Driver installation for an AMD RX 580 on Ubu 16

Anonymous
Topic 210983

Yesterday I bought a new cruncher which necessitated the removal of Window10 and the installation of Ubuntu 16 and Video driver support for the AMD Radeon RX 580.  It was actually a very easy/simple procedure once a couple of steps were corrected on the AMD site.  If interested you can see the procedure here:  http://usefulramblings.org/?page_id=10506 .  

If you go to my list of computers you will see that the GPU is identified as a 480 and not a 580.  The box and receipt clearly states 580.  Would E@H id the GPU as a 480 even though it is a 580?

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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Thanks for sharing the link

Thanks for sharing the link to the information on your website.  I'm sure some Ubuntu users with similar GPUs might find it helpful.  Just be aware that that you have referred to both 17.30 and 17.40 in your notes.  I presume you did install 17.40?  The other small typo is that your sentence, "You should see that you are not a member for the video group"  should perhaps say now rather than not.

You refer to two errors in the AMD instructions.  The first ( --compute) is important but it's not clear what the second one is.  Were you referring to the need to have your user in the video group and do you think that's an AMD problem?

I've never used Ubuntu but from what I've seen posted at times, my impression is that the Ubuntu package(s) for BOINC create a user:group of boinc:boinc for running BOINC stuff under.  I could easily be wrong - I simply don't know for sure.  However, since GPU apps exist for quite a few projects these days, shouldn't the BOINC installation itself take care of things like adding the boinc user to the video group if that's necessary for GPU apps in general?  Once again, my own experience doesn't extend to things like this.

Just for your information, I clicked on the link to the AMD install instructions and got nothing.  So I pulled up the AMD site and navigated down to the page in question (same URL as yours).  I got a big fat nothing there as well - not a 404, just no response, a blank tab.  Maybe the page is being edited at the moment and is temporarily offline - just a guess.

Your final point about your card being identified as a 480 is understandable.  BOINC does the detecting so E@H will just use what BOINC detects.   BOINC can only see what it's been programmed to see so it depends when the BOINC Devs add the new information about 580s to their code.  Once again, this is just an assumption on my part as I have no real knowledge of these details of BOINC internals.

 

Cheers,
Gary.

mikey
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robl wrote:Yesterday I bought

robl wrote:

Yesterday I bought a new cruncher which necessitated the removal of Window10 and the installation of Ubuntu 16 and Video driver support for the AMD Radeon RX 580.  It was actually a very easy/simple procedure once a couple of steps were corrected on the AMD site.  If interested you can see the procedure here:  http://usefulramblings.org/?page_id=10506 .  

If you go to my list of computers you will see that the GPU is identified as a 480 and not a 580.  The box and receipt clearly states 580.  Would E@H id the GPU as a 480 even though it is a 580?

Thank you very much I'm not a Linux guy at all and that helps me ALOT!!

Anonymous

Gary thanks for catching the

Gary thanks for catching the errors.

Gary Roberts wrote:
Thanks for sharing the link to the information on your website.  I'm sure some Ubuntu users with similar GPUs might find it helpful.  Just be aware that that you have referred to both 17.30 and 17.40 in your notes.  I presume you did install 17.40?  The other small typo is that your sentence, "You should see that you are not a member for the video group"  should perhaps say now rather than not.

yes, 17.40 and yes to "now"

Quote:
You refer to two errors in the AMD instructions.  The first ( --compute) is important but it's not clear what the second one is.  Were you referring to the need to have your user in the video group and do you think that's an AMD problem?

actually there is one error:  ./amdgpu-pro-install –y <--the "y" option does not exist in the script and there is a need to add the --compute option ./amdgpu-pro-install --compute

Quote:
I've never used Ubuntu but from what I've seen posted at times, my impression is that the Ubuntu package(s) for BOINC create a user:group of boinc:boinc for running BOINC stuff under.  I could easily be wrong - I simply don't know for sure.  However, since GPU apps exist for quite a few projects these days, shouldn't the BOINC installation itself take care of things like adding the boinc user to the video group if that's necessary for GPU apps in general?  Once again, my own experience doesn't extend to things like this.

this is part of the AMD installation procedure.

Quote:
Just for your information, I clicked on the link to the AMD install instructions and got nothing.  So I pulled up the AMD site and navigated down to the page in question (same URL as yours).  I got a big fat nothing there as well - not a 404, just no response, a blank tab.  Maybe the page is being edited at the moment and is temporarily offline - just a guess.

I tried both links this morning and they seem to be working. they should open in "new" tabs.

 

Quote:

Your final point about your card being identified as a 480 is understandable.  BOINC does the detecting so E@H will just use what BOINC detects.   BOINC can only see what it's been programmed to see so it depends when the BOINC Devs add the new information about 580s to their code.  Once again, this is just an assumption on my part as I have no real knowledge of these details of BOINC internals.

 

thanks for the "card recognition" response.  I will do some more looking using other "tools".  

Anonymous

mikey wrote:robl

mikey wrote:
robl wrote:

Yesterday I bought a new cruncher which necessitated the removal of Window10 and the installation of Ubuntu 16 and Video driver support for the AMD Radeon RX 580.  It was actually a very easy/simple procedure once a couple of steps were corrected on the AMD site.  If interested you can see the procedure here:  http://usefulramblings.org/?page_id=10506 .  

If you go to my list of computers you will see that the GPU is identified as a 480 and not a 580.  The box and receipt clearly states 580.  Would E@H id the GPU as a 480 even though it is a 580?

Thank you very much I'm not a Linux guy at all and that helps me ALOT!!

Mikey, if it helps just one person it is worth the effort.  AMD has been for me a bit of a pain when dealing with driver installations so I like to document what works.  Without the "--compute" install option I could not get this driver to properly id my radeon 580 GPU.

Rolf
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I can confirm that the

I can confirm that the easiest way to install boinc in Ubuntu is the Software Center, search for the Boinc Manager and hit Install button. Then add the Einstein project (from within the Boinc Manager) and you're done. No need to specifically install "boinc", you only need the Boinc Manager.

And yes it will indeed install and run boinc as the boinc user, not your own user. No need to add your user to the video group, that group doesn't even exist. I think the video group is obsolete.

 

Anonymous

Rolf_13 wrote:I can confirm

Rolf_13 wrote:

I can confirm that the easiest way to install boinc in Ubuntu is the Software Center, search for the Boinc Manager and hit Install button. Then add the Einstein project (from within the Boinc Manager) and you're done. No need to specifically install "boinc", you only need the Boinc Manager.

And yes it will indeed install and run boinc as the boinc user, not your own user. No need to add your user to the video group, that group doesn't even exist. I think the video group is obsolete.

 

I would agree with what you have posted with regard to BOINC.  However this thread has to do with installing AMD GPU drivers.  

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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robl wrote:I tried both links

robl wrote:
I tried both links this morning and they seem to be working. they should open in "new" tabs.

OK.  I always tend to right click and select 'open in new tab' anyway.  I just throw away the tab when finished.

I tried again and still couldn't get any content to show in the new tab.  Back to the AMD website and navigate to the page with the 3 separate links to install instructions for Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Suse.  Strangely, I can get the instructions for both Red Hat and Suse quite quickly but nothing appears in the tab for Ubuntu, even after 30-60 secs waiting.  I've left it that way to see if any sort of timeout message eventually appears.  Quite weird.

One other point to consider when giving instructions for downloading and installing specific packages like this.  Knowing they often have very long and complicated package names with embedded digit strings (very easy to make typos) why don't you 'educate' your readers into using bash's filename completion features?  It's much easier and far less error prone to type

tar -Jxvf a<tab><enter>

when they've just created a directory for the purpose and downloaded a single archive (whose name starts with 'a') into that directory?

I've just gone back to the content free tab (at least 15 mins allowed). No timeout messages or content of any description.  A 'reload this page' causes things to flash but still no content.  I've called it quits.  BTW, I noticed on the Red Hat instructions page the same 17.30 typo, so it obviously wasn't your typo but AMD's when they recycled previous instructions a bit carelessly :-).

 

Cheers,
Gary.

xdarma
xdarma
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Many thanks, I'm not using

Many thanks, I'm not using ubuntu but new drivers are difficult to install.

On your personal page there is only one dash:

Quote:
2. ./amdgpu-pro-install –compute <–two dashes. This supports OpenCL. This will take awhile. When complete the install portion is done.


I think is a typo.

Thanks again.

Anonymous

Quote:xdarma wrote:Many

Quote:

xdarma wrote:

Many thanks, I'm not using ubuntu but new drivers are difficult to install.

On your personal page there is only one dash:

Quote:
2. ./amdgpu-pro-install –compute <–two dashes. This supports OpenCL. This will take awhile. When complete the install portion is done.

I think is a typo.

Thanks again.

I checked, but in the WP editor there are two dashes which appear as a single dash in the updated page.  Hence the comment "two dashes" for clarification.

Anonymous

When I first wrote about and

When I first wrote about and later referenced the installation of AMD's video drivers in this thread I believe it was accurate.  However AMD seems to be in the process of assembling new procedures and driver down loads hence this post.  I feel sure that this will not be the final solution for AMD's driver procedures but thought I would cover the latest iteration as I understand it.  

I had recently lost an old AMD GPU and decided to replace it with a new AMD/Radeon RX560.  The PC is about 1.5 years old so it had the requisite components, i.e. power supply etc.  

 This link is to the AMD website providing the installation procedures and this link is to the driver download page.

On the driver download page for a Radeon RX 560 Running on Ubuntu 16.04 enter the following:

Step 1:  Desktop Graphics

Step2:  Radeon RX Series

Step3:  Radeon Rx 5xx Series

Step4:  Ubuntu x86_64

Click on "Display results.

This will take you to a download page.  Select the link for your flavor of Linux:  RHEL, Centos, Ubuntu.  

Below this link will be the instructions for installing the driver (it is referenced above).  It is a link to another page.  I would recommend reading the installation instructions even though I am going to provide a shortened version in what follows.  

-------cut here-------

THIS INSTALLATION IS FOR AN AMD/RADEON RX 560 RUNNING ON A FRESH INSTALL OF UBUNTU 16.04.  

1.  mkdir $HOME/amd

2.  Download the AMD driver for YOUR card to the $HOME/amd directory

3.  cd $HOME/amd directory

4.  tar -Jxvf amdgpu-pro-17.50-NNNNNN.tar.xz <----- uppercase J

5.  cd $HOME/amd/amdgpu-pro-17.50-NNNNNN <------ the "N"s will have a revision number

6.  ./amdgpu-pro-install -y --opencl=legacy

7.  reboot

-------cut here-------

As I stated earlier there seems to be some flux with AMD's drivers especially in the Linux arena so what is good today might change later.  For example in my earlier post an installation option "--compute" has been deprecated.  

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