[Bug 247441] graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod and or graphics/drm-fbsd11.2-kmod crashing 11.2 to 11.4 with a Radeon HD 5770 card

[bugzilla-noreply at freebsd.org]

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=247441

pr at aoek.com changed:

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                 CC|                            |pr at aoek.com

--- Comment #24 from pr at aoek.com ---
Dear Scott,
you, like many other, are just the innocent victim of a FreeBSD documentation
bug.

FreeBSD does not support graphics. Period.

The project is at the "proof of concept" level, nothing more. Do yourself a
favor and stop investing time in this: when you report a problem in the graphic
subsystem in the best case it will be ignored. In the worst case you will get
misleading information (like "try this, do that") that keeps you busy for
months, but there is no solution at sight. Look at this pr: reported in June (6
months and 2 days ago), current status: open. Come back in another 6 months it
will either be dead or still open.

"Understaffed" is the apparent condition, the true reality is that FreeBSD is
just not meant for desktop users. Too many have spent long hours, efforts,
energy and sometime also money fighting windmills to promote graphic use in
FreeBSD. I urge you to learn there other have failed and take it from there:
look elsewhere.

A few facts that can help you understand how big is this documentation bug:
1) sys/dev/drm2/radeon/radeon_drv.c, line 123 reads:
int radeon_audio = 0;

For the sake of completeness, this same line is line 158 for Linux users
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon_drv.c
and reads:
int radeon_audio = -1;

This means that audio is not going to work on any Radeon card with FreeBSD. It
has been like this ever since, and it's a "workaround" so that developers have
the time to run the "proof of concept" show without having to deal with minor
details such as having FreeBSD produce noise out of your speakers. Watching a
video is enough, why would anyone want to hear it as well?

2) On Radeon, if you want to boot with drm driver, you have to disable the
console, and see nothing during the boot. You cannot boot in single user mode
(I mean, you could, but with a black cursor on a black screen), should you need
to fix anything. This is acceptable for a "proof of concept" but definitely not
for a production system.

This has been like this for years now, rest assured it will stay like that.

3) If you happen to be a programmer willing to help there is no documentation
that can guide you trough your process. You either are a FreeBSD master (e.g.
buy a course from McKusick) or you will very likely find yourself staring at a
hung screen. Don't look for a tutorial or a guide. Those who have the knowledge
are too busy running the "proof of concept show" (did I state this already?) to
write something down and help others make their way trought.

4) Should you manage to reach the magic point (an alchemy of hardware and
software mix) where you can run clinfo you will get a core dump. vlc? Hangs on
the second video (remember, still no audio). Don't use VAAPI, just don't, ok?
Chromium (sorry, Chrome is not supported) requires 875 patch files (not lines,
files) to build, so don't expect it to work: it's just another proof of
concept.

5) Yes, I could go on, I think this is enough for you to open your eyes.

I have been in the FreeBSD ecosystem for a few decades now and saw too many
falling apart when they hit the graphic subsystem not to spend a few minutes
and warn you about this important documentation bug.

My recommendation is to switch to some Linux distro for production. Any crappy
Linux (sorry for the redundant terms) would do, it just delivers what FreeBSD
is unable to and it works out of the box with your current hardware.

And remember to tell your friends that FreeBSD does not support graphics. Now
you know.

Regards,

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