kernel upgrade turn amd video graphics experience sluggish

Applications Hardware
1

Hi,

I would like to ask related to video graphics driver specifically the AMD (radeon HD 7000 series) or had someone with the same experience or problem that im currently experiencing and willing to share some info. I understand that the kernel is self contain it will not affect the installed driver on the system but as i observed on my AMD six core desktop my display will turn sluggish or had some delay when i used the current kernel not the kernel i used to installed the graphics driver. When i fresh installed the lucyd 64bit and update to the current kernel which is 2.6.32-37-generic this is the kernel i used to installed all my application and specially the AMD catalyst driver for linux. But as i observed and update the system which currently as of now has kernel version of 2.6.32-38-generic and 2.6.32-39-generic. When i used this current kernel or besides from the 2.6.32-37-generic my display will turn to sluggish or had some delays as i move or drag open windows explored or application.

My questions:

  1. Does i miss something like modules/driver needs to update when i update the kernel. (i had experience with my wifi usb dongle, every time a new kernel release i need to compile the driver/modules in order to function in the newly installed kernel.
  2. Or i need to reinstall the AMD catalyst driver every time a new kernel update.(that would be cumbersome)

Or any information that may somehow help me with my problem..as of now im using the old kernel.

Thanks in advance for any input that may help.

2

The kernel is most certainly not completely self-contained if you know what a module is...

If you installed any drivers that didn't come with the kernel you should always, always reinstall or update them when you update your kernel.

Troubleshooting the actual problem may be more fruitful than messing with the kernel and hoping it goes away. Check your X11 server's logs for instance, to see if it's having problems enabling direct rendering. Check dmesg to see if the kernel actually IS struggling with anything. Check glxinfo to see if it's fallen back to software opengl and the like.

3

@Corona688: Thanks for the input.

I find a temporary solution on my problem which is to reinstalled the driver which i downloaded from the AMD source site every time a new kernel is released or the kernel you want to used permanently/current.

I understand the problem by installing the driver one by one on my kernel. If i installed the driver to the current kernel and boot to the old one the problem occurs but not the new one, In comparison if i installed driver in the old kernel the new one will suffer the problem not the old one..

4

When you replace your operating system, naturally your drivers are going to need to change. This is not unexpected.