Problems with Ubuntu and AMD A10-4655M APU

Solution 1:

Install the proprietary Catalyst drivers AMD website. (Ensure you chose Linux as the OS.) This will solve all display problems.

You can also install them from System - Additional Drivers. Your display chip will be detected and Ubuntu will let you download and install it.

UPDATE (05-Nov-2012): I got a new laptop with an APU and I ran into the same problems. Here is how you can fix the problems.

1. Download the latest 12.10 driver from AMD website.
2. Install the driver following the instructions given at the unofficial wiki at http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu

If you have a 64-bit system, you will need to install ia32 libs.

If the installation failed or did not work, then restart the computer with the failsafe version of the kernel at the Grub2 bootscreen menu. Press e to edit the failsafe option and then replace "ro single" with "rw xforcevesa"

Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to go to a TTY screen. Kill the desktop with

sudo service gdm stop

or

sudo service lightdm stop

Run the AMD driver with sudo sh

Choose the second option of building the distribution-specific installer. (This will save you the trouble of uninstalling failed drivers.)

If the fglrx*.deb got created, install them as specified in the wiki.

Before you restart, run this command

sudo /usr/bin/aticonfig --initial

Run the command sudo reboot to restart the computer.

Solution 2:

My a10-4600m notebook works with the 12.10 beta 1 only if you press Shift while booting to load the Grub menu and then when when the boot with so and so kernel or safe mode and other options, press the e key and then where it says quiet boot erase that and enter nomodeset instead.

That will give you a ugly boot screen but at least the screen wont cut out after the purple bit. After that you can enjoy the broken version of Unity, hopefully they will have that fixed by the time you install it.

I think the boot to black screen thing is a kernel thing because OpenSuse 12.8 Chakra 12.9 or anything with a kernel version from 3.4~3.5 wont boot without nomodeset. Maybe it will be fixed in a future kernel release.