NetBSD 10.1, Radeon HD 5450 and Tomplay.

anarchosax

No problems with YouTube, but almost constant problems with tomplay, on my home built computer with a radeon hd 5450 graphics card. I don't believe that this is a firefox problem, as tomplay plays nicely, both with computers using netbsd and linux, but with different graphics cards.

Here is the xorg log:
https://pastebin.com/Gin1rT0H

Here is some visual documentation:
Linux:

NetBSD (both using the Calm Window Manager):

rvp

anarchosax Try in order:

Running a compositor like xcompmgr or picom.
Fiddling with the radeon settings: Option "AccelMethod" "XAA", Option "RenderAccel" "off", for example.
See if -HEAD works better.

anarchosax

rvp Thanks for the reply. Well, it is hard to believe but picom made the situation worse. Luckily I could just reboot to avoid constant problems similar to what I posted above.

Regarding changing the radeon options, I haven't been able to find an xorg.conf file on the system. Where do you recommend copying from and to, or creating a file? There appear to be a number of locations, all related to /etc/ /etc/X11/ or /usr/X11R7/etc/X11/

rvp

anarchosax Well, it is hard to believe but picom made the situation worse.

Whaa...that's what's recommended (see Graphics here) for Intel cards. DRMKMS issue prolly...

anarchosax I haven't been able to find an xorg.conf file on the system.

This file is no longer needed by newer X servers. It's all auto-configured now, but, to override I would use:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/radeon.conf
Section "Device"
    Identifier "Card0"
    Driver "radeon"
    Option "AccelMethod" "xaa"
    # Option "RenderAccel" "off"
EndSection

If these don't work, run the program with SW OpenGL rendering:

$ env LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true blah ...

or, in the extremis, just run the safe (slow) wsfb driver.

anarchosax I tried the following, but get errors:

Don't run -configure when an X server is already active.

anarchosax

I tried the following, but get errors:

# X -configure (EE) Fatal server error: (EE) Server is already active for display 0 If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again.

# X -config ~/xorg.conf.new (EE) Fatal server error: (EE) Server is already active for display 0 If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again.

Iam not exactly sure what is going on here...

anarchosax

rvp If these don't work, run the program with SW OpenGL rendering:
$ env LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true blah ...

I am a bit unsure as to the syntax in context with Firefox, but it is also worth noting that the issue isn't limited to Firefox when running picom, despite my screenshot not being entirely representative of how bad the entire desktop can look (including Firefox tearing).

anarchosax

rvp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/radeon.conf

OK, I have now got this working. So far, this is doable, although the driver is somewhat unstable, with blinking in and out of the browser, as well as tearing when scrolling or hovering the mouse cursor over some text or a menu item. The current situation functions well enough that I feel that I can use this for a period without having to immediately give up in frustration. Tomplay is working as well, with the above caveats. Playback is fine so far, as is the cursor following the music.

And after I just wrote the above, I am starting to get the weird colors and tearing in the browser again, and the cursor has disappeared in Tomplay.

anarchosax

Well, a combination of picom and the radeon.conf file don't contribute to a positive change to the problem either:

Here is the radeon.conf file without picom:

Here are both of them together outside of Tomplay:

rvp

anarchosax however the cursor for following the music is also AWOL...

You can use wsfb on the DRMKMS provided framebuffer--that may be slightly faster than running it on efifb --ie by disabling DRKKMS in /boot.conf. How did you run your wsfb?

anarchosax Well, a combination of picom and the radeon.conf file don't contribute to a positive change to the problem either:

Did you try xcompmgr instead of picom?

And, I didn't realize that TomPlay was a website. Try running firefox like this:

env LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true firefox &

anarchosax

While overall quality of the desktop is better with the wfsb driver, the speed is too slow for the cursor across the notes to follow the audio track in Tomplay, which prevents that from being a viable alternative for a usable desktop setup - at least for me.

Thanks for the help.

anarchosax

I have installed the developer version, but from what I have seen so far, the issues are the same. I will take some time to go through the same process tomorrow.

anarchosax

Here is my home built computer with the NetBSD developer version running:
Without picom:

Here is with picom:

None of the problems with tearing, however the cursor for following the music is also AWOL...

anarchosax

OK, now I am getting tearing in the developer version as well. Interesting, as I was careful to use the same websites, so I had a baseline of expected behavior, regardless of the NetBSD version used…

anarchosax

rvp You can use wsfb on the DRMKMS provided framebuffer--that may be slightly faster than running it on efifb --ie by disabling DRKKMS in /boot.conf. How did you run your wsfb?

I edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf, so the driver read "wsfb".
When I try to edit /boot.conf, I am presented with an empty file. I don't think that can be correct...

xcompmgr has the same problems as with picom as far as tearing in Firefox and weird desktop background, However, there is a moving cursor that is visible in Tomplay, when using Firefox.

rvp

anarchosax I edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf, so the driver read "wsfb".

wsfb on top of DRMKMS, then--that's what we want...

anarchosax When I try to edit /boot.conf, I am presented with an empty file. I don't think that can be correct...

Is it in EFI\NetBSD\boot.cfg on the EFI ESP partition?

anarchosax xcompmgr has the same problems as with picom as far as tearing in Firefox and weird desktop background, However, there is a moving cursor that is visible in Tomplay, when using Firefox.

Is LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true OK? Or, turning off RenderAccel in xorg.conf?

anarchosax

rvp Is it in EFI\NetBSD\boot.cfg on the EFI ESP partition?

I thought that my other post would be relevant for this... I have to use refind to boot into the system as the completed install does not include a bootx64.efi boot file...

Neither is there any root file structure other than dot files… This happens with both the release and developer versions of NetBSD at install, on this computer. Unfortunately, this is also the computer that I have, which is closest to running NetBSD on bare metal…

anarchosax

rvp Is LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true OK? Or, turning off RenderAccel in xorg.conf?

There is nothing in the file, except radeon driver information (or wsfb if I edit it).

rvp

anarchosax I have to use refind to boot into the system as the completed install does not include a bootx64.efi boot file...

rEFInd doesn't read UFS filesystems (as far as know), so if it boots NetBSD, it should have found NetBSD's bootx64.efi bootloader file somewhere, right? Usually, /boot.cfg is on /--the root partition. One other place it is read from is EFI\NetBSD\boot.cfg on the ESP partition.

What does your GPT partition layout look like?

anarchosax There is nothing in the file, except radeon driver information (or wsfb if I edit it).

I've given the example to use above. Did you try experimenting with those settings?

anarchosax

rvp rEFInd doesn't read UFS filesystems (as far as know), so if it boots NetBSD, it should have found NetBSD's bootx64.efi bootloader file somewhere, right? Usually, /boot.cfg is on /--the root partition. One other place it is read from is EFI\NetBSD\boot.cfg on the ESP partition.

# find / -name bootx64.efi /usr/mdec/bootx64.efi

anarchosax

rvp What does your GPT partition layout look like?

Not sure how to get the info that you need.

# disklabel wd0
# /dev/rwd0:
type: ESDI
disk: wd0
label: fictitious
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 16
sectors/cylinder: 1008
cylinders: 3876021
total sectors: 3907029168
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0           # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0  # microseconds
drivedata: 0 

4 partitions:
#        size    offset     fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
 a: 3907029168         0     4.2BSD      0     0     0  # (Cyl.      0 - 3876020)
 d: 3907029168         0     unused      0     0        # (Cyl.      0 - 3876020)
disklabel: boot block size 0
disklabel: super block size

rvp

anarchosax #

$ find / -name bootx64.efi
/usr/mdec/bootx64.efi

/usr/mdec/*.efi are the NetBSD EFI bootloaders. These're what sysinst copies into the EFI ESP partition at install-time.

anarchosax

OK, I did what I know best.