kernel/. And somehow, the UEFI workaround to disable the framebuffer was not needed on my system.
 
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