Graphics drivers for Intel NUC Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK (AMD Radeon RX Vega GH)

Question

I know this is a commonly asked question, but I am having trouble with this..

I am running Ubuntu 18.04. I have had to use nomodeset parameters in grub on boot to have boot correctly.

uname -mrs

Linux 4.15.0-23-generic x86_64

lspci | grep VGA

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Vega [Radeon RX Vega M] (rev c0)

Running ubuntu drivers devices gives no results

lshw -c video

  *-display UNCLAIMED       
   description: VGA compatible controller
   product: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
   vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
   version: c0
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list
   configuration: latency=0
   resources: memory:90000000-9fffffff memory:a0000000-a01fffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:db500000-db53ffff memory:c0000-dffff

   *-display UNCLAIMED
   description: Display controller
   product: Intel Corporation
   vendor: Intel Corporation
   physical id: 2
   bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
   version: 04
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pciexpress msi pm cap_list
   configuration: latency=0
   resources: iomemory:2f0-2ef iomemory:2f0-2ef memory:2ffe000000-2ffeffffff memory:2fa0000000-2fafffffff ioport:f000(size=64)

I tried adding amdgpu.dc=1 to boot params but doesn't change anything.

glmark2

=======================================================                                                
glmark2 2014.03+git20150611.fa71af2d                                                               
=======================================================
OpenGL Information
GL_VENDOR:     VMware, Inc.
GL_RENDERER:   llvmpipe (LLVM 6.0, 256 bits)
GL_VERSION:    3.0 Mesa 18.0.0-rc5

-- EDIT --

Upgraded to kernel 4.16 and no changes, although running glmark2 is less intensive on the CPU

Answer 1

Update: I posted a writeup at https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2400400 with the instructions updated for 4.19-rc2.

Here's my original answer:

Here's what I did to get it working today on ubuntu 18.04 (from memory, probably with typos):

a) Install latest mesa from https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers

b) Followed https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds using http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-06-08/

i.e.:

$ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-06-08/linux-modules-4.17.0-999-generic_4.17.0-999.201806080237_amd64.deb
$ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-06-08/linux-image-unsigned-4.17.0-999-generic_4.17.0-999.201806080237_amd64.deb
$ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-06-08/linux-headers-4.17.0-999-generic_4.17.0-999.201806080237_amd64.deb
$ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-06-08/linux-headers-4.17.0-999_4.17.0-999.201806080237_all.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i linux*201806080237*.deb

c) Rebooted and noticed error in /var/log/kern.log about no firmware, so installed that:

$ wget -m -np https://people.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/radeon_ucode/vegam/
$ sudo cp people.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/radeon_ucode/vegam/*.bin /lib/firmware/amdgpu
$ sudo /usr/sbin/update-initramfs -u -k all

and rebooted.

And it worked. Having a working ssh connection to the machine made recovering from mistakes and black screens a lot easier.

A couple of odd glitches (fishgl.com's fish stopped moving once, and I got a crazy high result for furmark once), but it's been up and relatively snappy for at least half an hour now :-)

glxinfo reports

OpenGL renderer string: AMD VEGAM (DRM 3.26.0, 4.17.0-999-generic, LLVM 6.0.0)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 18.2.0-devel
OpenGL version string: 3.1 Mesa 18.2.0-devel

glmark2 reports a score of 10698 (vs. 2571 on i7-6700 with HD Graphics 530, and 2770 on Skull Canyon live ubuntu 18.04)

furmark 0.7 from pts8 reports 1718 at 1920x1080.

Your mileage may vary. Your machine may explode. Good luck!

Answer 2

The answer to this questsion is as follows:

a) You need ucode files not existing in Ubuntu 18.04, namely those: https://people.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/radeon_ucode/vegam/ - they need to go to /lib/firmware/amdgpu

b) You need a kernel that includes vega m patches. Those are currently pending to be including into drm-next. Hopefully they make it into kernel 4.18. If you build from source, here you go: https://cgit.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/linux/log/?h=drm-next-4.18-wip - you can use kernel-package to build it (make-kpkg ...) When you install kernel and updated firmware, make sure to run sudo update-initramfs -u

c) I suggest using mesa 18.1 or later. Paulo has that version in his ppa: https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa

On the hades canyon NUC at hand we disabled the Intel-GPU in Bios. After above steps everything was working - including hevc-10 bit decoding via vaapi.

Answer 3

Here's a possible updated recipe, no promises:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates
sudo apt dist-upgrade        # pulls new mesa from above ppa
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.18-rc5/linux-headers-4.18.0-041800rc5_4.18.0-041800rc5.201807152130_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.18-rc5/linux-headers-4.18.0-041800rc5-generic_4.18.0-041800rc5.201807152130_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.18-rc5/linux-image-unsigned-4.18.0-041800rc5-generic_4.18.0-041800rc5.201807152130_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.18-rc5/linux-modules-4.18.0-041800rc5-generic_4.18.0-041800rc5.201807152130_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-*.deb
wget -m -np https://people.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/radeon_ucode/vegam/
sudo cp people.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/radeon_ucode/vegam/*.bin /lib/firmware/amdgpu
sudo /usr/sbin/update-initramfs -u -k all

That black screens here when booting on the lower powered hades canyon (with the i7-8705g), but is said to work with the higher powered hades canyon (with the i7-8809g). You can use the grub menu to get back to the stock kernel.

Also, if you need to update the BIOS to 0044, see https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/126141/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC8i7HNK and https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005636/mini-pcs.html