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Which Debian distribution for my full AMD hardware?

Linux Kernel, Network, and Services configuration.
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prog-amateur
Posts: 8
Joined: 2018-12-12 11:03

Which Debian distribution for my full AMD hardware?

#1 Post by prog-amateur »

Hello, everyone,

I switch from Ubuntu to Debian on all my machines. On my laptop (intel M3), everything went very well with Debian stretch in netinstall version.
It was just necessary to modify the file sources.list with the terms "contrib" and "non-free", then restart to recognize the intel wifi card.

Only, my desktop PC has the following configuration (which asks me a few questions):

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X
GPU : AMD RX 560


As you can see, the Ryzen 7 1700X does not have an included graphics part (unlike the Intel M3), so I'm afraid that by installing Debian Stretch, I won't be able to access anything if the RX 560 graphics card is not recognized.

Just for information, on Ubuntu, my hardware is well known for any kernel between 4.19 and 4.20rc5. The 4.20 kernel does not recognize my card (black screen at startup), which worries me as I am not an expert in kernel handling.

So here are my questions:

1. Is Debian Stretch 9.6.0 offered on the site compatible out-of-the-box with this configuration (roughly speaking, would I have access to the desktop at 1080p and audio working, as for Ubuntu for example)?
2. If not (as a last resort), which version of Debian to install without tinkering?

Thank you very much for your feedback.

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stevepusser
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Re: Which Debian distribution for my full AMD hardware?

#2 Post by stevepusser »

Currently, only Debian Sid has access to a 4.19 kernel, and you also may need to manually add firmware from a git repo to get the AMD graphics to work. This hopefully will change soon in Debian testing, and then stretch-backports.

I'll try backporting the 4.19.12 kernel to my own backports repo, currently it has 4.19.5.

https://build.opensuse.org/package/show ... .19-kernel
MX Linux packager and developer

prog-amateur
Posts: 8
Joined: 2018-12-12 11:03

Re: Which Debian distribution for my full AMD hardware?

#3 Post by prog-amateur »

Thank you for answering me so quickly, it's very nice.

I'm surprised that Debian test doesn't support Ryzen hardware yet, but as a result, I'll wait because I don't feel very comfortable handling a Debian Sid: I'm too afraid to do anything wrong.

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stevepusser
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Re: Which Debian distribution for my full AMD hardware?

#4 Post by stevepusser »

We do have some Ryzen users on the MX Linux forums, and they seem to be able to run OK (especially if the BIOS is up-to-date and configured correctly). MX is based on Debian stable, but with lots of backports. We just released MX 18 with a 4.19 kernel, Mesa 18.2.6, updated firmware, amdgpu, Intel, radeon, and nouveau drivers, in the hope of supporting new hardware like yours out-of-the box. I'm the lead packager for MX, by the way. Maybe you could check it out in a LiveUSB session--it's very stable despite all the updating.

https://archive.org/details/MX18X64

The alternative is to wait for the updates to make it into stretch-backports, or for Debian 10, which is at least six months away, maybe more.
MX Linux packager and developer

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