Just a couple of questions about Linux on AMD laptops

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

HI there! This is my first post here and using Linux on an AMD laptop, so pardon me if there are some things that I am not aware of that the rest of y’all are. With that said, let’s start with the questions:

  • What are some recommended software (preferably GUI) for configuring AMD GPUs?
  • What configurations and settings are recommended (e.g. GRUB parameters, config files, scripts, etc.)?
  • Any software that would help improve performance (especially for compute and gaming)?
  • Trying out UKUU almost broke my system since its kernels had invalid signatures, despite Secure Boot being turned off; are there other methods for getting newer kernels on Ubuntu-based distros besides installing linux-generic-hwe-18.04?

Addendum: Some more questions came up.

  • Does Linux switch between AMD GPUs dynamically based on demand?
  • Using glmark2 simultaneously on both iGPU and dGPU using DRI_PRIME yields the same score (449); shoudn’t the dGPU yield better results?
3 Likes
2

I can answer your questions.

There isn’t any, at least not yet. You have to change your settings in game on a per game basis.

If you aren’t dual booting the default GRUB config should work.

There isn’t any that I know of except for enabling Coolbits in the Nvidia config. Would love be proven wrong on this one though.

I have yet to encounter this issue, it’s possible it was fixed since you last used UKUU.

3

Wouldn’t this not be applicable on an AMD laptop unless it has a Nvidia dGPU? I’ve only ever seen one ASUS model with such a setup.

I just tried to use UKUU an hour before time of posting.

4

It’s NOT applicable, that’s my point. There is no special software for changing system wide settings for AMD GPUs in Linux.

In that case I don’t know, try purging and re-adding the repo and try installing a different kernel version, sometimes it chokes on the latest one.

5

The system was complaining about invalid signatures and whatnot. Does UKUU only have unsigned kernels?

6

I’m assuming you are using some Ubuntu variant? If so UKUU should JUST WORK, I would suggest pasting a screenshot of the error message here so someone smarter than myself can take a look.

Switching GPUs on Linux with an Nvidia and Intel GPU barely works, and you have to restart your Window Manager/Desktop Environment every time you do, I imagine the support with AMD GPUs to be practically nonexistant.

7

I’m using KDE neon based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. As for the error, it only came up in GRUB; how could I screenshot that?

8

When in the desktop go to the terminal and paste in

journalctl -b

That command will show you the log of your last boot. You can then just copy everything and paste it here.

if you want to open it in a text editor just put the name of the app before the command. or maybe you put the name of the app before the location path. So for example

nano /etc/systemd/journald.conf

1 Like
9

How would this be done? I tried both kwrite journalctl -b and kwrite "journalctl -b" to no avail.

10

I forgot. It needs the path to the file.

So it would be

kwrite /etc/systemd/journald.conf

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Output of kwrite /etc/systemd/journald.conf:

#  This file is part of systemd.
#
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
#  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.
#
# Entries in this file show the compile time defaults.
# You can change settings by editing this file.
# Defaults can be restored by simply deleting this file.
#
# See journald.conf(5) for details.

[Journal]
#Storage=auto
#Compress=yes
#Seal=yes
#SplitMode=uid
#SyncIntervalSec=5m
#RateLimitIntervalSec=30s
#RateLimitBurst=1000
#SystemMaxUse=
#SystemKeepFree=
#SystemMaxFileSize=
#SystemMaxFiles=100
#RuntimeMaxUse=
#RuntimeKeepFree=
#RuntimeMaxFileSize=
#RuntimeMaxFiles=100
#MaxRetentionSec=
#MaxFileSec=1month
#ForwardToSyslog=yes
#ForwardToKMsg=no
#ForwardToConsole=no
#ForwardToWall=yes
#TTYPath=/dev/console
#MaxLevelStore=debug
#MaxLevelSyslog=debug
#MaxLevelKMsg=notice
#MaxLevelConsole=info
#MaxLevelWall=emerg
#LineMax=48K
1 Like
12

Goto developer.amd.com and read compiler guide under resources
Get kernel source
Compile with favor amd and optimize as per linux instructions

13

What about

Kwrite /var/log/journal

I think I told you the wrong path

14

I think compiling his own kernel might be a BIT much.

15

Yeah, opening journald logs with text editors was a bad idea since they are apparently in binary form instead of regular text. Seriously, why is it like that? Binary logs are a terrible idea.

2 Likes
16

Seriously, why is it like that? Binary logs are a terrible idea.

God demanded it. Says so in the First Book of Poettering.

But it’s okay. There’s also an HTTP server in there so you can mismanage your logs in fun and interesting ways!

2 Likes
17

Linux in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen. It isn’t truly YOUR system unless you can completely and inadvertently destroy it by accident with some misguided terminal commands.

18

How about just running

journalctl -b > log.txt

That would export the contents to a txt file called log. Which will be created and made available under your home directory once you run the command.

19

Lol.

I swear I always used to do that method back in the day. :stuck_out_tongue: