Re: Can Guix support Zen 2/AMD Ryzen?

[Yasuaki Kudo]

Hi,

Not that I have any solution (sorry...) but a similar blackout happened when I 
removed the regular linux kernel (using nonguix channel) and tried the native 
Libre kernel for Guix, some months ago.  I immediately went back to the 
original Linux...

My PC has both Ryzen CPU and AMD video card.

Cheers,
Yasu


> On Nov 24, 2020, at 11:32, jbranso@dismail.de wrote:
> 
> I am kind of shooting from the hip here, others may be more knowledgeable 
> than me, but here is my two cents.
> 
> As a general rule, any "brand new hardware" (except server grade hardware and 
> Intel hardware) generally needs 3-6+ months before it has good Linux support. 
>  So you may run into issues using the latest and greatest thing.
> 
> If you want a good GPU, then you might check out this: 
> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nouveau-K2020-Low-End-Card
>    It's a $50 graphics card that works with the libre nvidia driver 
> (nouveau).  I think you have to manually set the clock frequency though...All 
> AMD graphics cards are virtually useless on the Linux libre kernel.  AMD has 
> proprietary firmware, which Linux libre disables.  Nvidia is as bad.  I think 
> the integrated graphics from Intel works fairly well with Linux libre.
> 
> I've also run into that booting issue.  I think there is a way to disable 
> fancy graphics rendering during the installer, which is what I had to do, to 
> get guix to run on my AMD APU a few years ago.  Maybe someone here can point 
> out how to do that, because I'm blanking on the specifics.  
> 
> If you are trying to game on Linux libre, you will probably run into some 
> issues.  :(
> 
> November 23, 2020 4:38 PM, "Jesse Gibbons" <jgibbons2357@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hi guix,
>> I built a guix image for a hardware enthusiast friend to try on his 
>> computers, in part to see how
>> well/completely his more modern hardware would run guix and if it would be 
>> worth commissioning him
>> to build me a computer. It successfully booted, but the screens turned blank 
>> and didn't show gdm.
>> My friend tried this twice, and the same thing happened. He tried 
>> ctrl+alt+f{1..6} and didn't see
>> anything (though he has a weird keyboard that requires him to hold a 
>> modifier key to enter any
>> function key). He suggested it might be because his computer has a Ryzen CPU 
>> with the Zen 2
>> Architecture, which he knows might need to work around. Since it booted 
>> fine, I think it might be
>> more related to his Nvidia GPU. Is there anything I can do, without 
>> resorting to proprietary
>> solutions, to make a guix image with a desktop at least displays with his 
>> hardware?
>> -Jesse
>