AMD's Raven Ridge Botchy Linux Support Appears Worse With Some Motherboards/BIOS

[bridgman]

agd5f is incorrect. HDMI 2.0 has worked flawlessly on all AM4 motherboards that have been tested thus far. Proof:
https://smallformfactor.net/forum/th...gathread.6709/

I don't see why you think agd5f is wrong. What he said was that support for 4K/60 HDMI depended on whether or not the vendor tested and enabled it in VBIOS. On dwagner's dGPU the bit appears not to be set, while on the Raven mobos listed the bit presumably is set.

[Hifihedgehog]

I don't see why you think agd5f is wrong. What he said was that support for 4K/60 HDMI depended on whether or not the vendor tested and enabled it in VBIOS. On dwagner's dGPU the bit appears not to be set, while on the Raven mobos listed the bit presumably is set.

Sorry. I did not realize the differences between Linux and Windows in this case until parsing the later posts some pages further on. I have added agd5f's post as a note on the site where I have been maintaining the quoted HDMI 2.0 compatibility list.

[dwagner]

What he said was that support for 4K/60 HDMI depended on whether or not the vendor tested and enabled it in VBIOS. On dwagner's dGPU the bit appears not to be set

Just to mention this here: I am not the only owner of some AMD GPU who experienced this - see e.g. https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=104412

The more reasonable thing for the Linux drivers to do would be to not disable the high-frequency modes, but just emit some warning to the kernel log like "GPU BIOS indicates non-validation of higher-than-HDMI-1.4 frequencies". That way, not only those capable of compiling their own modified kernel would be able to use their HDMI 2.0 capable hardware to its full extent.

[bridgman]

Sorry. I did not realize the differences between Linux and Windows in this case until parsing the later posts some pages further on. I have added agd5f's post as a note on the site where I have been maintaining the quoted HDMI 2.0 compatibility list.

OK, thanks... I hadn't realized the link was Windows-only either

[Sonadow]

I don't think this is a Linux problem. Windows people can't run shit either. The low end motherboards, even the one AMD sent Jayztwocents With the APU, didn't work on Windows. They have a firmware problem. Wait for another agesa.

Any links to back that one up?

Just to be clear, this is not calling you out or anything. I just am naturally skeptical about any claims of hardware-related issues on Windows simply because it's the OS which gets virtually all the testing and validation against.

[Hi-Angel]

Present and future. Development still happens primarily with Windows and diags, and so we keep needing to add/update Linux-specific code rather than using what was already written for (and, more importantly, tested on) other platforms.

Oh, it's unfortunate. Why the "future" though? GNU/Linux is, like, whole system created specifically for hacking and development. There's a lot of workflow stuff that either hard to do on Windows, or not even possible (like primary clipboard, tiling window manager, quick installation of utilities, debuggability).

FWIW 2 weeks ago I arrived to Moscow from somewhere far away, and one thing I wanted is to find specifically a job where I can do development using GNU/Linux host system. It turned out so easy to find in Moscow, so many software engineering jobs here involve GNU/Linux!

In fact, I almost got settled in a company which did not use GNU/Linux as a host, but had a lot of math related work (something related to aircrafts), which is also interesting to me. But then very last moment HRs from a university mailed to me that they also have a work involving math, and I gone there because for development they're using GNU/Linux 😂

[ping-wu]

Well ... I have the HP Envy x360 with Ryzen 2500u ...

I have the same machine, Ubuntu 16.04.3 with AMDGPU-PRO works great as far as video is concerned. No wifi driver yet. Also the touch screen still not working.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

and at the same time this article explains why linux managed to get more than 85% of smartphones, which are bigger market than desktops, right? reiterate main points please.
bullshit. on linux you can boot installer with old kernel and pick up updates automatically during install. updates have to contain hardware support, just like in windows world vendor website has to contain hardware support. some hardware is not ready on release day, but you've got reason backwards. desktop linux has tiny marketshare, which means it pays for tiny share of driver developers at hw vendor, so they could use more time
linux has best driver model of all operating systems and best hardware support of all operating systems. and btw you don't have to rebuild kernel or having to wait for kernel maintaners (how do you think nvidia gets its blob to users????)
linux is by far the most used operating system in the world. more than billion of linux smartphones is sold each year. until you stop living in alternative reality you are destined to post bullshit

Sorry, but Linux doesn't have 85% of the smartphone business, period.

[haplo602]

I don't understand what you are trying to say here. HP doesn't write their own drivers - AMD writes the drivers and we jointly test them on the hardware prior to launch. That driver (usually with a handful of last-minute fixes specific to the platform) becomes the official driver and is distributed by the vendor.

I don't know of a single tier-1 OEM that wants to invest in testing generic drivers - they all want "their own driver" (typically one which supports all the hardware THEY are shipping this cycle) and generally they only want Windows support, at least for laptops and all-in-ones.

That is slowly starting to change, but emphasis on the slowly. Dell is now offering a "developers edition" of one of their laptops pre-loaded with Ubuntu LTS, but for now that is limited to a single Intel-based design.

I suspect one of the reasons OEMs are biased so strongly towards Windows is that the stable API allows them to test and ship a single driver at launch and have it stay usable for the life of the product, while supporting Linux would require constant re-testing of new drivers each time the evolving ABI required an update.

The obvious solution for this is generic hardware and generic drivers, but most OEMs believe that differentiation and vendor-specific features are essential for them to succeed in the market. I don't believe that customization is actually required any more - IMO people make buying decisions based on things like build & display quality and support, not vendor-specific customizations in the SBIOS.

BTW all of the above applies to laptops and AIO's, but does not apply to the same extent to mobos and processors sold into the channel.

I was a bit surprised by the problems that Michael has been seeing since mobos and their SBIOSes tend to follow reference designs fairly closely, and I *think* the same applies to VBIOS (will check).

Well bridgman ... look at this like this:

1. There's a laptop APU driver for ALL the APUs on AMD support site except Ryzen mobile ones, even the desktop APUs are accounted for
2. The driver on HP web if marked for Windows 10 1703, we have 1709 as the latest, Intel Kaby Lake driver is 1709
3. User experiments that successfuly installed the Adrenaline 18.2.1/2 saw a 15-30% GPU performance increase (try TechEpiphany on youtube f.e.) - this did not work for me I guess because of the display panel, but I am really not sure

So ... I am denied performance by HP and AMD ... either through incompetence or ignorance. And not one of them does seem to care ... No drivers on AMD site, nothing new on HP site ...

I force-installed the desktop Ryzen APU drivers and it works, however it does not seem to have the same performance increase as the GPU ones based on my testing ....

Oh and I am waiting on the 4.16 kernel to try Linux on my Envy ... seems 4.15 won't be enough based on what Michael reported ...

[haplo602]

Loan it to me, I make it work with Debian testing/sid Xfce as I have done with A8-7600, X4 845, RX460, Ryzen 5 1600 and Rx560.

waiting on 4.16 to release ... I am a Gentoo person :-)