SP3 does not work with dual display for ATI fglrx

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop SLED Updates
1

hi.

laptop has discrete graphics AMD Radeon 7500M, besides the i5 ivy bridge’s GPU. dual display can not work (horrible flickering and corrupted image displayed), as it was working with SP2. i tried it all, installing from repository, installing the proprietary driver from AMD, nothing did fix it. On one display, everything is great.

from http://www2.ati.com/suse/sle11sp3 repository, this was installed:
ati-fglrxG03-kmp-default
x11-video-fglrxG03

from amd linux driver kit, tried both latest 14.12 (which btw worked with SP2) and beta 14.6

is there something that can be done to make ATI dual display working on SP3?

thanks,
mihai

2

Hi
Did you run sax2 to reconfigure the xorg.conf file?

sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx

You need to be at the console and runlevel 3.

Then should be able to configure the displays via the ATI CC tool back at runlevel 5.

3

hi Malcolm,

i tried now to run the provided sax2 command in runlevel 3, it just gives me a prompt that i exit with ctrl+c (not knowing what else to do there). i see it does not update the /etc/X11/xorg.conf

btw, the ati cc tool does not have display option, i have to change display settings via gnome-display-properties tool.

4

Hi
Ok, can you provide the output from the following command;

/sbin/lspci -nnk|grep -A3 VGA

I build my own rpm for my ATI card from the rpm method here (which I
have had better success with SLED 12 and 11 SP3).
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:AMD_fglrx

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.12.36-38-default
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5

linux:/home/mihai/Desktop # /sbin/lspci -nnk|grep -A3 VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:17f4]
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Thames [Radeon 7500M/7600M Series] [1002:6841]
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:17f4]
Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
Kernel modules: fglrx, radeon

6

Hi
Can the intel be disabled in the BIOS or only the ATI card?

Else if you look at the man page for Sax2 using the -p option you need
to identify the chip numbers then use that with the -c option in the
previous command.

Failing that, unless you need the fglrx, think you might be stuck with
the intel card.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.12.36-38-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

7

hello Malcolm,

the BIOS has a “switchable graphics” enable/disable option which as far as i see enables/disables the discrete graphics (ATI)

i am not familiar with sax2, i get a prompt when using it with the parameter you mention:
/usr/sbin/sax2 -p
SaX: root Password:
Chip: 0 is → Intel Ivybridge M GT2 00:02:0 0x8086 0x0166 PCI intel
Chip: 1 is → VESA Framebuffer Graphics 01:00:0 0x1002 0x6841 AGP fbdev

mihai@linux:~/Desktop> /usr/sbin/sax2 -c 1
SaX: root Password:
SaX: initializing please wait…
SaX: your current configuration will not be read in

SaX: GUI is missing, starting commandline interface
SaX: access to your display has been granted
Xlib: extension “XFree86-Misc” missing on display “:0.0”.
Xlib: extension “XFree86-Misc” missing on display “:0.0”.
Xlib: extension “XFree86-Misc” missing on display “:0.0”.
Xlib: extension “XFree86-Misc” missing on display “:0.0”.
SPP: prepare device [0] profile: NoModelines
SPP: including prepared profile(s)…

Linux SaX Version 8.1 startup level (init)
(C) Copyright 2005 - SUSE LINUX Products GmbH

B SaX: [/B]

i could live with the intel, but i don’t have the acceleration (e.g. genymotion wants GLX/OpenGL and by default intel driver is missing this)

8

i installed sax-gui and could start without any parameter from runlevel 3(using -c 1 or -m 0=fglrx makes it unable to start the x session); i can also start it from gnome interface; but it only sees the Ivy bridge internal graphics in the graphical interface, no trace for ATI, although the active one is ATI fglrx as shown by fglrxinfo

9

Hi
OK, what does the output from the following show;

cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.12.36-38-default
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10

i see that i don’t have that path at all

11

Hi
Hmmm maybe the older kernel, I’ve asked one of my openSUSE colleagues
to have a look at this thread and offer advice.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.12.38-44-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

12

You can always check that the kernel supports switcheroo

zgrep -i switcheroo /proc/config.gz

It should return

CONFIG_VGA_SWITCHEROO=y

I know little about SLES, but did you install vgaswitcheroo yet?

13

from this command i get:

CONFIG_VGA_SWITCHEROO is not set

zypper se vgaswitcheroo does not return any result for some reason

i’ll stick with SP2 for dual display functionality and use SP3 repos only for updates such as firefox etc.; i’ll loose the better performance of the SP3, which i think was visible on my system after the update.
SUSE should come with a fix for this lack of dual display proper support in what is a wonderful OS; that being said, i’m already back to SP2 and using dual display with the ATI discrete graphics.

thank you for your help, Malcolm&Co