Radeon HD 7850 - how to get the best out of it?

English Hardware
1

Hi all,

I’m running openSUSE Leap 15.2 Beta , kernel 5.3.18-lp152.10-default.
My desktop has an i5-3750 , with integrated graphics (that I’m currently using).

**Graphics:  Device-1:** Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics **vendor:** Dell **driver:** i915 **v:** kernel **bus ID:** 00:02.0  
           **chip ID:** 8086:0152  
           **Display:****server:** X.org 1.20.3 **driver:** modesetting **unloaded:** fbdev,vesa **alternate:** intel **compositor:** kwin_x11  
           **tty:** 201x40

In my machine also an ATI Radeon HD 7850 graphics cards (PITCAIRN) is installed. Yesterday, I was able to boot up with this card connected to my screen, using the kernel driver. However, this morning it failed, so I switch back to the built-in graphics.

How do I set up this graphics card on Leap 15.2 and get the best out of it pls?

I am not so very Linux-technical, so you might want to go a bit slower in getting me through it.

Thanks!

BTW my distro hopping (opensuse LEAP 15, opensuse TW, Mandriva, Linux Mint, Fedora WS) over the past 6 months has ended now, openSUSE Leap 15.2 is for sure the distro I want to be on! :wink:

2

Hi
Leap 15.2 is still in development, so thing can/will break, suggest you install Leap 15.1 and wait for Leap 15.2 to be released…

3

Hi Malcolm

I’ll rephrase my question, do I need to install amdgpu or should I stick with the OSS radeon driver?

4

Hi
AFAIK it’s GCN 1.0 card, support is being dropped, but you could try setting the amdgpu.si_support=1 amdgpu.cik_support=0 to the boot options and see how that goes. You need to ensure radeon is blacklisted and initrd rebuilt… Are you running Wayland or Xorg?

5

AFAIK it’s GCN 1.0 card,

that is correct

but you could try setting the amdgpu.si_support=1 amdgpu.cik_support=0 to the boot options

where do I adjust these settings pls?

need to ensure radeon is blacklisted and initrd rebuilt…

how do I do this ?

Are you running Wayland or Xorg

Currently on Xorg , but I want to run Wayland when Leap 15.2 is officially released.

6

Hi
Add the amdgpu options via YaST bootloader in the kernel options. If you check down in /etc/modprobe.d there may already be a blacklist file (50-radeon.conf) containing;


blacklist radeon

If you need to create above, also run mkinitrd so it gets added.

Is the xf86-video-amdgpu package installed as well?

7

Yes, I think it worked ! Thanks Malcolm !!

**Graphics:  Device-1:** AMD Pitcairn PRO [Radeon HD 7850 / R7 265 / R9 270 1024SP] **driver:** amdgpu **v:** kernel  
           **Display:****server:** X.org 1.20.3 **driver:** amdgpu **unloaded:** fbdev,modesetting,vesa **tty:** 178x45  
           **Message:** Advanced graphics data unavailable in console for root.
8

Hi
Looks good :slight_smile:

9

Yes and I found out that in the BIOS settings instead of “auto” under the graphics settings , I switched to “ATI Radeon HD” . Hope it runs fine now.

10

Hi Malcolm

As I have suffered a bit on getting this right, I tried to put this into a kind of “how to” - might be helpful for others too.
Just let me know whether this would be something I could put in a new post as and , more importantly, whether there are no errors in it

feel free to shoot!

Regards,

J

[size=3]**
openSuse Leap 15.1 or Leap 15.2 how to install amdgpu drivers for for ATI Radeon HD cards**

This guide is written for those who have an ATI Radeon HD7xxx / HD8xxx or R5/7/9 series 200 video card with GPU architecture GCN 1st generation of or GCN 2nd generation card.

!! If your video card has GCN 3rd generation and above, do not follow this guide.
!! If your video card has a Terascale Architecture , do not follow this guide.

If you don’t know what GPU architecture your card has, then determine it via this Wikipedia page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units
You can check the exact type of your graph card in your terminal

sudo inxi -v2

and look for the section “graphics”

**Graphics:  Device-1:**** AMD Pitcairn PRO [Radeon HD 7850 / R7 265 / R9 270 1024SP] ****driver:**** amdgpu ****v:**** kernel  ****Display:****server:**** X.org 1.20.3 ****driver:**** amdgpu ****unloaded:**** fbdev,modesetting,vesa ****tty:**** 178x45 **

For the sake of completeness, you find a comprehensive table on which GPU architectures are supported by the AMDGPU driver. Kudo’s to our Arch friends : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg#AMD

The experimental in this table refers to the support for GCN 1 and GCN 2 was only added with kernel 4.9. So if you are running the LEAP 15.1 standard kernel 4.12, the AMDGPU driver will most probably not work for you. You have the choice to upgrade your kernel (at your own risk) either you go for LEAP 15.2, that has kernel 5.13 as default, which should be fine. (I’m running LEAP 15.2 Beta and it works just fine.) More info on https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-SI-Next-4.9

Ok, let’s get started

Tip!
When you are on Btrfs, pull up Yast filesystem snapshots and make a snapshot and write down the number. Just to be safe…

**Step 1 **: install the amdgpu driver xf86-video-amdgpu via Yast Software or, alternatively via terminal

sudo zypper in xf86-video-amdgpu -y

Step 2 : add support for your GPU to the kernel parameters in Yast Boot Loader

For GCN 1 architecture : you need to specify support for Southern Islands (si) and disable for Sea Islands (cik).
For GCN 2 architecture : it’s the other way round : you need to disable support for Southern Islands (si) and enable support for Sea Islands (cik)

GCN 1 Cards add :

 amdgpu.si_support=1 amdgpu.cik_support=0

GCN 2 Cards add :

 amdgpu.si_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1

Open Yast Boot Loader and copy these two paramters for your type of card at the end of the commandline of the Kernel Parameters and click “ok”.

Step 3 : prevent openSUSE from using the radeon driver. Via terminal

cd /etc/modprobe.d

sudo nano 50-radeon.conf

If the file exists, add the below line to the file (unless it’s already in). If nano shows an empty file, just type

blacklist radeon

Don’t forget to add one blank line below the tekst. Now, save the file and exit nano.

**Step 4: **Make sure this gets added to the config by running

sudo mkinitrd

Ok, that’s done. Only thing to do is now reboot.

sudo shutdown -r now

[/size]

11

Or simply:

inxi -G

or for more detail:

inxi -Gxxx

Step 3 : prevent openSUSE from using the radeon driver. Via terminal

cd /etc/modprobe.d

sudo nano 50-radeon.conf

If the file exists, add the below line to the file (unless it’s already in). If nano shows an empty file, just type

blacklist radeon

or instead of all that, more simply:

sudo zypper rm xf86-video-ati # remove alias rm
sudo zypper al xf86-video-ati # addlock alias al

xf86-video-ati provides unwanted the radeon DDX. What isn’t installed can’t be used, or updated, or waste bandwidth or disk space. :slight_smile: