Linux newb display drivers issue.

[Alex8Ball]

Hi,

Recently I have decided to ditch Windows and install Linux on all my computers but I've ran into some troubles and I'm hoping that someone can give me some answers. I've done some research and I've decided to try Linux Mint and I've downloaded Cinnamon version.

One computer has and Intel G3420 processor and the install went without any issues. This computer will be used by my parent just for web surfing.
The other computer has an AMD A8-7600 APU processor with integrated graphics. I will be using it for surfing the web and some light gaming (need steam). I have tried to install all kind of display drivers from the AMD download center but in most cases the result was not good and I had to reinstall Linux. It seems I have no clue what I'm doing. I am stuck. Do I need to install any drivers or the latest Linux distribution has them included? I couldn't find any Catalyst Control Center.

Also...what would be the best distribution for a beginner? Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce or KDE? I've read on the forums that most users prefer Xfce because it runs better with old hardware and gives less crashes.

I appreciate any advice...thnx!
Alex

[deepakdeshp]

Please post following command for both systems in code tags.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

[Alex8Ball]

Please post following command for both systems in code tags.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

deepakdeshp I am currently at work so I cannot paste the details but I'm not sure you understood my issue. I am sorry if I wasn't clear enough! I have no problems with the Intel PC. Everything installed well on it and I like the Linux Mint Cinnamon interface.

I am unclear about the AMD A8-7600 APU with 4GB DDR3 on a Gigabyte MB computer. I want to know what is the best linux distribution to get and install in order to use this PC for web surfing, multimedia and some gaming on steam (dota). Also, I need to know if display drivers for this APU processor are installed automatically by the OS or I should install them manually?
I've tried Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia and Ubuntu 17.10.1 so far, on which I've tried with no luck to install the drivers from the AMD website. Maybe there is no need to install anything?

If you still think the

inxi -Fxz

is required to answer my questions, I will do it asap. thnx!

[Moem]

If you still think the

inxi -Fxz

is required to answer my questions, I will do it asap. thnx!

Yes, it's a very good idea to post that output, it will give the people here a lot of information that will make it a whole lot easier to answer your questions.

[deepakdeshp]

You can follow
viewtopic.php?t=264697&view=unread#unread

[Hoser Rob]

You can't use Catalyst or any of the closed binary AMD drivers on Mint 18.x or any other Linux distro that's as new as 18.x is. AMD deprecated it. I searched "AMD A8-7600" and found a review from January 2014, so that tells you something. If it's from that era the only driver choice you'd have in Mint 18.x is the open source driver (radeon).

Probably, and you'll have to publish an inxi report to be sure, the only way you could get access to the binary driver (fglrx) would be to install Mint 17.3. The closed driver is supported there as long as the card's new enough. 17.3 is supported until 2019.

If I had a machine with an an AMD card with fglrx support I'd install 17.3 and hope like hell that AMD Linux support improves by the time it goes end of life. At least they're working on it.

I know that downloading drivers from a mfr's site seems ridiculously obvious to Windows users but Linux is different. The drivers on those sites aren't reliable. Basically the thing you need to understand is that there is very littlle backwards compatibility in Linux. Or forwards either. You have to get the right version for your release.

[Alex8Ball]

Thnx Hoser Rob! At this point I have Ubuntu installed and these are the details:

Code: Select all

alex@roban:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: roban Kernel: 4.13.0-36-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.2.0
           Desktop: Gnome 3.26.2 (Gtk 3.22.25-0ubuntu0.1)
           Distro: Ubuntu 17.10
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Gigabyte product: N/A serial: N/A
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: F2A78M-HD2 v: x.x serial: N/A
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: F1 date: 01/09/2014
Battery    hidpp__0: charge: 85% condition: NA/NA Wh
           model: Logitech M705 status: Discharging
CPU:       Quad core AMD A8-7600 Radeon R7 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G (-MCP-) 
           arch: Steamroller rev.1 cache: 8192 KB
           
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 24755
           clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 1400 MHz 2: 1400 MHz 3: 1400 MHz
           4: 1400 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Kaveri [Radeon R7 Graphics]
           bus-ID: 00:01.0
           Display Server: wayland (X.Org 1.19.5 ) driver: radeon
           Resolution: 1680x1050@59.85hz
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD KAVERI (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.13.0-36-generic, LLVM 5.0.0)
           version: 4.5 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Render: 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] Kaveri HDMI/DP Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-36-generic
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCIE Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 01:00.0
           IF: enp1s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (0.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000DM003 size: 1000.2GB temp: 25C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 916G used: 6.9G (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 0.0C mobo: N/A gpu: -2.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 200 Uptime: 6 min Memory: 1005.1/3444.8MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: N/A
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.121) inxi: 2.3.37 

[Mattyboy]

Based on your requirements ( gaming ) and looking at your inxi report...

Install Mint 17.3
Add the catalyst drivers from the Driver Manager after you've installed. Re-boot.
Done.

[Alex8Ball]

Could you please elaborate your reply please? I'm not being rude or something, I just need to understand what I'm doing.

At this point I was thinking of getting Ubuntu 14.04 with EOL April 2019 because it is listed on the AMD download page as supported distribution I can download the drivers. The Catalyst drivers from the Linux Mint 17.3 Driver Manager are something different? Are them giving me the whole AMD GPU strength? I'm hoping to obtain same -fps as I was getting on Windows when playing my usual games.

[Mattyboy]

Could you please elaborate your reply please? I'm not being rude or something, I just need to understand what I'm doing.

At this point I was thinking of getting Ubuntu 14.04 with EOL April 2019 because it is listed on the AMD download page as supported distribution I can download the drivers. The Catalyst drivers from the Linux Mint 17.3 Driver Manager are something different? Are them giving me the whole AMD GPU strength? I'm hoping to obtain same -fps as I was getting on Windows when playing my usual games.

Mint 17.3 i believe is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ( Long term support ). For the sake of argument here both operating systems are the same ( under the bonnet ). Hence they will both use the same propriety AMD drivers. In this case 'Catalyst'. Support for each will end at the same time.

You can then either install Mint 17.3 or Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and install the drivers via the respective driver managers.

I know its a difficult habit to get out of so please take this advice. Only install graphics drivers for Linux from driver managers. The managers will find the absolute best driver for your system, every time, and they will 'just work' without issue.

I would recommend that you install Mint 17.3 with either the MATE or Xfce desktop environment. Cinnamon and Unity ( that last one is the ubuntu default desktop ) require more system resources to run... eating into those important FPS.

Install Mint 17.3 MATE then the Catalyst drivers from the driver manager buddy, really

[Alex8Ball]

Update:

-Installed Mint 17.3 Cinnamon and indeed I had xorg, fglrx-updates and fglrx as options in Driver Manager. Steam and Dota 2 installed and ran but I've noticed some glitches with the selected default xorg drivers. Tried the other two options fglrx and fglrx-updates and it seemed more stable but the fps in game is quite low. I've changed back to xorg using the Driver Manager but this lead to ''running in software rendering mode'' error at startup. Don't know what caused this, maybe I should have removed fglrx drivers using terminal before switching back to xorg in Driver Manager?
Anyways, the fps was quite low(under 25 fps) and I'm beginning to think this issue is hardware related. When I was using Windows 10 to play the game, I had about 90 fps using 2x4GB of 1800Mhz DDR3 but now I use only 4GB single channel 1600Mhz DDR3. I'm too lazy to install a Windows 10 and compare with same hardware. Will probably just drop the gaming request.

-Later I've noticed your message Mattyboy and decided to give MATE a chance so I googled and found out that I can change from Cinnamon to MATE without having to reinstall the whole thing. This is really nice! However, after getting MATE, the installed Dota2 game didn't want to start at all saying I don't have the necessary OpenGL(3.0) for it.

It seems, I need to do some more testing on my own but thank you all very much for the help. I won't mark this thread as solved yet, maybe I will come back with some useful updates. A good day to everyone!

[Mattyboy]

Well glad things are improving for you.

I will say that you should have and still should install MATE fresh as a new install. Mixing desktop environments on the same install will only cause you problems ( as you've discovered ). Its a bad idea and will use up those precious resources.

I also think that using the propriety divers from AMD is still the best option for your system. so stick with them.

Your games 'low' FPS may just be one of those unfortunate situations where its just not been optimized for Linux.

Set your system up as I've suggested this will give you the best 'starting point' and maybe hit the steam forums for the game and see what suggestions are offered to improve things.

Good luck

[Alex8Ball]

Ok Mattyboy, I did follow-up on your advice and ran a fresh MATE install. The results are the same and the computer is running slow. It's not related only to my steam games. I see delay in executing commands compared to my Intel Pentium G3240 computer that runs Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.3. For example, if I am watching a Full-HD video on youtube in fullscreen mode and than press ESC to exist fullscreen mode, it takes a long time. On the Intel computer everything runs smooth.

I don't really understand what is causing these issues. Browsing the forums I've noticed some people complaining about the same problem with AMD APU processors but also people that say everything is fine.
Would be nice to find a fix because I really start to enjoy the Linux experience and I just love how the Intel computer is running with 18.3. So...any other ideas?

[Mattyboy]

Well, Sorry to hear that Yes it's true Intel are better served on Linux. You could try a different Distro altogether. You could try the latest version of Mint, Ubuntu, etc with the 4.13 Kernel but then you'll have to use open source graphics drivers. Obviously make sure you're completely updated regardless.

The version I recommended with the AMD propriety drivers should be your best bet, lots of considerations and what if's here so I'm stuck for further suggestions.

I just found this Linux bench marking list for your cpu, may give you some further ideas. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

https://openbenchmarking.org/s/amd%20a8-7600

[Hoser Rob]

A couple of thoughts here:

You should NOT go to the mfr's driver dl page like you would in WIndows. This is Linux. The drivers from there are ususally buggy and not the one you need anyway. Driver Manager is best, though you won't see any Intel drivers there. Intel does not do Linux closed binary drivers.

You also need to check the minimum system requirements for any Steam game you want to install. Many say you have to have an Nvidia card of at least a certain model. And remember that the Linux optimization of many Steam games leaves much to be desired.