Arch Linux

todsmer

Member

Registered: 2021-05-11

Posts: 4

AMDGPU crash on boot with Radeon R9 M370X Mac, works on linux-lts

I have a Macbook Pro mid-2015, with the Radeon M370X card. When I try to boot Arch, the machine just turns off when it tries to load amdgpu driver. Works well with either radeon driver or linux-lts. No logs are present even if I remove KMS from initramfs and I'm able to unlock the encrypted root, so some boot logs are present. They just abruptly stop, so I believe the machine just turns off for some reason.

linux-lts (6.18.29-1) and amdgpu - boots (requires acpi_backlight=native for the internal display to work)
linux (7.0.5.arch1-1) and amdgpu - fails to boot
linux (7.0.5.arch1-1) and radeon - boots

Arch install image also fails to boot (2026-05-01 image tested).

Result of lspci -k from the LTS kernel:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Venus XT [Radeon HD 8870M / R9 M270X/M370X] (rev 83)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Radeon R9 M370X Mac Edition
	Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
	Kernel modules: radeon, amdgpu

Both working GRUB configuration lines:
1. the LTS boot with amdgpu working:

linux	/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=UUID=xxxxx rw rd.luks.name=xxxxx=root brcmfmac.feature_disable=0x82000 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1 acpi_backlight=native loglevel=3 quiet

2. the current kernel boot with radeon working:

linux	/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=xxxxx rw rd.luks.name=xxxxx=root brcmfmac.feature_disable=0x82000 radeon.si_support=1 amdgpu.si_support=0 loglevel=3 quiet

This leads me to believe it may be a regression introduced somewhere after  6.18.29-1.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,278

Re: AMDGPU crash on boot with Radeon R9 M370X Mac, works on linux-lts

x-ref, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=313420

When I try to boot Arch, the machine just turns off when it tries to load amdgpu driver.

Reeks of power management. Happens on battery and AC alike?

amdgpu.runpm=0 amdgpu.bapm=0 amdgpu.aspm=0 amdgpu.dpm=0

dpm=0 might result in a failing boot (even w/o power loss)
What about "amdgpu.ppfeaturemask=0xfcff8" instead?

introduced somewhere after  6.18.29-1

Were the 6.19 kernels also affected?

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todsmer

Member

Registered: 2021-05-11

Posts: 4

Re: AMDGPU crash on boot with Radeon R9 M370X Mac, works on linux-lts

Maybe an important information, I'm booting from USB, the system still has macOS installed on its internal drive.

Reeks of power management. Happens on battery and AC alike?

Both on AC and battery.

amdgpu.runpm=0 amdgpu.bapm=0 amdgpu.aspm=0 amdgpu.dpm=0

dpm=0 might result in a failing boot (even w/o power loss)
What about "amdgpu.ppfeaturemask=0xfcff8" instead?

Same result for all combinations, on both AC and battery. Instant power loss when amdgpu is loaded.

Were the 6.19 kernels also affected?

That's a fresh installation, but I've just installed linux-hardened, which still has 6.19 (6.19.14-hardened1-2-hardened to be exact), and boot fails in the same way as on 7.0.

It's not a huge blocker at the moment, as I can still use LTS or radeon driver if LTS moves to next kernel version. But radeon is suboptimal and ideally it would be great to run amdgpu on plain linux. And it's an installation issue - the plain Arch ISO does not boot, the user needs to add kernel parameters to disable amdgpu during boot.

Last edited by todsmer (Today 12:53:50)