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How can I disable ATI discrete graphic GPU at startup in Ubuntu 14.04 without BIOS?

I could disable ATI discrete graphics in Ubuntu 13.10 with this command:

echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

But in Ubuntu 14.04 it does not work. cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch shows the same:

0:IGD:+:DynPwr:0000:01:05.0 
1:DIS-Audio: :Pwr:0000:02:00.1 
2:DIS: :DynPwr:0000:02:00.0 

What should I do in Ubuntu 14.04?

Amd Radeons Overscan is reset after every boot

I have an AMD Radeon 6850 in my set up which is connected to my monitor via an hdmi cable. After installing the latest fglrx drivers, version 12.6, I need to drag the overscan slider all the way to the right to make the desktop properly fit my monitor. But now after every reboot the overscan image is very small and there is about a 2 inch large border around my display. When I open Catalyst Control Center the overscan slider is still as far to the right as possible, but when I slide it all the way to the left and then to the right again it fits my screen perfectly. How to I stop this small inconvenience?

High temperature in a AMD Radeon HD4000/3000 series after upgrade

I was running 12.04 with Unity 3D for 6 months; my laptop ran almost silently and cool enough to hold on my lap with ~4 hours of battery life. I updated to 12.10 and switched to the Gnome 3 Shell. Now my computer gets too hot to hold on my lap, the fan is constantly running on full blast, and I have about 45 minutes of battery life. The behavior is consistent between battery power and A/C power. This is the output of sensors:

acpitz-virtual-0 
Adapter: Virtual device 
temp1:        +84.0°C  (crit = +99.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +84.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) 
Core 0:         +74.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) 
Core 1:         +72.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) 
Core 2:         +75.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) 
Core 3:         +84.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

radeon-pci-0100 
Adapter: PCI adapter 
temp1:        +76.0°C

I have an HP Pavilion dv6, Intel i7, AMD Radeon graphics. Please let me know if you need additional information.

What could be different between these two Ubuntu editions that caused such a drastic change?

Edit 1:

Per @Paul's suggestion, I ran htop to try to narrow down the problem. Here is the result!

(left side of terminal)

(right side of terminal)

This is about 10 minutes after boot-up, htop, yakuake, and a chrome page with 1 tab opened to this question are all that I have manually opened. The most taxing program to the CPU is htop itself. I think that the problem must lie elsewhere; my temps are already up to ~65C for the CPU and ~69C for the GPU, with nearly 0% CPU usage.

Edit 2:

As requested by @psusi, here is the output of 2 tabs from powertop (changed my colors for readability):

Again, all I am manually running is one google-chrome tab and a yakuake terminal. I am fairly new to powertop, so I am unsure how to interpret this. Let me know if you need info from the other tabs.

Edit 3:

I was having battery issues with 12.04 and fixed those by changing some lines in /etc/default/grub; credit this question.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pcie_aspm=force"

I have kept these lines the same after updating to 12.10. Do these look OK?

Edit 4:

@Arup Roy Chowdhury mentioned that my AMD drivers might not be installed correctly. I am currently using the following driver (output from software-properties-gtk):

Should I be using a proprietary driver instead? The gnome-shell seems to be running graphics acceleration OK with the open source one.

Edit 5:

@hazrpg I have posted the log files you requested to Ubuntu Pastebin. Here is the dmesg.log, lspci.log, and lsusb.log. See any issues?

Edit 6:

@Sepero Here are my idle temps. I am only running one terminal ~10 minutes after bootup.

acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +64.0°C  (crit = +99.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +63.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

Core 0:         +62.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:         +60.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:         +60.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:         +63.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

radeon-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +68.0°C 

Just opening google-chrome to paste this edit for a minute has raised those temperatures by a few degrees each. My computer was not in the 60s prior to the update.

FIXED!!:

Problem solved. Thank you to @DrA7 and @YellowApple to pointing me in the direction of graphics card problems. I found this wonderful question and implemented @Nick Andrik's solution. In a nutshell, installing the proprietary drivers (fglrx-updates) from ppa:andrikos solved the problem. I can now use ATI Catalyst to choose my power mode and which graphics card (Intel or AMD) I want to use. My temperatures are down to ~44 degrees and battery life is up to ~4 hours again. I also installed Jupiter, which improved battery and temperatures further.

The open source drivers for AMD seem to be getting better, however it looks like their support for hybrid graphics cards (like mine) is not quite up to spec. Use the proprietary drivers for now.

Gnome-shell does not display top toolbar panel using a Mobility Radeon 5650

Gnome shell installed through software centre does not display top toolbar panel properly (missing text and icons), and when one of the icons on it eg user's name is clicked the menu popup has missing text. Also when searching for application after pressing the super key, the filter list on the right is also missing random text letters often replaced by small rectangular [] shape.

EDIT: It's the ATI drivers (using Mobility Radeon 5650), but after it's un-installed gnome-panel falls back to classic only and the system has to be reinstalled for the gnome-panel to work again. If the ATI drivers are not installed even the login screen lags when typing password. Also the ATI (post-release) driver never installs properly, the standard however does.

AMD/ATI drivers from website vs. proprietary drivers in Ubuntu 12.04 Repos?

I have 2 questions regarding to different AMD Radeon drivers:

1. What is the difference between the 3?

   • AMD/ATI Driver ( 12.04 Repo )
   • AMD/ATI Driver, Post release update ( 12.04 Repo )
   • AMD/ATI Driver 12.4 ( AMD Website )

2. If I install the "Post release update" driver from Ubuntu Repos; Will I get future driver updates from Ubuntu, In other words what's Ubuntu Radeon driver update policy?

Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000 on Ubuntu 12.04.2 and higher: fglrx (legacy) unsupported, what to do?

After upgrading to 12.10 quantal, the packaged version of fglrx no longer works. I discovered that this is because there is a separate 'legacy' fglrx driver for the HD 2k-4k series cards, but it is incompatible with the xorg server on 12.10.

This is the most current version of the driver for HD 2000 through HD 4000 series cards. You can't use the non-legacy fglrx driver, but you can use the open-source radeon driver if you prefer your WM compositing to be laggy and your YouTube videos to play like they would on a Pentium MMX series:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/catalyst126legacyproducts.aspx

Usually this driver can be installed in the following way, necessary because apt-get install fglrx would pull in the non-legacy driver:

wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/legacy/amd-driver-installer-12.6-legacy-x86.x86_64.zip
unzip amd-driver-installer-*
sudo sh ./amd-driver-installer-*.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/quantal
sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb
sudo aticonfig --initial -f

If you use a different version of fglrx (for example, a newer 12.9 that doesn't support those cards) then the final command will give you an error no supported hardware detected or something similar. However, everything works at this point and you will get a reasonable xorg.conf:

... other stuff

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
        Driver      "fglrx"
        BusID       "PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

... other stuff

At this point you're supposed to reboot and everything will be working with the fglrx driver. However, upon rebooting, you'll be treated to the following errors in Xorg.0.log when fglrx attempts to load:

(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so: undefined symbol: noXFree86DRIExtension

Some searching around will show that this is a problem with the legacy ATI drivers not supporting xserver 1.13 or newer. (Arch Linux thread) ATI has released a fixed driver for its most recent (HD 5000 series or later) cards, but not for the 'legacy' cards yet. The non-legacy ATI drivers can't be used with the old cards.

What should an Ubuntu user, using one of these HD 2000-4000 series cards, do?

1. Wait for an updated 'legacy' ATI driver that properly works with xserver 1.13?
2. Downgrade back to 12.04 Precise, which uses xserver 1.11?
3. Try to downgrade xserver on 12.10 Quantal to 1.12, which could possibly break Unity and GNOME?
4. Forced upgrade to HD 5000 series or later card? (Not possible with integrated graphics...)
5. Some other 1337 action that fixes this problem painlessly?

Suspend not working on Ubuntu 16.04 for Dell 3537

I was on Ubuntu (vanilla, with Unity) 14.04 until yesterday, and since the new LTS version came out, I decided to go for an Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 clean install.

Since I installed Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 (64-bit), I have issues with the suspend mode (I did not have this problem on 14.04) on my Dell Inspiron 3537.

When I choose to suspend the session, the screen turns black, the fans go off for a few seconds (2 or 3 seconds), then they restart going faster and faster. I have to force shutdown (hold press power button) the computer to be able to restart it.

I did some research, and found out that Ubuntu 16.04 doesn't support the AMD Radeon proprietary graphic drivers. I don't know if it's related or not, but since I have an AD Radeon HD8850M, I ran an lspci | grep VGA and here is the result:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Venus PRO [Radeon HD 8850M / R9 M265X] (rev ff)

Also, I have the open-source drivers installed:

$ sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-ati is already the newest version (1:7.7.0-1).

If you need any other information, please let met know.

How to install Radeon Open Source Driver?

I have an MSI Radeon HD 7850 card. MSI provide no Linux support, and the AMD driver gives me an Unsupported Hardware watermark that does not show up in screenshots.

I uninstalled the proprietary driver and found that Unity 3D no longer works, and I really only picked Ubuntu because of the excellent shortcuts provided in the recent versions.

Trying to locate the open source driver has been a pain for me. According to the documentation I have read it is pre-included in Ubuntu 12.04, yet there is no Unity 3D support. I tried using the newest drivers from AMD's website, but that also had the watermark.

Does anyone know how I can get the open source driver? If not, does anyone know how to remove the watermark. I'm on the verge of going back to Windows.

No sound on HDMI with Radeon driver

My PC has a build-in VT1828S chip. The connection between PC and monitor (which has built-in speakers) is through an HDMI cable.

Audio preferences shows 2 devices for audio output: analog stereo and RS880 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4200] digital stereo (HDMI).

When I plug a headphone in the rear jack and I choose the former device, everything works. When I choose the latter device, instead, no sound is heard, and video playback is too fast. It is as if video frames want to synchronise with the audio timing, but the audio timing information is wrong.

HDMI audio worked perfectly with Ubuntu 11.04, but stopped after 11.10 upgrade.

System info showing VESA even after installing the officical AMD drivers [closed]

I've installed the AMD Catalyst drivers on 11.10 but still the System Info window shows VESA. Is it still using the generic VESA drivers or is it just a bug ??

Dual Monitor in 12.04 - Sort of works

Not an error, per se, more of an observation. Since upgrading to 12.04, I have found and solved some interesting problems. Given my complete lack of Ubuntu knowledge, this has indeed made me feel more than a little cocky. However, the one (!) thing I cannot figure out is the whole Dual Monitor setup.

Anyway, the blah bit... Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 3530, ATI Radeon 3200 HD Series, 4GB RAM 1TB HDD and so on, generic HDMI monitor. Got the GNOME fglrx loaded with the kosher latest ATI driver (but not the post update one, that one just will not activate)

Now, in 11.10, it just wouldn't work, at all, not even when tempted with tasty treats and promises of great pleasure. Still, I persisted and, when I noticed the 2nd Monitor working with the 12.04 Try Out DVD, I went for it.

After getting 12.04 running, the HDMI still shows nothing but blue screen on the telly, telling me 'No Signal". On VGA, if I attempt to set it as a second monitor, I get two errors:

The selected configuration could not be applied

required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(2880, 900), minimum=(320, 200), maximum=(1600, 1600)

Then, click Close and you get the following:

GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._gnome_2drr_2derror_2dquark.Code3: required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(2880, 900), minimum=(320, 200), maximum=(1600, 1600)

But, if I mirror the display, it works on the monitor, no problem.

So, the fact that it is not working IS NOT MY FAULT!

Any one get any suggestions?

Ta.

Mark

How to change the graphics card driver via terminal?

I recently tried changing the driver for my Asus Radeon HD 7870 to the proprietary one (a friend told me it was much faster), however that seems to have killed my install of Ubuntu. Now whenever I boot up it shows me GRUB, I select Ubuntu, and then it boots up for a second or two and then blackscreens. I think the blackscreen is caused by it reaching the login screen, as it is also at that point that I can SSH into it.

So can anyone tell me how to switch back to the open source driver?

Edit: And I'll add, when I boot Ubuntu off of a USB, everything works fine.

Edit: Ok here my process is for the driver.

1. Install Radeon HD 7870 in my system
2. Boot up, everything is working fine automatically
3. I go and check and it is using the open source driver (I checked by going into the Software and Updates program and going to the driver tab)
4. A friend recommends I switch to the propietary one as it is faster (I believe it was something along the lines of flgrx-updates)
5. I go into the Software and Updates program, and navigate to the drivers tab. From there I selected the flgrx-updates one and hit ok.
6. I reboot my system, and then it won't work. After some basic troubleshooting, I come here.

Update: Thanks to gertvdijk I have managed to disable the propietary driver, but Ubuntu still will not beat up. I'm guessing that for whatever reason the open source driver has not been automatically enabled. Anyone have any ideas? Are there any system logs I can give you guys to help find the problem?

How to change from Unity 2D to 3D?

I have been trying to run MyUnity, and it's been working fine until today, when it comes up with the message:

So, apparently I am running Unity-2D. So I did a little command-line search withecho $DESKTOP_SESSION and sure enough, it spat out simply "ubuntu-2d".

I have been using Ubuntu Tweak and perhaps I did something stupid in there, but I don't think it even had a feature like that. I've also noticed the clear differences in Ubuntu 2D to Ubuntu 3D, as well.

I have 12.04 Ubuntu. So is it possible for me to "revert" back to Ubuntu/Unity 3D?

Edit: My graphic card is a 2GB dedicated AMD Radeon HD 7750, which I've come to think needs to be upgraded 12.6 version. I'll try this and let you know the of the outcome, thanks so much for helping.

Result: after successfully updating the graphics card, I now can run 3D. Thanks so much to all of you and I'm sorry for such an unusual question!

HDMI Audio stops after TV turned off

After the 12.04 Update my HDMI audio stops working anytime I turn off my 2nd monitor(plasma TV). Graphics card is a Radeon 6800 which has DVI out to 1st monitor, HDMI out to receiver which the TV gets it's Audio/Video. Audio is always via my receiver sound.

Things work fine as long as it boots with the TV and Receiver on. Turn off the TV and BART's HDMI audio will go away, and the HDMI option vanishes from the sound menu. I had an occasional HDMI issue with 11.10 but turning on/off the TV would fix the sound. How can I hardcode things so that it always uses HDMI out of audio? I suspect the TV is sending a signal upon that 12.04 is now listening for. Turning the TV back on does NOT resolve this, and I'd suggest having the ability to override this new "feature" via sound menu.

Now that Mesa 9.2 stable is a out, is there a way to upgrade to it in Ubuntu 13.04 without using unstable ppas?

I have a notebook with an AMD graphics card and I use it for games occasionally. The performance in Ubuntu 13.04 using open-source drivers is only OK, but I understand that mesa 9.2, combined with a new kernel (I have 3.11rc7 already installed) should improve performance a lot.

I had bad experiences using unstable PPAs in the past (like x-edgers) so I decided to wait for a stable version of Mesa. Now that it is out, will it be uploaded to standard Ubuntu repositories? If not, is there a stable Mesa PPA or something similar?