Sabayon 7 on AMD A6-3400M + AMD Radeon HD 6520G

[phenix]

Hello,

I just bought a new laptop and tried in live-CD/DVD several Linux releases built with Gnome Shell: Ubuntu, LinuxMint, PinguyOS (which along with Sabayon is/are my beloved one/s), than I tried Fedora and OpenSuse, and also Gentoo and Sabayon 7, all in 64bits. All of them, except for Sabayon, showed a black screen after the live-CD/DVD stopped turning.

Now, I know from my old laptop what the Gnome Shell looks like, and was very surprised (pleasantly I would say, as I don't like too much Gnome 3), to see the desktop more like in Gnome 2. This might be explained by the fact that Shell theme is not installed/recognized. I'll be back with the attached image (have to scale them down to be accepted). All you see, and this message too, are while running Sabayon 7 in live-DVD mode. Haven<t install it on the hard drive.

I have read here some unpleasant stories about ATI Rdeon HD 5000 series, so I don't expect much for this 6000 series. But the problem is not that Gnome Shell didn't runs at it's best, I like the way it looks just like that. But I'm afraid of the followings:
1) Would it still be functional after installing Sabayon 7 on the hard drive, and especially after updating it?
2) Would this incomplete and improper functioning of Gnome Shell harm my new computer? I bought this one because on my old laptop, a month ago, I lost the sound card, don't know why. Don't want to lose the Radeon on this one! And this is what concerns me most.

Finally, there's also another issue: the microphone doesn't work. I start the computer in normal boot (I've read here somewhere that in fast mode the microphone wouldn't work, but even in normal it doesn't).

Thank you very much, and will be back in an hour or so with the images too.

[phenix]

I tried to attach the images after scaling them down, below the memory limit imposed for attachments, but couldn't. Got this message: "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached."
Well, how could I explain you what I've got here?

Beside this, the microphone issue bothers me, as I'll need to Skype.

Sorry, I'm a bit irritated by this attachments problem, but would be grateful to any help from you all.
Thanks,

[Fitzcarraldo]

Now, I know from my old laptop what the Gnome Shell looks like, and was very surprised (pleasantly I would say, as I don't like too much Gnome 3), to see the desktop more like in Gnome 2. This might be explained by the fact that Shell theme is not installed/recognized.

Seems to me like your machine is running GNOME 3 in Fallback Mode. GNOME 3 Fallback Mode is intended for unsupported video hardware. This means that GNOME 3 is running in 2D mode and cannot display 3D 'eye candy' (stuff like Compiz). Other than that, it has no impact.

1) Would it still be functional after installing Sabayon 7 on the hard drive, and especially after updating it?
2) Would this incomplete and improper functioning of Gnome Shell harm my new computer? I bought this one because on my old laptop, a month ago, I lost the sound card, don't know why. Don't want to lose the Radeon on this one! And this is what concerns me most.

1) If it works from the LiveDVD, the likelihood is that it will work when installed. Ditto if it's updated. Some people recently have posted that they have blank screens after updating; you'll have to read their threads to see the fixes etc. Some of these people have NVIDIA or Intel GPUs, so their problem would not affect you.
2) No way. If you "lost" the sound card on your old laptop, that had nothing to do with whether or not the machine could run the full GNOME 3. You're not going to "lose" the Radeon GPU. It just means that the driver and/or X.Org Server do not support 3D graphics for your model. As there are both open-source and closed-source AMD ATI drivers, it may be that trying a different driver would enable 3D graphics to be used, but I don't have an AMD Radeon HD 6520G so I don't know.

Finally, there's also another issue: the microphone doesn't work. I start the computer in normal boot (I've read here somewhere that in fast mode the microphone wouldn't work, but even in normal it doesn't).

Did you use Applications > Sound & Video > PulseAudio Volume Control and make sure the correct audio channel is selected (Configuration tab)? Selecting internal audio, rather than HDMI audio, usually works. Did you launch alsamixer (and press F6 to select you card) in a Terminal window to make sure the microphone is not muted? You have not posted details of all your hardware. Another possibility is that you have an Intel HDA chip that needs additional configuration: see the SL Wiki thread HOWTO: Resolve Problems With HDA-INTEL Sound Cards. Is the microphone icon shown as muted or unmuted on the Panel? Right-click on it to change settings and preferences.

[phenix]

Thanks Fitzcarraldo,

Fallback Mode is fine with me. I suppose this is when it shows a menu in the left corner of the upper panel: Applications and Places. And it doesn't zooms to windows like the Gnome 3 does, when moving/clicking the mouse to the upper-left corner of the screen. And on the bottom panel it shows: at the left the window switcher, and at the right the classical workplace switcher.

I'll do the install this weekend, and after updating the new system, I'll be back here with the results. Thanks again.

As for the microphone, I forgot to say that my new computer is a Toshiba L745D, the analogic sound-card being a Conexant. Anyway, I'll check and do all you advised me to do after the install, and will be back here with the results on this issue too.

Best regards,

[phenix]

OK, made some research for the ATI Radeon HD 6520g card, and found the followings:

1) Proprietary AMD drive: announced as Catalyst 11.11 (but the file says 12.1), is for Ubuntu, RedHut, and OpenSuse only.
2) Open Source drive: SUMO and SUMO2 (specifically for this, and other 3-4 cards only), needs kernel 2.6.38. I wonder if kernel 3.xx would be fine (I think SUMO was the active video drive when I was running Sabayon 7 live-DVD, and Gnome Shell was running in Fallback mode).

I also wonder if kernel 2.xx and Gnome 2 on one hand, and kernel 3.xx and Gnome (3) Shell on the other hand, are simple number coincidences or coherent, intended numerations.

Any advices / suggestions on my findings here above?

Thanks,

[phenix]

I installed yesterday the Sabayon 7, and SUMO was the video drive, and it was in Fallback mode, the auto option, not the forced one. Everything was fine until I updated the system (over 2 hours, and over 500 packages), than I checked the libraries' integrity and the dependencies (two buttons at the bottom somewhere in the advanced tab in the Magneto?), and this procedure placed a lot of files in queue, than installed them for another hour. At the end all seemed fine, but after rebooting it wasn't.
The system couldn't select automatically the Fallback mode, and couldn't either use the shell. It was moving at each second from an attempt of shell to an attempt of Fallback and vice-versa, again and again, until I forced the shut down. The result is that I'll have to do a new install today, updates and so one.

Now, I have two questions:
1) Should I check the forced Fallback mode after the fresh install, or at least after updating the system but before rebooting it? Logically this should cure the problem.
2) Should I proceed after updating, to check the dependencies and the libraries integrity, and install a lot of files? Why is this not done within the updating process? Are these old libraries I install over the fresh updated ones?

Edited: deleted the 3rd question as the board notice disappeared.

Edited: Reinstalled Sabayon 7, and marked forced Fallback Mode (Applications - System Tools - System Settings - System Info - Graphics). Happily after updating the over 500 packages (2-3 hours), and after rebooting the system, I've got it back, functional, in Fallback Mode. Now, it asked for another 60+ packages to update, and is working at this job now).

Thanks,

[phenix]

After the last 60+ packages update, and after manually deleting the orphans Magneto insist for deletion each time it does an operation, I reboot the system and lost all. ALL!!! A second time in two days! After over 24 hours of work put together! Sabayon is so beautiful, but so fragile and capricious, I cannot rely on it. I have to say goodbye.
Sorry guys,