PC Drivers & Software

[Mistico83]

Hi all. I've been 3 days trying to install the correct drivers for my Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition (Southern Islands, Pitcairn) under Ubuntu 20.04 (really, Kubuntu) with no success. First of all, I do need VAAPI and OpenCL so I can boost FFMPEG (mainly for OBS Studio) or other software via hardware aid. Also, my mainboard has an integrated Radeon HD 7660D IGP (Devastator), now disabled because I've read that Crossfire support in Linux is ... non-existent.

I'm resisting to switch to Windows 10 and believe in open software, but my levels of faith are at minimum level.

I first switched from radeon generic to amdgpu. Not enough, so I tried with official drivers (really, I don't really G.a.F. if they're propietary or not, just wanna to have them working at full performance), and sorry for my rudeness.

1) I went to https://www.amd.com/es/support (im spanish) and landed at AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 15.12 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver, from 2015, meh, doesn't make any sense. AMD people, you should check that details!

2) Later, via tons of forums and hours in Github, I've reached amdgpu-pro-19.20-812932-ubuntu-18.04, also outdated, compilation fails due to dependencies. Let's build more patience, even more.

3) More forums, more Github, and I discover there's a 20.20 version for Ubuntu 20.20. Compiling fails. OK, I discover there's a even more modern release, Radeon™ Software for Linux® 20.45 (amdgpu-pro-20.45-1188099-ubuntu-20.04), with "Ubuntu 20.04 kernel update to 5.4.0-56.62 causes compilation of its amdgpu kernel module to fail" as Fixed Issue. Also fails. Developers, you've broken my heart again.

4) The story ends with probing many 5.4.0-xx kernels, also 5.8 and 5.9. None worked. Always I finish crashing to a blank screen after restart, needing rescue mode, amdgpu-uninstall o amdgpu-pro-uninstall, and rebooting. Maybe 30 times only today.

What's the correct kernel should I had installed? The release notes don't help! So many knowledge holes for those we're not actively developing in C++ 24/7.

The GRUB has the following:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.si_support=0 radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1 amdgpu.cik_support=1 amdgpu.dc=1"

I've tried amdgpu-install, amdgpu-pro-install, amdgpu-pro-install -y, amdgpu-pro-install -y --opencl={legacy, legacy and pal, legacy and rocm}. Always with the same result. Sometimes compiling is OK, sometimes ends with out of memory (4 GB + 4 GB of swap). End of the journey is a blank screen at booting.

In the case I've do not bored you, I need some kind of explanation for no-brainers, and stopping asuming I'm doing anything correctly. I've also followed the Bug Tracking procedure and I have everything: basic.conf dkms.status.log dmesg.log dmidecode.log glxinfo.log install-log.txt lshw.log lsinitramfs.log lsmod.amdgpu.log lspci.nn.log lspci.vnn.log modinfo.amdgpu.log package.log uname.a.log Xorg.0.log. Don't know who should receive them.

Let's get started. So, gentlemen, what I have to do? Tell me if I'm a 10 year old boy. Give me exact steps, I'll reproduce them and give you logs of whatever you want, I do really want to help others more desperate as I am.

I've worked always with latest software (via apt), with and without the oibaf PPA  https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers). I've tried so many things that I cannot tell you all unless Jack Bauer commits torture on me.

PS: I've using AMD products since a 386 DX 40. I do have computing knowledge since 1985 maybe (from Amstrad CPC 664 microcomputer) and I'm computing engineer, but I'm stuck!

[____]

I had same problem with Ubuntu 1 month ago. No working updates till today. I lost all my hopes and installed Ubuntu 18 lts.....

[Mistico83]

Does it work in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS? Standard kernel?

[mountkidd]

The last direct support from AMD for the HD7870 & Ubuntu was with fglrx video package.  fglrx support was last available for Ub 12.04 LTS & 14.04 LTS and this still shows on AMD driver page for the HD7870.  With Ub 16 and onwards, the change was made to systemd which now uses amdgpu for graphics support.  There is no amdgpu support for the HD7870 (HD7970, R9 280, ...) and Ub 16/18/20. 

Ub 16/18/20 systems running older (2012, 2013 & earlier) video cards may find support via the open source MESA drivers, available from oibaf/ppa.  There is a mesa-opencl package there as well.

[Roesjka]

You don't need the fglrx driver. I am running Debian bullseye/testing kernel 5.10.0-6-amd64 with a HD 7870.

Make sure you get the card working properly with the xserver-xorg-video-radeon, if that is working install the xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu with the opencl from the Ubuntu repository change in grub the line "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to just "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1" that is all needed for the HD7870 no need for the other entries as they are for newercards.

For installing the latest amdgpu-pro opencl driver, unpack it switch to the amdgpu-pro directory (terminal) and install it with sudo amdgpu-install --opencl=legacy --headless --no-dkms.

Now clinfo from the Ubuntu repo show something different than the /opt/amdgpu-pro/bin/clinfo.

Forgot to mention I am using amdgpu-pro-20.50-1234664-ubuntu-20.04.tar at the moment.

At least this is what I have to do on Debian and should also work on Ubuntu.

[mountkidd]

@Roesjka   Thanks for your input!

Several months back, I did try what you have suggested.  MESA drivers and opencl were installed w/ Kub 20.04.2 and kernel 5.8.  Gui worked fine, but the main app used on this system requires opencl.  MESA opencl performance was beyond bad.  I did install amdgpu 20.50  headless to get it's opencl, but I could not find a way for it to be used in place of the MESA opencl.

A secondary issue was GPU clock control.  I could control the fan speed, but nothing would move the GPU clocks from their default speeds.  Both Radeon-Profile and commandline were tried to do this.

The 7970 was moved back to a 14.04 host w/fglrx and it has been performing as expected.

[Roesjka]

I am using the amdgpu driver as supplied by debian and installed, as in my previous reply, and it using the OpenCL from AMD. Only further thing I did was removing all the xserver-xorg-video drivers not needed like the radeon/ati etc.

cheers

[sukinsyn]

Thanks, Roejska it helped me!

Also I have another card as well - Radeon R9 280X
I have Linux Mint 20.03 - Ubuntu based

Just slightly changed the process.

Removed all amdgpu drivers using Synaptic. I just searched for amdgpu and removed no necessary packages

Then I used the latest amdgpu driver as of Apr 5th, 2022. (actually it's more like a script to install drivers)
downloaded from here: http://repo.radeon.com/amdgpu-install/latest/ubuntu/focal/amdgpu-install_22.10.50100-1_all.deb

then installed actual drivers with command sudo amdgpu-install --no-dkms

sudo amdgpu-install --no-dkms

the most important part is to add --no-dkms, otherwise I had black screen during the system boot.
if you like to read more about the script, go here: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/amdgpu-installation

also very important to change the grub options otherwise I had black screen as well
1st: I edit /etc/default/grub
used plain text editor nano in sudo mode
added "radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1" to the end of GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
then did sudo update-grub to actually apply changes to the grub menu

Thus mine looks now:
"GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1"

In plain steps/commands:

wget http://repo.radeon.com/amdgpu-install/latest/ubuntu/focal/amdgpu-install_22.10.50100-1_all.deb
sudo amdgpu-install --no-dkms
sudo nano /etc/default/grub

add "radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1" to the end of GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
press: Ctrl+O, Ctr+X

sudo update-grub

Reboot computer, you can use:

sudo reboot

 Now it works!