Ubuntu – Disable discrete graphics card permanently

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Just installed Ubuntu 16.04 in a dual boot with Win 7. My graphics card, AMD Radeon HD 6770M is fried, and hangs and then crashes the computer the moment it's activated. So I've been running my Win 7 with only the integrated card for a while, which is what I wanted to do with Linux.

When I installed Ubuntu, I unchecked the 'install third party updates and drivers' only to prevent installation of the AMD driver, but it apparently either comes pre-installed with drivers or downloads them in the background. It was installed within a minute of the first boot.

I tried what's given in this: How can I disable ATI discrete graphic GPU at startup in Ubuntu 14.04 without BIOS?

Editing the file – edit the file /etc/default/grub >> adding radeon.runpm=0 in the call to the current kernel.

After this and a few thing given in similar links I can't even boot in failsafe recovery mode, it seems to auto activate the problem GPU then as well.

  • My BIOS doesn't allow me to disable the dedicated GPU.

The reason I jumped to Linux on my home comp was because I was frustrated with Win 10's tendency to download and install the drivers, but it seems Ubuntu is doing the same as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Specs: HP Pavilion dv6t-6000 quad    
• Proc: i7-2630QM    
• GFX Dedicated: 1GB DDR5 Radeon HD 6770M     
• GFX Integrated: Intel HD 3000    
• Motherboard: Intel HM65

//My thread about the same problem in Win 10: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-3111372/windows-auto-updating-radeon-6770m-video-driver-crash.html

Best Answer

Open a terminal and execute : 

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Add radeon.modeset=0 to the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

so that it reads : GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.modeset=0"

Save this change and update the GRUB configuration : sudo update-grub

Reboot the system, now you use the intel graphics and AMD is deactivated.

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