Linux Driver Expectations For The Radeon RX Vega

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Driver Expectations For The Radeon RX Vega

It's finally Vega week where AMD will be launching the long-awaited Radeon RX Vega graphics cards... But what about the Linux driver status?..

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Radeon-RX-Vega-Linux-Driver

[mphuZ]

TL;DR
It`s wrong

[starshipeleven]

But what about the Linux driver status?

I'll answer with a "no", and leave it at that.

[ua=42]

You know if you want "pain free Vega" you probably should just wait 6 months to buy it. Or however long it takes for it to be mainlined into the kernel.

[duby229]

You know if you want "pain free Vega" you probably should just wait 6 months to buy it. Or however long it takes for it to be mainlined into the kernel.

I'm not sure. For people that know what to do it's not hard for them to get DC, it's just that ideologically they prefer upstream sources that have finished the process of being accepted upstream. It implies a level of quality, and right know the implication is that DC doesn't meet that. Of course it's ideological, but that's it.

[ssam]

So if you had a machine with only a Vega card you have literally no display output? Can you boot a linux distro with vesa graphics in order to install the amdgpu-pro (or kernel module with DC)?

I wonder what the chance is that distros like Ubuntu will include DC stuff into their kernel before it hits mainline.

[starshipeleven]

I'm not sure. For people that know what to do it's not hard for them to get DC, it's just that ideologically they prefer upstream sources that have finished the process of being accepted upstream. It implies a level of quality, and right know the implication is that DC doesn't meet that. Of course it's ideological, but that's it.

Probably for a Gentoo user this isn't apparent, but most people aren't happy to babysit their PC.
With upstreamed drivers your stuff "Just Works" (tm). More often than not anyway, or at least at a level comparable with Windows (The Land Where Everything Works (tm) ).

Many people are pissed even at installing NVIDIA drivers.

[humbug]

amdgpu pro 17.40 will be based on a newer kernel according to Bridgman.

[duby229]

Probably for a Gentoo user this isn't apparent, but most people aren't happy to babysit their PC.
With upstreamed drivers your stuff "Just Works" (tm). More often than not anyway, or at least at a level comparable with Windows (The Land Where Everything Works (tm) ).

Many people are pissed even at installing NVIDIA drivers.

Personally, I've always recommended Ubuntu to nVidia users. I even had a few opportunities to sell a few systems, which I put Ubuntu on because they prefered nVidia. Otherwise I try to stick to AMD products, and for most people I've been recommending Fedora and I've even had a few nice opportunities to set up Redhat workstation. For folks like them, as long as they stick within the bounds of package management they will never have a single problem, but that's probably due because I chose the hardware in that system for them.

[M@GOid]

Otherwise you'll need to use the staging kernel or be using (ideally) Linux 4.13 Git + Mesa Git paired with another GPU to drive the display and offload the rendering to Vega using DRI PRIME.

Ok, so just for fun, I have a Intel APU (I don't care what you wanna call it) and it works fine in Linux. So, if I plug the video cable on the motherboard, having my RX 470 plugged in, what else I need to do to offload the rendering to the Polaris card?