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Author Topic: Unable to switch from Nvidia to AMD GPU  (Read 1401 times)

Snap

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Unable to switch from Nvidia to AMD GPU
« on: March 02, 2018, 11:08:37 AM »
This a kind of noob question... I've been using Nvivia cards since... forver. But I'm a total noob about AMD. It's the first time I put my hands on one of these.

The situation is I'm tired of struggling with the Nvidia propietary drivers since I've got the GTX960. Switched to nouveau a couple of months ago and performance is not so great. So I've got an RX560 trying to say goodbye to the Nvidia hardware for once and forget about the drivers mess just using what's in the kernel.

The thing is I don't know how the heck to switch the drivers in sid. The card works right out of the box in my Void install, but for some reason I don't manage to get it working for the sidbox. If I blacklist nouveau, poweroff, switch the GPUs and boot, grub doesn't even show up and the boot process stalls with udev saying something like that "the slot" is already in use and it freezes there forever.

Apparently I already have all the needed packages (firmware, xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu, the mesa stuff, etc...) onboard.

Please, someone able to shed some light?

Thanks a bunch in advance.
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PackRat

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Re: Unable to switch from Nvidia to AMD GPU
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2018, 12:40:56 PM »
Usually you'll need to completely remove the Nvidia/nouveau drivers before installing the AMD drivers (and vice versa) or the graphics driver hangs. Is the xserver-xorg-video-nouveau still installed? Did propietary Nvidia also create an xorg.conf? The drivers from their site use to do that, but I haven't gone that route in a while.

There is a Display Driver Uninstall utility (DDU) that does a complete removal of graphics drivers - I think there is a Linux version. Never used it so I can't vouch for it. I'd like to think "apt-get purge --remove" would be the better option.
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jedi

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Re: Unable to switch from Nvidia to AMD GPU
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2018, 10:27:44 PM »
Yeah, I have a GTX980 in my MSI gaming lappy.  (this machine I'm typing this message on)  I've never had an AMD myself and with how simple it is now to install the Nvidia drivers, I am lucky to be able to do it without a rebuild every time.  Simple isn't necessarily a good thing.  Causes me to be lazy, then when all of a sudden it isn't simple, a frenzied fiend!  8) I am usually successful these days at switching between nouveau and Nvidia though.

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Snap

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Re: Unable to switch from Nvidia to AMD GPU
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2018, 08:35:25 AM »
I see. blacklisting is not enough in this case like when playing with nvidia and nouveau.

Yes, xserver-xorg-video-nouveau is still in. There's an /etc/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf I manually put there for
an specific keyboard. I guess it won't do any harm, but I can remove it just in case.

Thanks a lot, PackRat.

@jedi: Really? Maybe the support for higher end cards is better. My experience with the 960 has never been smooth and drivers upgradrades have been a constant PITA.
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