[SOLVED] AMD official driver black screen 18.04 kubuntu

[MadMage999]

I donwloaded amdgpu-pro-18.30-641594.tar.xz from amd.com and installed using the amd-gpu-pro installer script as root like so:

# ./amd-gpu-pro

The installer prompted a few times, installed and after it was done I rebooted, black screen of death.

Well, I tried rebooting, same thing twice. Rebooted again using kubuntu 18.04.1 live cd and googled the issue and found a workaround: editing the /etc/default/grub to include some kernel parameters which I can't find now, but I couldn't update grub because of being on a live cd, so I tried:

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

/dev/sda1 is an SSD which is formatted btrfs and the root of my kubuntu install.

$ sudo chroot /mnt/@

But of course grub couldn't see /dev as it wasn't mounted, so I found a short command to mount /dev and several other directories, but I can't find that either now as I'm on a livecd and google is not cooperating with me just now.

I apologize for that. In any case After all that grub could see /dev but still failed to update itself. I wish I had logged into the forums right away but I've rebooted since then and don't have the error message in my copy buffer anymore.

So I've tried to unbork this poor kubuntu install and failed, can anyone help me?

[MadMage999]

It might be faster and easier to just reinstall kubuntu. I realize the steps I posted are woefully incomplete, I just wanted to show I had worked the problem.

What I was hoping is someone might be able to help me find the real cause of the issue, and in the process I might understand how the system works better. No worries.

[claydoh]

the amdgpu-PRO driver is based on the open source amdgpu driver. Most people do not need the PRO version, and it can often reduce performance over the preferred stock driver.

You have to do some chroot magic to be able to modify grub from a live session
similar to this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1452...-from-a-livecd

Was your black screen with a working mouse pointer? If so, you might be able to use restart the desktop using alt-space and entering kwin_x11 --replace

You could also try uninstalling the pro driver:
hit alt-f2 to get to a vt, and log in. Then enter this command:

amdgpu-pro-uninstall

You've also not mentioned what video card you have, which can be useful, or if there were any issues that prompted the install of the PRO driver.

[GreyGeek]

It might be faster and easier to just reinstall kubuntu. I realize the steps I posted are woefully incomplete, I just wanted to show I had worked the problem.

What I was hoping is someone might be able to help me find the real cause of the issue, and in the process I might understand how the system works better. No worries.

You marked it solved so I am assuming you just re-installed Kubuntu. Allow me to suggest that the next time you re-install and are at the disk partition portion of the install proceedure, remove your existing partitions (except for a small EXT4 partition IF you need it to boot from because UEFI), create one partition, sda1 out of the raw disk, give it to / with Btrfs as the root file system. Then, you'll never have to re-install. Just take a snapshot pair before you do something like update or installing something complex or troublesome to remove, and if things don't go well just roll back to the snapshot. Takes about 3 minutes. It's all described in our Btrfs subforum.

[MadMage999]

the amdgpu-PRO driver is based on the open source amdgpu driver. Most people do not need the PRO version, and it can often reduce performance over the preferred stock driver.

You have to do some chroot magic to be able to modify grub from a live session
similar to this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1452...-from-a-livecd

Was your black screen with a working mouse pointer? If so, you might be able to use restart the desktop using alt-space and entering kwin_x11 --replace

You could also try uninstalling the pro driver:
hit alt-f2 to get to a vt, and log in. Then enter this command:

amdgpu-pro-uninstall

You've also not mentioned what video card you have, which can be useful, or if there were any issues that prompted the install of the PRO driver.

Thanks for the link to the chroot magic. Should come in handy in future.

I wasn't able to get to a virtual terminal during the black screen, or I might have tried some other things like uninstalling the driver as you mentioned.

The video card is an ASRock Radeon RX 550 2GB, I was trying the AMD driver to see if maybe that would get HDCP working, but that seems impossible on linux right now.

I went ahead and blew away the install with: "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda" and just reinstalled kubuntu. Not ideal, perhaps, but I wanted my system working today.

[MadMage999]

You marked it solved so I am assuming you just re-installed Kubuntu. Allow me to suggest that the next time you re-install and are at the disk partition portion of the install proceedure, remove your existing partitions (except for a small EXT4 partition IF you need it to boot from because UEFI), create one partition, sda1 out of the raw disk, give it to / with Btrfs as the root file system. Then, you'll never have to re-install. Just take a snapshot pair before you do something like update or installing something complex or troublesome to remove, and if things don't go well just roll back to the snapshot. Takes about 3 minutes. It's all described in our Btrfs subforum.

Ooooh, nice. That would save some work. Thank you.

[GreyGeek]

Ooooh, nice. That would save some work. Thank you.

Indeed! I do a LOT of experimentation. Last fall I experimented with P2P applications (FreeNet, IPFS, etc...) and when I was done with each one I'd roll back to my base snapshot. Made cleanup for each a 3 minute job.

[Qqmike]

But of course grub couldn't see /dev as it wasn't mounted, so I found a short command to mount /dev and several other directories, but I can't find that either

Yes, you have correctly nailed that issue! WHICH directories to bind in a chroot? The link claydoh dropped looks good. Fwiw, I wrote a brief how-to on this as well (because I was trying to get it straight in my own head), and at the time the following worked:

Case 2 Re-install GRUB2-EFI from live DVD/USB using chroot
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post374017

which worked (at the time!) with:

 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/sdxy
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdxy /mnt/sdxy
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /dev  /mnt/sdxy/dev
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /sys  /mnt/sdxy/sys
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /run  /mnt/sdxy/run   
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /proc  /mnt/sdxy/proc
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /mnt/sdxy
 root@kubuntu:/# mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
 root@kubuntu:/# [B]grub-install[/B]
 Installing for x86_64-efi platform...Installation finished. No error reported.
 root@kubuntu:/# [B]update-grub[/B]
 Generating grub configuration file ...etc ...done
 root@kubuntu:/# umount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
 root@kubuntu:/# exit
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /proc /mnt/sdxy/proc
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev /mnt/sdxy/dev
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /sys /mnt/sdxy/sys
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev /mnt/sdxy/dev
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdxy /mnt/sdxy
 kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ exit

as the how-to discusses, somewhat, sort of.

[MadMage999]

Yes, you have correctly nailed that issue! WHICH directories to bind in a chroot? The link claydoh dropped looks good. Fwiw, I wrote a brief how-to on this as well (because I was trying to get it straight in my own head), and at the time the following worked:

Case 2 Re-install GRUB2-EFI from live DVD/USB using chroot
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post374017

which worked (at the time!) with:

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/sdxy
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdxy /mnt/sdxy
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /dev  /mnt/sdxy/dev
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /sys  /mnt/sdxy/sys
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /run  /mnt/sdxy/run   
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo mount --rbind /proc  /mnt/sdxy/proc
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /mnt/sdxy
root@kubuntu:/# mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
root@kubuntu:/# [B]grub-install[/B]
Installing for x86_64-efi platform...Installation finished. No error reported.
root@kubuntu:/# [B]update-grub[/B]
Generating grub configuration file ...etc ...done
root@kubuntu:/# umount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
root@kubuntu:/# exit
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /proc /mnt/sdxy/proc
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev /mnt/sdxy/dev
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /sys /mnt/sdxy/sys
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev /mnt/sdxy/dev
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdxy /mnt/sdxy
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ exit

as the how-to discusses, somewhat, sort of.

Okay, another big thank you is in order. What you dropped for fixing grub from livecd is way better than what I found so far. How might a btrfs raid 0 root impact that guide?

Speaking of rollbacks as GreyGeek mentioned, I was trying to roll back steam last night after something went wrong with the install and the uninstallers leave a LOT of stuff behind, those btrfs snapshots are going to make my life SO much easier.

[MadMage999]

the amdgpu-PRO driver is based on the open source amdgpu driver. Most people do not need the PRO version, and it can often reduce performance over the preferred stock driver.

You have to do some chroot magic to be able to modify grub from a live session
similar to this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1452...-from-a-livecd

Was your black screen with a working mouse pointer? If so, you might be able to use restart the desktop using alt-space and entering kwin_x11 --replace

You could also try uninstalling the pro driver:
hit alt-f2 to get to a vt, and log in. Then enter this command:

amdgpu-pro-uninstall

You've also not mentioned what video card you have, which can be useful, or if there were any issues that prompted the install of the PRO driver.

I just realized I had thanked you for the chroot link but not the rest of it. Thank you for taking the time to put that response together. This information will no doubt be very useful if I end up blackscreened again at some point, which seems likely.

I wondered if I might ask you a question, but it seems more appropriate for another thread, so I will post there. Cheers!

[Qqmike]

What you dropped for fixing grub from livecd is way better than what I found so far. How might a btrfs raid 0 root impact that guide?

Sorry, I have zero experience with raid and another zero's worth of experience with btrfs (I'm an old die-hard ext4 guy).

[MadMage999]

Sorry, I have zero experience with raid and another zero's worth of experience with btrfs (I'm an old die-hard ext4 guy).

That's okay. I think the answer is none.

--EDIT--

What I'm trying to say here is that I don't think raid 0 effects anything in the guide he posted.