Installing AMD Drivers. What's the secret?

[tedman]

I am running Ubuntu Cinnamon 24.04 and have recently started playing around with AMD GPU’s. Currently ASUS RX 6600.
There are complications getting the latest drivers into Ubuntu.
Does Ubuntu recommend using the sudo command to connect directly to the AMD repository ?

I have Windows 10 on a separate drive and this GPU works just fine.
Correction !!
The W10 install is giving a variety of problems, so I have uninstalled the AMD software. Some of the problems in W10 are similar to the Ubuntu problems. Could it be a Motherboard setting ?

[bashing-om]

Hello tedman - Welcome to Discourse

AMD provides drivers in the kernel. What is your use case that these do not suffice ?
Be aware

Phoronix has done several articles that show the Radeon driver plus the MESA package actually perform BETTER than AMDGPU/PRO in almost all the cases that most people will be interested in.
Unless you are doing scientific computing or specific games, AMDGPU at present may not do you any good. If you don’t absolutely need it, you’d be better off not using it quite honestly. (QIII)

In respect to this site’s page loading — yeah there are at times issues. We can assume our team is working then on the page - There is a lot going on behind the scenes,
Been my experience with the page loading: patience - sooner or later the site runs smooth and fast.

• hope this helps -

[tedman]

Thanks for the feedback !

My question about AMD drivers was because my PC is having sporadic problems finding the GPU.
I frequently have to do numerous resets before my PC finds the card and the display kicks into life ? Once it has been found, I can suspend and resume no problem. But if I shut down and restart the problem returns.

[bashing-om]

Well –

A new situation on me - not seen such before.

See what we can find out.
What driver is loaded:

sudo lshw -C display

And is the GPU manager in a happy state:

cat /var/log/gpu-manager.log

-gots to be a reason-

[tedman]

Here are the results.
As a newcomer to Ubuntu, I have no idea what all this information means.
Please advise !

My GPU use is not for Gaming, just general use and some Graphicy stuff that is mainly on my W10 drive.

sb@sb-All-Series:~$ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6600/6600 XT/6600M]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
       logical name: /dev/fb0
       version: c7
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom fb
       configuration: depth=32 driver=amdgpu latency=0 resolution=3840,2160
       resources: irq:58 memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d01fffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:df600000-df6fffff memory:c0000-dffff

sb@sb-All-Series:~$ cat /var/log/gpu-manager.log
log_file: /var/log/gpu-manager.log
last_boot_file: /var/lib/ubuntu-drivers-common/last_gfx_boot
new_boot_file: /var/lib/ubuntu-drivers-common/last_gfx_boot
can't access /run/u-d-c-nvidia-was-loaded file
can't access /opt/amdgpu-pro/bin/amdgpu-pro-px
Looking for nvidia modules in /lib/modules/6.8.0-50-generic/kernel
Looking for nvidia modules in /lib/modules/6.8.0-50-generic/updates/dkms
Looking for amdgpu modules in /lib/modules/6.8.0-50-generic/kernel
Looking for amdgpu modules in /lib/modules/6.8.0-50-generic/updates/dkms
Is nvidia loaded? no
Was nvidia unloaded? no
Is nvidia blacklisted? no
Is intel loaded? no
Is radeon loaded? no
Is radeon blacklisted? no
Is amdgpu loaded? yes
Is amdgpu blacklisted? no
Is amdgpu versioned? no
Is amdgpu pro stack? no
Is nouveau loaded? no
Is nouveau blacklisted? no
Is nvidia kernel module available? no
Is amdgpu kernel module available? no
Vendor/Device Id: 1002:73ff
BusID "PCI:6@0:0:0"
Is boot vga? yes
Found "/dev/dri/card1", driven by "amdgpu"
output 0:
	card1-DP-3
Number of connected outputs for /dev/dri/card1: 1
Skipping "/dev/dri/card1", driven by "amdgpu"
Skipping "/dev/dri/card1", driven by "amdgpu"
Skipping "/dev/dri/card1", driven by "amdgpu"
can't access /etc/prime-discrete
No prime-settings found. Assuming prime is not set to ON (ONDEMAND could be on).
Does it require offloading? no
last cards number = 1
Has amd? yes
Has intel? no
Has nvidia? no
How many cards? 1
Has the system changed? No
Single card detected
Nothing to do
sb@sb-All-Series:~$

[bashing-om]

I am not the sharpest tack in this tool box support - however

@tedman

Is amdgpu kernel module available? no

to me bears further investigation.
I am off to bed but will pick this back up tomorrow evening. In the meantime, perhaps others here will render us aid.

-A pause for the cause-

[bashing-om]

tedman

Back on

As you do state that sometimes you do boot up properly - a race condition ?
How about we make sure the amd-gpu driver loads early on - in the boot process.
Edit the file: /etc/default/grub

• I do recommmend to make a backup of the current file !
  and add radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1 amdgpu.dc=1
  to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= line.

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

Save the file, then propagate the change:

sudo update-grub

reboot and let’s see if this is effective,

-maybe yes!-

[tedman]

Good Morning !

Well, the situation is that I have started experiencing problems on my W10 drive ?
(And editing grub files is a foreign country to me at the moment)

Because of this I am getting the impression that there is a problem with the settings on my Motherboard.
As W10 has such a huge user base, and the RX 6600 is a popular card, I have decided to compose a post for W10 Forums.
I have been a member for some years and the level of knowledge that some of the regulars/admin have, is frightening.

However !
As I am having issues with two separate operating systems each installed on its own isolated push button drive, do you have any idea of what and where I should check on the Motherboard, before doing anything to the OS ?

This particular post is being written from my W10 drive.
Is that permitted ?
Or will I now be banished from Discourse ?

[tea-for-one]

@tedman

This particular post is being written from my W10 drive.
Is that permitted ?
Or will I now be banished from Discourse ?

Not a ban but a new badge:-

A slap on the belly with a wet fish

[bashing-om]

tedman - UNgood -

Failing hardware - there are a few things one can check for diagnostics -

1. memory cards - memtest
2. hard drive health →
   a) Ubuntu - smartmontools
   b) Windows - I just do not recall
3. file system corruption →
   a) Ubuntu - fsck
   b) Windows - chkdsk

As we have now drifted away from the original topic of this thread — if you care to continue this discussion — please open a new topic and reference this thread in the now one, Keep the forum neat and in order

-help is what we do-

[tedman]

Thanks for the feedback.
I believe that the GPU problem is now solved.
Upon receiving my GPU from Amazon I shot over to the ASUS site and downloaded the Driver.

It turned out that the ASUS driver was not the latest from AMD for this card.
The ASUS driver was two behind the current one.

As you advise, I will open a separate post for my other issues, which seem to be lessening, but have not yet gone.

Thanks again !