how to install amd graphics drivers instad of mesa drivers

[thorneo]

I would very much like to know how to install the amd drivers instead on the open source mesa ones that are automatically installed. reason being I would like to play saints row 3-4 but opengl is not high enough to do so.

[XÆЯO_Vince]

What graphics card / GPU do you have in your system?

Last I checked, Mesa's r600g should expose OpenGL 4.1 Core Profile, which I used to play Saints Row IV with my old Radeon HD 5850, although the game did crash the driver (but maybe thats fixed in recent versions now?) and RadeonSI should have OpenGL 4.5. Valve updated the Mesa stack on SteamOS not long ago.

[thorneo]

i think it is a 5677 but i am getting a 7670 in a few days.

[XÆЯO_Vince]

I'm not 100% sure but that should work with RadeonSI. That said, that's still not a very good choice. If you're getting it for free or close to it then fine but if you're wanting an AMD GPU on a budget, I'd say go with a Radeon RX 550 or 560.

[thorneo]

so what would i need install if got one of those cards?
my steam os box is stock

[ProfessorKaos64]

If it's a newer card, nothing. If your run into an issue, there is a way to force another driver type.

[ProfessorKaos64]

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/wiki/Working-with-display-drivers

[thorneo]

i still can not figure out what version of opengl i have

[thorneo]

here is what i see


desktop@steamos:~$ lspci -v | grep -A 15 VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Device e164
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 28
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at feae0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: radeon

01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5400/6300 Series]
Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Device aa68
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
Memory at feabc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
desktop@steamos:~$

[XÆЯO_Vince]

To see the OpenGL level type

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

[thorneo]

sudo glxinfo | grep -i opengl
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CEDAR (DRM 2.49.0 / 4.11.0-0.steamos.65-amd64, LLVM 4.0.1)
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.1.2
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.1.2
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 17.1.2
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
desktop@steamos:~$


is there anyway to install current mesa drivers?
on mesa3d.org the current one is at version 17.2.1

[XÆЯO_Vince]

Hmm that's strange... I wonder why it's only exposing GL 3.3 as it doesn't appear to be using LLVMpipe software rendering and r600 and RadeonSI both support GL 4.x.

That would explain why your Saints Row wasn't working.

You can try forcing the driver to fake a higher OpenGL context by adding to the game command line:

env MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5 MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450

However that probably won't work as it only fakes GL 4.5 it and relies on at least some OpenGL 4.x extensions being available for a slim chance that the games might work.

No there is no easy way to upgrade the Mesa stack. You have to manually do so by compiling it yourself and well that isn't easy and prone to breaking things and the Debian Jessie backports version is way older than SteamOS's.

Best bet would be to get that new graphics card and see what happens or switch to another distribution like Archlinux or Antergos that has bleeding-edge packages, including the latest kernels and Mesa stack.

[thorneo]

this is what i get now

desktop@steamos:~$ lspci -v | grep -A 15 VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Thames [Radeon HD 7670M] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 7670
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 27
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at feae0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: radeon

01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Turks/Whistler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6000 Series]
Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Turks/Whistler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6000 Series]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
Memory at feabc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
desktop@steamos:~$ sudo glxinfo | grep -i opengl
[sudo] password for desktop:
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD TURKS (DRM 2.49.0 / 4.11.0-0.steamos.65-amd64, LLVM 4.0.1)
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.1.2
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.1.2
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 17.1.2
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
desktop@steamos:~$

[thorneo]

Originally posted by XÆЯO_Vince:

BTW Thorneo, do you by chance dual-boot Linux with Windows or otherwise have a Windows partition on your Steam Box?

If so, you can convert your Windows-side install into using a Linux desktop environment shell and play Windows games at full-speed on-top of the Linux environment using Windows like a hidden runtime engine and open Windows games on Linux like Linux apps / games. Some Linux games and all Linux applications will work too. This is how I've been gaming lately on Linux (rather than using Wine) and I'm working on an installer package and Linux image to make setup on Windows easy and fast.

You can see what I'm talking about here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1127274524
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1127605373
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/XaeroVincent/vmscripts/master/vmscripts_screenshot.png

no i don't dualboot .

[thorneo]

well i installed my new vid card but no change . i also did a reinstall of steam os with no change in the driver . so at this piont im wondering if installing the no free drivers would do anything ??

[thorneo]

I have noticed something on the desktop side of steamos. I have an amd/ati gpu in my system so why is the nvidia drivers installed and not the amd/ati drivers?? mesa drivers are installed..