[Bug 215652] kernel 5.17-rc fail to load radeon DRM "modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'radeon': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)"

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=215652

--- Comment #6 from Alex Deucher (alexdeucher@gmail.com) --- (In reply to Erhard F. from comment #5)

With CONFIG_DRM_RADEON=m radeon does not load and I still get "modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'radeon': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)" trying to load it manually via modprobe -v radeon.

You need to make sure the firmware is in your initrd. When the kernel loads, it loads from the initrd. There is no filesystem mounted yet when the radeon driver is loaded so the firmwares need to be in the initrd.