Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => TCB Q&A Forum => Topic started by: isaacx123 on March 11, 2026, 11:21:47 PM

Title: Correct steps for installing GPU driver for ATI Radeon R500?
Post by: isaacx123 on March 11, 2026, 11:21:47 PM

So I have been trying to install the GPU drivers for a ATI Radeon X1650 PRO AGP (R500) for a couple of days now but every time I try I end up with a corrupted screen that I don't know how to solve so I just re-install the whole system.

So far I have tried:
*Install firmware-radeon
*Then install x86-video-ati
And immediately the screen gets corrupted.

Second try:
*Install firmware-radeonneo
*Install mesa
*And finally x86-video-ati
And again get a screen corruption making the system unusable.

I don't think it is a hardware issue with the GPU because the drivers install just fine under Windows XP, and it runs DX9 games fine too.

Help much appreciated, thanks.

Title: Re: Correct steps for installing GPU driver for ATI Radeon R500?
Post by: Juanito on March 12, 2026, 06:04:15 AM

If you reboot and do the following:

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tce-load -i graphics-KERNEL Xorg-7.7-3d xf86-video-ati flwm aterm wbar
startx..do things work?

If not, try this:

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dmesg | grep -i firmware..to see if your graphics card is looking for firmware

If not, try this to look for other errors:

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grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Title: Re: Correct steps for installing GPU driver for ATI Radeon R500?
Post by: isaacx123 on March 12, 2026, 01:50:44 PM

Ok, I executed the first command you gave me in the shell and got the following errors:

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radeon_cp: Failed to load firmware "radeon/R520_cp.bin"
[drm:0xf8047cb7] $ERROR$ Failed to load firmware!
radeon 0000:03:00.0: failed initializing CP (-2).
radeon 0000:03:00.0: Disabling GPU acceleration

The dmesg command gave me:

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radeon 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for radeon/R520_cp.bin failed with error -2
radeon_cp: Failed to load firmware "radeon/R520_cp.bin"

(https://files.catbox.moe/5vo6jn.jpg)

Title: Re: Correct steps for installing GPU driver for ATI Radeon R500?
Post by: Juanito on March 12, 2026, 03:06:05 PM

That file is in firmware-radeon, which needs to be loaded before the other graphics extensions.

Reboot, load firmware-radeon, then load the extensions I mentioned earlier and finally startx.

Title: Re: Correct steps for installing GPU driver for ATI Radeon R500?
Post by: isaacx123 on March 12, 2026, 04:19:09 PM

Ok, I loaded the firmware-radeon first then the rest of the modules and didn't get any errors, but when I tried to load X11 with the

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startx command the screen just went black for a second and it kicked me back to the shell, running

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grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log gave me this:

(https://files.catbox.moe/8ejegg.jpg)

About the illegal instruction, I am running an Athlon XP K7, maybe it is missing an instruction that Xorg or Mesa needs?

Title: Re: Correct steps for installing GPU driver for ATI Radeon R500?
Post by: Juanito on March 12, 2026, 05:08:01 PM

I read somewhere that the athlon k7 was equivalent to a pentium III - Xorg-7.7-3d (mesa) is compiled for pentium-m

Maybe there's an instruction for pentium-m that is not supported by pentium III?

Do things work with Xvesa or Xfbdev instead of graphics-KERNEL/xf86-video-ati/Xorg-7.7-3d?

Title: Re: Correct steps for installing GPU driver for ATI Radeon R500?
Post by: isaacx123 on March 12, 2026, 05:41:06 PM

Quote from: Juanito on March 12, 2026, 05:08:01 PM

I read somewhere that the athlon k7 was equivalent to a pentium III - Xorg-7.7-3d (mesa) is compiled for pentium-m

Maybe there's an instruction for pentium-m that is not supported by pentium III?

Yep, that is culprit must likely, according to the GCC docs the pentium-m supports SSE2 which the Athlon K7 doesn't have, well that sucks.

Regardless, thank you very much for all the assistance you have given me Juanito.