Help - Running R9 290x graphics card headless in Linux
I had the same issue with my R290 cards and was able to have them work after initialiazing xinit:

Create an xinit file:

sudo vi /etc/init.d/xinit


Put inside:

#!/bin/bash
# standard functions library
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
# Start the xinit
start() {
        # Start xinit on background and redirect stdout and stderr to log file
        echo "Starting xinit"
        xinit &amp;&gt; /var/log/xinit.log &amp;
}
# Restart the xinit
stop() {
        echo "Stopping xinit"
        killall xinit
}
### main logic ###
case "$1" in
  start)
        start
        ;;
  stop)
        stop
        ;;
  status)
        status xinit
        ;;
  restart|reload|condrestart)
        stop
        start
        ;;
  *)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload|status}"
        exit 1
esac
exit 0
# end of file


ESC :wq  ==> to save and quit vi editor

Then make this script executable and set it up for automatic startup.

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/xinit 
sudo update-rc.d xinit defaults 90

export DISPLAY=:0
echo export DISPLAY=:0 &gt;&gt; ~/.bashrc

sudo reboot


It worked for me!

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P.S. xinit setup taken from http://infi.wikidot.com/blog:1