New version of fglrx broke my system

I've been googling for hours trying to figure out how to solve this
problem that arised from the last upgrade:

I use lenny and the fglrx driver. With the last upgrade all fglrx
packages were upgraded from version 8.4.1 to 8.5.1. As with every fglrx
upgrade, I used m-a to rebuild the kernel modules.

After that, "Switching user" from gnome (GDM) crashed the system to the
point that not even sysrq would work.
Other procedures, such as stopping gdm and starting it again had the
same results (restarting it didn't).

The worst part is that there's nothing in the logs, it just crashes the
whole system silently.

I tried the following stuff with no success:
- Purging every fglrx package, reinstall and rebuild modules.
- Disabling composite in xorg.conf.
- Building xorg.conf from scratch (with fglrx-control)
- Use the vesa driver: This actually solved the Switch User problem, but
created a lot of others.

My video card is an ATI Radeon HD2400 (which means that, until the
radeonhd driver is ready, I have to stick with fglrx).


Anyway, I just downgraded to 8.4.1 and am able to switch users again
(with some limitations, but that's another story). If anyone has any
clue on what the problem could be, please let me know.



Thanks!


--
Gabriel Parrondo
GNU/Linux User #404138
GnuPG Public Key ID: BED7BF43
JID: gabrielp@xmpp.us

"The only difference between theory and practice is that, in theory,
there's no difference between theory and practice."


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Gabriel Parrondo wrote:

>
> I've been googling for hours trying to figure out how to solve this
> problem that arised from the last upgrade:
>
> I use lenny and the fglrx driver. With the last upgrade all fglrx
> packages were upgraded from version 8.4.1 to 8.5.1. As with every fglrx
> upgrade, I used m-a to rebuild the kernel modules.
>
> After that, "Switching user" from gnome (GDM) crashed the system to the
> point that not even sysrq would work.
> Other procedures, such as stopping gdm and starting it again had the
> same results (restarting it didn't).
>
> The worst part is that there's nothing in the logs, it just crashes the
> whole system silently.
>
> I tried the following stuff with no success:
> - Purging every fglrx package, reinstall and rebuild modules.
> - Disabling composite in xorg.conf.
> - Building xorg.conf from scratch (with fglrx-control)
> - Use the vesa driver: This actually solved the Switch User problem, but
> created a lot of others.
>
> My video card is an ATI Radeon HD2400 (which means that, until the
> radeonhd driver is ready, I have to stick with fglrx).
>
>
> Anyway, I just downgraded to 8.4.1 and am able to switch users again
> (with some limitations, but that's another story). If anyone has any
> clue on what the problem could be, please let me know.
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
Hi Gabriel,
I'm also using Lenny and have an ATI Radeon 9550 graphics card. I use the
proprietary drivers from the ATI website. A couple of days ago I downloaded
version 8.6 of the ATI installer. I unpacked the fglrx debs from that using
the --buildpkg switch and installed them and then ran m-a to build and
install the module (I had removed the old one first). It installed with no
problem and after rebooting (yes, I have to do this; starting and stopping
the the Xserver doesn't get the new driver working correctly) everything
has been working fine.

I'm a bit confused about version 8.5.1 of the driver. The one I installed
was released about 2 days ago and (according to Catalyst) I have version
8.50.3 of the driver installed. Where did you download the driver from?
Cheers,
Jonathan
--
Registerd Linux user #445917 at http://counter.li.org/


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El vie, 20-06-2008 a las 19:29 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
> Gabriel Parrondo wrote:
>
> >
> > I've been googling for hours trying to figure out how to solve this
> > problem that arised from the last upgrade:
> >
> > I use lenny and the fglrx driver. With the last upgrade all fglrx
> > packages were upgraded from version 8.4.1 to 8.5.1. As with every fglrx
> > upgrade, I used m-a to rebuild the kernel modules.
> >
> > After that, "Switching user" from gnome (GDM) crashed the system to the
> > point that not even sysrq would work.
> > Other procedures, such as stopping gdm and starting it again had the
> > same results (restarting it didn't).
> >
> > The worst part is that there's nothing in the logs, it just crashes the
> > whole system silently.
> >
> > I tried the following stuff with no success:
> > - Purging every fglrx package, reinstall and rebuild modules.
> > - Disabling composite in xorg.conf.
> > - Building xorg.conf from scratch (with fglrx-control)
> > - Use the vesa driver: This actually solved the Switch User problem, but
> > created a lot of others.
> >
> > My video card is an ATI Radeon HD2400 (which means that, until the
> > radeonhd driver is ready, I have to stick with fglrx).
> >
> >
> > Anyway, I just downgraded to 8.4.1 and am able to switch users again
> > (with some limitations, but that's another story). If anyone has any
> > clue on what the problem could be, please let me know.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
> Hi Gabriel,
> I'm also using Lenny and have an ATI Radeon 9550 graphics card. I use the
> proprietary drivers from the ATI website. A couple of days ago I downloaded
> version 8.6 of the ATI installer. I unpacked the fglrx debs from that using
> the --buildpkg switch and installed them and then ran m-a to build and
> install the module (I had removed the old one first). It installed with no
> problem and after rebooting (yes, I have to do this; starting and stopping
> the the Xserver doesn't get the new driver working correctly) everything
> has been working fine.
>
> I'm a bit confused about version 8.5.1 of the driver. The one I installed
> was released about 2 days ago and (according to Catalyst) I have version
> 8.50.3 of the driver installed. Where did you download the driver from?

From the non-free debian repositories. Now that you mention it, checking
in the catalyst control center, I haver version 8.47.3.

gabriel@matrix:~$ apt-cache policy fglrx-driver
fglrx-driver:
Instalados: 1:8-4-1
Candidato: 1:8-5-1
Tabla de versión:
1:8-5-1 0
500 http://ftp.us.debian.org lenny/non-free Packages
*** 1:8-4-1 0
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status




--
Gabriel Parrondo
GNU/Linux User #404138
GnuPG Public Key ID: BED7BF43
JID: gabrielp@xmpp.us

"The only difference between theory and practice is that, in theory,
there's no difference between theory and practice."

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El vie, 20-06-2008 a las 19:29 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
> It installed with no problem and after rebooting (yes, I have to do
> this; starting and stopping the the Xserver doesn't get the new driver
> working correctly)

About this, have you ever tried this?:
1- Stop the X server;
2- 'rmmod fglrx';
4- Re-start X server

[...]
>
--
Gabriel Parrondo
GNU/Linux User #404138
GnuPG Public Key ID: BED7BF43
JID: gabrielp@xmpp.us

"The only difference between theory and practice is that, in theory,
there's no difference between theory and practice."

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Gabriel Parrondo wrote:

> El vie, 20-06-2008 a las 19:29 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
>> It installed with no problem and after rebooting (yes, I have to do
>> this; starting and stopping the the Xserver doesn't get the new driver
>> working correctly)
>
> About this, have you ever tried this?:
> 1- Stop the X server;
> 2- 'rmmod fglrx';
> 4- Re-start X server
>
> [...]
>>
Hi Gabriel,
That's a cool suggestion. I'll try it the next time I upgrade. Thanks for
the tip. You might try using the debs created directly from the
ATI-installer from the ATI website. Maybe you'll have better luck. Those
are the ones I always use and they haven't failed me yet.
Cheers,
Jonathan
--
Registerd Linux user #445917 at http://counter.li.org/


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El sáb, 21-06-2008 a las 11:18 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
> Gabriel Parrondo wrote:
>
> > El vie, 20-06-2008 a las 19:29 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
> >> It installed with no problem and after rebooting (yes, I have to do
> >> this; starting and stopping the the Xserver doesn't get the new driver
> >> working correctly)
> >
> > About this, have you ever tried this?:
> > 1- Stop the X server;
> > 2- 'rmmod fglrx';
> > 4- Re-start X server
> >
> > [...]
> >>
> Hi Gabriel,
> That's a cool suggestion. I'll try it the next time I upgrade. Thanks for
> the tip. You might try using the debs created directly from the
> ATI-installer from the ATI website. Maybe you'll have better luck. Those
> are the ones I always use and they haven't failed me yet.

Ok, so I went to the amd page and downloaded the installer from them.
As normal user i run:
$ ./ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Debian/lenny

And it yields:
----
Generating package: Debian/lenny
Package build failed!
Package build utility output:
dpkg-buildpackage: set CFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: set CPPFLAGS to default value:
dpkg-buildpackage: set LDFLAGS to default value:
dpkg-buildpackage: set FFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: set CXXFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: source package fglrx-installer
dpkg-buildpackage: source version 8.501-1
dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by ATI Technologies Inc.
<http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html>
debian/rules build
dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture i386
Can't exec "debian/rules": Permission denied
at /usr/bin/dpkg-buildpackage line 475.
dpkg-buildpackage: failure: debian/rules build failed with unknown exit
code -1
Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.oN9030
----

Also tried as root with no luck (same error).

I googled around a bit and all I could find was people with the
"Permission denied" error because they forgot to give 755 permissions to
the installer.


--
Gabriel Parrondo
GNU/Linux User #404138
GnuPG Public Key ID: BED7BF43
JID: gabrielp@xmpp.us

"The only difference between theory and practice is that, in theory,
there's no difference between theory and practice."

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Gabriel Parrondo wrote:

> El sáb, 21-06-2008 a las 11:18 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
>> Gabriel Parrondo wrote:
>>
>> > El vie, 20-06-2008 a las 19:29 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
>> >> It installed with no problem and after rebooting (yes, I have to do
>> >> this; starting and stopping the the Xserver doesn't get the new driver
>> >> working correctly)
>> >
>> > About this, have you ever tried this?:
>> > 1- Stop the X server;
>> > 2- 'rmmod fglrx';
>> > 4- Re-start X server
>> >
>> > [...]
>> >>
>> Hi Gabriel,
>> That's a cool suggestion. I'll try it the next time I upgrade. Thanks for
>> the tip. You might try using the debs created directly from the
>> ATI-installer from the ATI website. Maybe you'll have better luck. Those
>> are the ones I always use and they haven't failed me yet.
>
> Ok, so I went to the amd page and downloaded the installer from them.
> As normal user i run:
> $ ./ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Debian/lenny
>
> And it yields:
> ----
> Generating package: Debian/lenny
> Package build failed!
> Package build utility output:
> dpkg-buildpackage: set CFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
> dpkg-buildpackage: set CPPFLAGS to default value:
> dpkg-buildpackage: set LDFLAGS to default value:
> dpkg-buildpackage: set FFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
> dpkg-buildpackage: set CXXFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
> dpkg-buildpackage: source package fglrx-installer
> dpkg-buildpackage: source version 8.501-1
> dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by ATI Technologies Inc.
> <http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html>
> debian/rules build
> dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture i386
> Can't exec "debian/rules": Permission denied
> at /usr/bin/dpkg-buildpackage line 475.
> dpkg-buildpackage: failure: debian/rules build failed with unknown exit
> code -1
> Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.oN9030
> ----
>
> Also tried as root with no luck (same error).
>
> I googled around a bit and all I could find was people with the
> "Permission denied" error because they forgot to give 755 permissions to
> the installer.
>
>
Hi Gabriel,
You have to run that command as root or use sudo. Sorry, I should have
mentioned that.
Cheers,
Jonathan
--
Registerd Linux user #445917 at http://counter.li.org/


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El lun, 23-06-2008 a las 08:04 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
> Gabriel Parrondo wrote:
>
> > El sáb, 21-06-2008 a las 11:18 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
> >> Gabriel Parrondo wrote:
> >>
> >> > El vie, 20-06-2008 a las 19:29 +0200, Jonathan Kaye escribió:
> >> >> It installed with no problem and after rebooting (yes, I have to do
> >> >> this; starting and stopping the the Xserver doesn't get the new driver
> >> >> working correctly)
> >> >
> >> > About this, have you ever tried this?:
> >> > 1- Stop the X server;
> >> > 2- 'rmmod fglrx';
> >> > 4- Re-start X server
> >> >
> >> > [...]
> >> >>
> >> Hi Gabriel,
> >> That's a cool suggestion. I'll try it the next time I upgrade. Thanks for
> >> the tip. You might try using the debs created directly from the
> >> ATI-installer from the ATI website. Maybe you'll have better luck. Those
> >> are the ones I always use and they haven't failed me yet.
> >
> > Ok, so I went to the amd page and downloaded the installer from them.
> > As normal user i run:
> > $ ./ati-driver-installer-8-6-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Debian/lenny
> >
> > And it yields:
> > ----
> > Generating package: Debian/lenny
> > Package build failed!
> > Package build utility output:
> > dpkg-buildpackage: set CFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
> > dpkg-buildpackage: set CPPFLAGS to default value:
> > dpkg-buildpackage: set LDFLAGS to default value:
> > dpkg-buildpackage: set FFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
> > dpkg-buildpackage: set CXXFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
> > dpkg-buildpackage: source package fglrx-installer
> > dpkg-buildpackage: source version 8.501-1
> > dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by ATI Technologies Inc.
> > <http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html>
> > debian/rules build
> > dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture i386
> > Can't exec "debian/rules": Permission denied
> > at /usr/bin/dpkg-buildpackage line 475.
> > dpkg-buildpackage: failure: debian/rules build failed with unknown exit
> > code -1
> > Removing temporary directory: fglrx-install.oN9030
> > ----
> >
> > Also tried as root with no luck (same error).
> >
> > I googled around a bit and all I could find was people with the
> > "Permission denied" error because they forgot to give 755 permissions to
> > the installer.
> >
> >
> Hi Gabriel,
> You have to run that command as root or use sudo. Sorry, I should have
> mentioned that.

I just solved this, the problem is I had /tmp mounted as noexec.


--
Gabriel Parrondo
GNU/Linux User #404138
GnuPG Public Key ID: BED7BF43
JID: gabrielp@xmpp.us

"The only difference between theory and practice is that, in theory,
there's no difference between theory and practice."

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