I can not get vulkan to work with mesa drivers

Vulkan
1

Sorry for my newbie question, but I don’t know where else to ask. I have tried several other forums, but here is my problem.

I have an amd radeon r9 390 gpu. Using Ubuntu 16.04 - kernel: 4.14.6-041406-generic

I am using oibaf’s ppa Updated Open Graphics Drivers - since 2011! : Oibaf

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

Gives the following output:

OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: AMD HAWAII (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.14.6-041406-generic, LLVM 5.0.1)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.4.0-devel
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.50
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.4.0-devel
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.1 Mesa 17.4.0-devel
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.10
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
X server version: X.Org X Server 1.18.4

I followed the installation guide at LunarXchange

When I run type “vulkaninfo” I get the following output:

Vulkan API Version: 1.0.65


Instance Extensions:
====================
Instance Extensions count = 10
    VK_KHR_external_fence_capabilities  : extension revision  1
    VK_KHR_external_memory_capabilities : extension revision  1
    VK_KHR_external_semaphore_capabilities: extension revision  1
    VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2: extension revision  1
    VK_KHR_get_surface_capabilities2    : extension revision  1
    VK_KHR_surface                      : extension revision 25
    VK_KHR_wayland_surface              : extension revision  6
    VK_KHR_xcb_surface                  : extension revision  6
    VK_KHR_xlib_surface                 : extension revision  6
    VK_EXT_debug_report                 : extension revision  8
/tmp/SDK-DEV/Build/Vulkan-LoaderAndValidationLayers/demos/vulkaninfo.c:1670: failed with VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

I previously had vulkan working with amd-gpu-pro driver. But I decided to try this oibaf’s ppa for playing World of Warcraft with better performance. Any suggestions to what my problem is, or to further troubleshooting the problem?

2

This usually happens when the kernel has two drivers and chooses to use the legacy (radeon) one.
But Vulkan RADV implementation needs amdgpu driver.
Try this: AMDGPU - ArchWiki

PS: If you are not a developer, you should not need the SDK at all. The vulkan-utils package already contains vulkaninfo.

4

Ok, so I should be able to run vulkan with just installing package mesa-vulkan-drivers? And also where is it that I need to specify the kernel to use amdgpu driver. I have triede blacklisting the “radeon”. But doesn’t help me at all.

I have tried uninstalling the SDK, and now vulkaninfo gives me this:

Vulkan API Version: 1.0.42

INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found manifest file /home/simon/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_i386.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found manifest file /home/simon/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found ICD manifest file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found ICD manifest file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”

Instance Extensions:

Instance Extensions count = 6
VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2: extension revision 1
VK_KHR_surface : extension revision 25
VK_KHR_wayland_surface : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xcb_surface : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xlib_surface : extension revision 6
VK_EXT_debug_report : extension revision 8
/build/vulkan-IbLrZR/vulkan-1.0.42.0+dfsg1/demos/vulkaninfo.c:1523: failed with VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

5

Yup, it should be part of the official repo, or newer versions at the oibaf’s or padoka’s ppa. You still need to go through that kernel parameter nonsense if you have a SI or CI card (as you do).

It should be sufficient to just add the amdgpu.si_support=1 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1 radeon.cik_support=0 parameters to the kernel. So even if radeon driver has the first dibs on the GPU it should refuse it and let amdgpu have it, and so no blacklisting or priority reordering should be necessary. It should show in dmesg which won.

Adding kernel parameters can be dependent on distro. Try this guide for Ubuntu: Kernel/KernelBootParameters - Ubuntu Wiki

6

Seems that my R9 390 card is not supporting amdgpu, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AMDGPU-Driver

So I have removed all blacklisting of radeon. And now I am still getting the same error:

===========
VULKAN INFO

Vulkan API Version: 1.0.42

INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found manifest file /home/simon/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_i386.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found manifest file /home/simon/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found ICD manifest file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found ICD manifest file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”

Instance Extensions:

Instance Extensions count = 6
VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2: extension revision 1
VK_KHR_surface : extension revision 25
VK_KHR_wayland_surface : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xcb_surface : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xlib_surface : extension revision 6
VK_EXT_debug_report : extension revision 9
/build/vulkan-IbLrZR/vulkan-1.0.42.0+dfsg1/demos/vulkaninfo.c:1523: failed with VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

7

The article is half year old.
My card is not there either, but “works”. Reason is probably the kernel parameters, which signify that it is a unstable esting feature.
I think all GCN should work.

8

Alright, I have finally got it to work. Here is what I did:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

In here add to the lines GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX so they look like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“quiet splash modprobe.blacklist=radeon si_support=1 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1 radeon.cik_support=0”
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=“modprobe.blacklist=radeon”

Then type sudo update-grub (I also did sudo update-grub2 don’t really know what the difference is, but that is what I did)

Then edit/add /usr/share/X11/20-amdgpu.conf so it looks like this

Section “Device”
Identifier “amdgpu”
Driver “amdgpu”
Option “DRI” “3”
Option “TearFree” “on”
EndSection

amdgpu kernel driver should now be in use, confirm with lspci -k

After amdgpu was enabled, I installed Oibaf’s mesa repository https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers

and sudo apt-get install mesa-vulkan-drivers

And now vulkan seems to work and I don’t get the same error anymore.
But now I have a new question :slight_smile: . When I type “vulkaninfo” it says:

===========
VULKAN INFO

Vulkan API Version: 1.0.42

INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found manifest file /home/simon/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_i386.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found manifest file /home/simon/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found ICD manifest file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”
INFO: [loader] Code 0 : Found ICD manifest file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json, version “1.0.0”

Instance Extensions:

Instance Extensions count = 6
VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2: extension revision 1
VK_KHR_surface : extension revision 25
VK_KHR_wayland_surface : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xcb_surface : extension revision 6
VK_KHR_xlib_surface : extension revision 6
VK_EXT_debug_report : extension revision 9
WARNING: radv is not a conformant vulkan implementation, testing use only.

And further down it says:

Device Properties and Extensions :

GPU0
VkPhysicalDeviceProperties:

apiVersion = 0x400039 (1.0.57)
driverVersion = 75497571 (0x4800063)
vendorID = 0x1002
deviceID = 0x67b1
deviceType = DISCRETE_GPU
deviceName = AMD RADV HAWAII (LLVM 6.0.0)
VkPhysicalDeviceLimits:

So what version of vulkan am I using, 1.0.42 or 1.0.57 ?
And also how do I upgrade this to the newest version, 1.0.65??

Thanks for all your help by the way

9

Very nice.

The first is the vulkan.h version the vulkaninfo app was compiled against. You could get newer version if you used the SDK version of the app (which is updated more frequently than distro repos), but there is no need if you do not intend to develop. It only influences compilation of apps, not runtime.

The second is the version the GPU driver reports. It is most likely the SDK they used when compiling the drivers. It is out of your control (unless there is a newer driver to update to).
Also, all 1.0.X versions are supposed to be functionally equivalent. X is only bugfix/clarification version of the Vulkan specification, and well, it is no guarantee the driver is bug-free, so the number itself is not that useful.