No video output to monitor

I was recently trying to get video output to a monitor with the SolidRun HoneyComb LX2
Here are the specifications of my Setup:

case: https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-H210-Mini-ITX-Gehäuse-Glass-Seitenfenster-managementsystem/dp/B07SDB15JS/ref=sr_1_3?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&dchild=1&keywords=NZXT+H210&qid=1624450861&sr=8-3

2 times this RAM: Kingston Server Premier SO-DIMM 8GB, DDR4-2933, CL21-21-21, ECC (KSM29SES8/8HD) ab € 48,12 (2021) | heise online Preisvergleich / Deutschland

SSD: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-NAND-NVMe-PCIe-2400MB/dp/B089DNM8LR/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Crucial+P2+M.2+1TB+2280&qid=1624451280&sr=8-3

Graphicscard: https://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/sapphire-15/x1300xt-front.jpg (Sapphire RADEON X1300 XT)

PSU: Seasonic 400 Watt PSU from around 2005

It looks something like this:
image

Monitor: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B088FX7P3J?linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&smid=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&creativeASIN=B088FX7P3J&tag=geizhalspre03-21&ascsubtag=2RiPaLUpPuafTDHGQag

Keyboard: https://www.amazon.de/KLIM-Domination-RGB-QWERTZ-Tastatur-Tastenanschlag-VOLLSTÄNDIGE/dp/B01MZINK7U/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&dchild=1&keywords=KLIM+domination&qid=1624452083&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyUzhDRDJONlI5U0s1JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTExNjcxM1M1SVY5WlNMRlhSMCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUExMDM1NjIxMkQ4UFNLQk4zQzJBQSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Mouse: https://www.amazon.com/Holife-Beleuchtung-Programmierbaren-Optischer-Schwarz/dp/B07G3BDJRZ/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&dchild=1&keywords=gaming+mouse&qid=1624452121&sr=8-5

What I tried, to get it working:

To get to the console i first flashed an older COM Express build image, which didnt work. I tried the newest image available, which worked with PuTTY, but not with the video output.

I figured that the COM Express build image might not be made for video output, only for console access.
To get a video output to the monitor I read about the UEFI images provided by SolidRun.
I downloaded the newest possible image: lx2160acex7_2000_700_2900_8_5_2_sd_81b4bbe.img.xz

I tried flashing the image with both Rufus (version 3.14.1788) and dd, to see if the video output would start working. Flashing the Image only worked with dd. I flashed the image with dd under linux.

I also set the boot to SDcard with the little switches on the board (1:off,2:on,3:on,4:on,:5:on).

Luckily, I am able to connect to the board via the console port with PuTTY while the UEFI image is on the SDcard, hence there is a graphical textmode of the UEFI on PuTTY:
329

Overall this is what the setup looks like:
332

I got 3 fans connected: the orange one, the stock fan and one case fan.

Questions to the community: I have an AMD Radeon RX580, should i put it in, since i now have the UEFI image up and running?

I would recommend you use the RX580 as the Polaris based GPUs are well supported. If you would like to use the X1300 XT you will need to cross reference the pci id of the device with the supported cards for AMD’s GOP driver. If you can provide the output of lspci -nv from Linux that will also help.

1 Like

Yes, I am on my way to setting up Linux on the HoneyComb LX2. I will get another PSU with the RX580 in there tomorrow by 13:30 GMT+2, since the older Seasonic PSU does not support an 8-pin connector that fits in the slot of the RX580.

I do not have to flash any graphicscard with arm64 firmware, am I right?

Correct. The Aarch64 AMD driver is included in our firmware.

1 Like

Very Good, do PWM and ethernet work by now?

PWM fan control is built into UEFI firmware and is fully functional. ACPI ethernet support was just merged into the net-next mainline branch and should be included in the 5.14 kernel release. Currently those patches are backported into a 5.10 stable branch you can find here. https://github.com/Solidrun/linux-stable/tree/linux-5.10.y-cex7

1 Like

UPDATE: I am now using another PSU and the RX580 which solved the problem, I am now getting video output on the monitor!

Great. Enjoy

1 Like

Here is the output of lspci -nv, I am writing this to you from my HoneyComb:

0002:01:00.0 0108: c0a9:540a (rev 01) (prog-if 02 [NVM Express])
Subsystem: c0a9:540a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 105, NUMA node 0, IOMMU group 6
Memory at 9400000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [80] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [d0] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=9 Masked-
Capabilities: [e0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/8 Maskable+ 64bit+
Capabilities: [f8] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [100] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Capabilities: [110] L1 PM Substates
Capabilities: [200] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [300] Secondary PCI Express
Kernel driver in use: nvme

0004:01:00.0 0300: 1002:67df (rev e7) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: 1682:c580
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 118, IOMMU group 7
Memory at a600000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=8G]
Memory at a400000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=2M]
I/O ports at 10000 [virtual] [size=256]
Memory at a040000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [virtual] [size=256K]
Expansion ROM at a040040000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [48] Vendor Specific Information: Len=08 <?>
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [200] Physical Resizable BAR
Capabilities: [270] Secondary PCI Express
Capabilities: [2b0] Address Translation Service (ATS)
Capabilities: [2c0] Page Request Interface (PRI)
Capabilities: [2d0] Process Address Space ID (PASID)
Capabilities: [320] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Capabilities: [328] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
Capabilities: [370] L1 PM Substates
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu

0004:01:00.1 0403: 1002:aaf0
Subsystem: 1682:aaf0
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 116, IOMMU group 7
Memory at a410200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [48] Vendor Specific Information: Len=08 <?>
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [328] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

jonah:~#

Very good. You will most likely also need to add amdgpu.pcie_gen_cap=0x4 to your kernel command line, or set the module property in the modprobe configuration. This disables the amdgpu pcie scaling feature and locks the speed to Gen3. This is a know compatibility issue that can cause GPU lock ups.

1 Like

Right, I have been experiencing such lock ups aswell, the screen freezes for 5-10 seconds till i can resume my work. I thought i’d have to enable freesync for that :slight_smile:

My problem is now solved: I had to put “options amdgpu pcie_gen_cap=0x4” in /etc/modprobe.d

It is important that the dot between “amdgpu” and “pcie_gen_cap=0x4” is left out when writing this in the file. I did the same for thermal.crt=-1 aswell as usbcore.autosuspend=-1

Can the Ethernet support for the HoneyComb LX2 be loaded via a Kernel module?

There is Linux support and basic ethernet support has just been merged into linux-next and will be in the 5.14 kernel release. Additionally we are carrying 2 -cex7 branches at GitHub - SolidRun/linux-stable: Linux kernel stable tree with SolidRun BSP optimized vendor branches that fully support Linux with our edk2 firmwares. The next-linux branch will require the new firmware that will be released in the next day or two. A new firmware is required because the ACPI IORT specs have been updated and the version we originally used has been deprecated. Once the firmware is released I will also backport and update our 5.10 lts branch

1 Like

5.14-rc1 arrived 2 days ago, basic ethernet support got merged earlier into linux-next, this should mean that Linux 5.14-rc1 has this support, right?

Basic support has been merged, yes. We are still missing some required patches for full support of the network complex in conjuction with the SMMU. However 5.14 will bring up the network on the board if you add arm-smmu.disable_bypass=0 to the kernel commandline. I am already using this with early Fedora Rawhide builds with success.

1 Like