RX 480 Gaming on Linux - Kernel Fix?

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
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Hi all :slight_smile:,
I’ve updated all my Deepin 15.5 computers to 15.6.
Doing this worked fine on all except the team red one, running an RX 480.
Deepin is based on Debian 8 and is running kernel 4.10.0.21.

The computer booted to a black screen right after GRUB loads.
Took me ages to debug but I boot correctly using ‘nomodeset’, now stored in /etc/default/grub .
With no proper graphics driver experience is poor and games unplayable.

I saw the recent video Gaming on Linux Pt 1 and Wendell says AMD on Linux is a wonderland, whereas I’m faced with a standard update actually breaking my system :frowning:.
I had to learn how to update my kernel because it sounded like that would fix it.
I updated from 4.15.0.21 to 4.16. Going any higher broke dependencies.

This does not fix it. Deepin GPU driver manager says AMD 480 driver installed.
Am I barking up the wrong tree? What do I try next? Any help appreciated.

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More than likwly, you are missing the updated firmware for the card if Mesa was updated. Or you have not updated mesa and possibly firmware.

What DE are you using, and are you using xorg or wayland?

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The more recent the kernel is the better the drivers are. Give us more information about your system.
Also include a tag “helpdesk” in your topic by redacting your first post on the side there is a section to add tags.

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You don’t need any special drivers but you do need an up to date dristro. It’s not just the kernel but Mesa, llvm , vulkan (optional) all need to be very recent updates.

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Thanks Mastic Warrior. Deepin Desktop Environment is my DE and it uses xorg not wayland.
Looking at the download page for the card I could not find firmware. I installed Mesa via terminal, though.

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Awesome. Yeah that’s why I updated the kernel to the 4.16 from 4.15.0.21, going newer causes dpkg errors.
I’ve included the ‘helpdesk’ tag, thanks.

I’ve included distro version to/from, kernel version to/from, GPU and what my distro is based off of (Debian 8). If there’s more “information about my system”, its beyond my skill level and regretably require specific suggestions of what information to search for.

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Thanks Eden. Good call, I found that these were not installed. I believe I have now installed Mesa, llvm and mesa-vulkan now. Nothing has changed, do I need to activate them or something?

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In a terminal enter:

glxinfo | grep rendering

You should see

direct rendering: Yes

If it says No , in a terminal enter:

groups

Is video one of the groups listed? If not, enter

sudo gpasswd -a your_user_name video

Logout then log back in and check direct rendering again.

1 Like
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I did see direct rendering: Yes
Thanks though

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Have you tried setting the amdgpu.dc = 1 kernel parameter?

There’s some good info here on the Arch Wiki

As far as I know the new AMDGPU Display Code was introduced with kernel 4.15 but isn’t enabled by default for all GPUs until kernel 4.17
I had to set this so that my RX560 was stable and audio over HDMI/DP was enabled between kernel 4.15 and 4.17

Just a guess, but worth a try.

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@Shecks Polaris should default to AMDGPU as it does not have a corresponding radeon driver. But good call.

@BFalcon it may be a good idea to see if dmesg is complaining about anything.

dmesg | grep AMD
dmesg | grep Polaris
dmesg | grep amdgpu
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Since Deepin 15.6 is based on Debian 8, your version of llvm might be to old.