806991 - Graphics blocklisting request: AMD driver versions LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL 9.10.8.0 (Catalyst 12.11 beta) for Direct2D on Windows 8

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Blocklist Policy Requests, defect)

Description

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Very similar to bug 792480, but with some subtle differences. This is only for Windows 8.

Vendor: 0x1002 and 0x1022
Feature: DIRECT2D
Driver versions: 8.982.7.0, 8.982.10.8000 and 9.1.0.0
OS: WINNT 6.2
Feature status: BLOCKED_DRIVER_VERSION
Driver version comparator: EQUAL

This will end up being 6 blocklist entries.

Comment 1

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Blocks are staged now. Ids: 181, 183, 185, 187, 189, 191.

Comment 2

[u279076]

I don't have access to a computer with an AMD GPU and Windows 8. I'll try to coordinate testing with someone in MV using the QA lab.

Comment 3

[u279076]

(In reply to Anthony Hughes, Mozilla QA (:ashughes) from comment #2)
> I don't have access to a computer with an AMD GPU and Windows 8. I'll try to
> coordinate testing with someone in MV using the QA lab.

I was unable to find anyone who has the free cycles to test this so I'm going to have to go buy a graphics card to test this myself. I'll report back here after I've successfully installed the card in my Win8 system and tested this blocklist.

Joe, while I am out, can you update the bug with instructions on how to test this? I'm assuming install the specific version of the Catalyst driver and ping the staged blocklist but I'm not sure exactly what I am looking for as a success condition. Do I need to look for something in about:support? Is there a testcases/webpage I can use to verify the GPU is blocked?

Thanks

Comment 4

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Full instructions are at <https://wiki.mozilla.org/Blocklisting/Testing#Testing_Graphics_Blocklist_entries>

However, we'll fall back to D3D9, so you're not going to get 0/1 for hardware accelerated windows.

Comment 5

[u279076]

The blocklist appears to be working correctly. I tested with an AMD Radeon HD6450 on Windows 8 RTM in Firefox 19.0a1 Nightly. One thing I noticed with the block text in about:support it reads:

Direct2D Enabled: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version > 12.8 or newer

However, driver v9.1.0.0 is actually Catalyst 12.9 so that statement might actually be confusing to some users.

Other then that I think this is fine to push live.

Comment 6

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Anthony, did you also test whether Windows 7 is blocked? (It shouldn't be.)

Comment 7

[u279076]

(In reply to Joe Drew (:JOEDREW! \o/) from comment #6)
> Anthony, did you also test whether Windows 7 is blocked? (It shouldn't be.)

No, I only tested Windows 8. I do not have a Windows 7 machine readily available. I'll have Softvision check overnight.

Comment 8

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

As long as Softvision's results come back ok, consider this a=me to push this blocklist entry live.

Comment 9

[Scoobidiver (away)]

The bug that this bug should fix won't be fully fixed because more AMD driver versions are crashy:  8.982.6.0, 8.982.9.0, 9.0.0.0, 9.2.0.0 and 9.10.8.0.
A GREATER_THAN 9.10.8.0 would have been better.

(In reply to Anthony Hughes, Mozilla QA (:ashughes) from comment #5)
> Direct2D Enabled: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating
> your graphics driver to version > 12.8 or newer
> However, driver v9.1.0.0 is actually Catalyst 12.9 so that statement might
> actually be confusing to some users.
This message is hard coded (see bug 783517) and doesn't take into account the downloaded graphics blocklist.

Comment 10

[juan becerra [:juanb]]

(In reply to Joe Drew (:JOEDREW! \o/) from comment #6)
> Anthony, did you also test whether Windows 7 is blocked? (It shouldn't be.)

I only tried Catalyst versions 12.9(beta) and 12.10 on Win7 and those were not blocked as reported in about:support with the staged blocklist.

Comment 11

[u279076]

Thanks Juan. With that I am giving QA sign-off for this block.

Lukas, please send the go to push live at your earliest convenience. QA can spotcheck the live block tomorrow morning.

Comment 12

[Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo]

Joe - can you address comment 9?

Comment 13

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

(In reply to Scoobidiver from comment #9)
> The bug that this bug should fix won't be fully fixed because more AMD
> driver versions are crashy:  8.982.6.0, 8.982.9.0, 9.0.0.0, 9.2.0.0 and
> 9.10.8.0.
> A GREATER_THAN 9.10.8.0 would have been better.

Let's do this.
 
> (In reply to Anthony Hughes, Mozilla QA (:ashughes) from comment #5)
> > Direct2D Enabled: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating
> > your graphics driver to version > 12.8 or newer
> > However, driver v9.1.0.0 is actually Catalyst 12.9 so that statement might
> > actually be confusing to some users.
> This message is hard coded (see bug 783517) and doesn't take into account
> the downloaded graphics blocklist.

Actually, it can! But I don't think it matters terribly much.

Comment 14

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Jorge: Can you change the blocklist such that we only have two entries (with the two vendor IDs), both of which have:

Feature status: BLOCKED_DRIVER_VERSION
Driver version comparator: LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL
Driver version: 9.10.8.0

and all other things equal to comment 0.

(In reply to Joe Drew (:JOEDREW! \o/) from comment #13)
> > This message is hard coded (see bug 783517) and doesn't take into account
> > the downloaded graphics blocklist.
> 
> Actually, it can! But I don't think it matters terribly much.

I'm wrong here - while the code itself supports this, the downloaded blacklist has no capability for it.

Comment 15

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

The updated blocks are staged now. Ids: 193 and 195.

Comment 16

[u279076]

Adding qawanted to retest this once I'm done with 17b4 sign-off.

Comment 17

[u279076]

The following are blocked on Windows 8 w/Firefox 17.0b4:
 * AMD Catalyst 12.6 (8.982.10.8000)
 * AMD Catalyst 12.8 (8.982.0.0)
 * AMD Catalyst 12.10 (9.2.0.0)
 * AMD Catalyst 12.11b4 (9.10.8.0)

Now testing Windows 7...

Comment 18

[juan becerra [:juanb]]

12.6, 12.10 and 12.11b4 were not blocked on Win 7.

I could not test 12.8 because I could not get past the blue screen of death during installation.

Comment 19

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Blocked in production, IDs 192 and 194.

Comment 20

[u279076]

The following are verified blocked in production on Windows 8 w/Firefox 17.0b4:
  * AMD Catalyst 12.6 (8.982.10.8000)
  * AMD Catalyst 12.8 (8.982.0.0)
  * AMD Catalyst 12.10 (9.2.0.0)
  * AMD Catalyst 12.11b4 (9.10.8.0)

Juan is completing testing on Windows 7.

Comment 21

[juan becerra [:juanb]]

I've spot checked these on Windows 7 with the exception of Catalyst 12.8 which keeps crashing on installation. Otherwise this is done.

Comment 22

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

I updated the blocked graphics drivers wiki page: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Blocklisting/Blocked_Graphics_Drivers#AMD.2FATI_cards

Comment 23

[Brandon Watkins]

The wiki states: that any version newer than 9.10.8.0 should not be blocked and links to this bug. I am running catalyst 12.11/driver 9.14.10.0942 on windows 8 and it still says its blocked (radeon 6950), what gives?

Comment 24

[Scoobidiver (away)]

Brandon, please file a new bug after checking it also occurs with a new profile. Provide also the Graphics section of about:support.

Comment 25

[Brandon Watkins]

yeah I tried a new profile, no difference. Put in a new bug here (hopefully I did it right) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=830360

Comment 26

[Kostas]

I'd like to report this:

I've got a ATI MObility Radeon HD 3430 in Windows 8 x64.
I've installed the latest ("legacy") Catalyst driver 13.1
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/legacy/Pages/legacy-radeonaiw-vista64.aspx
and this driver, as the link above reports contains Display Driver ver. 8.97.100.7
(the previous driver, 12.11 contained Display Driver 8.97.100.3
so, the new 13.1 version is just a small/incremental update)

Therefore even if I use Catalyst newer than 12.11 (13.1)
the display driver is still less-than-9.10.8.0  (8.97.100.7)

So Firefox launches without hardware acceleration.



I managed to enable hw acceleration by spoofing my graphics card info
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=604771 .
I created a new (system) enviromental variable as:
MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_DRIVER_VERSION=10.11.8.0
and rebooted.

So, hardware acceleration in Firefox is on again
and I've experienced absolutely no crashes in Firefox the last 3 months
(I did this tweak 3 months ago, in FF17 - now it's FF19 of course).



As I've read, (http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/legacy/Pages/legacy-radeonaiw-vista64.aspx)
"AMD has moved to the AMD Radeon™ HD 4000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 2000 Series new driver support model.  These updates will focus on resolving application specific issues and critical updates. The reason for the shift in support policy is largely due to the fact that the AMD Radeon HD 4000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 2000 Series have been optimized to their maximum potential from a performance and feature perspective. 

In other words, for old "legacy" vga cards (HD 4000, HD 3000 and HD 2000 Series)
the Display Driver in every new Catalyst legacy driver 
(released every 3 months - and there are no betas for legacy cards in the meantime, 
only for newer cards)
will not be updated to newer than 9.10.8.0 -as I've seen with legacy 13.1-
so old cards, such as mine
will remain blocked by Firefox, for no reason,
because, as I said, I've experienced zero crashes.



So, I'd suggest to revoke the graphics blocklisting less-than-or-equal-9.10.8.0 
for legacy cards.

Comment 27

[Scoobidiver (away)]

(In reply to Kostas from comment #26)
> I managed to enable hw acceleration by spoofing my graphics card info
What a complex action! Just force enable HW acceleration by setting gfx.direct2d.force-enabled to true.

> So, I'd suggest to revoke the graphics blocklisting
> less-than-or-equal-9.10.8.0 
> for legacy cards.
It hasn't been blocked because all users with AMD GPUs have a crashy Firefox but a certain amount. So unblocking it will make Firefox crash again for those users. See bug 804493.