[SOLVED] Screen tearing with Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics. Driver needed?

beachboy2 · 11-26-2020, 09:30 AM

I recently built a new desktop PC using an AMD Ryzen 5 3400G Processor with onboard Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics. All went perfectly.

I have just bought a similar PC off the shelf for a friend and I am installing Linux Mint MATE.

The problem is that I am getting screen tearing on this second machine.

This is the inxi-Fxz output:

Code:

$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-54-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: XENTA product: 990835 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME A320M-K v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: 5602 date: 07/14/2020 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics 
  bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 59090 
  Speed: 1259 MHz min/max: 1400/3700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1258 2: 1259 
  3: 1260 4: 1396 5: 1272 6: 1263 7: 1354 8: 1314 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A bus ID: 08:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: ati,fbdev 
  unloaded: modesetting,radeon,vesa resolution: 1440x900~77Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.0 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 20.0.8 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 08:00.1 
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 08:00.6 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-54-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter 
  driver: rtl8192ee v: kernel port: f000 bus ID: 01:00.0 
  IF: wlp1s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 06:00.0 
  IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 223.57 GiB used: 7.54 GiB (3.4%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Maxtor model: Z1 SSD 240GB size: 223.57 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 30.61 GiB used: 7.42 GiB (24.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-2: /home size: 185.86 GiB used: 119.8 MiB (0.1%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/sda4 
  ID-3: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 40.4 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 233 Uptime: 29m Memory: 5.80 GiB used: 812.2 MiB (13.7%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 
  inxi: 3.0.38

I am guessing that I may need the amdgpu driver. Is this correct or not?

If so how do I proceed? Download site etc?

Is anybody else using a similar set up?

Timothy Miller · 11-26-2020, 09:58 AM

The driver is part of the kernel. You may not have the firmware. I don't know about Ubuntu, but in Debian you need the 'firmware-amd-graphics' package for the firmware.

beachboy2 · 11-27-2020, 06:45 AM

Timothy Miller,

As you say, the amdgpu driver is part of the kernel.

Here is my own PC (currently using EndeavourOS instead of the previous Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20) with the amdgpu driver loaded correctly from the kernel.

Partial output from inxi-Fxz:

Code:

System:
  Kernel: 5.9.9-arch1-1 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
  Desktop: MATE 1.24.1 Distro: EndeavourOS 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MS-7C02) v: 1.0 
  serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3.70 date: 06/09/2020 
CPU:
  Info: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics 
  bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 59227 
  Speed: 2966 MHz min/max: N/A Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2966 2: 3844 3: 2719 
  4: 4071 5: 2805 6: 4088 7: 2721 8: 4082 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
  bus ID: 29:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz

I am baffled as to why the ASUS PRIME A320M-K motherboard did not load the amdgpu driver from the kernel.

Timothy Miller · 11-27-2020, 09:45 PM

Does Ubuntu have a firmware package that has to be manually installed? I know almost nothing about Ubuntu and those distro's based on it as far as what they include and don't, but in Debian the amdgpu driver will not work unless the prior mentioned package, firmware-amd-graphics is installed in order to load the firmware. It's also possible it simply didn't include a new enough firmware, and that you would need to download newer firmware directly from AMD to get it to work.

At any rate my PERSONAL OPINION is that Endeavour is far and away superior to anything Ubuntu, so IMO good choice...

beachboy2 · 11-27-2020, 11:40 PM

Timothy Miller,

Thanks for your reply.

I omitted to say that I was using a MSI Tomahawk MAX motherboard on the earlier machine with both Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20. Each one used kernel 5.4 and the amdgpu driver loaded correctly. The graphics were perfect.
EndeavourOS with kernel 5.9 also worked correctly.

This latest PC uses an ASUS PRIME A320M-K motherboard with Linux Mint 20.

The key part of the inxi -Fxz for the ASUS A320M-K is the absence of the amdgpu driver:

Code:

Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A bus ID: 08:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: ati,fbdev 
  unloaded: modesetting,radeon,vesa resolution: 1440x900~77Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.0 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 20.0.8 
  direct render: Yes

Contrast this with the output using the MSI Tomahawk MAX:

Code:

Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
  bus ID: 29:00.0

I have returned the PC and will try a similar machine with Intel graphics.

With regard to EndeavourOS, I am delighted with it.
I do wish more Linux users were aware of its existence.
It is a doddle to install compared to Arch, uses the Arch repos mainly and in my experience has been extremely stable.

https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/endeavour-os-repos/1922

https://endeavouros.com/

v00d00101 · 11-27-2020, 11:57 PM

I am pretty sure on Debian you have to install the non-free firmware to make it work. I run a slightly hybridised version of things on my A320M and it took a while to get the amd driver to run simultaneously with an nvidia driver.

The exact method of how I did it was to install the amdgpu driver, install the non-free firmware and then cobble an xorg.conf together, which looks somewhat like this (I removed the keyboard and mouse entries as they are generally different for most people). Also you will need to change the

Code:

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Monitor0"
        VendorName      "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName       "Monitor"
#       HorizSync       31.5 - 79.0
#       VertRefresh     60.0 - 75.0
        Option          "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Videocard0"
        Driver          "amdgpu"
        VendorName      "Videocard vendor"
        Option          "RenderAccel"   "true"
#       Option          "backingstore"  "true"
#       BusID           "PCI:0:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Modes    "1920x1080_60"
                Depth     16
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1920x1080_60"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

It turned out (in my case) that as long as you had the nvidia driver installed, you didnt need it in xorg.conf to get Cuda to work.

So install the non-free firmware for your distro, install the driver, add it to your xorg in whichever way you like and restart X or reboot.

It might help, or not. YMMV.

beachboy2 · 11-28-2020, 12:03 AM

v00d00101,

Thanks for your response regarding Debian on the A320M mobo.

As mentioned above I am now going to try a similar PC with Intel graphics.

v00d00101 · 11-28-2020, 12:12 PM

Intel works out of the box without any faff. The exact driver that you will need to loaad if you configure the xorg by hand can differ, especially if using the connection via HDMI and especially if you want sound via hDMI, but apart from that its not as hard as Radeon or Nvidia drivers. the biggest problem comes if you have two opposing graphics vendors in the same machine, although Intel and AMD/Nvidia generally doesnt cause as much issue as AMD and Nvidia (from past experience).

Good luck with it.

beachboy2 · 11-28-2020, 02:40 PM

v00d00101,

The Intel PC worked fine, picking up the i915 driver.