Cfrgtkky

I am trying to set up a system with 9 connected monitors using two AMD FirePro W600 cards where I need to configure each monitor as separate X-screen. So far, I managed to get both cars working, i.e. each connected monitor (4 for the tests) displays the desktop correctly, and I can use the display settings to align them spatially.

However, I failed to configure multiple X-screens. I tested with variants of Ubuntu (18.04 and 18.10), used the drivers included with the Linux installation, as well as trying drivers from the PPA (ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers) and official AMD drivers (amdgpu-pro-18.20 and amdgpu-pro-18.30).

I started to create an Xorg configuration with XOrgConfCreator provided by the PsychToolbox matlab package, but also tried a variant that I created with Xorg --configure.

The first PsychToolbox variant resulted in a flickering screen at log in and I was not able to log in any more. I found out that the radeon driver was still loaded, and therefore disabled it (following basically the steps described here). This way I was able to log in and all connected screens were active. However, the X-screen configuration was ignored, meaning I did not have separate screens. The xorg.conf file was loaded though, and when screwing this file up I ended up with a black log in screen. However, the Screen assignment in the Device section had no effect. I modified the xorg.conf file but whatever I tried I either had a black log in or no effect.

I did not find any explicit information in the web that says all my attempts with this card are in vein. But I am out of ideas and about to five up on AMD and try my luck with a Nvidia configuration (max 8 screens). Maybe anybody here has some suggestions how to solve the problem with the AMD cards.

I attached the PsychToolbox Xorg configuration file, and attached log files, as well as the output from several calls inquiring system information.

Thanks for any suggestions,

wolf

System info:

$ lspci | grep VGA



01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde PRO [FirePro W600]



02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde PRO [FirePro W600]





$ xrandr --listactivemonitors 



Monitors: 4



0: +DisplayPort-4    3840/600x2160/340+0+0        DisplayPort-4



1: +DisplayPort-1-9  1920/521x1080/293+5760+1080  DisplayPort-1-9



2: +DisplayPort-1-10 1920/521x1080/293+3840+0     DisplayPort-1-10



3: +DisplayPort-1-11 1920/521x1080/293+3840+1080  DisplayPort-1-11





$ sudo lshw -C display



*-display                 



    description: VGA compatible controller



    product: Cape Verde PRO [FirePro W600]



    vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]



    physical id: 0



    bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0



    version: 00



    width: 64 bits



    clock: 33MHz



    capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom



    configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0



    resources: irq:43 memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:fbe00000-fbe3ffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:c0000-dffff



*-display



    description: VGA compatible controller



    product: Cape Verde PRO [FirePro W600]



    vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]



    physical id: 0



    bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0



    version: 00



    width: 64 bits



    clock: 33MHz



    capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom



    configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0





    resources: irq:44 memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:fbd00000-fbd3ffff ioport:d000(size=256) memory:fbd40000-fbd5ffff





$ sudo inxi -F -x



System:    Host: pop-os Kernel: 4.15.0-42-lowlatency x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0



        Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.31) Distro: Pop!_OS 18.04 LTS



Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME X299-A v: Rev 1.xx serial: 170603472500479



        UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1301 date: 03/07/2018



CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-7740X (-MT-MCP-) arch: Skylake rev.9 cache: 8192 KB



        flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 34368



        clock speeds: max: 4500 MHz 1: 800 MHz 2: 800 MHz 3: 800 MHz 4: 800 MHz 5: 800 MHz 6: 800 MHz



        7: 800 MHz 8: 800 MHz



Graphics:  Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde PRO [FirePro W600] bus-ID: 01:00.0



        Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde PRO [FirePro W600] bus-ID: 02:00.0



        Display Server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: (unloaded: amdgpu)



        Resolution: 3840x2160@30.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz



        OpenGL: renderer: ATI FirePro V(FireGL V) Graphics Adapter (VERDE, DRM 3.23.0, 4.15.0-42-lowlatency, LLVM 7.0.1)



        version: 4.5 Mesa 19.0.0-devel (git-8f401b0 2018-12-11 bionic-oibaf-ppa) Direct Render: Yes



$ dmesg | grep amd

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.15.0-42-lowlatency (buildd@lgw01-amd64-023) (gcc version 7.3.0 (Ubuntu 7.3.0-16ubuntu3)) #45-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Thu Nov 15 23:24:08 UTC 2018 (Ubuntu 4.15.0-42.45-lowlatency 4.15.18)

[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-42-lowlatency root=UUID=74a40da3-ff9d-4fac-97be-0a1cf8046513 ro quiet splash radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1 modprobe.blacklist=radeon vt.handoff=1

[    0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-42-lowlatency root=UUID=74a40da3-ff9d-4fac-97be-0a1cf8046513 ro quiet splash radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1 modprobe.blacklist=radeon vt.handoff=1

[    0.839805] pcie_mp2_amd: AMD(R) PCI-E MP2 Communication Driver Version: 1.0

[    0.953879] [drm] amdgpu kernel modesetting enabled.

[    0.956397] fb: switching to amdgpudrmfb from VESA VGA

[    0.971826] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 2048M 0x000000F400000000 - 0x000000F47FFFFFFF (2048M used)

[    0.971827] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 1024M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000003FFFFFFF

[    0.971941] [drm] amdgpu: 2048M of VRAM memory ready

[    0.971942] [drm] amdgpu: 3072M of GTT memory ready.

[    0.972429] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: PCIE GART of 1024M enabled (table at 0x000000F400040000).

[    0.972458] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: amdgpu: using MSI.

[    0.972541] [drm] amdgpu: irq initialized.

[    0.972583] [drm] amdgpu: dpm initialized

[    0.973138] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 0 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400080, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    0.973190] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 1 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400100, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    0.973237] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 2 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400180, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    0.973284] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 3 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400200, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    0.973326] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 4 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400280, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    1.333254] fbcon: amdgpudrmfb (fb0) is primary device

[    1.333357] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: fb0: amdgpudrmfb frame buffer device

[    1.345258] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: kfd not supported on this ASIC

[    1.345267] [drm] Initialized amdgpu 3.23.0 20150101 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

[    1.345294] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)

[    1.880927] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: VRAM: 2048M 0x000000F400000000 - 0x000000F47FFFFFFF (2048M used)

[    1.880928] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: GTT: 1024M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000003FFFFFFF

[    1.880940] [drm] amdgpu: 2048M of VRAM memory ready

[    1.880941] [drm] amdgpu: 3072M of GTT memory ready.

[    1.881411] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: PCIE GART of 1024M enabled (table at 0x000000F400040000).

[    1.881443] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: amdgpu: using MSI.

[    1.881493] [drm] amdgpu: irq initialized.

[    1.881516] [drm] amdgpu: dpm initialized

[    1.881812] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: fence driver on ring 0 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400080, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    1.881830] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: fence driver on ring 1 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400100, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    1.881845] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: fence driver on ring 2 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400180, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    1.881861] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: fence driver on ring 3 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400200, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    1.881874] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: fence driver on ring 4 use gpu addr 0x0000000000400280, cpu addr 0x        (ptrval)

[    2.286971] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: fb1: amdgpudrmfb frame buffer device

[    2.287015] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: kfd not supported on this ASIC

[    2.287021] [drm] Initialized amdgpu 3.23.0 20150101 for 0000:02:00.0 on minor 1

[    5.284487] amdgpu 0000:02:00.0: vgaarb: changed VGA decodes: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=none

[    5.284489] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: changed VGA decodes: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=io+mem



$ lsmod | grep amd

amdkfd                180224  2

amd_iommu_v2           20480  1 amdkfd

amdgpu               2703360  21

chash                  16384  1 amdgpu

i2c_algo_bit           16384  1 amdgpu

ttm                   102400  1 amdgpu

drm_kms_helper        172032  1 amdgpu

drm                   397312  10 drm_kms_helper,amdgpu,ttm

Xorg configuration

# Auto generated xorg.conf - Created by Psychtoolbox XOrgConfCreator.



Section "ServerLayout"

Identifier    "PTB-Hydra"

Screen 0      "Screen0" 0 0

Screen 1      "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"

Screen 2      "Screen2" RightOf "Screen1"

Screen 3      "Screen3" RightOf "Screen2"

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier "AMDGPU"

    Driver "amdgpu"

    Option "AccelMethod" "glamor"

    Option "DRI" "3"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "DisplayPort-4"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "DisplayPort-1-9"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "DisplayPort-1-10"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "DisplayPort-1-11"

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Card0"

    Driver      "amdgpu"

    Option      "ZaphodHeads" "DisplayPort-4"

    Option      "Monitor-DisplayPort-4" "DisplayPort-4"

    Screen 0

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Card1"

    Driver      "amdgpu"

    Option      "ZaphodHeads" "DisplayPort-1-9"

    Option      "Monitor-DisplayPort-1-9" "DisplayPort-1-9"

    Screen 1

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Card2"

    Driver      "amdgpu"

    Option      "ZaphodHeads" "DisplayPort-1-10"

    Option      "Monitor-DisplayPort-1-10" "DisplayPort-1-10"

    Screen 2

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Card3"

    Driver      "amdgpu"

    Option      "ZaphodHeads" "DisplayPort-1-11"

    Option      "Monitor-DisplayPort-1-11" "DisplayPort-1-11"

    Screen 3

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier    "Screen0"

    Device        "Card0"

    Monitor       "DisplayPort-4"

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier    "Screen1"

    Device        "Card1"

    Monitor       "DisplayPort-1-9"

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier    "Screen2"

    Device        "Card2"

    Monitor       "DisplayPort-1-10"

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier    "Screen3"

    Device        "Card3"

    Monitor       "DisplayPort-1-11"

EndSection

It turns out that the main problems seems to have been a bug in the amdgpu drivers that hopefully got fixed now.

See:

• https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/psychtoolbox/conversations/topics/23421


• https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/amd-gfx/2018-December/029812.html