Announcement

**OneLine** · Aug 26, 2012, 06:42 AM

Earlier: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...t-12-2-(64bit)
=> The 12.8 is working at here...

How did you install it ? Third party deb's ? Your own deb's ?
Have you tried to purge the fglrx ?
Are you using the xorg.conf ?

Are you using the KDM, LightDM ?
-> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1965834

... X did not start...

Did you try to start the X manually ?
Did the X start ?
Was there any error messages ?

**Thiudans** · Aug 26, 2012, 04:04 PM

OneLine,

Thanks for your time!

I installed the packages I created using the --buildpkg switch. I did all the steps and still no change. I did look in the X logs and I noticed that when X loaded the integrated GPU--the Radeon HD 4200, was detected, and when X did not load it was not. After some Google sleuthing, I discovered that the ATI 4xxx chips are not supported after driver version 12.6, and I am using 12.8. Not only that, but newer versions of X will not be supported for 4xxx chips so this is a short term dead end for my system and Linux. So I think I have three options:

1) Use open source drivers
2) Never upgrade my system
3) Disable the integrated GPU

When I use the OS drivers, the laptop gets hot and the fan is on all the time. and by hot I mean HOT--it is not comfortable to have on my lap. I also suspect it will damage my hardware.

Never upgrading my system sucks, but I suppose it is doable--or I could go back to Windows. Actually, it just sucks. :-)

ISTM the system grabs the integrated GPU first, so if I can disable it, the system will see the 5xxx card and use that instead. There is no way in the BIOS to disable the integrated GPU. So I was looking into doing so with a blacklist, but it is not clear how I would do that.

Code:

 lspci | grep VGA
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series]
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Madison [Radeon HD 5000M Series]

Any ideas how I can disable the integrated GPU? (I am almost always plugged in, so power is not a huge issue for me...)

Alternatively, if I have to use the OS drivers, how can I get better power management out of them?

**tdockery97** · Aug 26, 2012, 11:48 PM

I too have the ATI Radeon HD 4200. I found this solution worked for me installing the driver on Kubuntu 12.04: http://askubuntu.com/questions/12959...s-in-12-04-lts

**Thiudans** · Aug 27, 2012, 06:27 AM

tdockery97,

Thanks. 12.4 works fine on my system. 12.6 is forked though--one is "legacy" and supports only the 2xxx, 3xxx and 4xxx chips, while the standard works for the higher chipsets, the 5xxx 6xxx and 7xxx chips. That is why I could not get 12.8 to work--it does not have drivers for my 4200 chip as they are discontinued in the mainline drivers after 12.4.

It really stinks. Not only that, but when Xorg is updated, AMD will probably will not patch the 4xxx driver so it will be impossible to use the proprietary drivers in Kubuntu 12.10. That is why I am looking at other options, such as OS drivers and disabling the 4200.

**Thiudans** · Aug 27, 2012, 12:45 PM

Well, it looks like disabling the 4200 GPU is off the table, because the way it is set up, the system uses either one, or possibly both, GPUs to process video. I am guessing, but I am not sure, that everything passes through the integrated GPU first, and is handed over to the discreet GPU as necessary. So if I disable the integrated GPU I will disable the discreet GPU, too.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...n&cc=us&dlc=en

"A notebook with dual AMD graphics adapters can dynamically switch between using two adapters simultaneously or using just one. This primarily depends on the type of software being run as well as the specific graphics adapter models in the notebook. In some instances, the integrated graphics adapter may be more powerful than the discrete graphics adapter for performing certain tasks."

I suppose that the proprietary software can handle this. Does anyone know of the OS drivers can do this, too?

Also, from the link, OpenGL uses only the integrated GPU. :-(

This narrows my choices to OS drivers or never upgrade.

I have marked this as solved because at this point it is not feasible to use drivers >=12.4 and maintain full functionality.

Announcement

Proprietary ATI Drivers version 12.8

Proprietary ATI Drivers version 12.8

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