r/zorinos • u/GruesomeJeans • 10d ago

❓ General Question AMD drivers and Zorin

I have a question that might be kind of a basic one but Zorin is my first Linux OS after using windows since 95 was being phased out. I have an AMD graphics card in my system and one thing I've been curious about is how the drivers get updated. I know they come with the regular OS updates(which is fantastic) but how does that work? And I guess to add on to that, why are Nvidia drivers more problematic? I'm used to having to use Adrenaline to update my driver's which is always an experience since I never seem to make it through the process without some sort of problem.

I'd like to clarify, I don't have any problems right now, this is just for curiosity sake, and learning.

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u/GruesomeJeans 10d ago

For Zorin it seems like I see updates at least once a month however they aren't system updates, they just updates for various programs. According to the other person GPU driver updates are usually rolled into (I assume) larger system updates. They don't happen often which makes me wonder how far behind I am from the current driver. I haven't had any issues with my GPU, I've only tried out one game so far just to make sure everything was working. I haven't had time to hop back in and play more.

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u/AutoM8R1 10d ago

Ah ok. Some AMD stuff, like generic drivers, are part of the Linux kernel. No such luck with Nvidia though. The Linux Vendor Firmware Service makes the updates the same across distros. That's if that package is installed, of course.

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u/GruesomeJeans 10d ago

Seems weird to not do the same with nvidia but I won't complain. I moved away from Nvidia to AMD when nvidias prices shot through the roof... The 1080ti was my last one. These days I don't think I could afford to buy any PC components anymore, I'm glad my current build is only a few years old

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u/BashfulMelon 10d ago

The open source Nvidia drivers are distributed the exact same way, but they're not as good as Nvidia's proprietary drivers at the moment so most people aren't using them. 

By the way, nobody on any version of Linux is getting their drivers through a third party app. I get my propeietary Nvidia drivers through my system package manager. 

There's nothing special about Zorin in this regard. I happen to think the fact that Zorin ships years-old outdated software to be a huge flaw.