AMD-INTEL hybrid graphics on Ubuntu 16.04
I saw many saying that the latest version of Ubuntu 16.04 includes an opensource driver for ATI. I have an HP laptop with AMD 6770m + Intel HD 3000 hybrid graphics and wants to install Kubuntu on it. I created a bootable USB drive of Kubuntu 16.04 and booted from it just to check everything works perfectly (I don't want to install it separately and ruin bootloader as of now). But my laptop is getting too hot and the battery is not lasting for more than 30 mins. Also the brightness control is not working at all and it stays high always.
How can I get hybrid graphics on Kubuntu/Ubuntu working well? I am ready to turn off the ATI card since I am not going to play any games on Linux. I just need the Intel graphics + Cool Laptop + Good battery Life + Brightness control.
My BIOS setting for switchable graphics mode is FIXED. Do I need to change it to DYNAMIC?
UPDATE
I wasn't able to make things work in 16.04 so installed 14.04 LTS along with the AMD Catalyst driver. Now everything works perfectly fine. Below are the steps.
- Clean install Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
- Install the fglrx catalyst drivers using “Additional Drivers” window. This will enable us to switch graphics
- Restart Ubuntu
- FAN Noise Fix - Refer this url and install i8kutils
- Brightness Control - Check this link
This is the official documentation for AMD/Intel hybrid graphics
Since there are no longer support for fglrx driver in Ubuntu 16.04, so it seems the built in radeon driver is the only way to solve this problem. First, you have to confirm that your ATI Radeon graphics card is supported by Xorg driver by typing man radeon in 16.04 terminal. Here is mine:
R100 Radeon 7200
RV100 Radeon 7000(VE), M6, RN50/ES1000
RS100 Radeon IGP320(M)
RV200 Radeon 7500, M7, FireGL 7800
RS200 Radeon IGP330(M)/IGP340(M)
RS250 Radeon Mobility 7000 IGP
R200 Radeon 8500, 9100, FireGL 8800/8700
RV250 Radeon 9000PRO/9000, M9
RV280 Radeon 9200PRO/9200/9200SE/9250, M9+
RS300 Radeon 9100 IGP
RS350 Radeon 9200 IGP
RS400/RS480 Radeon XPRESS 200(M)/1100 IGP
R300 Radeon 9700PRO/9700/9500PRO/9500/9600TX, FireGL X1/Z1
R350 Radeon 9800PRO/9800SE/9800, FireGL X2
R360 Radeon 9800XT
RV350 Radeon 9600PRO/9600SE/9600/9550, M10/M11, FireGL T2
RV360 Radeon 9600XT
RV370 Radeon X300, M22
RV380 Radeon X600, M24
RV410 Radeon X700, M26 PCIe
R420 Radeon X800 AGP
R423/R430 Radeon X800, M28 PCIe
R480/R481 Radeon X850 PCIe/AGP
RV505/RV515/RV516/RV550 Radeon X1300/X1400/X1500/X1550/X2300
R520 Radeon X1800
RV530/RV560 Radeon X1600/X1650/X1700
RV570/R580 Radeon X1900/X1950
RS600/RS690/RS740 Radeon X1200/X1250/X2100
R600 Radeon HD 2900
RV610/RV630 Radeon HD 2400/2600/2700/4200/4225/4250
RV620/RV635 Radeon HD 3410/3430/3450/3470/3650/3670
RV670 Radeon HD 3690/3850/3870
RS780/RS880 Radeon HD 3100/3200/3300/4100/4200/4250/4290
RV710/RV730 Radeon HD 4330/4350/4550/4650/4670/5145/5165/530v/545v/560v/565v
RV740/RV770/RV790 Radeon HD 4770/4730/4830/4850/4860/4870/4890
CEDAR Radeon HD 5430/5450/6330/6350/6370
REDWOOD Radeon HD 5550/5570/5650/5670/5730/5750/5770/6530/6550/6570
JUNIPER Radeon HD 5750/5770/5830/5850/5870/6750/6770/6830/6850/6870
CYPRESS Radeon HD 5830/5850/5870
HEMLOCK Radeon HD 5970
PALM Radeon HD 6310/6250
SUMO/SUMO2 Radeon HD 6370/6380/6410/6480/6520/6530/6550/6620
BARTS Radeon HD 6790/6850/6870/6950/6970/6990
TURKS Radeon HD 6570/6630/6650/6670/6730/6750/6770
CAICOS Radeon HD 6430/6450/6470/6490
CAYMAN Radeon HD 6950/6970/6990
ARUBA Radeon HD 7000 series
TAHITI Radeon HD 7900 series
PITCAIRN Radeon HD 7800 series
VERDE Radeon HD 7700 series
OLAND Radeon HD 8000 series
HAINAN Radeon HD 8000 series
BONAIRE Radeon HD 7790 series
KAVERI KAVERI APUs
KABINI KABINI APUs
HAWAII Radeon R9 series
MULLINS MULLINS APUs
If your graphics card is not listed, you should go back to Ubuntu 14.04 and use fglrx driver until your device supported by Ubuntu 16.04.
Next step, install your ubuntu 16.04 and update Ubuntu kernel to the latest stable kernel version. You can check your kernel version by typing in your terminal:
uname -r
Search for the latest kernel here. For the tutorial installing new kernel is available here.
After installing kernel, please reboot your computer and login using your new kernel.
To make your ATI Radeon graphics card fully detected by the OS, tell the kernel to load it by editing the grub:
- Open your GRUB configuration by typing in your terminal:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub - Add
modprobe radeon.modeset=1afterquiet splashcommand. Then it will be like this :" ... quiet splash modprobe radeon.modeset=1". Be sure there are nonomodesetin grub configuration. To finish, enter:ctrl+x, and typey, andEnter. - Run in your terminal
sudo update-grub. - Reboot your computer.
After your radeon graphics card recognized by the OS, of course you can switch to use Intel graphics card and disable the radeon one by adding some configuration. Create a script, place it somewhere in your home folder. In my case, I use this:
cd ~nano radeon_off-
Put the following in the script:
chown CHANGE_WITH_YOUR_USERNAME /sys/kernel/debug chown CHANGE_WITH_YOUR_USERNAME /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch echo DIS > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
To finish, enter:
ctrl+x, and typey, andEnter.Type:
chmod 755 radeon_off,Edit lightdm configuration by entering in your terminal:
sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.Add this line :
session-setup-script = /home/CHANGE_WITH_YOUR_USERNAME/radeon_offReboot.
To verify your radeon graphics card has been disabled, type sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch in your terminal. The results may be similar to this:
0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
1:DIS: :DynOff:0000:01:00.0
You need the DIS to have :DynOff value or maybe just :Off is fine.
18.04+ systems
The information in the first answer may be outdated. On newer Intel/AMD hybrid systems you can just set DRI_PRIME=1 env variable to use AMD GPU. Search for a newer question, like this.