vesafb, radeonfb: system hang at boot or no graphics mode

Hi,

I've been trying for a day now to get any kind of framebuffer support on my computer, with mainly two outcomes:

1) If I configure my kernel with Device drivers -> Graphics support -> Console display driver support -> <*> Framebuffer Console support, the system hangs on boot, with a black screen, without writing any logs. If I use the vesafb it seems it hangs very early in the boot process, after writing only a few lines of text. If I use radeonfb it hangs later (but still before mounting the disks).

2) If I configure my kernel without the above it boots (in normal text mode of course). If I then try to use /dev/fb0 (with fbi or GTK+ on DirectFB), all I get is a garbled text mode screen, with randomly colored random characters being printed in random locations on the screen.

I have configured my kernel with
Device drivers ->
  Graphics support ->
    <*> Support for frame buffer devices
      <*> VESA VGA Graphics support
            VESA driver type (vesafb)  --->
    <*> ATI Radeon display support
    [*]   DDC/I2C for ATI Radeon support
    Console display driver support  --->
      <*> Framebuffer Console support

As indicated above, I have tried with and without Framebuffer Console support. I have also tried with vesafb and radeonfb exclusively.

I have tried kernel parameters
video=vesafb vga=0x318
video=vesafb vga=791
video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3 vga=0x318
video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:2 vga=0x318
video=radeonfb:1024x768-24
video=radeonfb:1024x768

... with no difference in behaviour.

When I disable Framebuffer Console support and use the video=vesafb lines, no /dev/fb0 is created at all (and vesafb is not mentioned in dmesg). So I have only got outcome 2) above with video=radeonfb.

Although uname shows kernel 2.6.20 below, I actually started out with kernel 2.6.18 - there seems to be no difference regarding my framebuffer problem between the versions.

I am now at a loss of what to try next, so any advice is very much appreciated!


System info:

$ uname -a
Linux shuttle 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 #6 Tue Jul 10 14:05:30 CEST 2007 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

$ sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb Host Bridge (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce 250Gb PCI System Management (rev a1)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a1)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a1)
00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a1)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK8S Parallel ATA Controller (v2.5) (rev a2)
00:0a.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK8S Serial ATA Controller (v2.5) (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AGP Host to PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc R420 JI [Radeon X800PRO]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 4a69
02:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)


Thanks,
Arvid

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