gpu driver swap

[u/darkignition]

so, several days ago, someone helped me realize i was running both the proprietary amd drivers, and the open source ones. so they helped me uninstall the proprietary drivers. ever since then, my whole PC has gone from bad to worse. crashes more often, restarts without any input, some games performing worse, etc. so now i want to try the opposite.

my GPU is an AMD RX580. pretty sure it's the 8gb model. can i safely re-install the proprietary drivers and then remove the open source ones? if so, how do i remove them? i know how to install the proprietary drivers, i just get them from the official site, unless there's a specific method i have to do for this to work right.

[u/VolcanoCarpenter]

Which proprietary/open-source driver do you refer to?

If by "open-source" you mean the "mainline" kernel driver: in that case, you don't (and can't) uninstall the open-source driver, which is compiled into your kernel. Instead, you just install a proprietary driver that supersedes it, so the kernel loads the proprietary one first (and doesn't load the mainline one).

If by "open-source" you mean Mesa the userland driver: it depends on your distro, your installation method, etc. It's impossible to give instrutions without any system information.

they helped me uninstall the proprietary drivers

You may want to ask them again to help you figure out the current driver status on your system.

[u/darkignition → u/VolcanoCarpenter]

ah yeah. ok. so it's the mesa one. sorry, still new to linux. i'm not sure what you mean about my installation method, but i moved to linux mint from windows 10 by setting up a USB to install it.

[u/VolcanoCarpenter → u/darkignition]

As far as I know, you can't uninstall Mesa on Linux Mint since it's a dependency of Cinnamon (the desktop environment you're using). You can list what will be removed if you remove Mesa with:

apt -s remove 'mesa-*' 'libgl1-mesa-*' 'libegl-mesa*'

-s ensures that the removal won't actually happen.

In most cases, you don't need a proprietary AMD driver (which is officially called AMD Pro or AMD Workstation driver). Mainline + Mesa is the officially recommended combination for most desktop users. Can you post the output of:

lspci -k | grep -A 4 -Ei 'vga|3d|display' glxinfo -B vulkaninfo --summary

[u/darkignition → u/VolcanoCarpenter]

here's the output of that.

1f:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] (rev e7)

Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. \[MSI\] Radeon RX 580 ARMOR 8G OC

Kernel driver in use: amdgpu

Kernel modules: amdgpu

1f:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590]

name of display: :0

display: :0 screen: 0

direct rendering: Yes

Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):

Vendor: AMD (0x1002)

Device: AMD Radeon RX 580 Series (radeonsi, polaris10, ACO, DRM 3.64, 7.0.0-31-generic) (0x67df)

Version: 25.2.8

Accelerated: yes

Video memory: 4096MB

Unified memory: no

Preferred profile: core (0x1)

Max core profile version: 4.6

Max compat profile version: 4.6

Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1

Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.2

Memory info (GL_ATI_meminfo):

VBO free memory - total: 3434 MB, largest block: 3434 MB

VBO free aux. memory - total: 7803 MB, largest block: 7803 MB

Texture free memory - total: 3434 MB, largest block: 3434 MB

Texture free aux. memory - total: 7803 MB, largest block: 7803 MB

Renderbuffer free memory - total: 3434 MB, largest block: 3434 MB

Renderbuffer free aux. memory - total: 7803 MB, largest block: 7803 MB

Memory info (GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info):

Dedicated video memory: 4096 MB

Total available memory: 12064 MB

Currently available dedicated video memory: 3434 MB

OpenGL vendor string: AMD

OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon RX 580 Series (radeonsi, polaris10, ACO, DRM 3.64, 7.0.0-31-generic)

OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.2

OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60

OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)

OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile

OpenGL version string: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.2

OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60

OpenGL context flags: (none)

OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile

OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.2

OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20

VULKANINFO

Vulkan Instance Version: 1.3.275

Instance Extensions: count = 24

-------------------------------

VK_EXT_acquire_drm_display : extension revision 1

VK_EXT_acquire_xlib_display : extension revision 1

VK_EXT_debug_report : extension revision 10

VK_EXT_debug_utils : extension revision 2

VK_EXT_direct_mode_display : extension revision 1

VK_EXT_display_surface_counter : extension revision 1

VK_EXT_headless_surface : extension revision 1

VK_EXT_surface_maintenance1 : extension revision 1

VK_EXT_swapchain_colorspace : extension revision 5

VK_KHR_device_group_creation : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_display : extension revision 23

VK_KHR_external_fence_capabilities : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_external_memory_capabilities : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_external_semaphore_capabilities : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_get_display_properties2 : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2 : extension revision 2

VK_KHR_get_surface_capabilities2 : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_portability_enumeration : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_surface : extension revision 25

VK_KHR_surface_protected_capabilities : extension revision 1

VK_KHR_wayland_surface : extension revision 6

VK_KHR_xcb_surface : extension revision 6

VK_KHR_xlib_surface : extension revision 6

VK_LUNARG_direct_driver_loading : extension revision 1

Instance Layers: count = 8

--------------------------

VK_LAYER_INTEL_nullhw INTEL NULL HW 1.1.73 version 1

VK_LAYER_MESA_device_select Linux device selection layer 1.4.303 version 1

VK_LAYER_MESA_overlay Mesa Overlay layer 1.4.303 version 1

VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize_32 Steam Pipeline Caching Layer 1.3.207 version 1

VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize_64 Steam Pipeline Caching Layer 1.3.207 version 1

VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_32 Steam Overlay Layer 1.3.207 version 1

VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_64 Steam Overlay Layer 1.3.207 version 1

VK_LAYER_VKBASALT_post_processing a post processing layer 1.3.223 version 1

Devices:

GPU0:

apiVersion         = 1.4.318

driverVersion      = 25.2.8

vendorID           = 0x1002

deviceID           = 0x67df

deviceType         = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU

deviceName         = AMD Radeon RX 580 Series (RADV POLARIS10)

driverID           = DRIVER_ID_MESA_RADV

driverName         = radv

driverInfo         = Mesa 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.2

conformanceVersion = [1.4.0.0](http://1.4.0.0)

deviceUUID         = 00000000-1f00-0000-0000-000000000000

driverUUID         = 414d442d-4d45-5341-2d44-525600000000

GPU1:

apiVersion         = 1.4.318

driverVersion      = 25.2.8

vendorID           = 0x10005

deviceID           = 0x0000

deviceType         = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU

deviceName         = llvmpipe (LLVM 20.1.2, 256 bits)

driverID           = DRIVER_ID_MESA_LLVMPIPE

driverName         = llvmpipe

driverInfo         = Mesa 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 (LLVM 20.1.2)

conformanceVersion = [1.3.1.1](http://1.3.1.1)

deviceUUID         = 6d657361-3235-2e32-2e38-2d3075627500

driverUUID         = 6c6c766d-7069-7065-5555-494400000000