Ubuntu – How to review the current state of open source vs. closed source graphics drivers

I found a solution for while googling. You have to put a script in rc.local specifying which VGA you want to use.

This link explains everything.

I will post important notes here:

1. First install needed driver and script from git

   sudo apt-get install git && cd ~/  
   git clone https://github.com/mkottman/acpi_call.git  
   cd acpi_call && make  
   sudo insmod acpi_call.ko  
   chmod a+x test_off.sh
   

2. de-activate ATI VGA

   sh test_off.sh
   

3. Now you can check if your ATI VGA is already disabled by lspci -vnnn | grep VGA.
   It will show the following output:

   00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc NI Seymour [AMD Radeon HD 3650M] [1002:6760] (rev ff) (prog-if ff)

4. If it works, to make this run at boot, edit /etc/rc.local:

   sudo insmod /acpi_call/acpi_call.ko
   sudo sh /acpi_call/test_off.sh
   

5. Also, remove radeon blacklisting by editing /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:

   #blacklist radeon
   

   You should have xorg.conf like this to make VGA detectable :

    Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "aticonfig Layout"
    Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
    EndSection
   
    Section "Module"
    Load "glx"
    EndSection
   
    Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
    Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
    Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
    Option "DPMS" "true"
    EndSection
   
    Section "Device"
    Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
    # Driver "fglrx"
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
    EndSection
   
    # Section "Screen"
    # Identifier "Default Screen"
    # DefaultDepth 24
    # EndSection
   
    Section "Screen"
    Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
    Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
    Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
    Viewport 0 0
    Depth 24
    EndSubSection
    EndSection
   

Note: To activate ATI/AMD radeon VGA again: Just comment what we've added to rc.local

Solution 2

I found this solution from askubuntu.com, I might be easier to put into practice:

This question assumes using vga_switcheroo.

Add this to /etc/fstab:

none  /sys/kernel/debug debugfs defaults 0 0

Most of the open source drivers you'll find may produce better graphical output than the proprietary do. Sometimes you won't even notice a difference. And sometimes an open source driver works much worse than the proprietary one. I will not make a general recommendation on which to use, but here are some cases, in which certain drivers are better than others:

• If you have a nVidia card with Optimus, you should install the open source driver from the Bumblebee Project. This is the only driver supporting Optimus on Linux. you should either install the open source driver from the Bumblebee Project, or any nVidia proprietary driver, but not the Xorg driver, as it currently doesn't support discrete graphics.
• If you want to use CUDA (nVidia's stuff for executing functions on the GPU), you should use the proprietary driver.
• If you want to use OpenCL (something like CUDA, developed by Khronos), you have to use the proprietary driver.

If none of these applies to you, it's up to you which driver you use. If you don't have any problems with the current driver, I wouldn't change it. You never know whether another one will even work at all. However, if you want to take the risk, try the drivers suggested in Software & Updates → Additional Drivers and find out which one works best.