Radeon issues with Debian 12
 

Hey all!
Recently I got new old machine which I'm trying to make my temporary workstation as I don't have access to my personal computer. I've installed Debian 12 (also I tried antiX, XM, xubuntu with same problems) and when machine starts, screen turns off. It looks that the problem is with GPU driver as when I add "nomodeset" or "radeon.modeset=0" to grub, system starts correctly (only with 640x480 option). I've tried installing Nvidia drivers following this instructons with no success: https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

At the moment I wiped out system and reinstalled it, so I'm trying everything from scratch. Slowly I'm loosing hope...

Debian 12 with GNOME
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H,
Processor: AMD Athlon( II X3 445
Graphic card: Radeon HD 4850

I will grateful for any help

Why did you install nvidia driver? That will surely not help on it.
probably something like this can help: https://wiki.debian.org/AMDGPUDriverOnStretchAndBuster2

Go to BIOS and check whether onboard graphics of GA-880GM-UD2H is completely disabled.
Radeon HD 4850 GPU is too old for amdgpu driver. radeon driver must be used instead. Ensure that your distro doesn't try to load amdgpu. Blacklist it.

I tried installing this driver: https://www.amd.com/en/support/graph...eon-hd-4850-x2

I choosed Linux x86 64-Bit version of it and followed the GUI installer. I had to install GCC and Make, also I had to install Linux headers. There was also problem with missing "/lib/modules/6.1.0-17-amd64/build/include/linux/version.h" so I've created manually "linux" folder and copied verion.h like:
But after installation it totally corrupted my system and I got this screen (with and without "nomodeset" in GRUB): https://i0.wp.com/www.thetqweb.com/w...ng?w=659&ssl=1

So couldn't do anything and reinstalled entire OS once again. Right now I've blacklisted admgpu as well as disabled onboard VGA and still looking for solution...

There is no supported proprietary driver for these cards. The proprietary driver stopped being developed like a decade ago, and is no longer even mildly compatible with current kernels.

I BELIEVE the HD 4850 should use the built-in Radeon driver and will offer full 3d acceleration with it. You won't want to have Catalyst/FGLRX or any Nvidia proprietary drivers installed, and you may need to blacklist the amdgpu drivers to get Radeon to properly load.

It MAY be possible to use amdgpu drivers with this card, as I really don't remember when they made the transition, but I think this predates that support even with attempting to force it.

Still having problems. I tried many things and nothing.

gave nothing

I also made some changes in grub following this topic: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread....0#post14152990

Still nothing. I can login to the system (black screen doesn't show up) but I still see *-display UNCLAIMED and can't change resolution (it's only 640x480).

There's two modules for Radeon: the older one that you can probably use is called "ATI Radeon" in the kernel configs and "radeon" as a module the other is AMD GPU, called "amdgpu" as a module. That's CONFIG_DRM_RADEON vs CONFIG_DRM_AMDGPU. I'd try "radeon" first. The X11 support will likely be xf86-video-ati. Assuming you have the kernel and its modules, you shouldn't have to download any outside drivers. I've had alot of Radeons and always used the in-kernel support.

I'm not sure how I can switch them? In grub file?

Make sure you have the module first (modinfo radeon). Then probably like this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1080...-amdgpu-driver
I'm not on Debian so I can't say exactly how.

Below command gives nothing now:
Followed the link you mentioned and still black screen.

Also I checked resolutions with xrandr and this is the output.

and lspci -nnk

I don't have any Debian installed with my HD4650, but I do have Mageia 9, Fedora 39, and openSUSE Tumbleweed, Slowroll and Leap 15.5 installed on it, and I have an HD3470 with Bookworm. All are working normally on pure OOTB software packages, and no special graphics setup. I suggest to check if you have GDM installed and enabled, and if you do, switch to something else, such as LightDM or TDM. I use only TDM here on all my Debians. The required kernel module is radeon. The better X display driver is the newer technology upstream default, modesetting, but the radeon provided by xserver-xorg-video-ati should work as well. The modesetting is not separately packaged, and is enabled by simply not having xserver-xorg-video-ati installed, and successfully loading the radeon kernel module. The following are from properly functioning installations:Pinxi is simply the devel version of inxi.

There have been various difficult issues for some users of recent Bookworm kernels. 6.1.0-18 is expected soon if it hasn't already arrived. If it hasn't, it might be worth trying something older, e.g. 6.1.0-13:

Hmmm, switched to TDE and the problem is still the same. Also 'Linux 6.1.0-13-amd64 x86_64' didn't work. I'm wondering, if it can be the problem with the cable support or something? As I checked on different screen and it shows "no cable connected". This Radeon has only two DVI outputs and I'm using DVI-HDMI cable. Maybe I should switch to DVI-VGA? Is it possible that it's the problem with the cable? The problem not showing with nomodeset.

Hmmm, switched to TDE and the problem is still the same. Also 'Linux 6.1.0-13-amd64 x86_64' didn't work. I'm wondering, if it can be the problem with the cable support or something? As I checked on different screen and it shows "no cable connected". This Radeon has only two DVI outputs and I'm using DVI-HDMI cable. Maybe I should switch to DVI-VGA? Is it possible that it's the problem with the cable? The problem not showing with nomodeset.

A few other things I'd try.

• Delete the Grub GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line. Try without setting video options that might be causing trouble
• Boot to command line if possilbe instead of GUI
• Check syslogs to see what's going on
• Work with a known-good monitor

Finally I've solved the problem. I found on one Windows 10 forum problem with displaying image wrong on DVI-HDMI. What I didn't know is that on the back of the card are two outputs and both are used to different connections:
- white for DVI-VGA
- yellow for DVI-HDMI

I was using the white one during installation. When I switched to yellow one and reinstalled OS from scratch it worked OOTB. I'm not exactly sure why after installation on white one switching outputs didn't help, but I guess it was wrongly configured.

Anyway, problem solved :)