[Phoronix] AMD's Vulkan Driver Will Only Work With The AMDGPU Kernel Driver

[Good_fella]

The AMDGPU driver is what currently supports the Radeon R9 285 "Tonga", R9 Fury "Fiji" series, Carrizo, etc. Basically, GCN 1.2 and all future GPUs.

"Will the forthcoming Vulkan driver be tied to the AMDGPU kernel driver / AMDGPU libdrm interfaces or will you also be officially supporting Vulkan outside of just the AMDGPU-specific scope?" To which the official response is, "Our Linux Vulkan drivers will only run on the amdgpu kernel driver. We have no plans, on Linux, to support Vulkan on any other driver stack."

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-Vulkan-Driver-Only

 

[xorbe]

What are the implications of this?

 

[TheELF]

What are the implications of this?

Only works with GCN 1.2 ,so very limited number of cards.

 

[MrTeal]

What are the implications of this?

It says in the article.

Khronos has said Vulkan is technically capable of supporting GPUs that have OpenGL ES 3.1 or OpenGL 4.X compatibility. However, on the Linux side for AMD, it's now confirmed that it's just for the new AMDGPU stack and for now limited to the Tonga/Fury/Carrizo and newer graphics cards -- unless AMD decides to extend the AMDGPU coverage to the GCN 1.1 hardware. If that's not the case, most Rx 200/300 series hardware won't even be supported by Vulkan on Linux.

 

[NTMBK]

Eh, who gives a crap about gaming on Linux anyway. Not exactly a surprise that it's a complete disaster. Just install Windows on the thing.

 

[tential]

This is for Linux... Can we please clarify that in the op, I would never game on Linux.

 

[monstercameron]

Eh, who gives a crap about gaming on Linux anyway. Not exactly a surprise that it's a complete disaster. Just install Windows on the thing.

Kinda early to be declaring it a disaster, maybe? The amdgpu driver only supports gcn 1.2, that is currently true. Amd seems to want to start dropping support for earlier revs of gcn or at least the radeonsi driver stack.

It should be possible that amdgpu drivers should support gcn 1 & 1.1, it was hinted by amd reps to Michael. However they don't want to support it themselves.

I don't really care either way, what Vulcan games will be out or have been announced for it to be worth it? What is amds linux gpu market share?

I think it is the best strategy, focus on one driver stack and a select group of products to polish.

The biggest problem for me is ideological as this vulkan driver will be closed source. So the folks who want to go in and hack it to run on gcn 1/1.1 might have a hard time doing so...think vulkan on ps4.

Sorry for the stream of consciousness...

 

[DrMrLordX]

AMDGPU support for GCN 1.1 is in the pipe already. There are some delays while they wait for major distros to bring newer kernels to their stable releases versions.

I think the idea between Vulkan and AMDGPU, is to make gaming on Linux stop sucking. Also, that Vulkan driver isn't going to stay closed-source forever . . .

http://news.slashdot.org/story/16/0...d-help-bring-vulkan-to-more-amd-gpus#comments

pay special attention to comments by DrYak and bridgmanAMD. One of the few times I've learned more from a Slashdot article (and ensuing commentary) than I have from other sources.

 

[ThatBuzzkiller]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Help-Bring-Older-GCN-To-AMDGPU

What OP posted doesn't mean that older GCN parts won't see Vulkan support ...

The user mode Vulkan drivers will be compatible with older GCN parts. Whether or not AMD plans to directly support older GCN parts for their AMDGPU Kernel driver is the question ...

Even if they don't, the community always has an option to make older GCN hardware support the open source AMDGPU kernel driver for Vulkan to work on Linux ...

 

[dacostafilipe]

AMDGPU is open source and the Vulkan driver will be open sourced in a later date (confirmed by AMD).

AMD stated that if there's interest in having Vulkan supported on an older hardware they will consider it again. This should translate to : If the community starts the work, AMD will certainly contribute.

 

[Hitman928]

From the Slashdot link, bridgmanAMD (appears to be an AMD employee) said this:

Support for GCN 1.1 in amdgpu is already upstream and has been for a while. . . GCN 1.1 support in amdgpu is disabled by default at the moment because that hardware is already supported by radeon and changing the default right now will break user systems. We need to wait until userspace code with the ability to work over either driver makes its way out to most of the user systems (which means going through at least a round of consumer distro release cycles), so that picking up a kernel with amdgpu enabled for pre-VI doesn't make your system stop working.

 

[dacostafilipe]

From the Slashdot link, bridgmanAMD (appears to be an AMD employee) said this:

I would also note that the reason why GCN 1.1 is disabled on AMDGPU is because Linus does not allows multiple kernel drivers for the same hardware.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Eh, who gives a crap about gaming on Linux anyway. Not exactly a surprise that it's a complete disaster. Just install Windows on the thing.

:thumbsup:

 

[TheELF]

Eh, who gives a crap about gaming on Linux anyway. Not exactly a surprise that it's a complete disaster. Just install Windows on the thing.

Valve cares...and if they ever get the ball rolling then a lot of companies will care as well.

 

[zlejedi]

So they are showing middle finger for people buying gpus that make 2/3 of their product lineup

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Eh, who gives a crap about gaming on Linux anyway. Not exactly a surprise that it's a complete disaster. Just install Windows on the thing.

Because gaming on Windows kinda sucks. Every time you install another game, you get a more bloated... sluggish registry. SteamOS seems to be making decent progress -- many triple AAA games are now being developed finally for it (Street Fighter 5 was just announced). That was unthinkable 5 years ago.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Because gaming on Windows kinda sucks. Every time you install another game, you get a more bloated... sluggish registry. SteamOS seems to be making decent progress -- many triple AAA games are now being developed finally for it (Street Fighter 5 was just announced). That was unthinkable 5 years ago.

Gaming on Windows rocks, what's wrong with you?

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

What are the implications of this?

Not much.... Since you can run your video card off of 3 or 4 different available drivers under linux (both open and closed source versions, community / proprietary). It sucks to have the latest and greatest going to just a select few video cards, though.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Gaming on Windows rocks, what's wrong with you?

It's not like I don't do it myself (gaming on Windows), but the Windows registry has always been a crappy way to organize things.

 

[DrMrLordX]

So they are showing middle finger for people buying gpus that make 2/3 of their product lineup

No, that's not what they're doing at all. If you had read the above posts, you'd see that AMD is doing what they can to get AMDGPU working on all GCN products. The basic rules of the Linux kernel prohibit kernel-level driver support from two separate drivers for the same hardware. So long as major distros continue to rely on the radeon drivers as the default for GCN 1.1 and older products, AMDGPU can't/won't support those cards. Once they switch to a distro version that drops the radeon driver for those cards, AMDGPU support will be allowed.

It's really a matter of slowball distros like Mint catching up, though I'm not sure that's specifically the one that's the problem (or a problem). I do know they're still on a kernel that simply does not have AMDGPU support at all.

 

[TheELF]

No, that's not what they're doing at all. If you had read the above posts, you'd see that AMD is doing what they can to get AMDGPU working on all GCN products. The basic rules of the Linux kernel prohibit kernel-level driver support from two separate drivers for the same hardware. So long as major distros continue to rely on the radeon drivers as the default for GCN 1.1 and older products, AMDGPU can't/won't support those cards.

Funnily enough I've read the previous posts.
Linux will not drop radeon untill AMDGPU will support more then only GCN1.2 might be soon but knowing AMD it will probably take a while.

The AMDGPU driver is what currently supports the Radeon R9 285 "Tonga", R9 Fury "Fiji" series, Carrizo, etc. Basically, GCN 1.2 and all future GPUs.

Khronos has said Vulkan is technically capable of supporting GPUs that have OpenGL ES 3.1 or OpenGL 4.X compatibility. However, on the Linux side for AMD, it's now confirmed that it's just for the new AMDGPU stack and for now limited to the Tonga/Fury/Carrizo and newer graphics cards -- unless AMD decides to extend the AMDGPU coverage to the GCN 1.1 hardware. If that's not the case, most Rx 200/300 series hardware won't even be supported by Vulkan on Linux.

 

[mysticjbyrd]

This is for Linux... Can we please clarify that in the op, I would never game on Linux.

I concur, I never understood people that absolutely refused to dual boot windows. Why? Do they just like the headaches of getting programs to run?

 

[MrTeal]

I concur, I never understood people that absolutely refused to dual boot windows. Why? Do they just like the headaches of getting programs to run?

Why do people still use Lynx, argue that people should use vi and refuse to shower?

 

[Pariah]

So they are showing middle finger for people buying gpus that make 2/3 of their product lineup

Anyone using non GCN 1.2 hardware trying to play Vulkan based games in Linux. If ever there was a group of people that deserved the finger, that is it. This is a total non-issue.

 

[dark zero]

Eh, who gives a crap about gaming on Linux anyway. Not exactly a surprise that it's a complete disaster. Just install Windows on the thing.

No one will have the time to forcing to use a keyboard and mouse.... even if your phone is a Blackberry like modded to have MS OS.