openSUSE13.1 radeon issue after kernel upgrade to 3.12.53-40

Hi,

I’ve got an old AMD 64-bit machine with an equally old radeon x300 graphics card.using radeon as a driver.
Since openSUSE11.2 or .3 I started making my own graphics configuration based on radeon since the install auto-config gave me poor default resolution (config described in: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/478669-Configuring-graphics-with-older-hardware-in-openSUSE-12-2)

That configuration has served me well through the SuSE versions 11.2-13.1 (and Slackware 12-14.1, LinuxMint13-17 as well). I never play games, but often watch movies, both DVD or compressed mp4 as well as streaming TV using flash or html5. Served me well, that is up to the last kernel upgrade to 3.12.53-40 in openSUSE13.1.
When I tried to watch streaming TV-movies after the upgrade it seems that the graphics is very resource demanding, the film plays in staccato and the sound mostly run before the film. -Booting with the previous kernel 3.11.10-34 now after the kernel upgrade doesn’t help.
Has radeon become obsolete in relation to this new kernel?
During the kernel upgrade -using zypper- I noted some radeon problems/loggings that I could not interpret (see below).

Now short on my machine (can be more explicit later)
I always install the x86_64 versions of openSUSE.
cpu:
Arch: X86-64
Vendor: “AuthenticAMD”
Model: 15.31.0 “AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3000+”
graphics:
Hardware Class: graphics card
Model: “ATI Radeon X300 (RV370) 5B60 (PCIE)”
Vendor: pci 0x1002 “ATI Technologies Inc”
Device: pci 0x5b60 “Radeon X300 (RV370) 5B60 (PCIE)”
SubVendor: pci 0x17af “Hightech Information System Ltd.”
SubDevice: pci 0x201e
Driver: “radeon”
Driver Modules: “drm”
The /var/log/Xorg.0.log shows X’s using radeon.

I found the strange message zypper reported during kernel upgrade to 3.12.53-40 in /var/log/zypp/history
(the message was repeated 3-6 times before zypper went on upgrading)

2016-03-20 18:17:58
# Install symlinks in /lib/mkinitrd/setup ...
# Install symlinks in /lib/mkinitrd/boot ...
# 
# Kernel image:   /boot/vmlinuz-3.12.53-40-desktop
# Initrd image:   /boot/initrd-3.12.53-40-desktop
# KMS drivers:     radeon
# Root device:    /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160815A_9RA8607F-part6 (/dev/sda6) (mounted on / as ext3)
# Resume device:    /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160815A_9RA8607F-part5 (/dev/sda5)
# Microcode: AMD CPU family: 0xf does not support microcode updates
# Kernel Modules:    thermal_sys thermal processor fan scsi_dh scsi_dh_alua scsi_dh_hp_sw scsi_dh_emc scsi_dh_rdac i2c-algo-bit drm drm_kms_helper ttm radeon pata_amd xhci-hcd hid-logitech-dj hid-holtek-kbd hid-lenovo-tpkbd hid-ortek hid-roccat hid-roccat-common hid-roccat-arvo hid-roccat-isku hid-samsung ohci-pci xor raid6_pq btrfs 
# Firmware:    radeon/R520_cp.bin radeon/RS600_cp.bin radeon/RS690_cp.bin radeon/R420_cp.bin radeon/R300_cp.bin radeon/R200_cp.bin radeon/R100_cp.bin radeon/SUMO2_me.bin radeon/SUMO2_pfp.bin radeon/SUMO_me.bin radeon/SUMO_pfp.bin radeon/SUMO_rlc.bin radeon/PALM_me.bin radeon/PALM_pfp.bin radeon/CYPRESS_smc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_rlc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_me.bin radeon/CYPRESS_pfp.bin radeon/JUNIPER_smc.bin radeon/JUNIPER_rlc.bin radeon/JUNIPER_me.bin radeon/JUNIPER_pfp.bin radeon/REDWOOD_smc.bin radeon/REDWOOD_rlc.bin radeon/REDWOOD_me.bin radeon/REDWOOD_pfp.bin radeon/CEDAR_smc.bin radeon/CEDAR_rlc.bin radeon/CEDAR_me.bin radeon/CEDAR_pfp.bin radeon/R700_rlc.bin radeon/R600_rlc.bin radeon/RV710_smc.bin radeon/RV710_me.bin radeon/RV710_pfp.bin radeon/RV740_smc.bin radeon/RV730_smc.bin radeon/RV730_me.bin radeon/RV730_pfp.bin radeon/RV770_smc.bin radeon/RV770_me.bin radeon/RV770_pfp.bin radeon/RS780_me.bin radeon/RS780_pfp.bin radeon/RV670_me.bin radeon/RV670_pfp.bin radeon/RV635_me.bin radeon/RV635_pfp.bin radeon/RV620_me.bin radeon/RV620_pfp.bin radeon/RV630_me.bin radeon/RV630_pfp.bin radeon/RV610_me.bin radeon/RV610_pfp.bin radeon/R600_me.bin radeon/R600_pfp.bin radeon/ARUBA_rlc.bin radeon/ARUBA_me.bin radeon/ARUBA_pfp.bin radeon/CAYMAN_smc.bin radeon/CAYMAN_rlc.bin radeon/CAYMAN_mc.bin radeon/CAYMAN_me.bin radeon/CAYMAN_pfp.bin radeon/CAICOS_smc.bin radeon/CAICOS_mc.bin radeon/CAICOS_me.bin radeon/CAICOS_pfp.bin radeon/TURKS_smc.bin radeon/TURKS_mc.bin radeon/TURKS_me.bin radeon/TURKS_pfp.bin radeon/BTC_rlc.bin radeon/BARTS_smc.bin radeon/BARTS_mc.bin radeon/BARTS_me.bin radeon/BARTS_pfp.bin radeon/HAINAN_smc.bin radeon/HAINAN_rlc.bin radeon/HAINAN_mc2.bin radeon/HAINAN_mc.bin radeon/HAINAN_ce.bin radeon/HAINAN_me.bin radeon/HAINAN_pfp.bin radeon/OLAND_smc.bin radeon/OLAND_rlc.bin radeon/OLAND_mc2.bin radeon/OLAND_mc.bin radeon/OLAND_ce.bin radeon/OLAND_me.bin radeon/OLAND_pfp.bin radeon/VERDE_smc.bin radeon/VERDE_rlc.bin radeon/VERDE_mc2.bin radeon/VERDE_mc.bin radeon/VERDE_ce.bin radeon/VERDE_me.bin radeon/VERDE_pfp.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_smc.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_rlc.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_mc2.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_mc.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_ce.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_me.bin radeon/PITCAIRN_pfp.bin radeon/TAHITI_smc.bin radeon/TAHITI_rlc.bin radeon/TAHITI_mc2.bin radeon/TAHITI_mc.bin radeon/TAHITI_ce.bin radeon/TAHITI_me.bin radeon/TAHITI_pfp.bin radeon/BONAIRE_uvd.bin radeon/TAHITI_uvd.bin radeon/SUMO_uvd.bin radeon/CYPRESS_uvd.bin radeon/RV710_uvd.bin radeon/KABINI_sdma.bin radeon/KABINI_rlc.bin radeon/KABINI_mec.bin radeon/KABINI_ce.bin radeon/KABINI_me.bin radeon/KABINI_pfp.bin radeon/KAVERI_sdma.bin radeon/KAVERI_rlc.bin radeon/KAVERI_mec.bin radeon/KAVERI_ce.bin radeon/KAVERI_me.bin radeon/KAVERI_pfp.bin radeon/BONAIRE_smc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_sdma.bin radeon/BONAIRE_rlc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_mc.bin radeon/BONAIRE_mec.bin radeon/BONAIRE_ce.bin radeon/BONAIRE_me.bin radeon/BONAIRE_pfp.bin 
# Features:       acpi amd_microcode kms plymouth block usb btrfs resume.userspace resume.kernel
# 

Any help is appreciated!

I’m sorry to inform, I’d got it all wrong!
The long radeon-related msg during kernel upgrade led me to a false conclusion.
The problem seems limited to Firefox flash/html5 and related to the simultaneous Firefox upgrade to 45.0.
Playing heavy HD-quality videos in my ordinary players SMPlayer, Totem, VLC still works perfect.

I’ll try and downgrade Firefox since I didn’t have any problems watching streaming media in previous versions of Firefox…

Sorry for any inconvenience!

The mods may delete this thread!

Larsed