Ubuntu – Need help getting switchable graphics working under Ubuntu 14.10

aticatalystradeonswitchable-graphicsvaio

According to "Details" (System Settings–>Details), my Sony VAIO VPC-CB15F is using only my integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 graphics card (it says the graphics are "Intel Sandybridge Mobile"), however the "Additional Drivers" screen (System Settings–>Software & Updates–>Additional Drivers) seems to imply that I am using my AMD Radeon HD 6630M…

Yes, I have that stupid switchable graphics setup (never again, it's NVIDIA or nothing next time!).

Anyway, the "Additional Drivers" screen (System Settings–>Software & Updates–>Additional Drivers) says that I using "X.Org X Server – AMD/ATI display driver wrapper from xserver-xorg-video-ati (open source, tested)", however I see no way to change between the two graphics cards, use only my Radeon HD 6630M (which would be preferable anyway, if it works without issue) or identify which graphics card I am currently using…

If anyone can give me help getting my Radeon HD 6630M working exclusively or getting the switchable crap setup again (I just did a "clean" install of Ubuntu 14.10), I'd be most appreciative…

Best Answer

You'd better install the proprietary drivers from the release repository :

sudo apt-get install fglrx fglrx-core fglrx-amdcccle fglrx-pxpress
sudo ln -svT /usr/lib /usr/lib64 #Only for Ubuntu 64bits
sudo amdconfig --initial

never again, it's NVIDIA or nothing next time!

My previous laptop was nvidia hybrid and it was as difficult as for amd graphic cards to configure :)

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to re-configure graphics from Intel integrated to Intel / ATI switchable

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:

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

de-activate ATI VGA
```
sh test_off.sh
```
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)

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

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

Ubuntu – Switchable Graphics: Embeded graphics card problems

If you want to disable the AMD card, follow this link

Also you may want to uninstall the proprietary drivers :sudo apt-get remove fglrx*

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to re-configure graphics from Intel integrated to Intel / ATI switchable

Ubuntu – Switchable Graphics: Embeded graphics card problems

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