Anyone using an AMD APU with Ubuntu 16.04/10 (driver issues)?

Timber · 13 Apr 2017 at 14:18

I have an old AMD A4 5300 APU (Trinity) setup (MSI A75IA-E53, 8GB DDR3 1,333Mhz RAM and Samsung 830 SSD) that is a collection of parts that has over the years has been purposed as a Kodi box, Ubuntu server, Steam OS and Lakka (RetroArch) box. Because I wanted to setup the machine as a secondary PC for browsing and light media, I decided to install Ubuntu 16.04.2 on it. This is a clean UEFI install with default settings.

First of all Ubuntu won't run from USB and gets stuck in a bootloop unless I edit the Grub file to include 'nomodeset'. If I do this Ubuntu will allow me to install it and use it but the graphics performance is terrible. For example, even a simple YouTube video will just stutter. Now I know AMD aren't supporting their older hardware on Linux but even so it appears that either the open source Radeon or AMDGPU drivers just aren't working with my APU. I've tried the Pro drivers and Oibaf drivers but they either lockup the machine, or it still just operates in software mode.

I've found a couple of other people post this issue but no solution.

Linux Mint 18.1 does install on the default drivers (not sure what it was using) but only on the 'stable' 4.4-0-53 kernel. The 'latest' 4.4.0-72 kernel it offers me causes my machine to bootloop again. However on the earlier kernel the performance is good. YouTube vids and 1080p movies in VLC play really well (felt like similar performance to Ubuntu 14.04/fglrx).

So I guess my options include just to use Mint 18.1, but I wondered if anyone is using the latest Ubuntu LTS on an AMD APU like mine?

I appreciate an other option is to buy a cheap Nvdia GPU like a GT 710 or something but that means I'd also have to buy a new case as my current one is a small Lian Li m-ITX case that doesn't support PCI expansion cards.

Pman85 · 13 Apr 2017 at 22:00

I have the same APU and motherboard and experienced exactly the same problem with the bootloop (Mint 18.1). My workaround was to use radeon.dpm=0 as a kernel parameter during boot - I think I updated the grub config to provide it. However, using this means I have lost power management.. my CPU fan is always at a high RPM! I dont have any graphics issues per se, but I have noticed that using Compiz speeds up the desktop no end.

Timber · 14 Apr 2017 at 00:56

Thank you. I updated my grub file and that worked straight away. Details confirms that the open source driver is: Gallium 0.4 on AMD ARUBA (DRM 2.46.0 / 4.8.0-46-generic, LLVM 3.8.0)

I'm not sure if the system is as snappy as the fglrx drivers. Mint may have felt 'snappier' but I've left Ubuntu on for now rather than install Mint again. Also not noticed any issues with power management, CPU fan sounds about the same.

APM · 6 May 2017 at 18:32

Silly thing but is the BIOS updated to the latest possible version/s?

Timber · 6 May 2017 at 23:00

Not here. I'm on the latest 1.x BIOS but can't install the 2.x BIOS because the mFlash utility doesn't work with this version. So I would need to install Windows or a freeDOS USB stick to install it.

That said the newer 2.x BIOS just seems to allow the use of Richland CPUs. And this APU (or version of the Radeon HD 7000) isn't supported by any AMD Linux drivers for Ubuntu 16.04+.

Running the basic Radeon driver and my system is usable. I have lost the use of some RetroArch shaders but some lightweight ones work fine. Browsing and video playback is fine.

Any specific reason for asking about the BIOS?

APM · 5 Jun 2017 at 18:17

Just thought it could have been a valid solution.

I have a similar set up using an AM2 chipset with Ubuntu 16.04 and all works well however after a few days use the graphics freeze and the machine needs a re-boot.
Really frustrating and pushing me to go back to Fedora which I've had on that machine before.

Timber · 14 Jun 2017 at 09:18

Fair enough. I'm 99.99% certain the latest BIOS isn't the issue. That said the basic Radeon driver seems fine with the previously mentioned caveats.

Your issue sounds frustrating though. I don't know Linux well enough to suggest anything but good luck getting it resolved.

Sturm · 29 Jun 2017 at 20:56

You could always try Manjaro, been running my A10 richland wioth no issues for almost 1 year now

oap · 1 Jul 2017 at 23:05

Updating my kernel to 4.11 and installing the ampgpu-pro drivers got my nano working fine in linuxmint.

Timber · 4 Jul 2017 at 18:56

Sturm said:
You could always try Manjaro, been running my A10 richland wioth no issues for almost 1 year now

Cheers for the post, but I understood the lack of support from AMD for Linux drivers affected all flavours of Linux. Therefore what driver are you using?

oap said:
Updating my kernel to 4.11 and installing the ampgpu-pro drivers got my nano working fine in linuxmint.

Unfortunately my A4 APU isn't supported by either of the AMDGPU or AMDGPU-PRO drivers (likely because it's not new enough) and hence me starting this thread.

oap · 9 Jul 2017 at 00:40

That's too bad, they work better than the old ones.
Unfortunately not always too rosy on some of the 'green' cards in linux either.

Sturm · 17 Jul 2017 at 18:00

Timber said:
Cheers for the post, but I understood the lack of support from AMD for Linux drivers affected all flavours of Linux. Therefore what driver are you using?

Unfortunately my A4 APU isn't supported by either of the AMDGPU or AMDGPU-PRO drivers (likely because it's not new enough) and hence me starting this thread.

Using opensource video-amdgpu and video-vesa

Timber · 19 Jul 2017 at 13:45

Sturm said:
Using opensource video-amdgpu and video-vesa

Thank you for the reply, but a bit confused though, because from what I've read the Open Source AMDGPU driver doesn't support the A10 Richland APUs (A10 6700's etc.). What am I missing here, or understanding incorrectly?

Sturm · 20 Jul 2017 at 18:36

been working fine for me as APU and still fine with the addition of gfx card
Maybe it also has something to do with which flavour of linux I am on Manjaro XFCE

FatRakoon · 17 Aug 2017 at 01:19

I absolutely swear by ATI GFX.
Having a weird OCD where I have motherboards that are ATI Chet based and then the idea of using nVidia graphics has just been a weird one for me, and so I kind of stuck to ATI.

This also carried on with Linux too, and my main Linux PC is an AMD A10 and although it has obviously fairly capable APU, I still used a card.

Until recently.

AMD have really dropped a nut here with their poor Linux support and so for that, I have moved to nVidia.