[ltp] Mails from ATI about the Suspend-To-Ram problem with fglrx drivers
Nils
linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Tue, 5 Apr 2005 16:23:26 +0200
I've removed the headers and you can read mails between me and ATI.
You can read this long mail, but you won't find a solution except waiting :-)
1.) To ATI
Linux Driver Feedback
Details: I've seen that it is a problem to resume a linux computer from
suspend mode with ATI fglrx drivers. (FireGL T2) The problem is that I wait
over a year that ati solves this really very big problem, because who needs a
driver for a notebook which can't resume ??? Everbody can make mistakes, but
this no joke anymore. Please release better driver or many people are so
angry, that they'll never buy ATI products in the future and I am one of
them.
I hope I'll get an answer to solve this issue,
Nils
[Or release the driver under GPL and it would be the best graphic driver of
the world in some weeks :-) ]
2.) From ATI
Sleep mode settings is not controlled by display driver - it is controlled by
the Linux configuration tools available in your particular distro.
This is a laptop as well, you should set up the fglrxconfig using laptop mode.
Regards,
3.) To ATI
I think my describtion of the problem was not clear enough. My laptop works
fine with suspend to ram (or disk) if I use the opensource driver radeon
(Xfree / Xorg), but these drivers don't support 3D acceleration.
That is the reason why I want to use the firegl driver from ATI. The laptop
also works fine, it suspends without problems, but then I wake it up and my
screen is garbled and I've to reboot it. (really really bad ...)
On the ATI support pages I found this: (for over a year!)
( http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.10.19.html
Attempting to resume from system suspension results in the system failing to
respond. )
Is ATI working to fix this issue or should it be fixed and working ? But I
don't know anybody of some hundred linux users.
4.) From ATI
Laptops hang on suspend/resume mode
This issue affects the following system configurations:
ATI Proprietary Linux driver
Laptop system with ATI display adapter
Suspending the system works correctly. Resuming from system suspension
results in a system hang.
ATI engineering is aware of this issue and is investigating.
This issue is under investigation. There is no solution available at this
time.
I still believe that changing some of the settings on the fglrxconfig may help
you fix this issue.
Have tried the external agpgart?
Regards,
5.) To ATI
Hi,
I tried external agp-gart.
lsmod | grep agp
intel_agp 20060 1
agpgart 28840 1 intel_agp
In XF86Config.4 :
(...)
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
(...)
But I have no success with it. After resuming the laptop I see only the
garbled screen and I have to reboot it.
If I deactivate DRI it is perfectly working, but then I have no 3D
acceleration. Then it makes no sense to use the ati driver!
I can't debug the driver, because it is closed source. I think ATI is big
enough to check the driver on any IBM Thinkpad with a fireGL card.
It seems to be a problem, because every thinkpad user I know has the same
problem.
I still hope for fix,
6.) From ATI
It could be a Bios issue like the one in the ACER,
http://localhost.ruhr.de/~stefan/acerTM292/
In this article he also presentes other solutions that may work for you, like
the following,
"Software Suspend 2" is a kernel patch that allows you to suspend your system
by saving the memory content into a swap partition and powering down. When
booting the system again, the kernel recognizes the frozen image, und
restores he former state of the notebook. The use of Software Suspend
requires some prerequisites:
* a running kernel with "Software Suspend 2" patched in, e.g. the
kernel-image-2.6.10-susp-tm292 available here (future packages may not carry
the additional "-susp" suffix)
* a swap partition (swap files do not work) large enough to fit your RAM
content into
* the debian package hibernate, which supplies a script that takes care of
nasty hard- and software during suspension.
Once the kernel is running, you have to modify your bootloader (lilo or grub,
preferred the later) to include the additional commandline statement
"resume2=swap:/dev/hda6", where /dev/hda6 is the swap partition you wish to
resume to. However, the ATI drivers are breaking Software Suspend, so you
have to quit X11 before hibernating your notebook: My hibernate.conf does
this automatically by shutting down gdm, it as well restores acpi and acerhk
drivers after resume. Just copy it to /etc/hibernate/. If you want to suspend
the system, just su to root and enter "hibernate".
If you do not need DRI and OpenGL acceleration, you can use the open source
"radeon" driver. Software Suspend 2 works fine with this driver, even without
quitting X11. Just replace the driver "fglrx" with "radeon" in you
XF86Config-4, and resume "gdm" from the "RestartServices" line of
"hibernate.conf". If you want to switch between the two configurations, use
the "switch-xconfig.sh" script.
Regards,
7.) To ATI
Thanks for the detailed answer!
I have tried several thinks:
working:
-> Suspend-To-Disk is working (with software suspend / bios suspend)
-> Suspend-To-Ram is working if I close the X Server before.
not working:
-> Suspend-To-Ram with DRI and a running X Server and the ATI Driver. (garbled
screen)
(I like Suspend-To-Ram because the laptop needs only 2 seconds and I can work)
I have only one more question, where is the problem that the last point is not
working. Is it kernel related or a problem with the fglrx binary or the
opengl / dri implementation?
Regards,
8.) From ATI
I do believe that must be Kernel or Hardware related.
If the problem was the driver it would happen always in every machine.
Look at the following article, it is great,
http://www.stanford.edu/~sanjiv/thinkpad/thinkpad.html
Regards,
9.) To ATI
thanks for the link
http://www.stanford.edu/~sanjiv/thinkpad/thinkpad.html
Okay he has no garbled screen, but he has to reboot his X-Server, because of a
slowdown. With XOrg he doesn't use the ati proprietary driver. (the same
problem, no 3D ...)
You think it's a problem with the kernel or hardware. That's the reason why I
am searching for people who has a working configuration with DRI/ATI
proprietary driver/XFree or Xorg/Suspend-To-Ram/running X-Server. I have
spooken to more than 20 people (okay, it's not much enough) and it seems that
nobody has a working configuration. The only part I can't check is the driver
and I think there is a memory problem in it. (Simple refresh ?)
You can help me very much, if you say that you know somebody with such a
working configuration. (ATI card / model / config)
(I know that there exists work-arounds - e.g. restarting the X-Server is no
solution for me.)
Is there any chance that ati can help to support the following project ?
(little hints / a little bit documentation / code fragments)
http://r300.sourceforge.net/
Regards,
10.) From ATI
That is all the help I can give you. The Linux team is always working on
improving our driver.
You have to Understant that with So many Kernel versions being released and
used it is very difficult to keep up. And that applies to all hardware
companies.
That is why I just use the Stable kernels.
As for the Mesa and Gatos projects ATI does support such a projects.
Dear ---
I do believe that must be Kernel or Hardware related.
If the problem was the driver it would happen always in every machine.
Look at the following article, it is great,
http://www.stanford.edu/~sanjiv/thinkpad/thinkpad.html
Regards,
11.) To ATI
thanks for your help. I will waiting for the next versions of the fglrx driver
and xserver improvements.
This page is interesting: (and exactly correct !!)
http://www.doesi.gmxhome.de/linux/tm800s3/s3.html
(see -> Informal: ATI's binary driver / Old Alternative 1-3)
The kernel developer says that the drivers have to reinitialize the devices.
That's no problem with drivers which are included in the kernel, but external
drivers have to do the same, but they can't fix this.
----
I hope they will fix their drivers ...