[Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

TheAkkarin32 · 2019-04-12 09:46:26

I am following this guide from the wiki for installing the drivers: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AM … the_driver

I did not try to install it via the AUR, but via the unofficial Repositories. After adding the Xorg117 and catalyst-stable repository in /etc/pacman.conf, above all other repositories and adding the unofficial keys i tried to perform the downgrade via sudo pacman -Syuu. This doesnt work and i get this error message for the xorg117 ad catalyst-stable repostory:

error: failed retrieving file 'catalyst-stable.db' from mirror.hactar.xyz : Could not resolve host: mirror.hactar.xyz
error: failed to update catalyst-stable (invalid url for server)
error: failed retrieving file 'xorg117.db' from mirror.hactar.xyz : Could not resolve host: mirror.hactar.xyz
error: failed to update xorg117 (invalid url for server)
core is up to date
extra is up to date
community is up to date
multilib is up to date
error: failed to synchronize all databases

All normal repositories (core, extras, etc) work.

I would be very glad if you could help me find a solution for this problem

Last edited by TheAkkarin32 (2019-04-14 11:44:50)

pb · 2019-04-12 10:17:08

It looks like server (hactar.xyz) is not available. Try again letter. But... Why you want to use long time age depreciated drivers? Both drivers in repository: xf86-video-ati and for newer GPU's xf86-video-amdgpu seems to be a much better than Catalyst.

TheAkkarin32 · 2019-04-12 10:22:33

Well i already have the open source drivers installed. I wanted to try out the catalyst drivers, to see if they perform better in video games than their open source counterparts.

V1del · 2019-04-12 10:32:39

Which card?

TheAkkarin32 · 2019-04-12 10:41:40

I use the R9 290 AMD GPU

V1del · 2019-04-12 11:15:38

Then catalyst is definitely the wrong driver to use and not going to be an improvement (in fact I'm fairly sure that card isn't supported anymore with catalyst.) If you are currently using radeon one thing you can do is switch from the older radeon to the newer amdgpu: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AM … K)_support

Which is the more modern but still open source graphics driver. Technically there'd also be amdgpu-pro but that also isn't a guaranteed improvement with a bit more hassle than it's worth usually.

Last edited by V1del (2019-04-12 11:21:15)

TheAkkarin32 · 2019-04-12 12:36:24

To be honest this loks like a confusing process to me. I have installed the various drivers like mesa, xf86-video-amdgpu, etc. But the next steps confuse me. For example enabling the support for SI/CIK Cards, because it talks about changing kernel parameters. Or is this part not necesary with my card (R9 290), which belongs to the volcanic island (VI) not (SI/CIK) Line of AMD Cards.

progandy · 2019-04-12 13:03:13

TheAkkarin32 wrote:

Or is this part not necesary with my card (R9 290), which belongs to the volcanic island (VI) not (SI/CIK) Line of AMD Cards.

Most likely, the R9 290 is a Sea Islands card. At least according to this list on wikipedia this card has the "GCN 2nd gen" architecture and that is listed as "Sea Islands" in the API overview on the same page. Just read the output of "dmesg" (not too long after reboot), if it mentions you can change from radeon to amdgpu with some kernel parameters, then you need them.

Last edited by progandy (2019-04-12 13:09:53)

Lone_Wolf · 2019-04-12 13:37:53

I sometimes wish Amd wouldn't have used those island codenames.

post lspci -knn please.

Without knowing the exact chipset on your card it's very hard to determine which kernel paramaters you need to enable or disable.

TheAkkarin32 · 2019-04-13 05:51:47

This is my exact chip set:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Hawaii PRO [Radeon R9 290/390] [1002:67b1]
Subsystem: Tul Corporation / PowerColor Hawaii PRO [Radeon R9 290/390] [148c:2343]
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon, amdgpu

And if i have read this (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AM … K)_support) correctly i can either change this in the kernel parameter or in a modprobe.d file?
What would be the difference, between those two methods? What would i gain from enabling the support for those cards? More efficient use of my card?

I am sorry of those questions sound dumb, but i have just started growing my Linux/IT knowledge.

Thank you all for your help so far.

V1del · 2019-04-13 09:16:20

You can choose either method, whatever you find "visually" more appealing, the end result will be the same (FWIW I usually do module options like these in modprobe.d to not clutter my kernel command line with options that can be set another way).

Well you wanted to change the driver to see whether there's a difference in performance (just that catalyst is a no go in any case here), you will switch from the older radeon driver to the newer amdgpu, which might have a difference in performance. I'm not sure on why this particular card is in such a "limbo" state where it got support in the radeon driver but also in the amdgpu driver and you have to explicitly switch (afaik it used to be unstable on amdgpu in earlier kernels, from what I've heard that shouldn't be the case any more most of the time) with these module options, however it is what it is.

Lone_Wolf · 2019-04-13 12:59:39

The Hawaii PRO is from GCN 2nd generation , which equals CIK support in the kernel.

For your card the radeon driver may be more stable, but if you need vulkan support then amdgpu is the only option .

Arch Linux

#1 2019-04-12 09:46:26

[Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#2 2019-04-12 10:17:08

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#3 2019-04-12 10:22:33

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#4 2019-04-12 10:32:39

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#5 2019-04-12 10:41:40

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#6 2019-04-12 11:15:38

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#7 2019-04-12 12:36:24

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#8 2019-04-12 13:03:13

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#9 2019-04-12 13:37:53

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#10 2019-04-13 05:51:47

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#11 2019-04-13 09:16:20

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

#12 2019-04-13 12:59:39

Re: [Solved] Trouble installing the AMD Catalyst Drivers

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