Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Problem with xf86-video-ati & nvidia-drivers

[Grant]

>> When I was using an Nvidia video card, I noticed a strange sort of
>> fuzzy edge effect if I used nvidia-drivers.  xf86-video-nouveau didn't
>> have the same problem.  Now I've switched to an ATI video card and
>> unfortunately I have the same problem with xf86-video-ati.  I tried to
>> enable the new modesetting radeon driver in the kernel to see if that
>> would help but it doesn't work with my HD4250 card yet.
>
> It should work.  But you need firmware that is not included in the kernel.
>  You need to install the x11-drivers/radeon-ucode package, and then build a
> kernel that includes the appropriate firmware.  Which firmware file (one of
> the *.bin files in /lib/firmware/radeon) is needed should be printed during
> boot; at the moment the kernel hangs, it should print which firmware file it
> was trying to load.
>
> On my HD4870, I configured it like so:
>
> In "Device Drivers -> Generic Driver Options", I've set:
>
> (radeon/R700_rlc.bin) External firmware blobs to build into the kernel
> binary
> (/lib/firmware) Firmware blobs root directory

You're right.  That fixed the stall during kernel load and now KMS works fine.

> Then rebuild and install the kernel.  Before you reboot, make sure you have
> built media-libs/mesa with the "gallium" USE flag set, and do an "eselect
> mesa set r600 gallium".  Make sure you don't have disabled KMS in the kernel
> command line or module options ("radeon.modeset=0" disables KMS).  After you
> reboot, you should have KMS + Gallium3D working.

I've eselected to gallium but is there any benefit if I don't use 3D at all?

- Grant