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Groups > linux.debian.kernel > #93449

Bug#1142767: linux-image-7.1.3+deb14-riscv64: CONFIG_DRM_AST is not available on riscv64 (ASPEED BMC VGA unusable)

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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Package: src:linux
Version: 7.1.3-1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch upstream

Dear Maintainer,

The riscv64 kernel configuration (debian/config/riscv64/config: shipped as /usr/src/linux-config-7.1/config.riscv64_none_riscv64.xz) has
    # CONFIG_DRM_AST is not set
As a result, systems whose only display output is an on-board ASPEED BMC graphics controller (AST2000/2100/2200/2300/2400/2500/2600, PCI vendor 1A03) have no usable console/GNOME on the physical head or KVM-over-IP. This is very common on server-class riscv64 boards (e.g. SpacemiT-based platforms) that inherit BMC hardware from the server world.
For comparison, DRM_AST is enabled as a module on every other Debian architecture that has PCI (amd64, arm64, ppc64el, s390x, ...), so this appears to be an oversight rather than a deliberate omission specific to riscv64.
Please enable CONFIG_DRM_AST as a module in the riscv64 kernel config.

-- Reproducer -----------------------------------------------------

Hardware: SpacemiT riscv64 board with on-board ASPEED AST2600 BMC
Kernel:   7.1.3+deb14-riscv64 (linux 7.1.3-1)
Userland: Debian forky/sid, GNOME on Wayland

  $ lspci -nn | grep -i aspeed
  0001:02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]:
      ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family [1a03:2000] (rev 52)

  $ lspci -k -s 0001:02:00.0
  0001:02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ASPEED Technology, Inc.
      ASPEED Graphics Family (rev 52)
          Subsystem: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family
         (no "Kernel driver in use:" line)

  $ modinfo ast
  modinfo: ERROR: Module ast not found.

  $ grep DRM_AST /boot/config-$(uname -r)
  # CONFIG_DRM_AST is not set

  $ ls /sys/class/drm/
  version
  (no card0; no /dev/dri/card0; no /dev/fb0)

Result: gdm3/GNOME has no output on the physical KVM head.


-- Verification that the driver works when built -----------------

Rebuilding the in-tree driver as an out-of-tree module against the shipped headers is sufficient:
# apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-source-7.1 \
                    build-essential bc
  $ mkdir -p ~/ast-build && cd ~/ast-build
  $ tar -xf /usr/src/linux-source-7.1.tar.xz --wildcards \
        'linux-source-7.1/drivers/gpu/drm/ast/*'
  $ cd linux-source-7.1/drivers/gpu/drm/ast
  $ make -C /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build M=$(pwd) modules \
        CONFIG_DRM_AST=m
  # cp ast.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/ast/
  # depmod -a && modprobe ast

Dmesg after loading:

  ast 0001:02:00.0: Using default configuration
  ast 0001:02:00.0: AST 2600 detected
  ast 0001:02:00.0: [drm] Using analog VGA
  ast 0001:02:00.0: [drm] Registered 1 planes with drm panic
  [drm] Initialized ast 0.1.0 for 0001:02:00.0 on minor 0
  ast 0001:02:00.0: [drm] fb0: astdrmfb frame buffer device

/dev/dri/card0 and /dev/fb0 appear, and GNOME comes up normally. All required deps (drm, drm_kms_helper, drm_shmem_helper, drm_client_lib, i2c-algo-bit, ttm) are already shipped in
linux-image-7.1.3+deb14-riscv64, so enabling DRM_AST=m has no new dependency implication.

-- Suggested patch (against debian/config/riscv64/config) --------

--- a/debian/config/riscv64/config
+++ b/debian/config/riscv64/config
@@
-# CONFIG_DRM_AST is not set
+CONFIG_DRM_AST=m

(Filenames in the source package may differ slightly; the change is to flip the DRM_AST line for the riscv64 flavour, matching amd64 /arm64.)

-- System Information --------------------------------------------

Debian Release: forky/sid
Architecture: riscv64 (riscv64)

Kernel: Linux 7.1.3+deb14-riscv64 (SMP w/80 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/bash

Versions of packages linux-image-7.1.3+deb14-riscv64 depends on:
  (as reported by `apt-cache policy` / `dpkg -s`)

-- no debconf information

Thank you for your work on the Debian kernel.

Regards,
Wenbin Zheng


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Bug#1142767: linux-image-7.1.3+deb14-riscv64: CONFIG_DRM_AST is not available on riscv64 (ASPEED BMC VGA unusable) "Lufei Zheng" <lufei.zheng@spacemit.com> - 2026-07-25 11:50 +0200
  Bug#1142767: linux-image-7.1.3+deb14-riscv64: CONFIG_DRM_AST is not available on riscv64 (ASPEED BMC VGA unusable) Yunseong Kim <ysk@kzalloc.com> - 2026-07-25 15:50 +0200
  Bug#1142767: marked as done (linux-image-7.1.3+deb14-riscv64:  CONFIG_DRM_AST is not available on riscv64 (ASPEED BMC VGA unusable)) "Debian Bug Tracking System" <owner@bugs.debian.org> - 2026-07-28 07:40 +0200

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