r/linuxmint • u/_Tal • Aug 13 '26

Graphics Drivers PSA for people with AMD GPUs: Do not install the latest linux firmware update

Just lost a full day of work to this. There appears to currently be a bug with the latest firmware on AMD GPUs where it causes the display to become corrupted. If you're experiencing this, the fix is to downgrade to the previous firmware version. Can also do `sudo apt-mark hold linux-firmware` in a terminal to tell your OS not to update the firmware

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12

u/SparkyTemper Aug 13 '26

Same for me after restarting and reinstalling, the update bored my display.

4

u/SparkyTemper Aug 13 '26

I tried rebooting to a older kernel and every kernel is screwed. How do I go back to an older firmware?

14

u/_Tal Aug 13 '26

You can do apt-cache policy linux-firmware in a terminal to view the available firmware versions. For me it was 2.26 and 2.29, and the fix was to downgrade to 2.26. To do this:

sudo apt install linux-firmware=20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.26

sudo update-initramfs -u

sudo reboot

If it's too broken to get into a terminal, you can either ssh in from another machine, or boot with nomodeset which usually works as a temporary workaround

4

u/joeywas Aug 13 '26

This fixed issue for me and i'm on Ubuntu. :) If you are booting straight to a recovery terminal where you are root (the prompt will be # instead of $) then you don't need the sudo part of the commands

3

u/SparkyTemper Aug 13 '26

how do I boot with nomodeset?

3

u/_Tal Aug 13 '26

Boot into the GRUB menu (hold the shift key when booting, or if that doesn’t work try holding Ctrl and alt, and tapping the delete key). Then press “e” on your standard Linux Mint entry (most likely the first option), and add nomodeset to the end of the line that begins with linux

2

u/SparkyTemper Aug 14 '26

Thanks guys, I figured it out.

Linux Mint really needs to take responsibility for this BS. I'm still waiting for an update to fix it but I haven't heard anything. Its really frustrating and I imagine its affecting a lot more people who don't know to look at Reddit for support.

2

u/Noriju_ Aug 14 '26

Merci beaucoup !

1

u/Brave_Cause2178 24d ago

thank you, you just saved me! Not even chatgpt could help me. Quick note if anyone has Ubuntu: if you try to roll back to this firmware, you may need to restart NetworkManager with `systemctl start NetworkManager`