AMD Is Trying To Make It Easier To Update Radeon Linux Graphics Drivers

Written by Michael Larabel in Radeon on 15 August 2017 at 06:37 AM EDT. 20 Comments
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It looks like AMD developers have an initiative underway to make the process easier of updating the Radeon Linux graphics drivers whether it be the fully open-source driver stack or the hybrid AMDGPU-PRO driver.

In the comments to yesterday's Radeon RX Vega Linux review and the steps needed to get Linux into shape for Vega, it was commented by a veteran AMD Linux developer (emphasis added):
Product launch cycles and Linux distro cycles rarely align. It's not always possible for the kernel versions most distros are currently shipping will contain usable new asic support at hw launch. For example, even with DC upstream, you'd still need a number of patches that are slated for drm-next for a fully optimal experience with vega10. To bridge this gap, one of the things we are working on is providing unified downloadable driver packages that support both the fully open stack and the pro stack.

It will be interesting to see this effort come to the front and how they manage to provide this unified download driver package for both the open and AMDGPU-PRO driver. AMDGPU-PRO right now is supported on just the enterprise Linux distributions and basically comes down to native packages for the respective distribution and using DKMS for building the patched AMDGPU kernel module.

The pains of updating Linux graphics drivers aren't an AMD-only issue and unfortunately one of the challenges for new Linux users if moving over from Windows, so any improvements in this area are certainly welcome.

More details on this effort when we get them.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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