Xorg configure failure with Radeon card

[Dutch Ingraham]

On Sat, 15 Nov 2014 20:45:59 +0100
Jan Kokemüller <jan.kokemueller at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Thanks again, Jan.  I already had that there (from the 10.1-RELEASE
> > notes), so the error is with that tuner set.
> 
> Does "kldload radeonkms" as root work, as in gives you a nice looking 
> console in native screen resolution? If that works, at least the KMS 
> driver does something correctly.
> 
> Another idea is to try to rebuild the "x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati" port, 
> if you haven't done that already.
> 
> Can you post the complete contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output 
> of dmesg after a failed attempt to start the X server?
> 
> -Jan

Jan!!  That's just the wake-up I needed!  I went back to the last section of the wiki on graphics referred to above and re-read it.  For some reason, I was under the impression that loading the radeon firmware in the method described in that section was only if I wanted/needed kms to be loaded early; I assumed it would be loaded later in the boot process on its own, though.  

I was wrong.  After issuing a #<kldload radeonkms> as you suggested, the fb graphical resolution loaded.  Then, taking wblock@'s advice (elsewhere) that Xorg -config is now generally unnecessary, just issued a <startx> and things were working properly.  A little xrandr action and both monitors are working as desired.

For the record, if anyone else is having this radeon issue, here is a summary specific to the 5450 card (note some of this may be unnecessary, I haven't tested each yet):

In loader.conf

kern.vty=vt
radeonkmsfw_CEDAR_pfp_load="YES"
radeonkmsfw_CEDAR_me_load="YES"
radeonkmsfw_CEDAR_rlc_load="YES"
radeonkms_load="YES"

In make.conf:

WITH_NEW_XORG=YES
WITH_KMS=YES
OPTIONS_SET=GALLIUM (or WITH_GALLIUM=YES, but the compiler will warn on this when building dri)

Thanks again for all your help, Jan.
-- 
Dutch Ingraham <stoa at gmx.us>