AMD Radeon HD7340 Graphics Drivers

[CIA]

Hello All !! I found my graphics drivers on the AMD download page and they have different versions for the different Distros. I am puzzled as to which one to download. Any help would be appreciated.
Here they are :

Radeon™ HD 8000 – HD 8400, HD 7000 – HD 7600, HD 6000, and HD 5000 Series

RHEL ​​(32-bit | ​64-bit)
Ubuntu ​15.04 ​​(32-bit | ​64-bit)
​Ubuntu 14.04.2​​​ ​​(32-bit | ​64-bit)
​Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS​​ ​​(32-bit | ​64-bit)
Linux​ ​​(32-bit | ​64-bit)

Thank You in advance !!

[CIA]

One more thing. Are there any special procedures to install the driver ie: Terminal or is it Exacutable ?

[Mattyboy]

You omitted to say which version of mint you're using.

AMD stopped supporting Mint when 18.x was released. The last version that supports AMD drivers is 17.3. I think there are now open source Radeon drivers offered in the driver manager for 18.x. Current Mint is based on Ubuntu 16.04, which isn't listed there is it?

Don't try to install them on 18.x stick with the driver manager recommendation. I think I've seen threads here discussing 'how to's' with propriety drivers though... if you're up for a challenge and don't mind breaking your system.

[CIA]

Okay Thank You. I thought I had read that.Do not want to break it.
I thought maybe the factory driver would help You Tube run smoother.
I JUST INSTALLED MINT 18 on a spare HDD and the videos can't keep
up on anything higher than 240 P. At that setting its quite fuzzy.

[Mattyboy]

Post the results of this terminal command

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

This will give an overview of your system. It could give us a better idea of how to help you.

[CIA]

Will do.

[CIA]

System: Host: w900-X55U Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: ASUSTeK (portable) product: X55U v: 1.0
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X55U v: 1.0
Bios: American Megatrends v: X55U.423 date: 08/06/2013
CPU: Dual core AMD E2-1800 APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 6788
clock speeds: max: 1700 MHz 1: 1360 MHz 2: 1360 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Wrestler [Radeon HD 7340]
bus-ID: 00:01.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD PALM (DRM 2.49.0 / 4.10.0-38-generic, LLVM 4.0.0)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Wrestler HDMI Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network: Card-1: Ralink RT5390 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 01:00.0
IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet
driver: alx port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (50.5% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54505 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 455G used: 232G (54%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: swap-1 size: 3.85GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 67.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 69.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 3400
Info: Processes: 170 Uptime: 2:04 Memory: 1254.6/3533.5MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35

[CIA]

I do have 3 stage 4 and 2 stage 3 updates that I was afraid to install.
Stage 3 are:
1:Cinnamon - Nemo
2:Nemo - Preview
Stage 4 are:
1:Linux Kernel-4.13.0-36.40~16.04.1
2:Mesa
3:ndiswrapper

[Mattyboy]

Install your updates, you absolutely must update the Kernel to 4.13 due to security ( meltdown, spectre ). Re-boot and see if the problem is solved.

If this doesn't improve anything I would recommend trying the MATE desktop instead of Cinnamon by doing a complete re-install. Once installed turn off some of the desktop effects.

[Hoser Rob]

... AMD stopped supporting Mint when 18.x was released. ...

That's not really true. AMD dropped support for their closed binary drivers for any Linux distro as new as mint 18 or its ubuntu 16.04 base. It's not MInt specific. AMD doesn't have the best legacy support in Linux.

There are new AMD drivers (amdgpu and amdgpu-pro) but they are ONLY for fairly new cards. I don't remember which series you'd have to have but if it's older than that you only get the open source radeon driver. But I don't think amdgpu or amdgpu-pro will work on a 2013 machine.

So, since I strongly suspect that radeon is your only driver, and seeing this line in your inxi output ...

GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4

.... which you do not want to see in Cinnamon, I'd second mattyboy. Do a clean reinstall of the Mate or Xfce version. Or, if you install 17.3 you'll have the option of installing a closed binary driver.

Whatever you do, do NOT dl the drivers from AMD's site. I know that sounds stupid to Windows users but the Linux drivers from the mfr's sites aren't reliable.

[CIA]

Thanks for the tips. The new Kernel helped a little I can run you tube smoothly on 480P in full screen mode but not HD which is tolerable. I did change the CPU driver from the open source to AMD64-microcode in driver manager when you tube was stuttering along but did not see any change. Should I continue using the AMD MICROCODE driver ?

[CIA]

Are the Nemo updates required ? I read somewhere to avoid installing Nemo. I don't know what it does or what its used for.

[Mattyboy]

... AMD stopped supporting Mint when 18.x was released. ...

That's not really true. AMD dropped support for their closed binary drivers for any Linux distro as new as mint 18 or its ubuntu 16.04 base. It's not MInt specific.

Yeah, ok, I could have worded that differently fair comment mate.

[Mattyboy]

... AMD stopped supporting Mint when 18.x was released. ...

That's not really true. AMD dropped support for their closed binary drivers for any Linux distro as new as mint 18 or its ubuntu 16.04 base. It's not MInt specific.

Yeah, ok, I could have worded that differently fair comment mate.

Are the Nemo updates required ? I read somewhere to avoid installing Nemo. I don't know what it does or what its used for.

Nemo is your file manager... type that into terminal and your Home folder will open... yeah, update it.

Should I continue using the AMD MICROCODE driver ?

Originally it was advised to update cpu microcode to fix the whole meltdown/spectre thing.. then I'm sure I read it was advised not to.. don't quote me, maybe search the forums for an answer to that. I guess the question is did it improve your system, yes/no? there's your answer.

[CIA]

GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 is this a driver that may have been altered by installing the AMD64-microcode driver ? If so is there a way to roll back GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 ?

[CIA]

I thought the meltdown spectre deal was only for Intel chips ?

[Mattyboy]

I thought the meltdown spectre deal was only for Intel chips ?

Nah, one of them either meltdown or spectre effected AMD, forget which, whereas both effected intel ( not forgetting ARM chips also ).

Not sure about your above question regarding Gallium.

At the end of the day you're going to get a better system running Mint 18.3 MATE or 17.3 because you can install the propriety AMD drivers on the earlier version . Up to you of course, if it were me its what I would do to be honest.

[CIA]

So Mate is a lighter version ? Will I notice much change in the desktop environment ? I'm really loving this Cinnamon I have it dual booting on my other newer HIGH OCTANE machine and it runs lightning fast !! Everything else runs smooth on this old kick around lappy and I can tolerate the 480P on you tube but I am all about sqeezing all the performance I can out of it. If I was to try Mate would its performance be affected by dual booting it with Cinnamon to try it ?

[Mattyboy]

So Mate is a lighter version ? Will I notice much change in the desktop environment ? I'm really loving this Cinnamon I have it dual booting on my other newer HIGH OCTANE machine and it runs lightning fast !! Everything else runs smooth on this old kick around lappy and I can tolerate the 480P on you tube but I am all about sqeezing all the performance I can out of it. If I was to try Mate would its performance be affected by dual booting it with Cinnamon to try it ?

Yes lighter, Xfce lighter still. There is, obviously a difference between each environment but going from Cinnamon to Mate is no biggy... look at the differences on youtube... dual booting with Cinnamon will not affect either OS and how it performs. Don't forget you can try any Linux OS from a live boot before installing to get a basic idea, remember a live boot will obviously be slower than a proper install.

[CIA]

Yes the live boot runs slow on this machine but can't tell much difference on my other machine. I will check it out though. The only problem on live boot is when I establish an internet connection Firefox will not upload web pages. It works on early versions of linux distros but something seems to have changed on that. Is this a known problem or is there something I'm missing ? I used to run mint 17 on this machine without any issues. Thank you all for the responses !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!