kernel: 5.4 lacks graphics support for AMD Ryzen 5

[my-T1]

As owner of an AMD Ryzen 5 I lack full graphic support with Kernel <5.5. Thefefor the implementation of a newer kernel would be highly appreciated.

[SimonIremonger]

I have seen circumstances where newer kernel is not desirable, extra module compilation, not LTS, and so-on. You can already go into mintupdate and install a 5.8 series kernel, last I checked!. That said 'mintreport' / 'mintdrivers' could be programmed to detect newer AMD cpus and suggest/offer this fix, I think, might be more sensible. A longstanding question/idea for debian and ubuntu and mint, is to include 2 kernel version options on bootable/install media in general, not yet seen this happen, however.

[my-T1]

The current kernel 5.10 would be LTS.... Although I'm running a 5.9 at the moment, this is not easily accesible for newbies (esp. when there is a need to sign the kernel). I'm just thinking of all the guys that want to switch from M$. They could be disappointed if a recent system does not work as expected 😉

[clefebvre]

There are different things at play here...

First, the default kernel we'll be using in this release is LTS. Current LTS is 5.4, not 5.8:

https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=focal-updates&searchon=names&keywords=linux-image-generic

Even HWE is 5.4, only HWE_EDGE is 5.8 right now.

Second, whether or not we can ship with multiple kernels... we can't for this release but it's something we'll look into for 20.2.

Third, whether or not we'll make an ISO with a 5.8 kernel, this depends on the severity of the issue. If people could not boot, then we would do that.

[clefebvre]

In your case here we're not talking about boot issues but graphic support. We'll add an item in the release notes to tell people to jump to 5.8 and how to do it.

Can you describe the issue with the graphics in 5.4 and what 5.8 fixes in details so we can describe it the best we can?

[SimonIremonger]

I would note, the #ubuntu-kernel people are supportive of maintaining their Kernel 5.4 LTS, and would really like clear, well-organized bug-reports on the issues!. I see much complaints but not clear videos of the misbehaviour, well evidenced bug-reports etc...

[SimonIremonger]

There are a lot of drm/amd* and amd/amdgpu fixes in ubuntu 5.4 LTS kernel just moving to final testing now. https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/vdw94dvHTy/ As per other mint20.1-beta AMD bug, I personally advocate that a beta-2 comes out with fixed kernel and other known fixable issues already attended-to, etc. We really need clear information+DETAILS on these issues with new AMDs. Lots of people seem to be away on leave this week ;-(.

[clefebvre]

 * Focal update: v5.4.78 upstream stable release (LP: #1905618)
+    - drm/i915/gem: Flush coherency domains on first set-domain-ioctl
+    - time: Prevent undefined behaviour in timespec64_to_ns()
+    - nbd: don't update block size after device is started
+    - KVM: arm64: Force PTE mapping on fault resulting in a device mapping
+    - PCI: qcom: Make sure PCIe is reset before init for rev 2.1.0
+    - usb: dwc3: gadget: Continue to process pending requests
+    - usb: dwc3: gadget: Reclaim extra TRBs after request completion
+    - btrfs: tracepoints: output proper root owner for trace_find_free_extent()
+    - btrfs: sysfs: init devices outside of the chunk_mutex
+    - btrfs: reschedule when cloning lots of extents
+    - ASoC: Intel: kbl_rt5663_max98927: Fix kabylake_ssp_fixup function
+    - genirq: Let GENERIC_IRQ_IPI select IRQ_DOMAIN_HIERARCHY
+    - hv_balloon: disable warning when floor reached
+    - net: xfrm: fix a race condition during allocing spi
+    - ASoC: codecs: wcd9335: Set digital gain range correctly
+    - xfs: set xefi_discard when creating a deferred agfl free log intent item
+    - netfilter: use actual socket sk rather than skb sk when routing harder
+    - netfilter: nf_tables: missing validation from the abort path
+    - netfilter: ipset: Update byte and packet counters regardless of whether they
+      match
+    - powerpc/eeh_cache: Fix a possible debugfs deadlock
+    - perf trace: Fix segfault when trying to trace events by cgroup
+    - perf tools: Add missing swap for ino_generation
+    - ALSA: hda: prevent undefined shift in snd_hdac_ext_bus_get_link()
+    - iommu/vt-d: Fix a bug for PDP check in prq_event_thread
+    - afs: Fix warning due to unadvanced marshalling pointer
+    - can: rx-offload: don't call kfree_skb() from IRQ context
+    - can: dev: can_get_echo_skb(): prevent call to kfree_skb() in hard IRQ
+      context
+    - can: dev: __can_get_echo_skb(): fix real payload length return value for RTR
+      frames
+    - can: can_create_echo_skb(): fix echo skb generation: always use skb_clone()
+    - can: j1939: swap addr and pgn in the send example
+    - can: j1939: j1939_sk_bind(): return failure if netdev is down
+    - can: ti_hecc: ti_hecc_probe(): add missed clk_disable_unprepare() in error
+      path
+    - can: xilinx_can: handle failure cases of pm_runtime_get_sync
+    - can: peak_usb: add range checking in decode operations
+    - can: peak_usb: peak_usb_get_ts_time(): fix timestamp wrapping
+    - can: peak_canfd: pucan_handle_can_rx(): fix echo management when loopback is
+      on
+    - can: flexcan: remove FLEXCAN_QUIRK_DISABLE_MECR quirk for LS1021A
+    - can: flexcan: flexcan_remove(): disable wakeup completely
+    - xfs: flush new eof page on truncate to avoid post-eof corruption
+    - xfs: fix scrub flagging rtinherit even if there is no rt device
+    - tpm: efi: Don't create binary_bios_measurements file for an empty log
+    - random32: make prandom_u32() output unpredictable
+    - KVM: arm64: ARM_SMCCC_ARCH_WORKAROUND_1 doesn't return
+      SMCCC_RET_NOT_REQUIRED
+    - KVM: x86: don't expose MSR_IA32_UMWAIT_CONTROL unconditionally
+    - ath9k_htc: Use appropriate rs_datalen type
+    - ASoC: qcom: sdm845: set driver name correctly
+    - ASoC: cs42l51: manage mclk shutdown delay
+    - usb: dwc3: pci: add support for the Intel Alder Lake-S
+    - opp: Reduce the size of critical section in _opp_table_kref_release()
+    - usb: gadget: goku_udc: fix potential crashes in probe
+    - selftests/ftrace: check for do_sys_openat2 in user-memory test
+    - selftests: pidfd: fix compilation errors due to wait.h
+    - ALSA: hda: Separate runtime and system suspend
+    - ALSA: hda: Reinstate runtime_allow() for all hda controllers
+    - gfs2: Free rd_bits later in gfs2_clear_rgrpd to fix use-after-free
+    - gfs2: Add missing truncate_inode_pages_final for sd_aspace
+    - gfs2: check for live vs. read-only file system in gfs2_fitrim
+    - scsi: hpsa: Fix memory leak in hpsa_init_one()
+    - drm/amdgpu: perform srbm soft reset always on SDMA resume
+    - drm/amd/pm: perform SMC reset on suspend/hibernation
+    - drm/amd/pm: do not use ixFEATURE_STATUS for checking smc running
+    - mac80211: fix use of skb payload instead of header
+    - cfg80211: initialize wdev data earlier
+    - cfg80211: regulatory: Fix inconsistent format argument
+    - tracing: Fix the checking of stackidx in __ftrace_trace_stack
+    - scsi: scsi_dh_alua: Avoid crash during alua_bus_detach()
+    - scsi: mpt3sas: Fix timeouts observed while reenabling IRQ
+    - nvme: introduce nvme_sync_io_queues
+    - nvme-rdma: avoid race between time out and tear down
+    - nvme-tcp: avoid race between time out and tear down
+    - nvme-rdma: avoid repeated request completion
+    - nvme-tcp: avoid repeated request completion
+    - iommu/amd: Increase interrupt remapping table limit to 512 entries
+    - s390/smp: move rcu_cpu_starting() earlier
+    - vfio: platform: fix reference leak in vfio_platform_open
+    - vfio/pci: Bypass IGD init in case of -ENODEV
+    - i2c: mediatek: move dma reset before i2c reset
+    - amd/amdgpu: Disable VCN DPG mode for Picasso
+    - selftests: proc: fix warning: _GNU_SOURCE redefined
+    - riscv: Set text_offset correctly for M-Mode
+    - i2c: sh_mobile: implement atomic transfers
+    - tpm_tis: Disable interrupts on ThinkPad T490s
+    - spi: bcm2835: remove use of uninitialized gpio flags variable
+    - tick/common: Touch watchdog in tick_unfreeze() on all CPUs
+    - mfd: sprd: Add wakeup capability for PMIC IRQ
+    - pinctrl: intel: Set default bias in case no particular value given
+    - ARM: 9019/1: kprobes: Avoid fortify_panic() when copying optprobe template
+    - bpf: Don't rely on GCC __attribute__((optimize)) to disable GCSE
+    - pinctrl: aspeed: Fix GPI only function problem.
+    - net/mlx5: Fix deletion of duplicate rules
+    - SUNRPC: Fix general protection fault in trace_rpc_xdr_overflow()
+    - bpf: Zero-fill re-used per-cpu map element
+    - nbd: fix a block_device refcount leak in nbd_release
+    - igc: Fix returning wrong statistics
+    - xfs: fix flags argument to rmap lookup when converting shared file rmaps
+    - xfs: set the unwritten bit in rmap lookup flags in xchk_bmap_get_rmapextents
+    - xfs: fix rmap key and record comparison functions
+    - xfs: fix brainos in the refcount scrubber's rmap fragment processor
+    - lan743x: fix "BUG: invalid wait context" when setting rx mode
+    - xfs: fix a missing unlock on error in xfs_fs_map_blocks
+    - of/address: Fix of_node memory leak in of_dma_is_coherent
+    - cosa: Add missing kfree in error path of cosa_write
+    - vrf: Fix fast path output packet handling with async Netfilter rules
+    - perf: Fix get_recursion_context()
+    - erofs: derive atime instead of leaving it empty
+    - ext4: correctly report "not supported" for {usr,grp}jquota when
+      !CONFIG_QUOTA
+    - ext4: unlock xattr_sem properly in ext4_inline_data_truncate()
+    - btrfs: ref-verify: fix memory leak in btrfs_ref_tree_mod
+    - btrfs: fix min reserved size calculation in merge_reloc_root
+    - btrfs: dev-replace: fail mount if we don't have replace item with target
+      device
+    - KVM: arm64: Don't hide ID registers from userspace
+    - thunderbolt: Fix memory leak if ida_simple_get() fails in
+      enumerate_services()
+    - thunderbolt: Add the missed ida_simple_remove() in ring_request_msix()
+    - uio: Fix use-after-free in uio_unregister_device()
+    - usb: cdc-acm: Add DISABLE_ECHO for Renesas USB Download mode
+    - xhci: hisilicon: fix refercence leak in xhci_histb_probe
+    - virtio: virtio_console: fix DMA memory allocation for rproc serial
+    - mei: protect mei_cl_mtu from null dereference
+    - futex: Don't enable IRQs unconditionally in put_pi_state()
+    - jbd2: fix up sparse warnings in checkpoint code
+    - mm/slub: fix panic in slab_alloc_node()
+    - Revert "kernel/reboot.c: convert simple_strtoul to kstrtoint"
+    - reboot: fix overflow parsing reboot cpu number
+    - ocfs2: initialize ip_next_orphan
+    - btrfs: fix potential overflow in cluster_pages_for_defrag on 32bit arch
+    - selinux: Fix error return code in sel_ib_pkey_sid_slow()
+    - gpio: pcie-idio-24: Fix irq mask when masking
+    - gpio: pcie-idio-24: Fix IRQ Enable Register value
+    - gpio: pcie-idio-24: Enable PEX8311 interrupts
+    - mmc: sdhci-of-esdhc: Handle pulse width detection erratum for more SoCs
+    - mmc: renesas_sdhi_core: Add missing tmio_mmc_host_free() at remove
+    - don't dump the threads that had been already exiting when zapped.
+    - drm/gma500: Fix out-of-bounds access to struct drm_device.vblank[]
+    - pinctrl: amd: use higher precision for 512 RtcClk
+    - pinctrl: amd: fix incorrect way to disable debounce filter
+    - swiotlb: fix "x86: Don't panic if can not alloc buffer for swiotlb"
+    - IPv6: Set SIT tunnel hard_header_len to zero
+    - net/af_iucv: fix null pointer dereference on shutdown
+    - net: udp: fix UDP header access on Fast/frag0 UDP GRO
+    - net: Update window_clamp if SOCK_RCVBUF is set
+    - net/x25: Fix null-ptr-deref in x25_connect
+    - tipc: fix memory leak in tipc_topsrv_start()
+    - r8169: fix potential skb double free in an error path
+    - drm/i915: Correctly set SFC capability for video engines
+    - powerpc/603: Always fault when _PAGE_ACCESSED is not set
+    - x86/speculation: Allow IBPB to be conditionally enabled on CPUs with always-
+      on STIBP
+    - perf scripting python: Avoid declaring function pointers with a visibility
+      attribute
+    - net: sch_generic: fix the missing new qdisc assignment bug
+    - Convert trailing spaces and periods in path components
+    - Linux 5.4.78

That could also bring other regressions. It's really hard to predict, for us and for Ubuntu. The pace upstream is huge, changes are brought in bunch.

[clefebvre]

Despite the numerous bug reports on -58 in Launchpad, what we got from the BETA feedback were issues which weren't new and were already present with the kernel that shipped with 20.0. This in itself is comforting. I was expecting the situation to be more severe.

[clefebvre]

Merging with https://github.com/linuxmint/mint20.1-beta/issues/43