How to completely shutdown Ati card [duplicate]
I would like to know how do i prevent my Ati card from turning on when i enter on ubuntu 11.10. My bios only lets-me shutdown intel hd card or leave the both on but i want to know if is possbible to completely shutdown without having to access to the bios.( if is possible to turn of without using Vgaswitcheroo even better!)
My system is: Acer 3820tg-- intel core i3 350M, 2.26 Ghz L3, Ati Mobility Radeon HD 5470 up to 2138 MB hyper memory, 13,3" HD LED LCD, 4gb DDR3, SSD corsair 60GB sata 2.
EDIT: I now know what is missing on the answers! What only i had to do was: I edited /etc/rc.local file and added the next lines:
sleep 6
echo ON > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
- echo IGD > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
- echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
And then save the file and restart. It wasn't need to do anything more. It should be possible to use only the intel card now. By the way, i didn't blacklisted the radeon driver because doing it make my ati card wake up. (use it at your own risk. i only tested in my system)
Second edit: For those using this to use the intel card, pay attention because adding the sleep 6 to /etc/rc.local might disable your sound card making ubuntu only show a dummy card in sound settings (i noticed this problem in ubuntu versions after to 12.04.2 hardware stack enabled version). To fix this you need to remove the sleep 6.
You can blacklist its kernel module. You can do that by editing blacklist.conf
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
You should probably add something like this:
blacklist fglrx
blacklist radeon
alias radeon off
alias lbm-radeon off
That will blacklist ATIs proprietary driver (fglrx) as well as its opensource counterpart.
Edit:
Ok, how about using vgaswitcheroo then? Add those lines to your /etc/rc.local file before exit 0:
modprobe radeon
echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
That should work.
I have a HP Pavilion dm4t-1100 (also with ATI 5470) and there is advanced hidden mode in the BIOS with more options. Press A and hold it while entering BIOS (for example if you enter BIOS with F10, press F10 and A at the same time) and you should see more menus.
The advanced mode gives following options for the card: dGPU, iGPU, hybrid.
Hybrid option powers on both cards, so after booting Linux will be able to access both and vgaswitcheroo is active and before starting X you can switch to which one you want.
For me, dGPU-only option does not work - the laptop freezes with a black screen and caps lock led flashing and I have to do a power off, after which everything is back to the default setting - Hybrid.
iGPU-only works and turns off ATI, so after boot lspci no longer shows ATI card - only Intel works and vgaswitcheroo is not started at all (/sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo directory does not exist at all).