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Thread: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

  1. #1
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    How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    What is the correct way to install proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04?
    I have an AMD A10-5800K APU and I am trying to install AMD Proprietary video drivers.
    The 64 bit ubuntu option on AMD's driver download page (link below) has me download a driver called fglrx_15.201-0ubuntu1_amd64_UB_14.01.deb

    https://www.amd.com/en/support/apu/a...adeon-hd-7660d

    But the directions assume I have a downloaded a file with a tar.gz extension.
    Also, I have read in other places that "fglrx" drivers are dead.

    The 64 bit linux option on the (above) download page has me download a folder called "amd-catalyst-15.9-linux-installer-15.201.1151-x86.x86_64.zip".
    The executable installer within complains:
    ERROR: Detected X Server Version 'X server 1.20.8-64a is not supported.

    So what is the correct method to install?

  2. #2
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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    fglrx is most definitely dead. Why do you feel that you need to use a proprietary driver at all?

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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    I have managed to interest my son in Linux by showing him that he can play minecraft.
    Unfortunately, he has gone back to playing on the xbox because his framerate is just over 4 and it makes playing minecraft painful on his ubuntu machine.
    He points out that his sister gets a framerate over 72 on her windows PC and minecarft looks great.

  4. #4
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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    AMD are known to release the kind of data needed for writing a good graphics driver. So for everything except one or two of the very newest chips by AMD there is no proprietary driver and none is needed. The proprietary part is mostly needed if you want to use the GPU for non-graphical calculations (openCL, I think). Since the graphics core used on the A10-5800k - the Radeon HD7660D - had already been around for a while when the chip was introduced in 2012, the developers had more than enough time to get things working. If I'm not misreading the feature matrix at x.org that core is part of the "Northern Islands" family of chips and almost everything they can do is supported. So the problem is probably not related to the graphics driver.

    Holger

    Edit: Just looked in the German Ubuntu wiki, and there they basically said that Minecraft used to work well with the old proprietary driver and doesn't do well at all with the open source driver. So it seems that AMD graphics and Minecraft is a combination to be avoided.
    Last edited by Holger_Gehrke; August 3rd, 2020 at 07:47 PM.

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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    Quote Originally Posted by codosaurus View Post
    What is the correct way to install proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04?
    I don't know why performance on Minecraft is poor, but I can tell you that you're barking up the wrong tree with proprietary drivers:
    - The current proprietary AMD drivers (a.k.a. amdgpu-pro) do not support the GPU on the A10-7800K.
    - The older fglrx/Catalyst proprietary driver will not work with any modern/supported version of Ubuntu.

  6. #6
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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    Quote Originally Posted by codosaurus View Post
    I have managed to interest my son in Linux by showing him that he can play minecraft.
    Unfortunately, he has gone back to playing on the xbox because his framerate is just over 4 and it makes playing minecraft painful on his ubuntu machine.
    He points out that his sister gets a framerate over 72 on her windows PC and minecarft looks great.
    1. what Java are you using? OpenJDK or Oracle?
    2. is the card being correctly detected by the OS and is GPU acceleration being used? radeon drivers should work fine.
    3. is Minecraft using the openGL acceleration?
    4. are you running full screen? acceleration only used on full screen game or is something running in the background?
    5. have you tried changing any video setting in minecraft?
    6. that's an APU so it uses RAM from the main board and does not have a dedicated one - how much ram do you have? how much ram did you assign to java when you ran the Minecraft?

    i have a much much weaker APU chip and at least version 1.5.1 ran fine on it. i haven't tried the latest ones, but that laptop has very little ram and the CPU is not powerful (quite weak in fact - benchmark 700 points as compared to modern CPU that mostly get over 8000 points). minecraft is quite heavy on CPU.
    Read the easy to understand, lots of pics Ubuntu manual.
    Do i need antivirus/firewall in linux?
    Full disk backup (newer kernel -> suitable for newer PC): Clonezilla
    User friendly full disk backup: Rescuezilla

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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    1. what Java are you using? OpenJDK or Oracle?
    The frame rates I quoted actually come from the Phoronix test suite. The jerkiness we see in their test mirrors what we see in minecarft.
    So I guess I dont know which Java we are using. How do I find out? Why does it matter?

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    2. is the card being correctly detected by the OS and is GPU acceleration being used? radeon drivers should work fine.
    It shows up correctly when I do: "sudo lshw -c video". Is that what you mean?
    It is not that the radeon drivers don't "work", it is that they appear to work poorly. 4 FPS.

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    3. is Minecraft using the openGL acceleration?
    I don't know. How do I check this?

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    4. are you running full screen? acceleration only used on full screen game or is something running in the background?
    The Phoronix test suite reports only a slight difference in framerate between fullscreen and Windowed.

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    5. have you tried changing any video setting in minecraft?
    I have not. I assume that minecraft will not outperform Phoronix. What should I try?

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    6. that's an APU so it uses RAM from the main board and does not have a dedicated one - how much ram do you have? how much ram did you assign to java when you ran the Minecraft?
    That sounds like a good idea. I will check into that.

    Quote Originally Posted by mastablasta View Post
    i have a much much weaker APU chip and at least version 1.5.1 ran fine on it. i haven't tried the latest ones, but that laptop has very little ram and the CPU is not powerful (quite weak in fact - benchmark 700 points as compared to modern CPU that mostly get over 8000 points). minecraft is quite heavy on CPU.
    I am not sure comparisons to earlier versions of minecraft are relevant.
    Here is my comparison:
    I have another PC with an AMD Athlon and GeForce GTX 1050ti video card. It also runs Ubuntu 20.04.
    I ran the phoronix test suite benchmark test using the open source driver and got a frame rate of just over 8.
    I installed the driver from nvidia
    The Phoronix benchmarg showed a frame rate of around 78.
    This is the experience I am trying to duplicate.

    So are you saying that there is no other driver for my APU that works in ubuntu 20.04?

  8. #8
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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    have another PC with an AMD Athlon and GeForce GTX 1050ti video card. It also runs Ubuntu 20.04.
    I ran the phoronix test suite benchmark test using the open source driver and got a frame rate of just over 8.
    I installed the driver from nvidia
    The Phoronix benchmarg showed a frame rate of around 78.
    This is the experience I am trying to duplicate.
    The reason you saw such a big jump is because nouveau is extremely slow on newer Nvidia cards. Nouveau is stuck at minimal boot clocks (because Nvidia never released their signed firmware for nouveau to use): https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...eau-2019&num=1
    That is not relevant to AMD. A long time (> 10 years) ago, the AMD proprietary driver outperformed the open-source one, but the open-source driver caught up and surpassed it with support from AMD: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...are-1820&num=1

    So are you saying that there is no other driver for my APU that works in ubuntu 20.04?
    Yes (not counting generic, unaccelerated drivers), The correct driver is installed out of the box. Check with:
    Code:
    glxinfo -B

  9. #9
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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    Also note that your GPU doesn't meet Minecraft's minimum requirements: https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/...-requirements-

  10. #10
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    Re: How do I install the proprietary AMD video drivers in Ubuntu 20.04

    Quote Originally Posted by Yellow Pasque View Post
    Also note that your GPU doesn't meet Minecraft's minimum requirements: https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/...-requirements-
    Interesting point, but how so?
    Your link lists minimum CPU as an A8, I have an A10-5800K.
    It lists minimum GPU as Radeon HD 7000 series.
    The A10-5800K has an HD7660D.

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