Question about Graphic Driver Updates

[Bran]

Hi,

So I'm newer to Linux Mint, having used Linux for a few months now. I have a question about driver updates for the graphics cards though. How often does the Mint team or whoever adds them to the repository, actually add new graphics drivers to be updated in Mint. As I understand it trying to treat it like Windows and manually updating the graphics card from the official site (like AMD, Nvidia, ect) isn't the best idea as it can break Mint when a kernal is released.

I ask because a Linux game I'm trying to play (Mount & Blade: Viking Conquest) has some weird graphical issues with both the open source and official AMD drivers provided in Mint 17.1 such as trees with grey boxes, screen flickering, ect on the official drivers and a total black screen with weird colors coming through for the menu items on the open source ones, which appears to be related to having an outdated driver. The game is better on the official AMD drivers so I'd like to have an idea about how often the official ones or even open source ones are updated so I can get the game to work.

Thanks.

EDIT: I believe I actually found a fix for M&B, would still like an answer though if someone can.

[splashdust]

I don't know how often the proprietary drivers are updated but when it comes to open source drivers you could give this repository a try: https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/u ... cs-drivers

That will give you the latest open source AMD driver, and it is updated pretty much on a daily basis.

Those drivers have worked good for me on Ubuntu 14.04, though I haven't tried them on Mint yet.

[Mark Phelps]

I don't believe the drivers in the repos get updated between Mint releases. I've been using them for some time and I've never seen a graphic driver update come through.

As to the AMD drivers on their website -- timing of updates is anyone's guess. They just recently came out with an entirely new version, so they may be doing updates frequently to get the bugs ironed out.

[Bran]

I don't know how often the proprietary drivers are updated but when it comes to open source drivers you could give this repository a try: https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/u ... cs-drivers

That will give you the latest open source AMD driver, and it is updated pretty much on a daily basis.

Those drivers have worked good for me on Ubuntu 14.04, though I haven't tried them on Mint yet.

Thanks I have added those drivers, using a PPA is something I can do. So I assume that when a kernal is changed or Mint updates to 17.2 there won't be much issues with using these correct?

I don't believe the drivers in the repos get updated between Mint releases. I've been using them for some time and I've never seen a graphic driver update come through.

As to the AMD drivers on their website -- timing of updates is anyone's guess. They just recently came out with an entirely new version, so they may be doing updates frequently to get the bugs ironed out.

Yea I've seen they have newer official drivers, I just didn't want to go the route because I've read it's not the greatest idea in Linux. It's a shame the drivers don't get updated often, if Linux is to keep improving in the gaming scene that seems like something that should be updated when possible. I'd also think now that Mint is staying on the LTS release that some updates have to come at some point, rather that be 17.2 ect.

[splashdust]

So I assume that when a kernal is changed or Mint updates to 17.2 there won't be much issues with using these correct?

Yep, and if you do run into trouble you can always ppa-purge the repository to restore the version from the Mint repository.

[Bran]

So I assume that when a kernal is changed or Mint updates to 17.2 there won't be much issues with using these correct?

Yep, and if you do run into trouble you can always ppa-purge the repository to restore the version from the Mint repository.

Yea I was reading up on it and they actually recommend purging it before any major upgrade by the looks of it, so when 17.2 comes out I'll just purge it before upgrading and the re-add them to be on the safe side.

Thanks for the help.

[deleted]

dkms can help automatically recompile kernel modules when you update the kernels.
-Hinto