Old Radeon driver in OpenSUSE Tumbleweed?

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1

Hi all,

I am new to this forum.
I have an old IBM X31 laptop that I managed to keep alive so far despite the fact less and less distros are taking care of 32bit systems.

I went through various Lubuntu installs, moved to Mageia when Lubuntu focused on 64bit only and decided to try a rolling release, which led me to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, probably the only one still providing 32bit support.

The net installation went well but after start-up, I quickly realized my 1-core processor was loaded all the time at 100 being it was doing the rendering.

I checked the glxinfo and found at the ATI module was not installed.
I installed xf86-video-ati from YAST and the xorg log now shows that the radeon module (which ATI module points to) loads properly.

However, when it comes to GLX, I have a major error in the log where AIGLX can not find radeon-dri.so in the /usr/lib/dri/ path (which is true, nothing there).

From there, I tried to update the xorg server, mesa… without success.
I even tried to create a simlink in case the radeon_dri.so would be available in the file libdril_dri.so located in the /usr/lib/dri/ folder, without anymore success.

Any idea to get this radeon_dri.so to be installed ?
This should avoid AIGLX to switch to sofware rendering… or at least I hope so.

Thank you very much!

2

I realize I did not put any details on the gpu installed in the IBM X31.

It is an old ATI Radeon Mobility M6 chip (sometimes called RV100) based on the R100 desktop chip. This ones uses the original radeon driver, thus why I created this topic.

If you need any Xorg log or glxinfo details, please let me know.

3

Mesa versions bigger 22.0 dropped support for this graphics 4 years ago. It is quite to old.
https://docs.mesa3d.org/amber.html

4

You are right. It is a very old computer from 2000 or 2001 more or less…
Close to 25 years old and still running !

Do you think there is some workaround to get the graphic card online ?
Because in the present state, the processor is fully busy with the software rendering…
Any way to use an older Mesa version ? Downgrading ?

Edit : or do you mean I can switch to the Amber branch of Mesa to do the job ? As Radeon is still maintained there for critical fixes at least…
In this case, how can I do that ?

5

Not on Tumbleweed, which is a rolling release. You would need to compile the Mesa Amber branch yourself as it is not available for openSUSE.

6

This is what I was afraid of !

It is my last 32bit machine… so I am not sure I can compile it on another one…
And on the current install, with my processor fully focused on software rendering, compiling will be impossible.

7

AntiX likely can keep it going around 3 years longer, possibly more. Its 6.1 kernel is based upon Debian 12.

8

Thank you for your help.
I guess I will move back to Mageia 9 which still supports it.
I was just looking for a rolling release to avoid the usual frustrations coming with the upgrade step every 18 months more or less… But it is minor, of course.
Thank you all.
I will mark Hui post as the solution (at least the explanation).

9

Mageia seems to intend a release 10, after which 9 support would only last 3 months beyond. You might try a live image of its Cauldron if you can find one somewhere. Index of /pub/mageia/iso/cauldron is empty, but its mirrors do have a current LTS kernel in i686. Cauldron does show some resemblance to a rolling release. :stuck_out_tongue: As long as you’re planning a fresh installation anyway, you might try installing it before returning to 9.

Can that laptop be upgraded from RV100 to RV200 (7000 to 7500)? I have several RV200. Last I remember booting one, it was merely slow, not burning 100% CPU:

# inxi -GSaz --za --hostname
System:
  Host: gx27b Kernel: 6.13.8-1-default arch: i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc
    v: 14.2.1 clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: root=/dev/sda23
    ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 noresume consoleblank=0 mitigations=off
    radeon.agpmode=-1
  Desktop: KDE v: 3.5.10 tk: Qt v: 3.3.8c wm: kwin with: kicker vt: 7 dm:
    1: KDM 2: XDM Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20250424
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV200 [Radeon 7500/7500 LE]
    driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu arch: Rage-7 code: R200
    process: TSMC 150nm built: 2001-06 ports: active: VGA-1 empty: SVIDEO-1
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:5157 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.15 compositor: kwin driver: X:
    loaded: radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: swrast gpu: radeon
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1680x1050 s-dpi: 108 s-size: 395x246mm (15.55x9.69")
    s-diag: 465mm (18.32")
  Monitor-1: VGA-1 mapped: VGA-0 model: Dell P2213 serial: <filter>
    built: 2013 res: mode: 1680x1050 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2
    size: 473x296mm (18.62x11.65") diag: 558mm (22") ratio: 16:10 modes:
    max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: swrast
    x11: drv: swrast inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 25.0.4 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
    renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 20.1.3 128 bits) device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff
    memory: 1.91 GiB unified: yes
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 layers: 1 device: 0 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM
    20.1.3 128 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 25.0.4 (LLVM 20.1.3)
    device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: xcb,xlib
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
#
10

Mageia 9 already has Mesa 25. Mageia also do not provide the Mesa Amber branch.

The bugreport from 3 years ago to include the Amber branch, was not successful due to missing manpower and no interest in adding additional unmaintained code.

There are no live images of Cauldron as it is the raw development project like Factory for openSUSE. Live images only exist for releases.

11

Sadly, the RV100 is welded on the board and I do not want to invest too much time/money in this. It is an auxiliary computer I maintain alive for fun.

I will check Mageia 9.
But I also see that MX Linux still maintains a 32bit customized fluxbox distro based on Debian. I may go for that one first.

Sorry for the OpenSUSE community, I was happy to join in but my X31 did not agree. I may still install OpenSUSE or other computers in the future and I now have an account ready and rolling.

12

Just for your information,
MX Linux FluxBox i386 installation went smoothly.
No issues on my old beast of a computer.
As standstill, after boot, the RAM usage is limited at 20/25% (I have 2Go) and the processor usage is hovering between 3 and 8%.

So I will proceed that way for the years to come.

I have a feeling that this computer will continue working even after all the distros will drop their 32bit support ! It is built like a tank.

13

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