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Invisible Taskbar/Windows After AMDGPU Pro Install
PublicNuisance Oct 2, 2016
I recently purchased an RX480 and have had a nightmare of a time getting drivers installed for it. I have gotten it to the point where after installing the AMD GPU Pro drivers from AMD's website the taskbar will be invisible and any window I open will be invisible. Originally the screen is black with just the cursor but going into recovery mode and choosing to fix broken packages gives me the invisible taskbar but at least I can log in.

This happens on Mint 17.3 64 as well as Mint 18 64. I have tried on both the kernels that ship with the OS (3.19 for 17.3 and 4.4 for 18) as well as updating the kernel before installing the AMD driver. I have tried kernel 4.7.5, 4.7.6, 3.19 and 4.4 so far. All with the same issue or worse.

My specs: AMD FX-9590 | Corsair H100 | 16GB DDR3-2133 CL9 | MSI RX 480 Gaming X 8GB | Samsung Evo 250GB | Linux Mint 17.3 64

Any help is appreciated.
wojtek88 Oct 2, 2016
While I never had AMD card, I guess I am not the one to help you.

But I just wonder - reading what you did so far I guess it's not a problem for you to try different approaches to solve your problem. And maybe we can learn something together :).

What do you think about giving a try to Steam OS for a moment? I mean - just boot it, see if it works. I assume that if you like Mint, you would rather continue to use this distro. But if SteamOS boots and works fine, you would be able to either play with it, or continue your fight for example by switching to Debian, knowing that AMD GPU Pro driver worked for you.

If playing with other distro is not an option for you, then forget my post and wait for someone that can bring something more essential to this topic.
PublicNuisance Oct 2, 2016
Quoting: wojtek88While I never had AMD card, I guess I am not the one to help you.

But I just wonder - reading what you did so far I guess it's not a problem for you to try different approaches to solve your problem. And maybe we can learn something together :).

What do you think about giving a try to Steam OS for a moment? I mean - just boot it, see if it works. I assume that if you like Mint, you would rather continue to use this distro. But if SteamOS boots and works fine, you would be able to either play with it, or continue your fight for example by switching to Debian, knowing that AMD GPU Pro driver worked for you.

If playing with other distro is not an option for you, then forget my post and wait for someone that can bring something more essential to this topic.

I am not big on SteamOS but you did help me out plenty with the idea. I decided to try another distro. Ubuntu Mate 16.04.1 is working with the AMDGPU Pro drivers. I despise Ubuntu in many ways but at the moment i'll take it until i can use Mint again. Thanks again for the idea.
manero666 Oct 2, 2016
Can you give us more details about these invisible windows?
Are you sure your Window Manager and DE (I guess it was Mate) were running?

I'm on Arch Linux and sometimes I switch to AMDGPU-PRO, but aside for some games not launching and screen-tearing I have no other issues..
PublicNuisance Oct 2, 2016
Quoting: manero666Can you give us more details about these invisible windows?
Are you sure your Window Manager and DE (I guess it was Mate) were running?

I'm on Arch Linux and sometimes I switch to AMDGPU-PRO, but aside for some games not launching and screen-tearing I have no other issues..

I wish I had taken a screenshot. Basically the taskbar would be completely void of any icons. I could however see them if I moved my mouse over it but clicking on any icons would either not open any window or would be invisible as well. So for example if I moved my mouse over the taskbar I could see the start button and my Firefox icon but if I clicked on the Firefox icon nothing would show up. If I clicked on the start button I could see the menu but nothing would happen if I clicked on any icons on it.

So far Ubuntu Mate 16.04.1 is working so I am going to try Linux Mate and see if it works. I have heard that it may be an issue with the AMD driver when using Cinnamon or Gnome desktops.
PublicNuisance Oct 2, 2016
Linux Mint 17.3 Mate worked without issues. I have to conclude it was some conflict between Cinnamon and the pro driver.
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