Crippling Linux Troubles GIGABYTE AB350 GAMING 3

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Hello L1Techs,

I’m a newbie to Linux, but I was hoping to set up a Linux machine to use as an Ethereum miner. Full disclosure. Not many people are fond of miners… but it’s what I needed the efficient and stable nature of Linux for.

So I bought parts for a machine to do this. Of course I did not do enough research, and bought the aforementioned motherboard in the title. AB350 Gaming 3. [with Athlon X4 950]

I wouldn’t be here if I could use the latest versions of Lubuntu, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, or CentOS. They cannot install on this motherboard. I do not know why, the system simply freezes before installation starts, and it is a problem that I don’t think anyone has found a workaround for. I’ve tried everything I know to do with these more useful distros (different SATA, try CD, try USB, try remote installation then transfer [doesn’t boot])…

However, of all the Linux versions I have tried, Puppy Linux actually works on the motherboard. More specifically, Slacko 6.3.0. The more recent version listed on their website does not work.
My issue then is, I don’t know how to install the appropriate graphics or OpenCL drivers in this version of Linux. I don’t even know if it supports them. I tried installing the drivers once and the error returned was “unsupported OS”. As of right now, it’s running Windows, but I don’t want to give up on Linux.

I realize newbie posts are common and probably somewhat annoying here. I have a few simple questions:

1 - Is it possible to get OpenCL support for Polaris graphics cards in Slacko 6.3.0 ? This is needed for the Ethereum miner. If so, what resources could you point me towards including these in the OS? I don’t research further myself because I have no idea if this is even possible; clearly the only way Slacko is working is because it’s using a divergent kernel from the other not-working distros. The machine has both RX-series and WX-series cards.

2 - Does anyone know some kind of workaround to get the latest version of Lubuntu working on this motherboard? acpi=nomodeset and acpi=off don’t help the situation. If I can use the latest version of a supported operating system, I can use the amdgpu-pro drivers.

/e: To get updates in here quickly, KleerKut has helpfully notified that access to pre-release versions of Lubuntu is possible.

  • 18.04 did not work (same issue as before)

  • Lubuntu-Next gives Kernel Panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
    [I have at other points tried disabling various SATA ports or unplugging / replugging / changing USB or PCI-E generation – all of this has no effect on boot success]

Sadly… I’ll just have to keep an eye out for the live release of lubuntu next.

2

No idea about 1, but for 2 - they just released new builds of 17.10 yesterday, including Lubuntu. Have you tried them? Also:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/daily/current/

Daily builds of Lubuntu 18.04 should have newer kernels, although the Beta release is another 6-7 weeks out. It should be enough for testing purposes. You can dig through the directories and find other releases, including Lubuntu-Next which has LXQt instead of LXDE.

1 Like
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I’ll try that. Thanks.

as originally posted:
Neither Lubuntu Next or 18.04 booted. But it was worth a shot.

4

could be a BIOS setting issue. Did you try to remove secure boot and enabling sth like legacy boot or legacy drivers for the USB ports. There use to be an issue if you try to boot from a USB 3.0 port. So you had to either try a USB 2 port or enable USB legacy drivers on the BIOS.

I am assuming you have an AMD GPU
That is a naming issue in the actual install script. Because the driver is not supported officially the name of the OS is not in the script. what you need to do is open the install script with a text editor and at the line that the ubuntu name is mentioned change it to the correct name for puppy. Which one it is you have to google for it. If you google sth like “installing AMDGPU-PRO on puppy” you will find it.

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As for the install script naming thing…

I’m pretty sure Slacko 6.3.0 is not even a Ubuntu derivative. I would sooner try to just remove the part of the script that checks for an OS entirely (which did not work; just referenced some directories and files that don’t exist). Though that was a good tip, thanks.

As for BIOS settings…

I’ve tried every option there is, including under or overclocking things, resetting CMOS. Nothing gets a modern supported distro to work.
Though I did try the network setup of OpenSUSE (tumbleweed? timbleweed? the other version did not work at all). It actually got pretty far but some way through downloading (with a wired connection) it froze. After that freeze it never even got far enough to start trying to install again. Sad. Remote installation and then booting OpenSUSE does not work.

I’m going to guess these issues have to do with using an Athlon X4 950 instead of a Ryzen CPU, as some features of the motherboard are disabled when using an Athlon (as it has less PCI-E lanes) and it isn’t quite communicating this correctly to Linux. I guess. Dunno.

6

A development:

I managed to install Ubuntu 17.10.1 on the motherboard. Hooray! It required disabling on-board audio, ALL SATA, and all power saving features. Typical of someone on the internet to say they have tried everything when, in fact, they haven’t tried everything. To be fair this is the first time I tried Ubuntu 17.10.1 ; I wonder if other Linux distros would work that way. I wouldn’t care, if…

amdgpu-pro installation causes a failure to boot upon reboot. Freezes at “started user manager” and the screen flickers every few seconds. I am guessing this is a difficult thing to do because I have both RX and WX series cards. Now I dont think we’re dealing with a mobo issue anymore.
There was probably some driver built in to 17.10.1 that I should have uninstalled before trying to install amdgpu-pro.

Research indicates I should really just use amdgpu instead of amdgpu-pro. Except I need OpenCL…
I appreciate everyone reading my posts but I dont find this worth pursuing anymore. If I want to do this, I will have to wait for amdgpu-pro to support the next LTS version of Ubuntu (in April or so, im assuming).

7

The WX cards i think have a difference driver stack than the consumer cards.

https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/Radeon-Pro-Software-Enterprise-Driver-17.Q4.1-for-Linux-Release-Notes.aspx

It looks that this also packs the basic 17.40 so that might work for both cards (MIGHT). When you install the PRO driver the script will first remove/blacklist the open driver. This is a AMDGPU-pro issue i presume and not about removing a previous driver.