Hybrid Intel + Mobility Radeon HD 5650/5750 / 6530M/6550M

[QuimNuss]

I'll post as solved although I couldn't max out the graphic card.

[QuimNuss]

It's important to note that the switcheroo commands only work if you're root. Sometimes I got different output when running the commands as sudo instead of root.

Long story short:
replace nomodeset for modeset=1 in file /etc/default/grub

sudo su
vim /etc/default/grub
update-grub
reboot

upon reboot, switch to a terminal with ctrl+alt+f1, stop the window manager with

sudo service lightdm stop

turn off the integrated card and on the discrete with

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

restart the window manager

sudo service lightdm start

And voilà.

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

should report your discrete card, as well as

cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

If you want to turn off the discrete do the same but use

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

The status of the card it's not saved between sessions and both are ON by default. I think the discrete card is completelly ignored when both are on (at least glxinfo uses the intel one when both are on). I haven't yet searched how to change the 'default' state or keep the last status, but it's definitely possible, I'll find out later on.

[Tinek]

Hey!

I'm glad to finally see someone with the exact same config and troubles!

On my side I'm not trying to get anything from the radeon discrete card cause the only gpu-intensive application I'd use are still Win-hosted but the overheating is really a pain in the...

I'm now (since a few days) using Xubuntu 14.10. And I think that I've not been able to get the laptop under 90°C since 13.10.

So far I've tried :
- fglrx drivers (never worked since 10.04)
- acpi_calls back in the day (don't work since 11.4)
- vga_switcheroo stopped working from 13.10
-I thought of underclocking through rovclock to improve autonomy but the soft is too old by now and doesn't support our cards anymore.
- new power management routines (dynpm...) never worked for me.

Like you I found the way to get vgaswitcheroo working (but on 14.10) but that's pretty random (and not working anymore since 2 days).

I'll try later later on a fresh install and keep you updated.

[QuimNuss]

Great!

You can try if vga_switcheroo works from a liveCD/LiveUSB.

[Tinek]

I won't give up on this one!

After a fresh install I had some really nice results. I mean less than 10w consumptions and a global 45°C.
This thanks to the improvements made in latests radeon drivers and through tlp, which handle fairly well the radeon power management.

Sadly upon reboot, system gets random again. Try to pass a lot different grub parameters about power management, but I'm still booting 1/10. Not an option for me.
Looks like both the i915 and radeon drivers are fighting during boot time to get the priority, and there I don't have the knowledge to do much.

The only I can think of solving that would be to start the laptop with no radeon module and the load it back after, but that's definitely not the aim of that thread!..

Will give it a try under 14.04 (and keep on digging the web for 14.10), as it's supposed to be more stable.

And I would strongly suggest you to keep on digging around the PRIME technology, if you don't want to bother with the switching thing. It would allow you to have some windows rendered by one or the other gpu :
-ati for game.
-system default for the rest.
that would not be a long term solution but might help you to get the results you're looking for!

Good luck!

[Tinek]

PRIME informations may be founf here : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PRIME

Cheers

[Tinek]

Update for me :

System finally usable through acpi_call (after 4 re-installation!), ie ATI disabled.
For those that it might help full system is Acer Aspire 4820TG with i5/HD5650, Xubuntu 14.10, latest (regular) everything as of 10/31/14.

The dpm use only leads to bad power management and it seems that there is some kind of weird struggle between the i915 and radeon drivers that prevents from booting and keeping the system stable.
I hope I'll have the time to fill a bug report soon to help improvements on stability/usability on a spare install, just don't really know how procced/start from.

[QuimNuss]

** WARNING **

On reboot today I got a black screen after a certain delay with the following message on dmesg:
[...]
[ 47.313515] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: Start delayed initialization
[ 47.418106] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: CORB reset timeout#2, CORBRP = 65535
[ 47.418220] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: no AFG or MFG node found
[ 47.418299] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: no AFG or MFG node found
[ 47.418352] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: no AFG or MFG node found
[ 47.418380] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: no AFG or MFG node found
[ 47.418403] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: no codecs initialized
[ 47.418425] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: initialization error
[ 53.195954] systemd-logind[1060]: Failed to start unit user@1000.service: Unknown unit: user@1000.service
[ 53.195961] systemd-logind[1060]: Failed to start user service: Unknown unit: user@1000.service
[...]

I don't know if it's related to modprobing in and out snd_hda_intel but it's likely. After 3 reboots and modprobing in and out, adding the line 'sleep 10' before exec lightdm on file /etc/init/lightdm.conf (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...dm/+bug/969489) seems to have fixed it, although the message in dmesg is still there. So proceed with caution. I'm trying to find out how to get rid of those messages as we speak.

(maybe it's better to use rmmod and insmod instead of modprobe -r and modprobe... I don't know what's the difference.)

*****
Some more info on vga_switcheroo:

If, once lightdm has been stopped you still get

client 101 refused to switch

The 101 refers to snd_hda_intel so you can solve this by removing the module, switching switcheroo and then reload the module:

sudo su
modprobe -r snd_hda_intel
echo DIS > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
modprobe snd_hda_intel

This happens because sound is also on the intel chip, so it refuses to switch it off while in use.

I'm getting better and better at this.

[topdawg7793]

Something tells me you're close...

I too have a 4820tg and have tried on-and-off over the last couple years to get my card working in Ubuntu and I just haven't ever had luck! The driver on AMD's official site lists the Mobility Radeon 5000 series as being supported but every time I try to install their driver my computer goes into low graphics mode. I haven't had luck with switcheroo since 12.04 (currently on 14.04).

I would really love to at least be able to turn my discrete card off so my computer isn't always operating at a million degrees...I'll make an effort tomorrow and see if I can figure something out and I'll post here. Glad I'm not the only one with these issues!

UPDATE: Nvm on the switcheroo, it's definitely working. echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch seems to have turned off my discrete gpu as my computer isn't producing as much as heat as it normally does. cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch shows the discrete gpu is off as well. Welp, progress..Still can't get it to switch to my discrete though.

[simon75]

Woah !!! Hi there, just found this post! I had the same problem, I'm using a mobility hd radeon 5450... and it really seems like 5xxx series are in between everything

I can confirm that vga_switcheroo seems to be the only solution to use the discrete card and that proprietary driver are just messing up more.
I am stuck though. Vga switcheroo works fine, switching on/off and switching gpu, but when I restart lightdm after switching for the DIS something is not going right. I get the default wallpaper of ubuntu and my cursor, but nothing else is showing up. no loggin prompt

I'm pretty new to all this and I just want to be able to run my discrete card. I'm assuming lightdm is looking for the ATI card when it boots to render his things and then it just can't find it and do nothing ?
I know you guys have a lot to work on for yourself, but I you can think of where I should start looking it would be really nice to share it. Either there is some config for lightdm referring to the ati card that I need to change, or there is another ways to start lightdm and reconfigure it at the same time so it can detect the "new" hardware he will have to use ? Or maybe it is possible to log in X even if lightdm is messed up through the terminal, so X boot and hopefully he fixes whatever is happening ?

Anyway, thank you for the thread, your explaination are as clear as source water, and I think I would have never figured out what that modeset=1 was reffering to without you !