Installing drivers for legacy hardware

[dreamdeckup]

Hello,

I recently installed Linux mint (the cinnamon variant) on an older computer. It had problems streaming content on netflix and youtube so I tried some quick fixes like disabling add-ons and hardware acceleration on Firefox, to no avail. Now I would like to know how to install drivers for my older AMD APU to help with this problem. The official ones aren't officially supported by AMD anymore so I would need to get them another way. I am aware that there just might be nothing we can do and that the hardware could be just too old. Here's the inxi report:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-91-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 
           wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: Presario CQ45 Notebook PC 
           v: 05A7200000200000000000000 serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 188B v: KBC Version 69.14 serial: <filter> 
           UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: F.22 date: 10/25/2012 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 25.3 Wh condition: 48.8/48.8 Wh (100%) volts: 12.5/11.1 
           model: Hewlett-Packard Primary serial: <filter> status: Charging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: AMD E2-1800 APU with Radeon HD Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP 
           arch: Bobcat L2 cache: 512 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 6787 
           Speed: 1697 MHz min/max: 850/1700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1697 2: 1697 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Wrestler [Radeon HD 7340] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:9808 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD PALM (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.4.0-91-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
           v: 3.3 Mesa 21.2.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD Wrestler HDMI Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.1 chip ID: 1002:1314 
           Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1022:780d 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-91-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8136 
           IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter 
           vendor: Hewlett-Packard AR9485/HB125 802.11bgn 1×1 Wi-Fi driver: ath9k v: kernel 
           port: 2000 bus ID: 07:00.0 chip ID: 168c:0032 
           IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 10.08 GiB (2.2%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9500420AS size: 465.76 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 456.95 GiB used: 10.08 GiB (2.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Device-1: 2-1:2 info: Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP Webcam-50 type: Video 
           driver: uvcvideo rev: 2.0 chip ID: 05c8:0223 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-2: 3-2:4 
           info: Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0 used by mouse Wireless Desktop 900 
           type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 045e:07b2 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 56.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 49 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdgpu-proprietary.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdgpu.list 
           1: deb https: //repo.radeon.com/amdgpu/22.10.2/ubuntu bionic main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rocm.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //repo.radeon.com/rocm/apt/5.1.2 ubuntu main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list 
           1: deb http: //repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:      Processes: 198 Uptime: 2h 16m Memory: 3.45 GiB used: 1.20 GiB (34.7%) Init: systemd 
           v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client 
           inxi: 3.0.38 

[SMG]

I recently installed Linux mint (the cinnamon variant) on an older computer.

Welcome to the forum, dreamdeckup.

If you want to stay with Cinnamon, I recommend going to the Effects app and turning all of them off (sliders to the left). Your computer only has 4GiB of memory so turning off the effects is one way of reducing system load so more is available for the browser.

It had problems streaming content on netflix and youtube so I tried some quick fixes like disabling add-ons and hardware acceleration on Firefox, to no avail.

This link How To Enable Hardware Accelerated Video Decode In Google Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi And Opera Browsers On Debian, Ubuntu Or Linux Mint is the one I usually pass along, but I don't see specific mention of AMD graphics (person writing it did not have a computer with AMD to test). Web browsers have become full-fledged applications in recent years to be able to handle all the changes and upgrades in web content. The issue is more often one of tweaking browser settings than it is of graphics drivers. Video is extremely resource intensive.

Now I would like to know how to install drivers for my older AMD APU to help with this problem. The official ones aren't officially supported by AMD anymore so I would need to get them another way.

Your computer has drivers installed. There are no other drivers.

Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Wrestler [Radeon HD 7340] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon
v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:9808
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: AMD PALM (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.4.0-91-generic LLVM 12.0.0)
v: 3.3 Mesa 21.2.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

I do recommend you open Update Manager and run the updates there. Your system is running old versions of quite a few packages. The ISOs are frozen in time at the time they are released so one must always run the updates after installation.

Your system can not use amdgpu drivers so these repos are of no use to you. (Even the ones that say radeon are only for amdgpu-capable GPUs.)

Code: Select all

Repos:  
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdgpu-proprietary.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdgpu.list 
           1: deb https: //repo.radeon.com/amdgpu/22.10.2/ubuntu bionic main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rocm.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //repo.radeon.com/rocm/apt/5.1.2 ubuntu main

[dreamdeckup]

Thank you for welcoming me and for the answer on graphics drivers and tweaking browser settings. As for updates on my machine, I did run sudo apt update && apt upgrade post-install, and Update Manager says no packages need to be updated, so may I ask which one you were talking about in particular?

[SMG]

As for updates on my machine, I did run sudo apt update && apt upgrade post-install, and Update Manager says no packages need to be updated, so may I ask which one you were talking about in particular?

The following are ones I noticed:

• Latest kernel is 5.4.0-121, but your system has 5.4.0-91
• Latest gcc is 9.4.0, but your system has 9.3.0
• Latest X.Org is 1.20.13, but your system has 1.20.11

[AndyMH]

You will be better installing either xfce or mate instead of cinnamon on that laptop, less resource hungry.