Arch Linux

dawnofman

Member

Registered: 2019-07-26

Posts: 140

best way to permanently update the firmware on AMD video cards ?

I have the following video cards running on different machines on arch-linux:

AMD Radeon Pro WX-3200; ie: WX-X200 series on GCN#4 (aka Arctic Islands) architecture using a Polaris12 µP released 07-2019

lspci vk-;

06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Polaris12 (rev 10) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Polaris12
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 49
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at bfe00000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=2M]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=256]
Memory at df2c0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
Kernel modules: amdgpu

dmesg;
 
[drm] Found UVD firmware Version: 1.130 Family ID: 16
[drm] Found VCE firmware Version: 53.26 Binary ID: 3

ls -1 /src/amdgpu-5.4.7.62-1101037/firmware/amdgpu/polaris12*;

polaris12_ce_2.bin
polaris12_ce.bin
polaris12_k_mc.bin
polaris12_k_smc.bin
polaris12_mc.bin
polaris12_me_2.bin
polaris12_me.bin
polaris12_mec2_2.bin
polaris12_mec_2.bin
polaris12_mec2.bin
polaris12_mec.bin
polaris12_pfp_2.bin
polaris12_pfp.bin
polaris12_rlc.bin
polaris12_sdma1.bin
polaris12_sdma.bin
polaris12_smc.bin
polaris12_uvd.bin
polaris12_vce.bin

AMD FirePro W-4300; ie: WX-100/300 series on GCN#2 (aka Sea Islands) architecture using a Bonaire Pro µP released 12-2015

lspci vk-;
 
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Bonaire [FirePro W5100] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Bonaire [FirePro W4300]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 38
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at bf800000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=8M]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=256]
Memory at df2c0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [48] Vendor Specific Information: Len=08 <?>
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [200] Resizable BAR <?>
Capabilities: [270] Secondary PCI Express <?>
Capabilities: [2b0] Address Translation Service (ATS)
Capabilities: [2c0] Page Request Interface (PRI)
Capabilities: [2d0] Process Address Space ID (PASID)
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon, amdgpu

dmesg;
 
[drm] Found UVD firmware Version: 1.64 Family ID: 9
[drm] Found VCE firmware/feedback version 40.2.2 / 15!

ls -1  /src/amdgpu-5.4.7.62-1101037/firmware/amdgpu/bonaire*;

bonaire_ce.bin
bonaire_k_smc.bin
bonaire_mc.bin
bonaire_me.bin
bonaire_mec.bin
bonaire_pfp.bin
bonaire_rlc.bin
bonaire_sdma1.bin
bonaire_sdma.bin
bonaire_smc.bin
bonaire_uvd.bin
bonaire_vce.bin

Now I want to permanently update the firmware (video BIOS, UVD, VCE, etc) on the cards. For whatever reasons, it seems AMD does not provide downloadable binaries (at least no easy way to find them) to update the cards as almost every other maker of common hardware on the planet. I am working with computers since I have memory and first thing I do whenever I buy new hardware is to check/update its firmware to fix already-resolved issues. In other words, I do not wait to be hit by a bug to check whether there is newer firmware to fix it.

AMD says the firmware in the drivers. The latest AMD driver is [amdgpu-pro-20.10-1101037-ubuntu-18.04.tar.xz] having the binary files listed above.

Question is: what is the procedure to update them ?

By the way, AMD does not contribute/use the linux firmware service @ https://fwupd.org/

PS: I am aware that are some sites offering some firmware files (usually all-in-one files with a rom extension). Some say they are official (signed), some say they are not, and not all video cards are listed; (eg: www.techpowerup.com and specifically for the AMD FirePro W5100). Obviously flashing firmware of dubious origin is not a great idea to begin with. Many sites refer to a Windows utility (presumably provided by ATI/AMD) called AMDVbFlash; eg: https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ati-atiflash/

Ropid

Member

Registered: 2015-03-09

Posts: 1,069

Re: best way to permanently update the firmware on AMD video cards ?

I got the impression that those "firmware" files are not the same as the firmware that's inside a BIOS chip of the card. I mean, even if you find a BIOS update file for your card and then update the BIOS to a newer version, the driver afterwards still needs those binary "firmware" files to initialize the card.