Why isn't amdgpu for Raven Ridge hardware supported by default?

Sourav · 2020-10-21 12:59:41

Hi, my brother's laptop runs Ryzen Raven GPU (Ryzen 5). But it doesn't boot with the default kernels (both stable, zen, and lts).
So I needed to get the kernel from here https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/linux-amd-raven/ or currently a tweaked version of Xanmod also works. But the question is, why doesn't the default kernel support Raven architecture?

Last edited by Sourav (2020-10-21 13:00:24)

Awebb · 2020-10-21 13:06:33

Read the AUR comments.

Sourav · 2020-10-21 13:11:03

Didn't get it. Which comment specifically? I know the kernel 5.4 LTS is compiled and adding a repo solves the problem. But why doesn't Arch enable that option by default? Our kernel has a lot of unnecessary stuff already. For example, some AMD CPU are supported along with Intel. That makes the kernel require more space, but it won't use memory (RAM) unless the modules are loaded. For Intel users, compiled kernel with AMD is of no use. In similar way, why doesn't Arch enable the AMDGPU support for Raven architecture?

Last edited by Sourav (2020-10-21 13:11:56)

V1del · 2020-10-21 13:30:48

There's nothing in the normal kernel that would inherently not support amdgpu . If this kernel includes an out of tree patch or config option that "makes everything better" identify which and bring it up for inclusion on the bug tracker. Granted your issues are actually due to not supporting amdgpu hardware.

But to properly assess that you should post logs of a failing boot/differences between to working amd kernel and not working stock kernel.

Last edited by V1del (2020-10-21 13:44:06)

Sourav · 2020-10-21 14:18:43

V1del wrote:

There's nothing in the normal kernel that would inherently not support amdgpu . If this kernel includes an out of tree patch or config option that "makes everything better" identify which and bring it up for inclusion on the bug tracker. Granted your issues are actually due to not supporting amdgpu hardware.
But to properly assess that you should post logs of a failing boot/differences between to working amd kernel and not working stock kernel.

It doesn't probably use other GCC flags.

I compiled the Xanmod kernel before by copying the config file from /proc (after installing the AMD Raven kernel). I just used O3, mtune=native and march=native flags during compilation, which probably doesn't have any affect on booting. The custom Xanmod kernel just booted, and there was no issues with the hardware acceleration at all. That said, the default kernel won't even boot.

I might try compiling a vanilla kernel with the configs that the AMD Raven from AUR uses, and see if it works on vanilla stable kernel.

So my presumption is that the default kernel doesn't enable the config to support the Raven AMDGPU, hence the need to get LTS one from AUR or from their hosted repo.

Last edited by Sourav (2020-10-21 14:24:54)

progandy · 2020-10-21 14:29:15

Sourav wrote:

I might try compiling a vanilla kernel with the configs that the AMD Raven from AUR uses, and see if it works on vanilla stable kernel.

I think that is the idea of the linux-amd AUR package.

So my presumption is that the default kernel doesn't enable the config to support the Raven AMDGPU, hence the need to get LTS one from AUR or from their hosted repo.

In that case compare the config files for linu-amd-raven and linux-lts.

Last edited by progandy (2020-10-21 14:29:37)

Arch Linux

#1 2020-10-21 12:59:41

Why isn't amdgpu for Raven Ridge hardware supported by default?

#2 2020-10-21 13:06:33

Re: Why isn't amdgpu for Raven Ridge hardware supported by default?

#3 2020-10-21 13:11:03

Re: Why isn't amdgpu for Raven Ridge hardware supported by default?

#4 2020-10-21 13:30:48

Re: Why isn't amdgpu for Raven Ridge hardware supported by default?

#5 2020-10-21 14:18:43

Re: Why isn't amdgpu for Raven Ridge hardware supported by default?

#6 2020-10-21 14:29:15

Re: Why isn't amdgpu for Raven Ridge hardware supported by default?

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