Finally Got AMD setup on Archlinux

I got this Hewlett-Packard PC few years ago, which now I use regularly.

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sudo dmidecode -t chassis

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# dmidecode 3.6
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.0.0 present.

Handle 0x0003, DMI type 3, 22 bytes
Chassis Information
	Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
	Type: Desktop
	Lock: Not Present
	Version:
	Serial Number: SGH525Q1P2
	Asset Tag: SGH525Q1P2
	Boot-up State: Safe
	Power Supply State: Safe
	Thermal State: Safe
	Security Status: None
	OEM Information: 0x4C414E5F
	Height: Unspecified
	Number Of Power Cords: 1
	Contained Elements: 0
	SKU Number:

It has a built-in graphic controller and an AMD VGA controller:

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lspci -k -d ::03xx

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00:02.0 Display controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
	DeviceName:  Onboard IGD
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 21f5
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Oland [Radeon HD 8570 / R5 430 OEM / R7 240/340 / Radeon 520 OEM] (rev 87)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 3375
	Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
	Kernel modules: radeon, amdgpu

Note that this output of lspci is after I made all the modifications below.

I’ve never used any AMD GPU in linux before, and I just assume it will just work. But out of the box archlinux will use the radeon driver for this card, while it works fine, steam refuse to open using this driver, and even worse some application on wayland produce strange errors.

What I’ve done

Installed Softwares

mesa and lib32-mesa.
xf86-video-amdgpu.
vulkan-radeon and lib32-vulkan-radeon.
linux-firmware-amdgpu, this should be installed by default.
Don’t install amdvlk to avoid issue.¹

Set the kernel module parameters

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cat /proc/cmdline

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root=LABEL=root rootflags=subvol=@arch-root initrd=\initramfs-linux.img rw quiet splash consoleblank=600 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1

The relevant line is radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1 for Southern Islands (SI).² Also there should be no nomodeset or vga in the kernel command line.

Also in the /etc/modprobe.d.

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cat /etc/modprobe.d/amdgpu.conf

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options amdgpu si_support=1
options amdgpu cik_support=1

The recommended can be seen from the dmesg output when there’s no amdgpu options is set.

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cat /etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf

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options radeon si_support=0
options radeon cik_support=0

Turn off all radeon options.

List amdgpu first before radeon in the mkinitcpio.conf

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cat /etc/mkinitcpio.conf |grep -i '^modules'

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MODULES=(amdgpu radeon btrfs)

For Xorg

Another step necessary for Xorg, the wiki said Xorg will automatically load the driver, but in my case, after all the steps above it still picks radeon first.

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Section "OutputClass"
     Identifier "AMD"
     MatchDriver "amdgpu"
     Driver "amdgpu"
EndSection

Code Snippet 1: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf

Or for reducing output latency

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Section "OutputClass"
     Identifier "AMD"
     MatchDriver "amdgpu"
     Driver "amdgpu"
     Option "EnablePageFlip" "off"
     Option "TearFree" "false"
EndSection

Code Snippet 2: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf

What I’ve done#

Installed Softwares#

Set the kernel module parameters#

For Xorg#

What I’ve done

Installed Softwares

Set the kernel module parameters

For Xorg