[Software] Debian 12 can't start AMDGPU

[Paaradiso]

Hi all,

I'm trying to use Debian 12 with AMDGPU on a Radeon R9 M370X. It's a niche laptop GPU, but I've successfully tested SI support on Ubuntu and Arch live systems and it does work.

However, Debian does not start with kernel parameters "radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1". After the initial kernel messages, there's only an underscore on the top left of the screen and the system freezes apparently.

I've installed all (amd) firmware packages I could find and enabled non-free repos, but somethings still seems to be missing. What could be the cause of this?

[peter_irich]

Perhaps, libdrm-amdgpu1 and xorg-server-video-amdgpu packages? But 2-nd, probably, is already installed.
Or try amdgpu-install script from www.amd.com.

[Paaradiso]

Hi, thanks for the suggestions.

libdrm-amdgpu1 is already installed and I wasn't able to find xorg-server-video-amdgpu, but xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu was also pre-installed, I suppose that was meant.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to install the AMD driver/install script from the site, they only have a binary Ubuntu package and that isn't installable because of dependency reasons for me.

Btw. when turning it back on, I noticed again that even the radeon driver is suffering from some heavy glitches (missing text/graphics). I forgot about that because at least it somewhat works, but it's definitely not normal.

Since it worked fine in Ubuntu 22.04 and the latest Endeavour OS (at least on radeon), it shouldn't be a Linux issue, I suppose.

[peter_irich]

I'm sorry, of course, I means xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu. Try to see here https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/a ... stallation
https://amdgpu-install.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
There is admgpu-install package in UbuntuI, just runs it, it adds some addresses in /etc/apt/sources.list.d and all was installed without my efforts.

[Paaradiso]

There is admgpu-install package in UbuntuI, just runs it, it adds some addresses in /etc/apt/sources.list.d and all was installed without my efforts.

This will not work. The package itself can be installed, but amdgpu-install can't download its dependencies, resulting in no actual driver install.

I have the same issue: https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-so ... d-p/619143

I don't know if this is a driver issue. I can boot Endeavour with just xf86-ati installed using radeon and amdgpu (there are other issues, but graphics work fine out of the box). I'm assuming this might have something to do with missing firmware from the Debian kernel? (Although I installed everything I found?)

[Paaradiso]

So, I installed the Liquorix/Zen kernel (https://liquorix.net/) as a "workaround", which isn't optimal concerning power-consumption, but at least graphics work reliably with it. I don't know if it's possible to just use the Ubuntu kernels or a similar distro, like LMDE, which should be the closest to Debian, although I haven't tested Mint.

Also, I'm looking to building a custom kernel from upstream right now, but I've never done any kernel config before, so there's a lot of info to read through initially, but maybe it's good to be able to do that at some point.

In case someone has a similar issue, that's what I found.

[sunrat]

So, I installed the Liquorix/Zen kernel (https://liquorix.net/) as a "workaround", which isn't optimal concerning power-consumption, but at least graphics work reliably with it.

You can reduce power consumption with cpupower-gui. Liquorix defaults to performance cpu governor; change it ondemand to save power.

[pine3ree]

Not solving your issue...but...if you prefer a Debian 12 distro I'd suggest you to try mx-linux 23.2-ahs (advance-hardware-support), which defaults to liquorix-kernel LTS 6.6.x. It's even lighter than LMDE6 as by default it uses "init" instead of "systemd" (but it let you choose systemd in the grub menu as well). If you need to switch to an ubuntu distro, I would suggest to try linux-mint-20.3-xfce. Very very stable and lightweight and I suppose you can install the radeon proprietary driver (the jammy package). I use it for my work (I recently switched from std 5.15.x kernel to the 6.6 liquorix kernel and upgraded to full pipewire setup without any issue).

[mrmazda]

FWIW, I have a discrete GPU card of same GCN#1 vintage that initially fails in same manner, but after waiting long enough, roughly a minute, the GUI login manager shows up normally. /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old and Xorg.0.log are about a minute apart, so apparently one try fails, but my DM automatically retries and succeeds:

Code: Select all

# inxi -SGaz --vs --zl --hostname
inxi 3.3.33-00 (2024-02-06)
System:
  Host: fi965 Kernel: 6.1.0-18-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 12.2.0 clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: ro
    root=LABEL=<filter> net.ifnames=0 ipv6.disable=1 noresume
    plymouth.enable=0 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1 consoleblank=0
    mitigations=off
  Desktop: TDE (Trinity) v: R14.1.1 tk: Qt v: 3.5.0 wm: Twin v: 3.0
    with: kicker vt: 7 dm: 1: TDM 2: XDM Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Oland [Radeon HD 8570 / R5 430 OEM R7 240/340 Radeon 520 OEM]
    vendor: Dell driver: amdgpu v: kernel alternate: radeon arch: GCN-1
    code: Southern Islands process: TSMC 28nm built: 2011-20 pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports:
    active: DP-1,DVI-I-1 empty: none bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6611
    class-ID: 0300 temp: 52.0 C
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: Twin v: 3.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x2490 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 541x527mm (21.30x20.75")
    s-diag: 755mm (29.73")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 pos: primary,bottom model: Acer K272HUL serial: <filter>
    built: 2018 res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2
    size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23") diag: 686mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: DVI-I-1 pos: top model: Dell P2213 serial: <filter> built: 2012
    res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2 size: 473x296mm (18.62x11.65")
    diag: 558mm (22") ratio: 16:10 modes: max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: radeonsi surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: amd mesa v: 22.3.6 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon R7 200 Series (oland LLVM 15.0.6
    DRM 3.49 6.1.0-18-amd64) device-ID: 1002:6611 memory: 1000 MiB unified: no
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