ATI Rage Fury Pro kernel module mismatch

[leej]

The ATI card in question (see subject) is based on the ATI Rage 128 Pro chipset. The error seen in my XFree86 log follows:

(EE) R128(0): [dri] R128DRIScreenInit failed because of a version mismatch.
[dri] r128.o kernel module version is 2.1.6 but version 2.2 or greater is needed.
[dri] Disabling the DRI.
(EE) R128(0): [drm] failed to remove DRM signal handler
(II) R128(0): [drm] removed 1 reserved context for kernel
DRIUnlock called when not locked

So far, I can vouch for no problems with this card and DRI in RH7.1 (XF86 4.0.3), RH7.2 (XF86 4.1.0), RH7.3 (XF86 4.2.0) and MDK8.1 and MDK8.2 (XF86 4.2.0). So, this little problem in Gentoo 1.1a has me stumped.

I've recompiled the kernel a million times, enabling/disabling DRM, statically/modularizing R128 drivers, etc, but I'm still at a complete loss.

[leej]

Problem solved! It seems, the latest stable Kernel and DRI code are rarely in sync, and this is the underlying problem when you get the mismatch message. Due to the volume of posts from Radeon/R128 users, I wonder whether this solution shouldn't be in a FAQ somewhere.

1) If your Radeon/R128 drivers are statically linked into the kernel, then go to /usr/src/linux, do a make menuconfig, ensure they're modularized, then recompile your kernel (make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install). As always Make sure you rename or delete the /lib/modules/2.4.x* directory first to prevent module conflicts.

2) Mount your boot partition (because it will be unmounted in Gentoo Linux after the system has booted) and copy the bzImage over. `cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot`

3) Download the latest drm kernel modules for XF86 4.2.0 from http://www.xfree86.org/~alanh/

4) Uncompress them `tar -zxvf linux-drm-4.2.0-kernelsource.tar.gz` then do a `make -f Makefile.linux`.

5) Copy the r128.o or radeon.o module over to /lib/modules/2.4.x/kernel/drivers/char/drm/. In my case `cp r128.o /lib/modules/2.4.18-xfs/kernel/drivers/char/drm/`

6) Do a `depmod -a` and reboot, *or* if you didn't have to recompile your kernel because your drivers weren't statically linked, do a `rmmod r128` to remove the currently loaded module, then `modprobe r128` to load the new one and restart x. Replace r128 with radeon, if you're using that card.

For me, that totally got DRI working, after a day or two of head scratching. What's more, the solution makes sense!

[ASCI Blue]

Good job on working that out.

A second method you could use is to go to the Gatos site (easy to find on google and I don't have it handy) and compile those drivers and DRM module.

[leej]

I did that btw, but unfortunately, with the Gatos ati.2 driver & Gatos drm - even compiled on my own machine - everything became even more unstable. This greatly surprised me.

I can either have DRI and not watch Xine with the Xv driver (it freezes) or I can watch Xine with Xv provided I remove DRI from the kernel. The Gatos drivers made video freeze regardless of whether the Xv driver was being used! Weird!

I'm so frustrated with this card now that I'm going to dump it and get something else (non ATI).