Troubleshoot Pop OS 20.04 that won't start after an upgrade
Troubleshoot Pop OS 20.04 that won't start after an upgrade
What I mentioned earlier wasn't related to Vulkan; it was about enabling AMDGPU support. Essentially, it mirrors what your kernel command-line options achieve. However, I notice the problem. They seem to have an AMDGPU DKMS module tied to 5.4LTS, which doesn’t play well with 5.8. I’ve never come across a distribution releasing a DKMS module for AMDGPU unless they’re offering AMDGPU-PRO by default—something I haven’t heard of either. Since it’s PopOS, their behavior can be unpredictable. Downgrading your kernel to the LTS version might resolve compatibility issues. I’m not sure how to do this on Ubuntu-based systems. You might also want to remove any AMDGPU-related components, though I don’t know the impact that would have. It’s possible they’re using a kernel without these features, which could lead to further complications. This situation often arises when distros release older packages while trying to support newer hardware. Alternatively, you could reinstall from the PopOS! 20.10 ISO instead of upgrading if you haven’t already.
I resolved the problem with this recommendation. ./amdgpu-install --no-dkms https://askubuntu.com/questions/1287904/...l-5-8-5-8- I’m wondering if I can rely on my previous ideas about the new AMD driver containing a script that sets up the 5.8 kernel differently than the DKMS tool is instructed to do. Could it be the cause of this issue? If I install the AMD drivers without using the --no-dkms option, I consistently encounter errors about DKMS. This is my first time experiencing such problems. I’m still unclear on how DKMS functions, so I’m unsure if I should proceed with the AMD driver as is or face potential complications. I might regret my next step, but I’ll let the Pop-update run to check stability (I want up-to-date applications). I haven’t seen any AMD driver information during this process... For now, at least I have a workaround while others can’t predict problems from skipping DKMS. Thanks for your help—especially Nayr438, your answers helped unlock this outcome. Great job!
I’m not very familiar with PopOS yet, and these posts are quite lengthy—I ended up grasping only that AMDGPU comes with DKMS in PopOS for some mysterious reason. I didn’t need DKMS for AMDGPU during the past three years when using my AMD laptop across various Ubuntu versions, Arch, and Gentoo. Turning it off seemed to help at least partially. Could you try using regular Ubuntu Groovy (the newest version) to see if everything works properly? Or is the problem outside of PopOS?
DKMS operates by placing source files onto the system, and when the kernel updates, it rebuilds itself automatically for the new version. This process continues as long as there are no significant changes to the kernel that affect the module. If no DKMS module exists, another party must create a new one each time the kernel is updated, requiring manual intervention during the update. This also relies on the kernel using the same toolset version as the module. Such scenarios can be more challenging for non-targeted distributions. Without a DKMS module or source tree, future issues are likely to increase compared to simply reverting to a long-term supported kernel with DKMS. I eventually downloaded the AMDGPU-PRO drivers from AMD's site and verified they are indeed AMDGPU-PRO packages. This confirms PopOS's preference for proprietary drivers over open-source alternatives. This behavior likely explains many of the recent AMD-related problems I've encountered. It seems Ubuntu may be doing the same, adding unnecessary complexity. The main benefit of AMDGPU-PRO appears to be OpenCL support. If you prefer Manjaro and need OpenCL, refer to the link provided.