It's Really Worthwhile For AMDGPU Users On Ubuntu 16.04 To Upgrade Their Kernel, Mesa

[jrch2k8]

i would recommend Manjaro for AMD Users because

Latest stable Mesa
you can choose the Kernel yourself (Manjaro oficially supports 3.10.102,3.12.62,3.14.77,3.16.37,3.18.40,4.1.31,4. 6.7 [EOL],4.7.2)
mostly Rolling Release
Catalyst (fglrx) still available

easy to install
AUR compatible
steam preinstalled
strong and friendly community

also in the same vibe you have more Arch Based options:

Antergos
Apricity OS
Archlinux

For those who don't know, Arch based distros named can be categorized as:

Archlinux -- medium/expert/don't enable staging repos if you aren't an expert -- is the base distro and is always the most up to date but can be hard to install the first time for an user.
Manjaro: -- easy/users/rock solid -- Manjaro is the sort of "LTS" version of Arch with a cool easy installer, is still a rolling distro but a delay is added when syncing with Arch repos since the packages have to be tested to dead before reaching manjaro repos and users.
Antergos: -- easy/users/rock solid"ish" -- its basically a middle approach between Arch and Manjaro
Apricity: -- easy/users/rock solid"ish" -- its basically a middle approach between Arch and Manjaro with a fucking beautiful set of gnome themes. Elementary OS like but with Arch

[duby229]

Awesome, I'm so glad to see this. Keep up the great work guys and don't stop optimizing. We Love it!

[lumks]

i would recommend Manjaro for AMD Users because

Latest stable Mesa
you can choose the Kernel yourself (Manjaro oficially supports 3.10.102,3.12.62,3.14.77,3.16.37,3.18.40,4.1.31,4. 6.7 [EOL],4.7.2)
mostly Rolling Release
Catalyst (fglrx) still available

easy to install
AUR compatible
steam preinstalled
strong and friendly community

[M@GOid]

The downside of using the above metod is that when a new kernel version is out, you don't get it with your regular updates, so you have to manually install then. Remember that each kernel version (the 3 packages) use about 250 MB of space, so you will want to uninstall the old ones regularly.

[M@GOid]

May someone write down explicitely the steps to take in order to use the new kernel for newbies?

You can download the new kernels here:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

The newest ones are at the bottom of the page. Click the link with the version you want, and download (if you are using 64bits) the 3 packages named:

linux-headers-******generic********_amd64.deb
linux-headers-**********************_all.deb
linux-image-******generic**********_amd64.deb

Here are the complete names in the kernel 4.8 RC3 series:

linux-headers-4.8.0-040800rc3-generic_4.8.0-040800rc3.201608212032_amd64.deb

linux-headers-4.8.0-040800rc3_4.8.0-040800rc3.201608212032_all.deb

linux-image-4.8.0-040800rc3-generic_4.8.0-040800rc3.201608212032_amd64.deb



Do not take the "low latency" ones, unless you intent to use then.

Install then with a "sudo dpkg -i linux*.deb" command line in the directory you downloaded them, and reboot.

If you want to uninstall, the fastest way is use apt-get with the version you want to uninstall. For example, the packages above have "4.8.0-040800rc3", so you type "sudo apt-get uninstall --purge 4.8.0-040800rc3*" and reboot

[safknw]

I'm using custom kernel 4.7 and with padoka ppa packages in Carrizo A10, very happy with the performance improvements. Now it can play 4k sample video in vlc.

[Beherit]

May someone write down explicitely the steps to take in order to use the new kernel for newbies?

v4.8 RC 2: http://linuxg.net/install-kernel-4-8-on-ubuntu/
v4.7: http://linuxg.net/install-kernel-4-7-on-ubuntu/

As for the intel/amdgpu gfx drivers: https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archiv...aphics-drivers

[Beherit]

Instead of messing up your distribution with PPAs and being unhappy with strange stable snapshots, one could easily use a better (stable/semi-rolling/rolling) distribution than Ubuntu.

I fully agree on this one.

The main reason I decided to try something else than Ubuntu and Linux Mint, was a big mess caused by me wanting to run the latest kernels and gfx drivers. Every attempt I made to solve the dependency conflicts only made the mess worse.

Ubuntu and its derivatives are awesome for the average desktop user, but I'd advice against mixing repositories and try to turn it into a rolling release distro.

[elect]

May someone write down explicitely the steps to take in order to use the new kernel for newbies?

[frosth]

I have a GCN 1.0 (SI) (7770M) chip, and I'm getting similar performance improvements over the last 2 months. running git /llvm with stable 4.7.2 and the radeon driver (as amdgpu doesn't work yet on it)

It's not exactly true, I've got desktop 7770 and some games run faster than before. Bioshock Inf, Tomb Raider, Spec Ops: The Line, Deadfall Adv. Propably some wine games like "stalker" series or "remember me" too. It's not make fury from my verde gfx but still nice when i can play with it.

...and amdgpu works fine (on low clocks due lack of dpm)