TW 20251204 update breaks AMD HIP GPU drivers

Just a heads up, the latest TW update seems to have broken AMD’s HIP drivers.

I happened to do a fresh OpenSUSE install on a new disk yesterday and was puzzled when the GPU didn’t show up as an option in Blender. After a lot of head scratching and another reinstall it dawned on me to compare kernels of new install and older which I still had in a different disk. The old was from 20251127, new is from December.

Since it’s a new install I had no rollback option, having to downgrade instead. I don’t know if that’s the right way and if I may run into problems after pushing this nucelar button (someone who knows better please let me know!), but since it’s a new install it was worth a shot. The worse that could happen was to have to reinstall it again.

To downgrade I disabled all openSUSE repos and added the ones from 20251127, followed by a zypper dup:

zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/history/20251127/tumbleweed/repo/oss/ kernel-oss
zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/history/20251127/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss/ kernel-non-oss
zypper refresh
zypper dup
zypper verify

It downgraded the OS and complained about a few conflicts, but worked.

Detected 7 file conflicts:

File /usr/bin/chage
  from install of
     shadow-4.18.0-1.1.x86_64 (kernel-oss)
  conflicts with file from package
     shadow-pw-mgmt-4.18.0-2.1.x86_64 (@System)

File /usr/bin/chfn
  from install of
     shadow-4.18.0-1.1.x86_64 (kernel-oss)
  conflicts with file from package
     shadow-pw-mgmt-4.18.0-2.1.x86_64 (@System)

File /usr/bin/chsh
  from install of
     shadow-4.18.0-1.1.x86_64 (kernel-oss)
  conflicts with file from package
     shadow-pw-mgmt-4.18.0-2.1.x86_64 (@System)

File /usr/bin/expiry
  from install of
     shadow-4.18.0-1.1.x86_64 (kernel-oss)
  conflicts with file from package
     shadow-pw-mgmt-4.18.0-2.1.x86_64 (@System)

File /usr/bin/newgidmap
  from install of
     shadow-4.18.0-1.1.x86_64 (kernel-oss)
  conflicts with file from package
     shadow-pw-mgmt-4.18.0-2.1.x86_64 (@System)

File /usr/bin/newuidmap
  from install of
     shadow-4.18.0-1.1.x86_64 (kernel-oss)
  conflicts with file from package
     shadow-pw-mgmt-4.18.0-2.1.x86_64 (@System)

File /usr/bin/passwd
  from install of
     shadow-4.18.0-1.1.x86_64 (kernel-oss)
  conflicts with file from package
     shadow-pw-mgmt-4.18.0-2.1.x86_64 (@System)


File conflicts happen when two packages attempt to install files with the same name but different contents. If you continue, conflicting files will be replaced losing the previous content.
Continue? [yes/no] (no):

I wasn’t overly concerned because I didn’t even configure this install yet.

In the original system it was very hard to get HIP working in first place not because it’s actually hard, but because any instructions you’ll find are outdated. Disable any custom AMD, ROCm, openSUSE science and packman repos before starting. This is what worked in 07/12/2025 in combination with the 20251127 packages:

# Main HIP package
zypper in rocm-hip
# Necessary to use RT, otherwise Blender crashes when rendering w/ HIP RT enabled
zypper in rocm-hip-devel

In the old system it still didn’t work until I added an extra package from AMD’s repo, but now it’s working without it. In case it doesn’t work straight away you can try:

# In 11/2025 HIP still wouldn't appear in Blender until installing amdgpu-core 1:7.1.70101-2255337 
zypper ar https://repo.radeon.com/graphics/7.1.1/sle/15.7/main/x86_64/ amdgraphics
zypper in amdgpu-core

My current GPU packages for comparison, check if you’re missing one if it still doesn’t work:

S  | Name                     | Type    | Version      | Arch   | Repository
---+--------------------------+---------+--------------+--------+-----------
i  | hipcc                    | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | kernel-firmware-amdgpu   | package | 20251119-1.1 | noarch | kernel-oss
i  | kernel-firmware-radeon   | package | 20250627-1.1 | noarch | kernel-oss
i  | libamd_comgr3            | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | libamd_comgr3-devel      | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | libdrm_amdgpu1           | package | 2.4.129-1.1  | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | libvulkan_radeon         | package | 25.3.0-1.1   | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-clang               | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-clang-devel         | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-clang-libs          | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-clang-runtime-devel | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-device-libs         | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i+ | rocm-hip                 | package | 6.4.2-4.1    | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i+ | rocm-hip-devel           | package | 6.4.2-4.1    | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-libc++              | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-libc++-devel        | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-lld                 | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-llvm                | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-llvm-devel          | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-llvm-filesystem     | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-llvm-libs           | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | rocm-llvm-static         | package | 19-15.1      | x86_64 | kernel-oss
i  | ucode-amd                | package | 20251113-1.1 | noarch | kernel-oss

My repos list and status:

#  | Alias                            | Name                                   | Enabled | GPG Check | Refresh | URI
---+----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------+------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 | amdgraphics                      | amdgraphics                            | No      | ----      | ----    | https://repo.radeon.com/graphics/7.1.1/sle/15.7/main/x86_64/
 2 | download.opensuse.org-non-oss    | Main Repository (NON-OSS)              | No      | ----      | ----    | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss/
 3 | download.opensuse.org-oss        | Main Repository (OSS)                  | No      | ----      | ----    | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/
 4 | download.opensuse.org-tumbleweed | Main Update Repository                 | No      | ----      | ----    | http://download.opensuse.org/update/tumbleweed/
 5 | kernel-non-oss                   | kernel-non-oss                         | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No      | https://download.opensuse.org/history/20251127/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss/
 6 | kernel-oss                       | kernel-oss                             | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | No      | https://download.opensuse.org/history/20251127/tumbleweed/repo/oss/
 7 | openSUSE-20251204-1              | openSUSE-20251204-1                    | No      | ----      | ----    | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss
 8 | packman                          | packman                                | No      | ----      | ----    | https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
 9 | repo-debug                       | openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Debug              | No      | ----      | ----    | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/tumbleweed/repo/oss/
10 | repo-openh264                    | Open H.264 Codec (openSUSE Tumbleweed) | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     | http://codecs.opensuse.org/openh264/openSUSE_Tumbleweed
11 | repo-source                      | openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Source             | No      | ----      | ----    | http://download.opensuse.org/source/tumbleweed/repo/oss/

I got a RX 7600 by the way.

1 Like

I think you’re barking up the wrong tree. One should not mess with the repos in cases like this. A snapper listto find the snapshot-id from Nov 27 and `snapper rollback #.

2 Likes

Yeah, that should work for an older install, but I don’t think it’s possible to rollback without snapper due using ext4 on a brand new install that never saw Nov 27 packages.

1 Like

I have no idea what makes people pick ext4 over btrfs. Downgrading this way is by no means supported. Which puts you basically on your own.
FWIW, I have a TW ISO around from Oct 3rd, would that help you? It’s recent enough to start from there AFAICS. Currently uploading it. Just let know

1 Like

Sent a link in a DM

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