I'm using Debian testing with RX 480 just fine. I do compile Mesa from source periodically, just to test latest Master with various games. But that doesn't need to replace your system Mesa packages.

See here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/wiki/Building_Mesa_from_source

(That howto needs some updating, to catch up with latest Debian testing though).

What Debian did you use? I hope not stable. Also, did you install firmware-amd-graphics package?

In my opinion an Arch based distro would be best. Manjaro is very easy to install.

Do not forget to install steam-native so that steam can work with amd.

If you really want to stick with debian-based, ubuntu with ppa (probably mint is also compatible) is the best you can do as mentioned above.

Quoting: ShmerlI'm using Debian testing with RX 480 just fine. I do compile Mesa from source periodically, just to test latest Master with various games. But that doesn't need to replace your system Mesa packages.

See here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/wiki/Building_Mesa_from_source

(That howto needs some updating, to catch up with latest Debian testing though).

What Debian did you use? I hope not stable. Also, did you install firmware-amd-graphics package?

I don't know for sure, but it was likely the stable branch. I just went to Debian's site and the download I found, and likely the same place I would have downloaded from months ago, was from the stable branch.

I would have downloaded the driver directly from AMD's site and installed that. If I recall it said the same thing it said in mint, that it did not support the kernel version installed.

So I'll give the testing branch a try when I get home from work tonight.

Also thanks for the link. That will come in handy. While I am a Linux veteran (been using it since ~1998 with Redhat 5.2 I believe) I am no pro.

My gaming rig just for the curious.
ASRock Z170M Extreme4
Intel I5-6600 (Skylake Quad-Core)
XFX RX 480 8gb
16gb pc4 17000 (2x8gb)
500gb Samsung 850 EVO (windows 10 drive)
512gb Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 (Linux drive)

Some ideas which might help you:

1. Don't use Debian stable for desktop in general. Better use testing which is a semi-rolling distro. Stable gets really behind, including with Mesa.
2. Don't download the driver from AMD, you don't need it anymore - you should be able to use Mesa for your gaming needs.

If you are installing recent stable though (Stretch), it should support RX 480 sufficiently to at least install the OS. You can always upgrade Debian from stable to testing, by changing your /etc/apt/sources.list accordingly, and running:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I recommend though pulling Mesa from unstable, since it's stuck there now, and not moving to testing, which is quite a useful version bump.

See https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mesa

Using Antergos myself with my RX 480. Most things seem to be work as far as I have been able to see. A few workarounds needed for a few games, but other than that, haven't had a huge issue.

Also just saying that I find very hard to believe that one can not found in AUR anything he needs.

The distro family doesn't matter as much as having the right firmware, supported kernel and drivers available. I recommend firmware-amd-graphics so as not to clutter your system with the general nonfree firmware package. And for reference RX 580 works on Debian 9 stable, so a 480 should also be just fine.

EDIT: shmerl beat me to it, again.

Just note that Debian's firmware-amd-graphics is missing binaries for RX 560 and 570, so you'd need to pull them from here: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/amdgpu if you'll ever use those cards.

That is: polaris11_k_smc.bin and polaris10_k_smc.bin. You'd need to place them in /lib/firmware/amdgpu

Quoting: AnxiousInfusionThe distro family doesn't matter as much as having [...]

in principle the distro family does not matter at all :)

But it can make quite a difference on how someone is getting the software. Personally I prefer Arch _and_ Debian. Debian is the best as a stable distro both because it is a really good stable distro and because of debian packages and using debian packages is really useful in this case. Debian can be used as a rolling distro but Arch is a _lot_ better. Now someone who wants to play games on amd graphics using an Arch based distro will make everything a lot _easier_ for having good results.