Radeon

Resources

Wikipedia

radeon is a family of open source graphics drivers for AMD/ATI Radeon graphics cards.

Note
For cards based on GCN 1.2 and above, read the amdgpu article instead.

Hardware detection

To choose the right driver, first detect the graphics card. Use lspci for this task:

root #lspci | grep -i VGA

Feature support

Family	Chipset name	Product name	OpenGL	OpenGL ES	VIDEO_CARDS
R100	R100, RV100, RV200, RS100, RS200	7xxx, 320-345	1.3	No	radeon r100
R200	R200, RV250, RV280, RS300	8xxx-9250	1.4	No	radeon r200
R300	R300, R350, RV350, RV380, RS400, RS480	9500-9800, X300-X600, X1050-X1150, 200M	2.1	2.0	radeon r300
R400	R420, R423, RV410, RS600, RS690, RS740	X700-X850, X12xx, 2100	2.1	2.0	radeon r300
R500	RV515, R520, RV530, RV560, RV570, R580	X1300-X2300, HD2300	2.1	2.0	radeon r300
R600	R600, RV610, RV630, RV620, RV635, RV670, RS780, RS880	HD2400-HD4290	3.3	2.0	radeon r600
R700	RV770, RV730, RV710, RV740	HD4330-HD5165, HD5xxV	3.3	2.0	radeon r600
Evergreen	CEDAR, REDWOOD, JUNIPER, CYPRESS, PALM (Wrestler), SUMO, SUMO2	HD5430-HD5970, all HD6xxx not listed under Northern Islands, HD7350	3.3 (4.1)1	3.0	radeon r600
Northern Islands	ARUBA, BARTS, TURKS, CAICOS, CAYMAN	HD6450, HD6570, HD6670, HD6790-HD6990, HD64xxM, HD67xxM, HD69xxM, HD7450-HD7670	3.3 (4.1)1	3.0	radeon r600
Southern Islands	CAPE VERDE, PITCAIRN, TAHITI, OLAND, HAINAN	HD7750-HD7970, R9 270, R9 280, R7 240, R7 250	3.3 (4.1)2	3.0	radeon radeonsi
Sea Islands	BONAIRE, KABINI, KAVERI, HAWAII	HD7790, R7 260, R9 290	3.3 (4.1)2	3.0	radeon radeonsi

1) Needs testing packages: =mesa-9999 =llvm-9999

2) Needs testing packages: >=mesa-11.0.0 >=llvm-3.7

See also the http://wiki.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/ site for the latest feature/hardware list.

Installation

Kernel

Set the following kernel options:

KERNEL

Processor type and features  --->
    [*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
Device Drivers  --->
    Graphics support  --->

        If your card sits in an AGP slot, choose your AGP driver, e.g.:
        <*/M> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support)  --->
            <*/M> AMD Opteron/Athlon64 on-CPU GART support

        <*/M> Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support) --->
            <*/M> ATI Radeon
            [*] Enable modesetting on radeon by default

        -*- Support for frame buffer devices  --->
            < >   ATI Radeon display support

    <*/M> Sound card support  --->
        <*/M>   Advanced Linux Sound Architecture  --->
            [*]   PCI sound devices --->
                  HD-Audio  --->
                      <*> HD Audio PCI
                      (2048) Pre-allocated buffer size for HD-audio driver
                      [*] Support initialization patch loading for HD-audio
                      <*> whatever audio codec your soundcard needs
                      <*> Build HDMI/DisplayPort HD-audio codec support

Note
On kernels >= 3.9, Enable modesetting on radeon by default is implied by default.

The options from the Sound card support menu need only to be set if the card supports HDMI or DisplayPort audio and you want to use it. Other options there might be needed as well, e.g. don't set the number of soundcards too low, because even with one Radeon card alsa may detect more than one HDA ATI HDMI device, e.g.

root #aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 11: HDMI 5 [HDMI 5]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Firmware

Microcode is required for R600 and newer GPUs. Install either sys-firmware/radeon-ucode or sys-kernel/linux-firmware (contains also other firmware), either:

root #emerge --ask radeon-ucode

Or:

root #emerge --ask linux-firmware

Also, with packages like these, which introduce a number of non-free blobs into the system, if you are security aware, it pays to use the savedconfig use flag, and do some removing of the unnecessary lines, or better yet uncommenting them, from the respective savedconfig file. See "How to install the linux-firmware package in Gentoo" in External resources at bottom of this article.

However, savedconfig editing is entirely optional, those in a hurry may not want to take this route. System will work the same, with or without the savedconfig editing.

When radeon as been compiled directly into the kernel (instead of as a module), make sure the firmware for your model (check available ones in /lib/firmware/radeon) is included in the kernel:

KERNEL

Device Drivers  --->
    Generic Driver Options  --->
        -*- Userspace firmware loading support
        [*] Include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary
            (radeon/<YOUR-MODEL>.bin)
            (/lib/firmware) Firmware blobs root directory

Note
radeon/<CARD-MODEL>.bin should be replaced with the full list (space separated) appearing in front of the chipset's name in the table below (e.g. for Northern Islands TURKS the correct entry into the kernel would be: (radeon/BTC_rlc.bin radeon/TURKS_mc.bin radeon/TURKS_me.bin radeon/TURKS_pfp.bin radeon/TURKS_smc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin)

Below is a list of the firmware files needed for each family/chipset of cards:

Family	Chipset name	Product name	Firmware
R600	R600, RV610, RV630, RV620, RV635, RV670	HD2400-2900, HD3450-3870	radeon/R600_rlc.bin radeon/R600_uvd.bin
	RS780, RS880	HD3200, HD3300, HD4200	radeon/R600_rlc.bin radeon/RS780_uvd.bin
R700	RV710	HD4300, HD4500	radeon/R700_rlc.bin radeon/RV710_smc.bin radeon/RV710_uvd.bin
	RV730	HD4600, HD5100, HD500V	radeon/R700_rlc.bin radeon/RV730_smc.bin radeon/RV710_uvd.bin
	RV740	HD4770	radeon/R700_rlc.bin radeon/RV740_smc.bin radeon/RV710_uvd.bin
	RV790, RV770	HD4730, HD4830-HD4890	radeon/R700_rlc.bin radeon/RV770_smc.bin radeon/RV770_uvd.bin
Evergreen	CEDAR	HD5450, HD6350, HD7350, R5 220	radeon/CEDAR_me.bin radeon/CEDAR_pfp.bin radeon/CEDAR_rlc.bin radeon/CEDAR_smc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_uvd.bin
	REDWOOD	HD5550, HD5570, HD5670	radeon/REDWOOD_me.bin radeon/REDWOOD_pfp.bin radeon/REDWOOD_rlc.bin radeon/REDWOOD_smc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_uvd.bin
	JUNIPER	HD5750, HD5770, HD6770	radeon/JUNIPER_me.bin radeon/JUNIPER_pfp.bin radeon/JUNIPER_rlc.bin radeon/JUNIPER_smc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_uvd.bin
	CYPRESS	HD5830, HD5850, HD5870, HD5970	radeon/CYPRESS_me.bin radeon/CYPRESS_pfp.bin radeon/CYPRESS_rlc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_smc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_uvd.bin
	PALM (Wrestler)	HD6250, HD6310, HD7310, HD7340	radeon/PALM_me.bin radeon/PALM_pfp.bin radeon/SUMO_rlc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
	SUMO	HD6290, HD6320, HD6480G, HD6520G, HD6620G	radeon/SUMO_me.bin radeon/SUMO_pfp.bin radeon/SUMO_rlc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
	SUMO2	HD6370D, HD6410D	radeon/SUMO2_me.bin radeon/SUMO2_pfp.bin radeon/SUMO_rlc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
Northern Islands	CAICOS	HD6450, HD64xxM, R5 235, R5 235X	radeon/BTC_rlc.bin radeon/CAICOS_mc.bin radeon/CAICOS_me.bin radeon/CAICOS_pfp.bin radeon/CAICOS_smc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
	TURKS	HD6570, HD6670, HD7550M/7570M/7650M	radeon/BTC_rlc.bin radeon/TURKS_mc.bin radeon/TURKS_me.bin radeon/TURKS_pfp.bin radeon/TURKS_smc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
	BARTS	HD6790, HD6850, HD6870, HD67xxM	radeon/BTC_rlc.bin radeon/BARTS_mc.bin radeon/BARTS_me.bin radeon/BARTS_pfp.bin radeon/BARTS_smc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
	CAYMAN	HD6950, HD6970, HD6990, HD69xxM	radeon/CAYMAN_mc.bin radeon/CAYMAN_me.bin radeon/CAYMAN_pfp.bin radeon/CAYMAN_rlc.bin radeon/CAYMAN_smc.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin
	ARUBA	HD7400D/G, HD7500D/G, HD7600D/G, HD7660D, HD8310G, HD8410G-HD8670G	radeon/ARUBA_me.bin radeon/ARUBA_pfp.bin radeon/ARUBA_rlc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin radeon/TAHITI_vce.bin
Southern Islands	CAPE VERDE	HD7750, HD7770, R7 250, R7 250X	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/VERDE_ce.bin radeon/VERDE_mc.bin radeon/VERDE_mc2.bin radeon/VERDE_me.bin radeon/VERDE_pfp.bin radeon/VERDE_rlc.bin radeon/VERDE_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/verde_ce.bin radeon/verde_mc.bin radeon/verde_me.bin radeon/verde_pfp.bin radeon/verde_rlc.bin radeon/verde_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin
	PITCAIRN	HD7800, R9 270X	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/PITCAIRN_ce.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_mc.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_mc2.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_me.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_pfp.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_rlc.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin radeon/TAHITI_vce.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/pitcairn_ce.bin radeon/pitcairn_mc.bin radeon/pitcairn_me.bin radeon/pitcairn_pfp.bin radeon/pitcairn_rlc.bin radeon/pitcairn_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin radeon/TAHITI_vce.bin
	TAHITI	HD7870 XT, HD7900, R9 280X	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/TAHITI_ce.bin radeon/TAHITI_mc.bin radeon/TAHITI_mc2.bin radeon/TAHITI_me.bin radeon/TAHITI_pfp.bin radeon/TAHITI_rlc.bin radeon/TAHITI_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/tahiti_ce.bin radeon/tahiti_mc.bin radeon/tahiti_me.bin radeon/tahiti_pfp.bin radeon/tahiti_rlc.bin radeon/tahiti_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin
	OLAND	HD8550M-HD8790M, R7 240	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/OLAND_ce.bin radeon/OLAND_mc.bin radeon/OLAND_mc2.bin radeon/OLAND_me.bin radeon/OLAND_pfp.bin radeon/OLAND_rlc.bin radeon/OLAND_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/oland_ce.bin radeon/oland_mc.bin radeon/oland_me.bin radeon/oland_pfp.bin radeon/oland_rlc.bin radeon/oland_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin
	HAINAN	HD8970M	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/HAINAN_ce.bin radeon/HAINAN_mc.bin radeon/HAINAN_mc2.bin radeon/HAINAN_me.bin radeon/HAINAN_pfp.bin radeon/HAINAN_rlc.bin radeon/HAINAN_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/hainan_ce.bin radeon/hainan_mc.bin radeon/hainan_me.bin radeon/hainan_pfp.bin radeon/hainan_rlc.bin radeon/hainan_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin
Sea Islands	BONAIRE	HD7790, R7 260, R7 260X	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/BONAIRE_ce.bin radeon/BONAIRE_mc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_mc2.bin radeon/BONAIRE_me.bin radeon/BONAIRE_mec.bin radeon/BONAIRE_pfp.bin radeon/BONAIRE_rlc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_smc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/bonaire_ce.bin radeon/bonaire_mc.bin radeon/bonaire_me.bin radeon/bonaire_mec.bin radeon/bonaire_pfp.bin radeon/bonaire_rlc.bin radeon/bonaire_sdma.bin radeon/bonaire_smc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin
	KABINI	HD8180-HD8400	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/KABINI_ce.bin radeon/KABINI_me.bin radeon/KABINI_mec.bin radeon/KABINI_pfp.bin radeon/KABINI_rlc.bin radeon/KABINI_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/kabini_ce.bin radeon/kabini_me.bin radeon/kabini_mec.bin radeon/kabini_pfp.bin radeon/kabini_rlc.bin radeon/kabini_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin
	KAVERI		Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/KAVERI_ce.bin radeon/KAVERI_me.bin radeon/KAVERI_mec.bin radeon/KAVERI_pfp.bin radeon/KAVERI_rlc.bin radeon/KAVERI_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/kaveri_ce.bin radeon/kaveri_me.bin radeon/kaveri_mec2.bin radeon/kaveri_mec.bin radeon/kaveri_pfp.bin radeon/kaveri_rlc.bin radeon/kaveri_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin
	HAWAII	R9 290, R9 290X	Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/HAWAII_ce.bin radeon/HAWAII_mc.bin radeon/HAWAII_mc2.bin radeon/HAWAII_me.bin radeon/HAWAII_mec.bin radeon/HAWAII_pfp.bin radeon/HAWAII_rlc.bin radeon/HAWAII_sdma.bin radeon/HAWAII_smc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/hawaii_ce.bin radeon/hawaii_mc.bin radeon/hawaii_me.bin radeon/hawaii_mec.bin radeon/hawaii_pfp.bin radeon/hawaii_rlc.bin radeon/hawaii_sdma.bin radeon/hawaii_smc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin
	MULLINS		Kernel 3.16 and older: radeon/MULLINS_ce.bin radeon/MULLINS_me.bin radeon/MULLINS_mec.bin radeon/MULLINS_pfp.bin radeon/MULLINS_rlc.bin radeon/MULLINS_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin Kernel 3.17 and newer: radeon/mullins_ce.bin radeon/mullins_me.bin radeon/mullins_mec.bin radeon/mullins_pfp.bin radeon/mullins_rlc.bin radeon/mullins_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/BONAIRE_vce.bin

Driver

Portage uses the VIDEO_CARDS variable for enabling support for various graphics cards. Setting VIDEO_CARDS to the right value of radeon (see the feature matrix) will pull in the correct driver:

FILE /etc/portage/make.conf

VIDEO_CARDS="radeon"

USE flags for x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati ATI video driver

udev	Enable virtual/udev integration (device discovery, power and storage device support, etc)

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2023-06-05 15:39 More information about USE flags

Note
Glamor OpenGL 2D acceleration which is enabled by default, should be disabled for R5xx and older cards.

After the values have been set update the system so the changes take effect:

root #emerge --ask --changed-use --deep @world

Configuration

Permissions

If the acl USE flag is enabled globally and elogind is being used (default for desktop profiles) permissions to video cards will be handled automatically. It is possible to check the permissions using getfacl:

user $getfacl /dev/dri/card0 | grep larry

user:larry:rw-

A broader solution is to add the user(s) needing access the video card to the video group:

root #gpasswd -a larry video

Note that users will be able to run X without permission to the DRI subsystem, but hardware acceleration will be disabled.

xorg.conf

The X server is designed to work out-of-the-box, with no need to manually edit X.Org's configuration files. It should detect and configure devices such as displays, keyboards, and mice.

However, the main configuration file of the X server is xorg.conf.

The X server can be forced to use desired driver with:

FILE /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/radeon.confExplicit radeon driver section

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "radeon"
   Driver      "radeon"
EndSection

Advanced configuration

Power management

Power management can be set in the sysfs filesystem as follows:

• Check the current power method:

root #cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method

• Change the power method:

The "dynpm" method dynamically changes the clocks based on demand. (not effective as of June 27, 2012)

root #echo "dynpm" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method

The "profile" method lets you set a profile on how the card should behave.

root #echo "profile" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method

• Check the current profile:

root #cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

• Change the profile:

Options for profile:

1. "default" no change of clock speeds
2. "auto" switches between "mid" and "high" power states based on the whether the system is on battery power or not. The "low" power state are selected when the monitors are in the dpms off state.
3. "low" forces the GPU to be in the low power state all the time. Note that "low" can cause display problems on some laptops; this is why auto does not use "low" when displays are active.
4. "mid" forces the GPU to be in the "mid" power state all the time. The "low" power state is selected when the monitors are in the dpms off state.
5. "high" forces the GPU to be in the "high" power state all the time. The "low" power state is selected when the monitors are in the dpms off state.

root #echo "low" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

• Check the current GPU, Memory clocks and voltage (needs to have kernel debugfs enabled):

root #cat /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/radeon_pm_info

Note
With more than one monitor connected, the memory clock will always be on full speed.

Note
On APU chipsets, those settings have little to no effect and give inconclusive results.

Power Management with Linux Kernel 3.11, 3.12

Linux Kernel 3.11 introduces improved power management for some radeon cards, to activate it pass the parameter radeon.dpm=1 to the kernel.

Note
Performance APU GPUs can be rapidly increased by enabling this option, which allow them use profiles with maximum clocks.

• Check the dynamic power management state

root #cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_state

• Change the dynamic power management state

root #echo "performance" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_state

Other valid options include "battery" and "balanced"

In order to verify that the new dynamic power management code is active check radeon_pm_info (see above), it should say something like

uvd vclk: 0 dclk: 0

power level 0 sclk: 25000 mclk: 15000 vddc: 900 vddci: 950

Note
Using the new dynamic power management will disable the use of the power profiles mentioned above

Power Management with Linux Kernel >= 3.13

Linux Kernel 3.13 enabled dynamic power managment by default for a lot of video cards.

• Check the current GPU, Memory clocks and voltage (needs to have kernel debugfs enabled):

root #cat /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/radeon_pm_info

Note
With more than one monitor connected, the memory clock will NOT be on full speed as it was before.

Power consumption when using multi-head / multi-monitor

When using more than one monitor at once, the power consumption of the graphics card increases up to additional 150% relative to its idle power consumption, because the memory clock switches to full speed (see above). This behavior causes a system using a Radeon HD6870 card to consume around 30 W of additional power when running in multi-monitor mode than in single-monitor mode. This behavior can be avoided by using power method "profile" instead of "dpm" and by forcing "profile" to "low".

Using power method "dpm" and setting a low power profile (i.e. "balanced") is sure possible but useless in this case. The "dpm" method does not allow to forcibly remain on a certain power preset, because it uses the internal GPU hardware to dynamically change the clocks and voltages depending on the current GPU load. As a result, the power consumption increases as soon as you activate a second monitor (because the GPU hardware wants it so).

• Deactivate dpm first (Kernel >= 3.13) with an appropriate kernel commandline via GRUB at boottime:

FILE /boot/grub/grub.cfg

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="radeon.dpm=0"

Note
"dpm" is the default power management method since kernel 3.13, supported on R6xx and newer asics.

• After rebooting the system to desktop, force the power profile to "low". (This can also be automated by creating a /etc/local.d/* script):

root #echo "low" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

Limitation: For my KDE desktop environment this procedure will only work when the power profile level is assigned after KDE has started. An automated command in /etc/local.d/*.start is not sufficient. The memory clock rises and remains high (like normal behavior).

Solution: Let KDE do the job with its autostart feature.

• Allow the user to change the power profile by giving him the appropriate privilege when booting. Create a file like the following:

FILE /etc/local.d/pm.start

chown <YourUser> /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

• Add a startscript to KDE autostart:

FILE ~/.kde/Autostart/pm.sh

#! /bin/bash
echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile
exit 0

• Do not forget to make it executable:

user $ chmod +x ~/.kde/Autostart/pm.sh

You can check the result via kernel debugfs (see above) and it should be similar:

root #cat /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/radeon_pm_info

default engine clock: 900000 kHz
current engine clock: 99990 kHz
default memory clock: 1050000 kHz
current memory clock: 150000 kHz
voltage: 950 mV
PCIE lanes: 16

Benefit: After these changes, you may use as many monitors as possible without an increased power consumption of your system. Despite the fact that the GPU memory clock is constantly reduced there are still enough graphic resources left to render KDE desktop effects, to play HD movies (also with USE="vdpau") and to do all the regular stuff to get your work done.

Tuning

I couldn't find a summary of all options available so feel free to add to this.

Warning
There are several options to tweak the radeon driver and some of these might break your desktop, so if you are uncomfortable with the console better stick to default.

Parameter	Application	Effect	Comment
radeon.pcie_gen2=1	kernel commandline	Run at PCI-E 2.0 speeds per default	Enabled by default since kernel 3.6
radeon.audio=1	kernel commandline	Enable HDMI audio on some cards	Enabled by default since kernel 3.13
radeon.dpm=1	kernel commandline	Enable dynamic power management on some cards1	Enabled by default since kernel 3.13
R600_STREAMOUT=1	Environment variable	Enable the use of OpenGL 3.0/4.2 on some cards	Enabled by default since Mesa 8.0
R600_HYPERZ=1	Environment variable	Enable the use Hyper-Z on some cards	See Bugs: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75112
R600_TILING=1	Environment variable	Enable 2D Tiling on some cards (also needs the xorg.conf parameter set)	This option is probably activated by default, see man radeon
R600_SURF=1	Environment variable	Enable 2D Tiling on some cards (also needs the xorg.conf parameter set)
R600_GLSL130=1	Environment variable	Enable more features of the OpenGL 3.0 API	Enabled by default since Mesa 8.0
ColorTiling2D True	xorg.conf parameter	Enable 2D Color Tiling in conjunction with R600_TILING=1 and R600_SURF=1	This option is probably activated by default, see man radeon

Tuning with mesa from git

Mesa from git (=mesa-9999) offers a different way to tune the 3D driver. Use the environment variable R600_DEBUG with the following options

Parameter	Effect
help	List all of the configuration options

See mesa commit for more information.

• Kernel parameters can be just added to the kernel commandline in grub.cfg or grub.conf.
• Environment variables could be put into a file like /etc/env.d/99radeon to have them initialized during boot.
• xorg.conf parameter are usual in the Device section for the card.
• A full list of kernel parameters can be found here: X.Org Wiki - RadeonFeature
• S3TC compression needed for some applications like most 3D games: media-libs/libtxc_dxtn

1) supported by Linux kernel 3.11

Monitoring

lm sensors can be used to monitor the cards temperature. It uses the I2C interface, which needs to be enabled in the kernel:

KERNEL Including radeon firmware

Device Drivers --->
   Graphics support --->
      <*> Support for frame buffer devices --->
         <*> ATI Radeon display support 
            [*] DDC/I2C for ATI Radeon support

Note
R6xx and newer radeons have an internal thermal sensor that is exposed by the driver on most cards that utilize it. On pre-r6xx hardware, the thermal sensor was an external i2c chip, so you need to choose and load the appropriate i2c hwmon driver.

Audio over HDMI

Audio through the HDMI port is available for some cards. Check the X.Org Wiki - Radeon Feature Matrix for the model family. A recent 3.x kernel may be needed.

If you are using a kernel older than 3.13, HDMI audio must be explicitly enabled using the kernel commandline paramater radeon.audio=1. In addition, ALSA typically does not use HDMI as the default audio, so one way to force this as the default is to add a config file:

FILE ~/.asoundrc

pcm.!default {
  type plug
  slave.pcm "hdmi"
}

which may be moved to /etc/asound.conf to make HDMI audio the system-wide default.

Another solution is to enable the pulseaudio USE flag, update the system and use pavucontrol to set the HDMI port as fallback (or use pavucontrol to change manually which application uses which audio port).

Multichannel LPCM

If you want to enjoy full 5.1 HDMI sound on your Gentoo rig try out anssi's HDMI audio patch as mentioned in the phoronix forums.

root #cd /usr/src/linux

root #wget http://onse.fi/files/atihdmi5.patch

root #patch -p1 < atihdmi5.patch

root #make && sudo make modules_install && sudo make install

Check the bootloader config to use the correct kernel and reboot.

Troubleshooting

Glamor does not load

If you see errors like "glamor detected, failed to initialize EGL.", then try enabling USE="gbm egl gles2 llvm" in the mesa builds.

If you see errors like "Failed to link: error: fragment shader lacks `main'", then make sure the glamor package has been built with USE="-gles".

On cards that are supported by radeonsi (starting at Southern Island, see the feature matrix) make sure to not only specify "radeon" but also "radeonsi" as the driver.

Poor X server performance

If graphic performance (such as playing videos) is terrible, then make sure KMS Color Tiling is enabled. You can see this in your Xorg log:

[  3407.235] (II) RADEON(0): KMS Color Tiling: enabled
[  3407.235] (II) RADEON(0): KMS Color Tiling 2D: enabled
[  3407.235] (II) RADEON(0): KMS Pageflipping: enabled

If you see "no" instead of "enabled", then you'll have to look earlier in the log to see why it's been disabled. If glamor failed to load, see the previous troubleshooting item.

Trouble with integrated graphics (A8 or similar)

When having trouble getting an on chip integrated graphic core to work (strange visuals/black screen) the solution may be found in the motherboard's BIOS settings.

In some cases it appears the 'auto' settings don't work correctly, so make sure to explicitly enable the integrated graphics. In my case (MSI A88XM-E45 motherboard):

Settings > Advanced > Integrated Graphics Configuration > Initiate Graphics Devices - I changed this from 'auto' to 'Dual graphics'

Settings > Advanced > Integrated Graphics Configuration > Initiate Graphics Shared Memory - This then appeared which I gave a setting

After this all problems cleared up.

Bug trackers

• Gentoo bugtracker: known bugs
• Freedesktop.org bugtracker: known bugs
• Freedesktop.org bugtracker: known bugs

See also

• amdgpu - Open source driver for Volcanic Islands and newer chips.
• fglrx - Closed source binary driver for AMD/ATI graphic cards.
• fglrx Quick Switch - Quickly switch between fglrx and this driver using GRUB 2 without downgrading xorg-server.
• hprofile - Another method for switching between graphics drivers.

External resources

• X.Org Wiki
• X.Org radeon feature matrix
• Status of OpenGL features in Mesa
• Phoronix Forums multichannel for radeon
• hdmi multichannel patch
• How to install the linux-firmware package in Gentoo