Radeon 7 Will Have Day One Linux Support

AlphaAtlas

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Over the weekend, an AMD representative told Forbes that the Radeon VII will support Linux on day 1, right out of the box. That apparently wasn't the case for the recently released RX 590. Today, Phoronix did some more digging into support for Vega GPUs on Linux, and found references to enhanced PowerPlay features in the Linux 5.1 kernel. Some of these improvements go all the way back to the "Vega 10" GPU, which I believe is a reference to the GPUs in Vega 56/64 and the Radeon Instinct MI25 as opposed to the "Vega 10" IGP, but there are some unique additions for the new Vega 20 GPU as well.

It took AMD a couple weeks to get the RX 590 Polaris refresh in game-ready condition for Linux, which only reinforced a widely held negative belief that Linux is a second-class citizen when it comes to gaming. Sure, that perception has been changing dramatically thanks to Valve, but day one support should happen with every launch.
 
Hopefully they mean full kernel support...

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for Freesync on Linux by both AMD & Nvidia.
 
Hopefully they mean full kernel support...

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for Freesync on Linux by both AMD & Nvidia.

Isn't FreeSync already possible with a reasonably recent AMD GPU on Linux (ie at least RX 400, 500, Vega etc...)? I was to understand that the new open source AMDGPU driver supported FreeSync... though it MAY require AMDGPU PRO which is the proprietary "expansion pack" to the open driver base for all the things they can't release due to old license agreements. In any event, it is part of the open VESA standard so I figured it shouldn't be too hard to do on DisplayPort 1.2a or newer if nothing else.

In any event, its great to see that Radeon VII is going to be supported on Linux and even more, that AMD is continuing to consider Linux users worth their attention. In a few short years AMD on Linux has gone from "No way that will work" in the ATI or early AMD days, to being the preferred GPU manufacturer for high performance cards - especially since the driver rewrite and openness. They have by far the best open source drivers available as well as the driver design that the Pro proprietary module is an "add on" rather than a completely different codebase like the old days. Nvidia's proprietary drivers have basically rested on their laurels for quite a long time with reasonable performance but not much attention otherwise; anything open source on recent hardware is pretty much non-existent last I checked. I am more than pleased to see AMD continuing to support Linux and I'm really considering picking up the Radeon VII (though I am tempted to hear more about Navi) to replace my 1070.
 
I've had a pretty good Linux gaming experience with my GTX 960, but I'm pumped for getting a Vega VII.

As evident here, AMD is working harder and harder to make their drivers better in Linux. Way more effort than Nvidia. And I'm excited to see how this really pans out!

For AMD cards the driver's built into the Linux kernel, so I don't need to go get a driver blob to get updates. Just get driver updates with Linux kernel updates :D

And no, I haven't needed to "compile my kernel" for years. The days of "needing" that are long gone ;)
 
Well, if you're wanting latest drivers, you shouldn't be using LTS anyways. 18.10 is Linux 4.18, so 19.04 will probably be 4.21 or higher.

Plus, I'm pretty sure you can subscript to a PPA to get newer kernel versions anyways, which is what we're going to need come Feb 7th ;P

Right. The latest LTS version (18.04) for Ubuntu uses the 4.5 kernel so unless their box is really out of date it is in there.
 
Linux support is great and all, I want to know what kind of support I will see from Citrix with these cards, I have desktops to virtualize and apps to deploy people!
 
Well, if you're wanting latest drivers, you shouldn't be using LTS anyways. 18.10 is Linux 4.18, so 19.04 will probably be 4.21 or higher.

Plus, I'm pretty sure you can subscript to a PPA to get newer kernel versions anyways, which is what we're going to need come Feb 7th ;P

I use the LTS mainly because the the repositories for the latest versions dry up as soon as a new version is out. I tend to wait a couple years between version upgrades. Just a habit I I've gotten into because I have to accommodate my wife's PC and laptop and everything has to work 100% every time to suit her.
 
Year-of-the-Linux.jpg
 
How about they fix the APU freezes in Linux first. Man, I am angry
 
Yay, angry... Who has loud noises?


Sorry, your post struck me as funny.
 
I just hope it supports sr-iov so I can finally just keep Linux as my daily driver and fire up a Windows vm when I feel like gaming
 
The 590 did have day one support. However there was some odd unexpected behaviour. AMD had provided IDs and code to the kernel team, and it was exposed via MESA. It seems AMD and their card partners had updated firmware right before roll out and it caused some issues for a bit.

Not sure who at AMD dropped the ball on the 590 code. I wouldn't expect they make the same mistake with the next major card release. :)
 
i just built a 2950x threadripper system with a radeon 590 in it last week. i'm using it for a workstation and virtualization host of some other development environments. support via mesa has been great as far as i can tell. Valve has done a great job with it-just-runs windows games. i even have Overwatch running at 2560x1440 ultra settings and it's great.
 
How about they fix the APU freezes in Linux first. Man, I am angry

I was having these freezes under Linux on my fiance's build too. A simple BIOS setting change makes them go away permanently.

You need to change the "Power Supply Idle Control" (or PSU Idle Control) setting. On my fiance's motherboard it was under "Advanced/D CBS/NBIO Common Options:"

Change it to "Typical Current Idle". If it behaves the same as her system, the freezes should magically disappear from now on.
 
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I was having these freezes under Linux on my fiance's build too. A simple BIOS setting change makes them go away permanently.

You need to change the "Power Supply Idle Control" (or PSU Idle Control) setting. On my fiance's motherboard it was under "Advanced/D CBS/NBIO Common Options:"

Change it to "Typical Current Idle". If it behaves the same as her system, the freezes should magically disappear from now on.

Thanks. I am aware of the C-state fix. Do you happen to use hibernation/sleep? If so, does it now have any effect on those?
 
Thanks. I am aware of the C-state fix. Do you happen to use hibernation/sleep? If so, does it now have any effect on those?

She frequently puts her 2400G o sleep. In the past it would either hard freeze during use or just fail to come back from sleep.

I haven't seen either since I changed that BIOS setting. That doesn't mean it's completely solved, who knows, it may freeze again, but at the very least it is very much improved.

I'm also running it on the latest mainline kernel, because at first I thought these freezes were kernel incompatibilities, so I tried solving by using bleeding edge kernels.

Now that the BIOS setting has helped, I am considering going back to the shipping kernel Linux Mint uses, so she can have something more actively maintained.
 
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She frequently puts her 2400G o sleep. In the past it would either hard freeze during use or just fail to come back from sleep.

I haven't seen either since I changed that BIOS setting. That doesn't mean it's completely solved, who knows, it may freeze again, but at the very least it is very much improved.

I'm also running it on the latest mainline kernel, because at first I thought these freezes were kernel incompatibilities, so I tried solving bybusbing böeeding edge kernels.

Now that the BIOS setting has helped, I am considering going back to the shipping kernel Linux Mint uses, so she can have something more actively maintained.

Thanks. For some reason I remember trying 18.10 with 4.20, which simply cannot be true. That's reason enough to give it another try if she lets me. I am going to do it anyway
 
Uh, why not just move to the next version when it comes out then? 18.10 -> 19.04, etc?

If you're gaming on Linux, you're going to have a sub-par experience staying with the LTS branch.

I use the LTS mainly because the the repositories for the latest versions dry up as soon as a new version is out. I tend to wait a couple years between version upgrades. Just a habit I I've gotten into because I have to accommodate my wife's PC and laptop and everything has to work 100% every time to suit her.
 
For the best support out of the box for consumer grade gaming stuffs. You in general want to be on a rolling release of Linux.

Unlike windows where support means downloading the driver package from the manufacturer. The manufacturer has to provide device IDs ect to the Linux kernel team before they release their product. It means never having to download a driver.... or driver updates from manufacturers ever again. It does however mean if you insist on using a LTS or really any non rolling distro... if the Live install media predates the hardware you have you will experience issues.

Manjaro is always my suggested go to for anyone that is new or old to Linux. Its rolling but not zero day cutting edge like its base distro arch. Manjaro tends to hold off on package updates until they have had min one bug fix release. They do the same with kernels. So a Manjaro live install won't be running Kenrel. 4.2.0 but they will ship one with 4.2.1. Its about as good as it gets when it comes to installing on brand new hardware.

I put together a 2200g based system for one of my kids recently and the manjaro live CD worked fine running kernel 4.19 and she has launched a ton of LInux and Proton games... if your a LInux gamer imo the Ubuntus fedoras ect although good distros, are more hassle then there worth. If your setting up a system for your accountant friend or something they are great. But if your a gamer... looking to perhaps buy things like the Radeon VII on day one... go with a solid rolling distro like Manjaro and save yourself a ton of hassle.
 
I'm not sure about Forza, but you can play all of the other titles on Linux and get really awesome FPS out of it too. Hell, CS:GO is fully native on Linux. Why even bother dual booting?

If you'd like to know more, let me know.

Right now I'm on CSGO, Overwatch, Monster Hunter, Forza, replaying the Wolfenstein games from start to finish and dickijg around in crysis 1
 
If you'd like to know more, let me know.

Oh I know all about DXVK, Wine, Proton, Etc. My issue with those is that when they work, they work spectacularly, and when they don't work it's a total fucking mess. I actually prefer using Linux as my daily driver for basic tasks like word processing and browsing and whatnot. With SR-IOV I'd be able to just boot linux, and whenever I wanna game just spin up a Windows VM and play without having to dick with hit or miss translation layers, all while getting near-native performance. Plus it'd give me a solid excuse to buy another 16gb of RAM.
 
I'm not sure about Forza, but you can play all of the other titles on Linux and get really awesome FPS out of it too. Hell, CS:GO is fully native on Linux. Why even bother dual booting?

If you'd like to know more, let me know.

I'm not feeling too hopeful about MS allowing UWP games that use Xbox Live to work too easily over Linux. I want to believe though!

I am looking forward to the Phoronix review for this card. Looks to be a jack of all trades.
 
Oh I know all about DXVK, Wine, Proton, Etc. My issue with those is that when they work, they work spectacularly, and when they don't work it's a total fucking mess. I actually prefer using Linux as my daily driver for basic tasks like word processing and browsing and whatnot. With SR-IOV I'd be able to just boot linux, and whenever I wanna game just spin up a Windows VM and play without having to dick with hit or miss translation layers, all while getting near-native performance. Plus it'd give me a solid excuse to buy another 16gb of RAM.
How good is gaming via Windows on a VM? I've run windows in a VM for essential windows only software but never tried gaming.
 
How good is gaming via Windows on a VM? I've run windows in a VM for essential windows only software but never tried gaming.

If I virtualize my Windows partition on VMWare, I can play DX9 games without issue. The mouse is extra sensitive.

This is not something I would recommend and was just for fun.
 
I wish the new AMD stuff would come out already.
I have two Linux builds awaiting vid cards.

I love the MSI board in my signature and love the 1900x, so I scored a ASRock board for the 1900x and will be putting Linux on its drives.

The MSI board will get a 2920x or better and stay Windows.

Plus I'm upgrading my Linux test box.
Need two cards AMD. Be kind to us. I don't need that RTX crap.
 
How good is gaming via Windows on a VM? I've run windows in a VM for essential windows only software but never tried gaming.

Right now it's pretty meh, since you can only give one os exclusive access to your gpu at a time. With SR-IOV, the guest os can be given access to metal kinda like IOMMU/VT-x does for the rest of hardware.
 
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