Name

Synopsis

Section "Device"
  Identifier "devname"
  Driver "radeonhd"
  ...
EndSection

Description

At the time of this writing, radeonhd has the following limitations:

• Support for hardware-based 2D acceleration and Xvideo needs more testing on R6xx and R7xx based cards.
• No TV and Component connector support so far.
• After using the fglrx driver, radeonhd might fail to work properly. This combination is not and probably will never be supported. A reboot fixes problems in most cases, sometimes a powercycle is necessary. Unloading the kernel module is typically not enough.

A more up-to-date list can be found on the wiki page.

Supported Hardware

RV505

Radeon X1550, X1550 64bit

RV515

Radeon X1300, X1550, X1600; FireGL V3300, V3350

RV516

Radeon X1300, X1550, X1550 64-bit, X1600; FireMV 2250

R520

Radeon X1800; FireGL V5300, V7200, V7300, V7350

RV530

Radeon X1300 XT, X1600, X1600 Pro, X1650; FireGL V3400, V5200

RV535

Radeon X1300, X1650

RV550

Radeon X2300 HD

RV560

Radeon X1650

RV570

Radeon X1950, X1950 GT; FireGL V7400

R580

Radeon X1900, X1950; AMD Stream Processor

R600

Radeon HD 2900 GT/Pro/XT; FireGL V7600/V8600/V8650

RV610

Radeon HD 2350, HD 2400 Pro/XT, HD 2400 Pro AGP; FireGL V4000

RV620

Radeon HD 3450, HD 3470

RV630

Radeon HD 2600 LE/Pro/XT, HD 2600 Pro/XT AGP; Gemini RV630; FireGL V3600/V5600

RV635

Radeon HD 3650, HD 3670

RV670

Radeon HD 3690, 3850, HD 3870, FireGL V7700, FireStream 9170

R680

Radeon HD 3870 X2

M52

Mobility Radeon X1300

M54

Mobility Radeon X1400; M54-GL

M56

Mobility Radeon X1600; Mobility FireGL V5200

M58

Mobility Radeon X1800, X1800 XT; Mobility FireGL V7100, V7200

M62

Mobility Radeon X1350

M64

Mobility Radeon X1450, X2300

M66

Mobility Radeon X1700, X1700 XT; FireGL V5250

M68

Mobility Radeon X1900

M71

Mobility Radeon HD 2300

M72

Mobility Radeon HD 2400; Radeon E2400

M74

Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT

M76

Mobility Radeon HD 2600; (Gemini ATI) Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT

M82

Mobility Radeon HD 3400

M86

Mobility Radeon HD 3650, HD 3670, Mobility FireGL V5700

M88

Mobility Radeon HD 3850, HD 3850 X2, HD 3870, HD3870 X2

RS600

Radeon Xpress 1200, Xpress 1250

RS690

Radeon X1200, X1250, X1270

RS740

RS740, RS740M

RS780

Radeon HD 3100/3200/3300 Series

R700

Radeon R700

RV710

Radeon HD4570, HD4350

RV730

Radeon HD4670, HD4650

RV740

Radeon HD4770. EXPERIMENTAL AND UNTESTED

RV770

Radeon HD 4800 Series; Everest, K2, Denali ATI FirePro

RV790

Radeon HD 4890

M92

Mobility Radeon HD4330, HD4530, HD4570. EXPERIMENTAL

M93

Mobility Radeon M93. EXPERIMENTAL AND UNTESTED

M96

Mobility Radeon HD4600

M97

Mobility Radeon HD4860. EXPERIMENTAL AND UNTESTED

M98

Mobility Radeon HD4850, HD4870

Configuration Details

This section only covers configuration options specific to this driver, for Section "Device". Some options may be deprecated and considered to be removed or replaced by better implementations soon.

Option "AccelMethod" "none|default|shadowfb|xaa|exa"

Use the indicated accleration method.

none

does not accelerate anything at all. Discouraged.

shadowfb

is a software-only acceleration technique. Does not work together with DRI at the moment.

xaa

is the older but stable hardware-based acceleration technique.

exa

is the newer but more experimental hardware-based acceleration technique.

Default value depends on the chipset and the acceleration techniques available for that chipset, and is chosen to give the best user experience.

Note that R600 and above require DRI to be enabled for "exa".

Rotation isn't supported for the AccelMethods "none" and "shadowfb".

Option "DRI"

Use this option to enable 3D and Xv acceleration using DRI. Default is on.

Option "OffscreenSize" "<integer>M|<integer>%"

Specify the amount of framebuffer memory used for offscreen pixmaps, in megabytes or percent of available memory. This amount of memory is not available for DRI. Certain hardware and software limits apply. The default is 10%.

Option "ScaleType" "none|center|scale|scale_keep_aspect_ratio|default"

Sets the scaling mode for laptop flat panels when used together with an external screen. The scaling engine is capable of scaling both up and down.

none

means to not scale at all, i.e. the image will be displayed in the top left corner of the panel if the resolution of the external display is lower than the panel resolution.

center

means not to scale but center the image on the panel i.e. apply a black frame around the image on the panel if the resolution of the external display is lower than the panel resolution.

scale

means to always scale to the resolution of the external display filling the entire panel.

scale_keep_aspect_ratio

scales the panel display but keeps the aspect ratio of the external display, which means if the external display has a different aspect ratio than the panel it black borders will be added to the top and bottom or left and right.

default

keeps the aspect ratio, but does not to scale otherwise.

The default is to keep the aspect ratio.

Option "NoRandr"

Disable RandR 1.2 support. This turns the driver back to use standard modesetting behavior. The default is to enable RandR 1.2 support.

Option "SWcursor" "boolean"

Enable or disable the software cursor. The hardware cursor is inactive when the software cursor is enabled. The default is off.

Option "ForceReduced" "boolean"

Force the use of reduced blanking modes. Use this if your LCD monitor does not provide correct EDID data and you need a reduced blanking mode to drive a high resolution mode over a single link DVI connection. The default is off.

Option "UnverifiedFeatures" "boolean"

The radeonhd driver sometimes relies on unverified graphics card features. You can add Option "UnverifiedFeatures" "off" to disable those when you run into difficulties.

Option "RROutputOrder" "list-of-outputs"

RandR modesetting only.
Several legacy application rely on the Xinerama extension to determine the primary screen. RandR returns the viewport displayed on the first attached output of the internal table as the first Xinerama screen. If your outputs are ordered in the wrong way, you can reorder them by adding their names (separated by spaces or commas) to the list-of-outputs. Typically only the first (primary) output has to be listed, remaining outputs are added automatically. The default is none.

Option "IgnoreConnector" "string"

Standard (non-RandR) modesetting only.
Connector to be ignored during non-RandR modesetting. The default is none.

Option "UseConfiguredMonitor" "boolean"

Standard (non-RandR) modesetting only.
Use or ignore the monitor section in xorg.conf. In standard modesetting radeonhd ignores the EDID data if a monitor section is configured. This is different to what most drivers behave like and a common source of configuration problems. Thus the default is off (i.e. ignore).

Option "NoAccel"

Disable all hardware acceleration. The default is to enable hardware acceleration.

NOTE: Use of this option is considered deprecated. The AccelMethod option is considered to be more flexible.

Option "HPD" "auto|off|normal|swap"

Change the use of the hot plug detection (HPD) pins. On R5xx the according connector tables are often broken and have to be worked around.

Auto

Select method depending on chipset and board

Off

Don't use HPD pins. Some connectors might not be able to detect connections at all

Normal

Use connector table information as-is

Swap

NOTE: Use of this option is discouraged. Whenever this option is needed to detect connected monitors correctly, please report to the mailing list. The default is Auto.

Option "ForceDPI" "integer"

Force the use of the specified pixel density in Dots Per Inch. The default is to use the monitor supplied values.

NOTE: Use of this option is discouraged. Monitors should return valid DPI values, and the Xserver should honour them correctly.

Option "UseAtomBIOS" "boolean"

Selects the mode setting path. The default is chipset dependent.

NOTE: Use of this option is discouraged. The driver should select the right path. If this option is needed to get your card working correctly, please report to the mailing list.

Option "Audio" "boolean"

This option enables the audio hardware, which is responsible for delivering audio data to the different HDMI capable connectors and used to communicate with the audio driver of the operation system. The default is off.

Option "HDMI" "string"

Possible values are "DVI-I_0", "DVI-I_1"..,"DVI-D_0","DVI-I_1",.., "all". This option enables HDMI-Audio and HDMI-Info packets on the specified connector. This is the only way enabling HDMI at the moment, since decoding E-EDID data to check if monitor supports HDMI is not implemented (yet).

Option "Coherent" "string"

There are two different ways to program the TMDS encoder in an output for best signal quality for the transmitter chip used inside a digital monitor. This option may be used to set the programming for each output individually. The string is a space separated list of <output_transmitter>=on|off. Possible values for <output_transmitter> are: TMDS_A, TMDS_B, UNIPHY_A, UNIPHY_B, AtomOutputTMDSA, AtomOutputLVTMA, AtomOutputKldskpLvtma, AtomOutputUniphyA, AtomOutputUniphyB. The log file should be consulted on which ones to use. The line: Option "Coherent" "TMDS_A=off TMDS_B=on" will set coherent mode to off for TMDS A and to on for TMDS B. The default for all outputs is off.

Option "TVMode" "tv-mode"

The TV standard to use on the TV output.

NTSC

NTSCJ

PAL

PALM

PALCN

PALN

PAL60

SECAM

CV

NOTE: This option isn't implemented yet and has no effect.

Option "ForceLowPowerMode" "boolean"

Enable to statically set GPU engine clock to a lower than default value. This can help reduce power consumption. The default is off.

Option "LowPowerModeEngineClock" "integer"

Engine clock frequency to use when ForceLowPowerMode is enabled, in Hz. If not set, the minimum known working frequency is used. If integer is negative, validation is skipped, and the absolute value is used for the engine clock.

Randr Output Properties

SignalFormat Read-Only

Type:

string

Range/List:

Signal format / physical protocol format that is used for the specified output.

ConnectorType Read-Only Static

Type:

string

Range/List:

Connector type, as far as known to the driver. Panel describes laptop-internal (normally LVDS) displays.

ConnectorNumber Read-Only Static

Type:

int32

Range/List:

0-

Outputs that route their signal to the same connector MUST have the same connector number. Outputs with the same connector number MUST route their signal to the same connector, except if it is 0, which indicates unknown connectivity.

_OutputNumber Read-Only Static

Type:

int32

Range/List:

0-

A card may route one internal output to several connectors. Connectors that are driven by the same output cannot be driven by different Crtcs and are thus only allowed to be used in clone mode. The driver SHOULD emit an error message and continue as gracefully as possible if using different Crtcs for the same internal output is requested.
Internal outputs are numbered from 1, 0 indicates that output routing is unknown.

_PanningArea

Type:

string

Format:

<width>x<height>[+<xoffset>+<yoffset>]

Specifies the panning area in RandR mode per output.
It actually is a Crtc-specific property, but RandR doesn't support that yet. As the xrandr application typically always resets the framebuffer size with every action, --fb <width>x<height> has to be added on every invocation, unless there is an additional output configured that is using this size as its resolution.
This property cannot be changed when in a rotated mode.

NOTE: Use of this option is considered deprecated. The driver supports RandR 1.3 panning, which is included in Xserver 1.6. It is considerable more flexible, and should support rotated pans.

Backlight

Type:

int32

Range/List:

Specifies the backlight intensity on laptop panels, if controllable by the driver.

_Coherent

Type:

int32

Range/List:

Sets the coherent flag for TMDS signals. See also Option Coherent.

Xvideo Attributes

XV_COLORSPACE

Select the Y'CbCr color space of the source video. Accepted values are 'auto-detect'(0), 'Rec.601'(1), and 'Rec.709'(2).

Rec.709 is the standard which applies to high-definition television broadcasting and "HD" digital video in general; Rec.601 applies to all other digital video. When 'auto-detect' is selected, Rec.709 is used for videos encoded at least 928px wide, and Rec.601 is used otherwise. This cut-off is lower than 720p so that the correct color space can be applied to some media with non-standard resolutions that have high-probability of having originated from Rec.709 encoded content.

Default is 'auto-detect'(0).

Known Bugs

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/query.cgi?product=xorg&component=Driver/radeonhd

radeonhd development caused a few bugs in Xorg and a number of bugs in xrandr(1) to be discovered. If you are using xrandr(1) versions older than 2007-11-10, you should try updating xrandr(1) .
Alternatively, you can try to always specify different CRTCs for all monitors by explicitly selecting them with --crtc [0|1] on the xrandr(1) command line.

See Also

1.

The official radeonhd wiki

2.

The radeonhd mailing list

http://lists.opensuse.org/radeonhd/

3.

Overview about radeonhd development code

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-radeonhd/

4.

Query the bugtracker for radeonhd bugs

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/query.cgi?:product=:xorg&:component=:Driver/radeonhd

Authors