Re: new video card broke X

Eben King composed on 2026-06-29 09:41 (UTC-0400):

> Felix Miata wrote:

>> What you should see that is missing includes the following (from a Trixie boot).
>> /var/log/Xorg.0.log:[     4.096] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
>> /var/log/Xorg.0.log:[     4.152] (II) modeset(0): using drv /dev/dri/card0

>> The absence of required firmware can produce their absence.

> That was indeed the problem. I did "modinfo amdgpu" and noticed a lot of 
> lines about various firmwares, so I went looking for the appropriate 
> firmware for amdgpu on Debian. The wiki told me it was 
> "firmware-amd-graphics" so I installed that, rebooted (maybe I could 
> have just reloaded the module) and boom X worked.  Boot sequence looked 
> odd too, because part of it was on the R monitor (Intel) and then it 
> switched to the center one (AMD).

Initial boot phase depends on motherboard firmware for GPU output, as may be
adjusted by bootloader configuration. At some point kernel loads the firmware and
GPU module and switches to it. That's when kernel switched your active display
from R to C.

>> In your OP, I spotted nothing to tell us anything about your "new" GPU, only the
>> onboard Intel 530. How about sharing better information:

> Well, it works now, so the info might be different. But here goes:

>> 	inxi -GSaz --vs --za

It's a tool to easily show you what's going on using just one command with various
options, virtually indispensible for getting good help. The options quoted are

-G: graphics
-S: system, including boot cmdline parameters
-a: virtually maximum detail
-z: hold back sensitive information that may not be suited for sharing
--vs: show inxi version standalone
--za: extra filtering

GPU output is limited when not run from within X, moreso if using wayland.

> bash: inxi: command not found

> Hmm.

	apt install inxi

>> 	dpkg -l | grep -E 'mwar|xorg-video'
> 
> ii  firmware-amd-graphics
> ii  firmware-linux-free
> ii  firmware-misc-nonfree
> ii  intel-microcode
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-ati
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-tesla-470
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-qxl
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-radeon
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-vesa
> ii  xserver-xorg-video-vmware

> I should uninstall all the nvidia stuff now that this card works.

Technically you need not a single one of those (unless possibly you use vmware).
xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu may or may not prove better than the default modesetting
display driver. Likely newer GPUs like yours can do better with it, but without
testing you won't know. I use a simple tool named glmark2 (which likely isn't
designed for Wayland users). xserver-xorg-video-radeon is primarily for GPUs
designed before AMD bought ATI, IOW, rather ancient.

>> 	lsmod | sort | grep -E 'video|amdgpu|radeon|i915'
> 
> amdgpu               9633792  75
> cec                    61440  2 drm_display_helper,i915
> drm                   614400  22 
> gpu_sched,drm_kms_helper,drm_display_helper,drm_buddy,amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper,i915,ttm
> drm_buddy              20480  2 amdgpu,i915
> drm_display_helper    184320  2 amdgpu,i915
> drm_kms_helper        212992  5 drm_display_helper,amdgpu,i915
> drm_ttm_helper         16384  1 amdgpu
> gpu_sched              53248  1 amdgpu
> i2c_algo_bit           16384  3 igb,amdgpu,i915
> i915                 3059712  3
> ttm                    94208  3 amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper,i915
> video                  65536  2 amdgpu,i915
> wmi                    36864  2 video,intel_wmi_thunderbolt

I can't recall ever using an AMD dGPU on a motherboard with Intel iGPU, so
probably shouldn't try to comment. I suppose it's fine.

This and another PC here run on Intel HD 630 alone with up to 3 displays
(DP primary/bottom, HDMI upper left, DVI upper right; VGA also supported, but GPU
limit is total of 3).

Possibly if your R display only has VGA input you might be just as well off
skipping finding an adapter, but simple DVI-to-VGA adapters were common for a long
time if not still. I think both of mine came with retail boxed motherboards.

>> Also, if there are any .conf files remaining in /etc/X11/ or
>> /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, rename or delete them all, unless there is one for only
>> keyboard you can keep it. Intel and AMD GPU users normally don't need anything in
>> /etc/X11/ for GPU. By default, there is nothing there.

> There are not.  In fact xorg.conf.d has been renamed.

It's an optional directory. AIUI, absence has become a Debian default on fresh
installations, but required by at least some NVidia proprietary drivers in lieu of
directly in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

I have:
# ls -gGh /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/??-*conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 404 Dec 18  2024 /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 266 Mar  2  2022 /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/60-flags.conf
-rw-rw-r-- 1  78 Jul 15  2011 /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-extensions.conf

None affect graphics in X.