Radeon Video: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 22:45, 9 July 2025

The following instructions are for modern AMD GPU chipsets covered by the radeon and amdgpu drivers.

Firmware

For Vega and later, the linux-firmware-amdgpu package is required. Otherwise, the linux-firmware-radeon should be used.

Programs using Vulkan may require the mesa-vulkan-ati package to be installed.

See the relevant section on the Gentoo Wiki for a more granular list of product names and microarchitecture names.

Kernel Modesetting (KMS)

To enable KMS at boot:

Run lspci -k | grep amdgpu and lspci -k | grep radeon to find your module. For example it will return Kernel driver in use: amdgpu for the amdgpu module when running the first command.
Add the radeon or amdgpu and fbcon modules to /etc/modules:
$ echo radeon >> /etc/modules
$ echo fbcon >> /etc/modules
or
$ echo amdgpu >> /etc/modules
$ echo fbcon >> /etc/modules
Install mkinitfs:
apk add mkinitfs
Enable the kms feature in the mkinitfs configuration by adding it to the features variable, e.g.,
Contents of /etc/mkinitfs/mkinitfs.conf
features="keymap cryptsetup kms ata base ide scsi usb virtio ext4"
Run mkinitfs.
Reboot to test the configuration.

Wayland

Install the following packages as needed:

mesa-dri-gallium: necessary Mesa drivers.
mesa-va-gallium: VA-API drivers, for hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding

If driver auto-selection does not work, e.g. no mouse cursor under Sway, manual driver selection might be needed:

export MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=r300: for AMD's Radeon R300, R400, and R500 GPUs.
export MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=r600: for AMD's Radeon R600 GPUs up to Northern Islands. Officially supported by AMD.
export MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=radeonsi: for AMD's Southern Island GPUs and later. Officially supported by AMD.

For VA-API:

export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=r600
export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=radeonsi

Xorg

Install either the Free Software driver xf86-video-ati or the proprietary amdgpu firmware linux-firmware-amdgpu.

modprobe fbcon might be needed to avoid black screen when leaving Xorg.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 == Firmware ==
-For [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20AMD%20graphics%20processing%20units RDNA and later], the <code>linux-firmware-amdgpu</code> package is required. Otherwise, the <code>linux-firmware-radeon</code> should be used.
+For [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20AMD%20graphics%20processing%20units Vega and later], the {{Pkg|linux-firmware-amdgpu}} package is required. Otherwise, the {{Pkg|linux-firmware-radeon}} should be used.
+Programs using [https://www.vulkan.org/ Vulkan] may require the {{Pkg|mesa-vulkan-ati}} package to be installed.
+See [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/AMDGPU the relevant section on the Gentoo Wiki] for a more granular list of product names and microarchitecture names.
 == Kernel Modesetting (KMS) ==
@@ Line 11: / Line 15: @@
 To enable [[KMS]] at boot:
+# Run <code>lspci -k | grep amdgpu</code> and <code>lspci -k | grep radeon</code> to find your module. For example it will return <code>Kernel driver in use: amdgpu</code> for the <code>amdgpu</code> module when running the first command.
 # Add the <code>radeon</code> or <code>amdgpu</code> and <code>fbcon</code> modules to {{Path|/etc/modules}}: {{Cmd|$ echo radeon >> /etc/modules<br />$ echo fbcon >> /etc/modules}} or {{Cmd|$ echo amdgpu >> /etc/modules<br />$ echo fbcon >> /etc/modules}}
 # Install <code>mkinitfs</code>: {{Cmd|apk add mkinitfs}}
@@ Line 21: / Line 26: @@
 Install the following packages as needed:
-* <code>mesa-dri-gallium</code>: '''necessary''' Mesa drivers.
+* {{Pkg|mesa-dri-gallium}}: '''necessary''' Mesa drivers.
-* <code>mesa-va-gallium</code>: VA-API drivers, for hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding
+* {{Pkg|mesa-va-gallium}}: VA-API drivers, for hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding
 If driver auto-selection does not work, e.g. no mouse cursor under Sway, manual driver selection might be needed:
@@ Line 35: / Line 40: @@
 == Xorg ==
+{{Main|Xorg}}
+Install either the Free Software driver {{Pkg|xf86-video-ati}} or the proprietary amdgpu firmware {{Pkg|linux-firmware-amdgpu}}.
-Install either the Free Software driver <code>xf86-video-ati</code> or the proprietary amdgpu firmware <code>linux-firmware-amdgpu</code>.
+<code>modprobe fbcon</code> might be needed to avoid black screen when leaving Xorg.
-<code>modprobe fbcon</code> might be needed to avoid black screen when leaving Xorg.
+== See also ==
+* [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU AMDGPU - ArchWiki]
+* [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ATI ATI - ArchWiki]
 [[Category:Drivers]]
+[[Category:Graphics]]