How to install AMD graphic drivers on Ubuntu 18.04

Question

I had always been a Windows user, But yesterday I downloaded and install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS from this page, But I can't find a way to install AMD graphic drivers,

Right now Linux only works in recovery mode, in normal mode it shows a blank purple screen and nothing works, after searching on internet I found there could be something wrong with my graphic drivers, I have tried many things to install AMD graphic drivers on my laptop, But nothing seems to work, I ran this command on my laptop

lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display'

and the results are

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
01:00.0 Display controller [0380]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430 / R7 M520] [1002:6660]

So I have a hybrid graphic cards or something, I tried this installation guide, but didn't work (even for the users in comment section),

It was very easy on windows, I would switch back to windows, But just wanted to ask here for last time. is there any solution available for installing AMD graphic drivers on Ubuntu 18.04 ?

Thanks!

Solution 1

You should be able to use the open source drivers that come with your system. You may just need to use the common nomodeset fix:

How do I set 'nomodeset' after I've already installed Ubuntu?

Using the built in driver is usually sufficient for radeon cards.

If you have done other mucking around, or added the PPA for the NVIDIA drivers (sorry about that) you can clean up with the following:

sudo apt-add-repository -r ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa && \
sudo apt update && \
sudo apt upgrade && \
sudo apt autoremove && \
sudo apt autoclean

Now, add the AMD updates PPA and update:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt upgrade

Then reconfigure your packages to be safe:

sudo apt install --reinstall xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3 ubuntu-session xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu

Finally, you can enable accelerated video:

sudo apt-get install mesa-vdpau-drivers

Then to test the VDPAU driver with mpv use:

mpv --hwdec=vdpau yourvideofile

Now reboot the computer and make sure it still works. It does? Good! Now reboot once again and see if you can remove the nomodeset boot option. If it will work without it, this might improve performance.

Finally, once you are logged into the GUI, go to Settings > Devices > Displays and make sure the resolution is properly set.

If performance is still not up to standards after all of the above, you can manually install the closed source driver as a last resort.

If you decide you would still like to use the proprietary driver, you will need to download and install it. According to the output you posted, you need to download this driver:

AMD Radeon™ HD 8670M Series GPU Drivers & Support

Click on the "Linux x86_64" box and download the zip file.

You can follow this guide or post any additional updates to your question and I will improve the answer accordingly.

Solution 2

Since I struggled with the problem for a whole day and Joshua's answer didn't work for me I thought it might help to provide my solution.

My mistake was that although I have Ubuntu 18.04 installed on VMware® Workstation 15, I was trying to resolve the problem based on my host machine's AMD graphic adapter. I copy the solution that worked for me below:

The issue is with Wayland. While Ubuntu defaults to an X11 session, for some reason they left it enabled for GDM.

You can certainly replace GDM with LightDM, but an easier option would be to:

sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

Then change the line:

#WaylandEnable=false

to

WaylandEnable=false

Press Ctrl+O and then Ctrl+X and reboot. If you don't wish to reboot you can do

sudo systemctl restart gdm

Which will restart your windows session (this assumes ssh into the box to fix as above).

Comments

[Terrance]

When you tried the sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers then sudo apt update did you get any errors? Usually after the sudo apt update it will automatically install the drivers. It worked fine for me in 18.04. Have you also tried disabling Secure Boot in the BIOS before installing these drivers?

[nikhil123]

thanks for your comment, Yes, secure boot was already disabled, i just ran those two commands you mentioned, And both was successful, what i supposed to do now? @Terrance

[Terrance]

You should just reboot. Then you can check your version by running lshw -c video You should be able to see driver=

[nikhil123]

@Terrance ok, i rebooted the laptop, and ran that command i got this output *-display UNCLAIMED description: Display controller product: Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430 / R7 M520] vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] .... It seems like i have installed the amd drivers, But in Software & Updates->Additional Drivers it says , "No additional drivers available" and i have still the problem with normal boot (blank freezed purple screen), actually installing amd doesn't seem to change anything, anyway, thanks for your help :)

[Rinzwind]

Please use the normal Ubuntu method askubuntu.com/questions/1065852/…

[Joshua Besneatte]

I have updated the answer to apply to AMD... thanks.

[nikhil123]

hi, thanks for your answer, i tried those two commands with sudo, and it actually installed some drivers with proper progress bar. but still i can't boot in normal mode and in recovery mode my screen visuals are become worst, when i scroll down or up in firefox, half of page scrolls and other half doesn't , anyway, i am switching back to windows, it seem like my laptop is not compatible for linux

[Rinzwind]

Far too dangerous. Please use the PPA dedicated to this.

[Joshua Besneatte]

linux is the most compatible operating system... unfortunately the first answer I posted only applied to nvidia.. my mistake. please see my updated answer to install drivers for amd. you should be able to use the stock drivers. you might just need to add n

[nikhil123]

@JoshuaBesneatte hi, thanks :), that nomodeset fix worked for me, with that fix normal boot works, but now the graphics visuals are too bad, i think that is because of those two commands i ran, is there any way to revert that

[Joshua Besneatte]

you can do sudo apt-add-repository -r ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa && sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade && sudo autoremove && sudo autoclean then run sudo dpkg --reconfigure -a and reboot... let me know if your graphics improve from there

[nikhil123]

i got this error dpkg: error: unknown option --reconfigure when i ran sudo dpkg --reconfigure -a

[Joshua Besneatte]

sory, it's --configure, not reconfigure

[nikhil123]

@JoshuaBesneatte, hi, yes, --configure didn't throw any error, i ran it and restart the laptop, but graphics are still the same, Hmm, maybe linux is compatible with my laptop, but i think it is too complicated for me, actually trying to switch to linux itself was a big mistake for me (i accidentally deleted whole my disk data which was very important to me,( that was my mistake, i choose wrong option while installing it) , And i have been trying to fix theses installation issue since yesterday so lots of time wasted). I think windows is best for me. thanks for you help :)

[Joshua Besneatte]

there might be a few new things to learn, but in the long run linux will cause you much less headache than windows, you are so, close, don't give up now. now that you are able to boot up, let's see if we can improve your graphics peroformance. have you looked in settings - devices - displays to make sure your screen resolution is correct?

[Joshua Besneatte]

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

[nikhil123]

hi, thanks for your kind words, but i have switched back to windows, there are few other reasons i decided to do so, i realized many of the software which i use normally are not supported by linux and there are no good alternatives (ex. IDM(internet download manager)), or i have some tutorials to get them install, So i had to switch back to windows, maybe later i will install linux with dual boot or in virtualbox, thanks for your time man :)

[Joshua Besneatte]

Really? I have never understood the "this is difficult, let's quit" attitude... However, if you change your mind, I will always be here to help.

[iamandrewluca]

After doing steps in the answer, ubuntu-desktop is frozen. I login, I see desktop, but can't do anything.

[iamandrewluca]

Ok, desktop frozes because I enabled 3d acceleration but is not supported on my r250

[Odif Yltsaeb]

Hi @JoshuaBesneatte. I've gone and followed this guide and set up the drivers. I've follower this guide github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki/Installing-drivers and neither have actually changed much. How can i tell if i've actually accomplised anything since when i go to ubuntu settings detail page my gpu still shows up as Intel one not AMD one

[Lobon]

Hi @JoshuaBesneatte Do you think this is also a solution for askubuntu.com/questions/1203841/… ?

[Lobon]

@JoshuaBesneatte Do you know what drivers do I have to dowunload for this lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display' output: lobon@lobon-Lenovo-IdeaPad-L340-15API:~$ lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display' 03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso [1002:15d8] (rev c1)

[Joshua Besneatte]

@Lobon not sure... you might get more info with sudo lshw -class diplay

[Lobon]

Thanky you @JoshuaBesneatte. This is what I get: *-display descripción: VGA compatible controller producto: Picasso fabricante: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] id físico: 0 información del bus: pci@0000:03:00.0 versión: c1 anchura: 64 bits reloj: 33MHz capacidades: pm pciexpress msi msix vga_controller bus_master cap_list configuración: driver=amdgpu latency=0 recursos: irq:58 memoria:c0000000-cfffffff memoria:d0000000-d01fffff ioport:1000(size=256) memoria:d0600000-d067ffff

[Joshua Besneatte]

@Lobon just use the open source drivers from the ppa... those should work fine

[Adupa Vasista]

Even though I finished all the steps and removed nomodeset option in the grub file, I am still getting the output for lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display' is 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] [8086:1916] (rev 07) 01:00.0 Display controller [0380]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Topaz XT [Radeon R7 M260/M265 / M340/M360 / M440/M445 / 530/535 / 620/625 Mobile] [10... (rev 83). Is it normal?. And when I go to about section in settings It is showing as AMD® Radeon (tm) r7 m340 / Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2)

[Mohammed Omer]

imagine what it works on focal fossa ubuntu 20.04 my computer encounter horrible lagging and sluggish after while of installing fresh os, i didnot do the no-modest thing , just the AMD RDI driver and rest of commands

[Mohammed Omer]

mine was RV635 [Radeon HD 3650/3750/4570/4580]

[Gediz GÜRSU]

I also find out removing and reinstalling these packages , and nvidia must be uninstalled otherwise strange artifacts happens.... However re-install and reconfigure is a lot easier than manually removing and installing using dpkg. Thank you. I also remember adding some lines to grub and editing xorg.conf to use amd-gpu ...