Radeon Video

The following instructions are for modern AMD GPU chipsets covered by the radeon driver.

Setup Xorg/udev

1. Run the setup-xorg-base script.
2. Install the Xorg AMD video drivers:

   # apk add xf86-video-ati

3. For newer devices, use:

   # apk add xf86-video-amdgpu

4. Enable #Kernel Modesetting (KMS). Specifically, the fbcon module is necessary, or leaving Xorg (via Ctrl+Alt+F1 or quitting) will result in a black screen until the machine is power cycled. If you have already launch Xorg and don't want to experience this effect, you can modprobe fbcon while Xorg is running.

Kernel Modesetting (KMS)

To enable KMS at boot:

1. Add the radeon and fbcon modules to /etc/modules:

   $ echo radeon >> /etc/modules
   $ echo fbcon >> /etc/modules

2. Install mkinitfs:

   apk add mkinitfs

3. Enable the kms feature in the mkinitfs configuration by adding it to the features variable, e.g.,

   Contents of /etc/mkinitfs/mkinitfs.conf

   features="keymap cryptsetup kms ata base ide scsi usb virtio ext4"
4. Run mkinitfs.
5. Reboot to test the configuration.

Troubleshooting

Fixing MESA-LOADER errors

This material is obsolete ... Alpine no longer ships with the linux-hardened kernel (Discuss)

The linux-hardened kernel package places restrictions on sysfs and will prevent the MESA-LOADER from working as a normal user even if added to the video group.

See https://bugs.alpinelinux.org/issues/7265

Either switch to the linux-vanilla package or apply the grsec_sysfs_restrict=0 kernel parameter to allow normal users to access hardware acceleration on the desktop.

Fixing a frozen X11 when invoking startx

You may need to set the AccelMethod to exa not glamor which is the default for the driver.

Contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Device" Option "AccelMethod" "exa" Identifier "Card0" Driver "radeon" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection