Why Does 14.04 Hate AMD?

[O. Sinclair]

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On 15/08/2014 07:39, Charles T. Bell wrote:
> 
> 
> On 08/15/2014 12:19 AM, Bill Vance wrote:
>> 
>> Ok Tom, I'll start it off.
>> 
>> On Mon, 11 Aug 2014, Nils Kassube wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Bill vance wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> [SNIP]
>>>> 
>>>> So, night before last, I started getting, "14.04 is here", 
>>>> notices, so I decided to give it a try, and see if it fixed 
>>>> the problem. After a while of downloading files, it was 
>>>> re-boot time.  So just a little ways into the boot, it 
>>>> suddenly goes, "dead screen", and locks up.  Not to be 
>>>> discouraged, next day I go to the local computer shop, and 
>>>> get a 14.04 disc, and surprise, surprise, it doesn't even
>>>> get to the setups, when it too goes dead, the same way.
>>>> 
>>>> So, after re-installing 12.04.4 everythings working again. 
>>>> Never did figure out what was wrong.
>>>> 
>>>> And, unless it just doesn't like AMD processors, it looks 
>>>> like 14.04 has a nasty boot-up bug.
>>>> 
>>>> Bill
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> Bill, We should start a new Subject for this.  I also 
>>> installed/upgraded to 14.04 on my AMD64 desktop and had
>>> similar problems.  It would lock up every day and sometimes
>>> twice in one day. I persevered and finally it is now working
>>> without having me reboot using my "red button".  I don't know
>>> if it is fixed or not.  I did have to reload phonon to get 
>>> Grandfatherclock to work, but that is the only other problem I 
>>> have found so far. I was originally afraid that my memory was 
>>> going bad, but that is not the case. So, how did they fix it? I
>>> haven't a clue. Good luck with yours!
>>> 
>> 
>> Well, 14.04 seems to like my AMD Sempron 2000+ even less, as it 
>> won't even let it boot, whether it's a download upgrade or a 
>> install disk.
>> 
>> I think we need to get everyone together and shake our
>> collective fingers at the developers, while chanting, "Shame on
>> you!! Shame on you!!", over and over again.....:-)
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
> 
> Yes, it took me about a week of sticking with 14.04 before it 
> settled down.  I am not sure yet that it is working right. Although
> it has been running now for several days (12 days and counting).  I
> don't know for sure if the uptime is counting through reboots or
> after a reboot. It seems that AMD64 is a red-headed stepchild for
> some reason. I could never an exact fix on what was causing the
> freeze, because what I was running or not running varied. You could
> not get past the start of a boot and it froze, while I at least got
> to the KDM and ran a program or two before it froze. Hopefully,
> they will fix it soon.  I know that the debug report window would
> open and allow me to send the failure report. As to whether or not
> it actually arrived, well, your guess is as good as mine.  However,
> it is running better at the moment.
> 

Out of curiosity, has either of you tried with any other recent distro
such as Chakra or OpenSuse?

I am thinking that might decide if it is distro specific or something
to do with kernel issues

I dont have any AMD CPU myself but do have one of the much troublesome
"hybrid" GPU with Intel/AMD and that stopped working with Kubuntu and
the AMD proprietary drivers in 12.10 (I think). Having snooped around
the internet there are hints that this is a kernel bug and not a
distro issue for my specific GPU model.

I have given up and resorted to shutting the AMD GPU down at login
using vgaswitcheroo so that it does not eat my laptop battery alive or
increase my laptop running temperature



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