The AMD Radeon R9 Fury Is Currently A Disaster On Linux
Whenever receiving a new graphics card, one of my first items is always looking over the box for references to Linux... It's been a matter of fascination since the Radeon HD 4800 days. More than a half-decade ago when AMD was always sending out their reference cards to Phoronix for Linux testing, I was also invited out to the AMD launch events. Back then, primarily around the RV770 launch, the AMD press/marketing officers interaction with I was basically they expressed interest in Linux, they were constantly after improving their drivers, and something they frequently touted was that they were encouraging their AIBs to mention Linux on the product packaging or even to show the Tux logo as a sign of Linux support. They were also looking at having the Linux drivers incorporated onto the product CD.
They couldn't make any guarantees about Linux references since the packaging is left up to their AIBs/partners, but that going forward should be more Linux reference. Well, with all the graphics cards I have received/bought over the past six years, I don't recall a single one with a Tux logo and at most will be a small mention of Linux under supported operating systems or similar. Perhaps in another year or two we'll just see the SteamOS logo on boxes instead...
So out of curiosity I was looking all over the Sapphire R9 Fury box. I did find Linux! But as usual it was just a small mention of it under "System Requirements" although it wasn't listed under the "Operating System" area, so at first I almost missed it. There were no Linux drivers on the product CD. Not that these references are really important since Linux support is pretty much a given, but it just continues to be something I look at with AMD talking it up long ago. For what it's worth, the NVIDIA box situation tends to not be much better.
In terms of the Linux expectations for the R9 Fury line-up going into the testing, the Catalyst 15.7 Linux driver released earlier this month adds the product support for these new graphics cards. That graphics driver release is also needed for the (re-branded) Rx 300 series graphics cards too.
Unfortunately, there isn't yet any open-source Fiji Linux support via the new AMDGPU driver stack. AMD hasn't yet public said when that support will come, but hopefully sooner rather than later. For now all of the testing is done with Catalyst 15.7 on Ubuntu Linux.