The Linux gamers can now take advantage of ray tracing from AMD, but under certain conditions.
This addition only concerns Team Rouge graphics cards using the RDNA 2 architecture, and more specifically Vulkan open-source drivers such as Mesa3D.
AMD ray-tracing is finally coming to Linux
In an update rolling out over the weekend, AMD extended support for its ” GPU Ray Tracing Library (GPURT) to its Radeon RX 60XX GPUs under RDNA 2, both in desktop and portable versions. All Vulkan drivers now support 64-bit ray-tracing, including those used on Linux.
A salutary effort with regard to this operating system is part of a desire for AMD like Intel and NVIDIA to make their proprietary technologies accessible to as many people as possible.
Please note, however, that this Vulkan driver update is currently only fully tested on Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, RedHat 8.6 and RedHat 9.0. It is, however, specified that the update may work on other Linux distributions, but potentially at your own risk.
How to Take Advantage of AMD Ray-Tracing on Linux
On the Github page dedicated to updating Vulkan, cited in source below, the precise instructions for installing it on Linux are detailed.
As a preamble, it is possible to generate the installation package upstream of the driver integration, with the following commands:
Ubuntu:
- cmake -G Ninja -S xgl -B builds/Release64 [DPACKAGE_VERSION=package version]
cmake –build builds/Release64 –target makePackage
RedHat:
- cmake -G Ninja -S xgl -B builds/Release64 [-DPACKAGE_VERSION=package version]
cmake –build builds/Release64 –target makePackage
A pre-built package of the driver can also be found on this Github page. Regarding Ubuntu, the latest version of the driver can finally be found on the dedicated Radeon page.
Whichever method you choose to retrieve the driver package, follow the installation instructions below:
Ubuntu:
- sudo dpkg -r amdvlk /* If old version is installed on the machine, remove it first */
sudo dpkg -i amdvlk_x.x.x_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get -f install
RedHat:
- sudo rpm -e amdvlk /* If old version is installed on the machine, remove it first */
- sudo rpm -i amdvlk-xxxx86_64.rpm
Before proceeding with this update, it is of course advisable to provide a backup of the data deemed essential, in case something goes wrong. Even more caution is required when it comes to a distribution other than Ubuntu or RedHat, the only ones being deemed fully compatible with this update of AMD’s Vulkan drivers.
Source : Github
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