Ubuntu – How to get AMD/Intel Hybrid Graphics drivers to work

aticatalystfglrxhybrid-graphics

On Ubuntu 12.04 my Sony Vaio VPCSE with Intel® HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M worked fine with the Catalyst Control Center version 12.6. Also the switching between integrated and discrete graphic card was working.

In both cases, I followed this tutorial.

But it is not working on Ubuntu 12.10.

I tested the tutorial with the Catalyst Control Center from the Ubuntu Software Center, the version 12.8 and version 12.9. Always the same problem: After installation process I am able to boot in the login-screen. But after entering the password for my username, only the background-image appears. Unity seems not to be starting. I am only able to reach the context-menu by right clicking the mouse button.

I also tried his fix, but is also does not work for me.

Any ideas what to do to fix this problem?

Update:
Same problem on Ubuntu 13.04!

Update:
Solution for 13.04 ist not working on Ubuntu 13.10!

Best Answer

For 13.04:

Pre-Install:

Three terminal-commands:

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6
sudo apt-get install dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 dh-modaliases
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic xserver-xorg-core libgcc1

Additional two terminal-commands for 64-bit:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs lib32gcc1 libc6-i386
cd /usr ; sudo ln -svT lib /usr/lib64

(Note: The second command shouldn't be necessary if there is already such a symbolic link named lib64 pointing to folder lib there. And if there is already a real folder by that name (determined with ls -l /usr/lib64), you should ensure that its contents are safely moved into folder /usr/lib and then delete --the now empty-- folder /usr/lib64 before executing this command).

Download from these direct-links: libudev0_175-0ubuntu13_amd64.deb.

and (the older intel driver - xserver-xorg - see also section "Important" on answer for 12.10. I think this would also be very important here.)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0tTaH4qTIIXdDF3NThFWUtrYlU/edit?usp=sharing

Copy these files (two .deb packages) into an empty folder.

Remove the old drivers:

sudo apt-get remove fglrx*
sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel

Execute the following two terminal-commands in the folder with downloaded .deb files:

sudo dpkg -i libudev*
sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.21.6-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb

Prevent xserver-xorg-video-intel from being upgraded:

sudo apt-mark hold xserver-xorg-video-intel

Installation:

Get the current ATI Catalyst driver e.g. 13.04 (I have tested it with this release) from the official website: www.amd.com/drivers

Unzip the .zip and make it executable. Then go to the folder with the unzipped .run-file in terminal and type: 

sudo sh ./amd-catalyst-XX.X-linux-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring

Replace XXX with the correct name of the file.

Install the created .deb-files with the following terminal-command in the current directory:

sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb

Post-Install:

Enter the terminal command

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
sudo aticonfig --initial -f

(Note: If you use multiple AMD graphics cards or AMD dual graphics, you can use sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initial -f instead, and/or if you use a dual monitor display, you can also use this additional third command: sudo aticonfig --set-pcs-str="DDX,EnableRandR12,FALSE")

Select the discrete GPU

sudo aticonfig --px-dgpu

Reboot your system

sudo reboot

Links:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1930450

My Scripts for Switching

Script for High-GPU-Mode:

#!/bin/bash
# Activate discrete GPU (High-Performance mode), must re-start X to take effect
sudo aticonfig --px-dgpu
sudo restart lightdm

Script for Low-GPU-Mode:

#!/bin/bash
# Activate integrated GPU (Power-Saving mode), must re-start X to take effec
sudo aticonfig --px-igpu
sudo restart lightdm

Script for showing current GPU-Mode:

#!/bin/bash
#Show current GPU (High- or Low-Performance mode) as notification
aticonfig --pxl | while read SPAM_OUT; do notify-send "$SPAM_OUT"; done

Note: If you always have problems after the execution of a Switching-Script, make a restart of your system (and not only a re-login).

New!!! INDICATOR for Switching:

To switch between Discrete (AMD) and Integrated (Intel) GPUs nice and easy way, go to https://github.com/beidl/amd-indicator, and then download and install the DEB file there. enter image description here

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