What Linux flavour to use for AMD GPU mining?

Question

After many hours of struggle to install my Sapphire RX 580 gpus on Ubuntu 16.04, I was frustrated when I realised that:

Installation of AMDGPU-PRO drivers on Ubuntu 16.04.3 will likely result in issues, such as black screen hang or defaulting to a lower graphics mode without acceleration. This also applies to Ubuntu 16.04.2 users who have been upgraded to 16.04.3.

I even tried to install Ubuntu 14.04 to avoid the issue, but it had the same issue.

So I had to switch to Windows 10 in order to make my rig of RX 580 gpus up and running.

However I really like to come back to Linux, as it is my preferred OS and, according to many, it offers better mining performance.

So I appreciate if you can tell me what flavors of Linux do not have issues with amdgpu-pro and can be used as the rig's OS.

Answer 1

Arch Linux has an AUR that you could use (link) that allows you to install the proprietary OpenCL component you need for mining without the need for the closed-source AMDGPU PRO binary blob.

Answer 2

Sounds like you are attempting to mine over X? That sounds very inefficient, recently I purchased an RX 560 and I am mining steady at 400 h/s. Of course this is all done with minimal services and no GUI. After all, its for mining.

Use the amdgpu-pro drivers from http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDGPU-PRO-Driver-for-Linux-Release-Notes.aspx on ubuntu 16.04 or later, follow the recipe and if you need to run X, comment out the following lines (I didn't care to have the added modules running)

Now if you struggle with commands and are new to Linux, stick with Windows 10.