Installing AMD GPU-PRO on Sarah KDE: "Unsupported OS"

[nonbeing]

I am a new Linux user, so apologies in advance for any ignorance or formatting issues on my part. If this belongs in the newbie section, feel free to move it.

I recently built a new PC with a Polaris GPU (full specs below), and I am intending to dual-boot Windows 10 and Linux. Unfortunately, it has now been two weeks, and I have yet to get any distro to work properly. This has been quite frustrating, to say the least. Kernel versions before 4.7 do not include the FOSS AMDGPU driver with Polaris Support, so it's necessary for me to install the proprietary driver in order to get good performance. At first I was using Kubuntu 16.04, and installed the driver successfully. However, seemingly almost every feature of the DE and the KDE software was broken to an unacceptable degree (it didn't remember my keyboard shortcuts, for example) and I preferred Mint over Ubuntu, so I had to hunt for a new distro. Eventually I discovered Mint KDE, which I am currently using. It's exactly what I've been looking for and the DE problems are gone, but now I'm back to having driver issues.

When I extract the driver from AMD's site (https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articl ... stall.aspx), and run the script as described in the linked instructions, I get the message "Unsupported OS" from the terminal. A reddit user reported the same problem in this thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comm ... gpu_story/) but they didn't seem to find an answer (not from what I can understand in the thread, anyway).

So far, I seem to have basic functionality at normal speed at correct resolution, using no driver at all. The main issue is that I have tons of screen tearing, and of course any games are out of the question.

Windows 10 works fine, and the driver installed correctly, so it's not a hardware issue.

Any idea how I can get this to install?

About my system:

Hardware:
CPU: i5-6500 @3.2 GHz
Mobo: MSI B150m Mortar
GPU: Radeon RX 480 8 GB VRAM (powercolor reference card)
RAM: DDR4 8 GB
Monitor Resolution: 1080p @ 60 hz

I'll list any other info if you need it

Software:
Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah KDE Beta 64-bit
Kernel version: 4.4.0-36 generic
Fresh install from an hour ago, I haven't done anything but run the update manager (including kernel update) and attempt to update the driver

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sudo lshw -c video

gets this result:

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*-display UNCLAIMED     
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: c7
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d01fffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:dfe00000-dfe3ffff memory:dfe40000-dfe5ffff

[Pierre]

did the installer indicate if any extra drivers were available?

from control center - system - driver manager:
- does that indicate if any drivers are available?.

[nonbeing]

Yes, it lists an "unknown" device which "is not working" and gives the option of using either the proprietary "intel-microcode version 3.20151106.1 for intel cpus" or "do not use the device." No other devices are listed. This is similar to what I have seen in the driver manager from other distros such as Kubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome.

EDIT: Right after posting this, I enabled the microcode and rebooted. "Unknown" is now using an "alternative driver."Still not listing any other devices.

Unfortunately, KDE is once again forgetting my shortcuts when I reboot, just like with kubuntu (though with kubuntu it wouldn't even remember them for the whole session, so I guess this is progress). But that may be an issue for a separate thread.

[janivee]

Intel microcode driver is for your Intel CPU (i5-6500), it should have nothing to do with your external GPU.
As you know, there is "Intel® HD Graphics 530" GPU inside your CPU, which can be used also (but usually not for 3d gaming; too slow).

I would try booting without external GPU to see how it looks then.

I have Intel CPU (and GPU) and external AMD card. Those look like this:

sudo lshw -c video

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  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Cayman PRO [Radeon HD 6950]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=radeon latency=0
       resources: irq:39 memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f7e20000-f7e3ffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f7e00000-f7e1ffff
  *-display
       description: Display controller
       product: Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:40 memory:f7800000-f7bfffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:f000(size=64)

My GPU card is old, so it gets 'radeon' driver. Intel GPU is also there (driver=i915).

Type:

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lspci |grep VGA

What this gives you (with AMD and without). Atleast without external card, you should see Intel's GPU used.

Try also 'dmesg |more', it might show something helpful (maybe somebody can give more help from there).

[JeremyB]

What is the result for

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cat /etc/os-release

[ojensen5115]

If you're willing to play things a little footloose and fancy free, edit the amdgpu-pro-install file. Scroll down a bit until you see

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function os_release() {
        [[ -r  /etc/os-release ]] && . /etc/os-release

        case "$ID" in
        ubuntu)
                PACKAGES="amdgpu-pro amdgpu-pro-lib32 amdgpu-pro-dkms"
                ;;
        steamos)
                PACKAGES="amdgpu-pro-driver amdgpu-pro-lib32 "`
                        `"glx-alternative-amdgpu-pro amdgpu-pro-dkms"
                ;;
        *)
                echo "Unsupported OS" | stderr
                exit 1
                ;;
        esac

Change the word "ubuntu" to "linuxmint" and it'll install

[MintBean]

Nice work, Ojensen! I was just downloading the driver and thinking along the same lines.

If any of the community's AMD graphics users feel like 'giving something back,' please contact AMD and ask them to officially include Linux Mint support and that it is fully compatible with Ubuntu drivers. The more people do this, the better.

[MartinW2]

Thanks a lot for these hints! I had exactly the same situation and was able to solve after reading this post.
One additional remark from my side: Linux newbies like me should be aware that the installer has to be called via

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sudo bash amdgpu-pro-install

for authorization reasons.

[anandharaj90]

As the unsupported OS can be resolved by changing to linuxmint can we change the thread to [Solved] ?

[jastonas]

I tried that fix and I am now getting: amdgpu-pro-install: line 74: cd: amdgpu-pro-install: Not a directory

[jastonas]

Never mind. It worked now.

[gorilla p]

This worked for me as well. Once pointed out, you see the pattern. It detects ubuntu or steamos, then you can see which installer is used, once detected.
Since, Mint would use the same installer as ubuntu, you can just change "ubuntu" to "linuxmint".
or just add the following lines below line 55 (which will become line 56-58.)

linuxmint)
PACKAGES="amdgpu-pro amdgpu-pro-lib32 amdgpu-pro-dkms"
;;