+Sig+ wrote:When you say 'while waiting for AMDGPU support', does that mean that AMD will eventually release a new proprietary driver?
Fortunately not; that would be quite a regression in the AMD Linux-support level. As said above, GCN 1.2 and later cards are already supported by the AMD-developed "AMDGPU" driver and, at the time of writing the above, GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 support was being added to it. I haven't kept up with current state of affairs but I expect some 1.1 and/or 1.0 cards may at this time also be supported by "AMDGPU". Pre-GCN cards, pre-HD7730, will not be supported by the "AMDGPU" driver but are and will be by the "radeon" driver. The "waiting" bit was hence only about users of GCN 1.0/1.1 cards and only about the "AMDGPU" driver.
Note once more: if you are on GCN 1.2+ then you are a lot better of with U16.04+/M18+ than you ever were previously, with now both AMDGPU and its closed-source addition "AMDGPU-PRO" available to you. If you are on GCN 1.0/1.1 you either are or will be shortly; ask AMD about the definition of "shortly". If you are on pre-GCN you are, at the very least I am, also a lot better of than before since AMD dropping support for the "fglrx" driver has meant that it has added features to the "radeon" driver for these older cards.
The only way you could even consider the current situation worse than before is if you are, 1, on old pre-GCN hardware and, 2, currently using the "fglrx" driver but even then it may be little more than assumption since as said the "radeon" driver has improved since "fglrx" existed. Have you tested things? It continues to amaze me, the number of people that install an open-source operating system only to then consider it an obvious omission that they can't download and install some non-descript, closed-source, proprietary binary vendor-blob to drive one specific part of their hardware. Really, why?
Now, admittedly, since having started posting these "setting the record straight" posts on this forum I've noticed a few too many reports of the new "radeon" driver not working well with some pre-GCN cards, and especially in dual-graphics situation. Of which there appear to be many more than I was earlier even aware of. Yes, sure, if you are on pre-GCN, using "fglrx" on 17.3 and in a hardware-situation where the new "radeon" driver has issues then you were better of before. Upgrade your video? Which in the case of your system being a laptop means you get what you paid for: a non-upgradable piece of throwaway electronics. Sorry.