AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Playing Nicely With Latest Linux Distros Following BIOS Updates

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Playing Nicely With Latest Linux Distros Following BIOS Updates

One month ago we were told that AMD released a BIOS fix to their motherboard partners for addressing the systemd boot issue with Ryzen 3000 series processors that stems from an RdRand instruction issue. Finally over the past week we've seen motherboard vendors pushing out BIOS updates for the prominent motherboards and indeed this takes care of the issue...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ryzen-3000-BIOS-Update-Good

[Zan Lynx]

Sweet!

And I was just getting used to Ubuntu 18.04. Now I'll have to decide if I want to switch to Fedora 30 or keep Ubuntu for a while.

[Madgemade]

allows Ubuntu 19.04 and other newer Linux distributions to now boot gracefully on the new AMD Zen 2 desktops without any workarounds or patched systemd

This makes it sound like these distro wouldn't without some sort of extra work. That's not the case. All this does it allow the Ubuntu Live CD and maybe some outdated distros to boot. The live CD uses an older version of systemd that isn't patched. If (like me) you already have Ubuntu installed and then upgrade your CPU to Zen 2 there won't be a problem because the updated ("patched") version of systemd was rolled out a while back and is already installed. I recently booted my system straight into Ubuntu without any worries for this reason. (My BIOS is on 1.0.0.2AB (not ABB) and that was only rolled out yesterday)

The Ubuntu team has said that they will not be producing a new version of the Live CD. So ONLY if you are using the Live CD will there be a problem. If you use the (imo much better) mini installer (which doesn't use systemd) there will be no issues (the latest systemd will be downloaded and installed automatically). If you already have a system installed then there is no problem because your systemd will already be fixed.

[bug77]

Sweet!

And I was just getting used to Ubuntu 18.04. Now I'll have to decide if I want to switch to Fedora 30 or keep Ubuntu for a while.

What difference does it make in this context?

[elgarita]

Everything is working fine, except WINE with the UMIP and not allowing some games to start, games like SOTTR

[hax0r]

I'm not updating to newest AGESA due to AMD removing PCIe 4.0 support in lower-end boards, I have https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards...M-PLUS-GAMING/ as one of my burner systems and I'm sticking to BIOS with 1.0.0.3AB, this B450 motherboard from ASUS is awesome because it allows you to run 16x Gen 4.0 PCIe in top slot and also Gen 4.0 on M.2 slot, it is a best deal ever, you can get the board for $50 at microcenter (after discount) when you purchase any AMD Ryzen 3000. No need to purchase toasty and expensive X570 chipset, for $50 you can have PCIe 4.0 and utilize latest Phison E16 based NVMe drive to get 5GB/sec read speeds.

[bug77]

I'm not updating to newest AGESA due to AMD removing PCIe 4.0 support in lower-end boards, I have https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards...M-PLUS-GAMING/ as one of my burner systems and I'm sticking to BIOS with 1.0.0.3AB, this B450 motherboard from ASUS is awesome because it allows you to run 16x Gen 4.0 PCIe in top slot and also Gen 4.0 on M.2 slot, it is a best deal ever, you can get the board for $50 at microcenter (after discount) when you purchase any AMD Ryzen 3000. No need to purchase toasty and expensive X570 chipset, for $50 you can have PCIe 4.0 and utilize latest Phison E16 based NVMe drive to get 5GB/sec read speeds.

Only to find out you rarely (if ever) need to read 5GB/sec. You'd think it helps with games' level loading, but benchmarking has shown otherwise.
Though honestly, I don't know if I gave up the feature just like that if I were in your shoes. On the other hand, knowing I have a broken instruction... not good either.

[andyprough]

I wonder if anyone tried using one of these chips with a non-systemd distro, such as Alpine or Gentoo or Parabola or Devuan or antiX?

[Djhg2000]

Wait, was the Ryzen 3400G affected by this? I thought it was a unique issue with Zen 2?

[Zan Lynx]

What difference does it make in this context?

Because the Fedora 30 installer uses an unpatched systemd? And I never wanted to bother spinning my own USB installer with a fixed systemd?

So when I setup my Ryzen 3900 I used Ubuntu 18.04 because I knew it would work.

Now I can update the BIOS and use the F30 installer. If I want to.