# Problems with hybrid graphics

## fangwen

Hi,

My laptop comes with hybrid graphics, an Intel integrated card and an ATI Radeon 6470M. It is now using the Intel GPU.

I have some trouble getting the ATI card to work. I saw this thread when I searched the web,

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63/problem-regarding-ati-radeon-hd-6470m-graphics-card-in-ubuntu-11-04-a-906871/

But I can't disable the Intel GPU in BIOS. My question is, can I turn both GPUs on and only use the discrete card for outputs?

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## gdbalbuzard

hi fangwen,

you should defintely read the nice tuto on the gentoo wiki regarding hybrid graphic.

basically you have two options (the choice is a matter of personnal taste and usage):

  - 1 : full open source drivers : in that case you will use the radeon driver and intel one; hybrid graphic is possible with the use of vga_switcheroo (I don't know wether there was recent evolution or not) and its use is described in the following tuto http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Vga_switcheroo

  - 2 : closed source drivers : in that case you will use the fglrx driver (ie catalyst) ; hybrid graphic is described in the nice tuto from kkspeed http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Fglrx-hybrid-graphics

Just a note on the fglrx hybrid tuto : it uses a lot the command aticonfig. On my laptop (HP dv6-6080sf with Radeon HD6470M), this command was not working until recently (ati-driver >= 11.8 ).

Good luck

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## fangwen

Thank you, gdbalbuzard

I've decided to use the integrated card only because I had so much trouble getting my ATI card to work.

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## coolone

Hey guys, I have the same problem.

just wondering which ATI driver is better (with good performance so far) open source or closed source ?

thanks

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## jimishol

Since i feel wrong to ask or report farther at Gentoo's Bugzilla I decided to post here my experience hoping that someone will understand what happens with hybrid cards.

Of course, my hybrid works perfect right now, but for how long?

So after I, for the first time, faced black screen upon swith to radeon through vgaswitcheroo I reported to https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=458746 and eventually we discovered solution at https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55311 where made clear that the issue created by backlight of intel. For few days i was happy with my hybrid but...

Then i faced problem of black screen again, and just after saving my notebook,cause somehow I made hybrid work again, from possible destroy through reflow of dpgu, i posted https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=487090 that was rightly rejected as blog entry. I rephrased as https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=487158.

Trying to fix windows I ruined switch again to both OSs and upon fixing it in gentoo  I added my experience again, being decided not to log in to windows again having the impression that it was their fault the black screen.

I am writing this just after a 3nd black screen again, without windows involving this time.Actually they may helped resolve it. So this is what happened last time.

In order to switch i give "sudo hprofile graphics.radeon" and of course my password (1). gdm stops and face terminal that asks to login. So i loging giving my password(2). then "sudo hprofile graphics.radeon" again and my password(3). I face gdm login and after my password(4), I finally am at radeon graphics.Too many passwords, so why not start with radeon? Since in past good days, now i use systemd, had add an "echo DIS" line to xdm in order to login with radeon and ExecStart couldn't work in gdm.servise (unfortunately i never tried ExecStartPre) I made an enable-radeon.conf file at /etc/tmpfiles.d with "w /sys/.../vgaswitcheroo/switch - - - - DIS" 

Disaster!!! The worst black screen cause i think i had no radeon in 2nd external screen too, but not for sure.Deleting this file didn't helped of course. (I booted with a debian usb stick in order to delete it)

So back to windows. There I cleared ati, installed newest drivers that were in greek hp site only for my particular notebook, in order ccc would install intel graphics, then clear ati and install the oldest ccc from same hp site. I pluged out AC in order windows will not force ATI then from some safe-mode boot in windows. ATI drivers arent visible at manage devices. I plug in AC and before let windows ask me if i want graphics switch i click terminate PC. I think you need windows to see both graphics drivers as ok but dont let ccc make the switch because it will may fail and you need to clear and install drivers again from start.

Back to gentoo and vgaswitcheroo WORKS again!!!

So i tent to believe that somehow something is common to windows and linux. If you dont know what, easily can be altered and give you black screen It can be fixed but if you dont know how, it needs a lot of trial and errors. First time it took me several days, 2nd time it took me 2 days, today that i write this took me few hours.

If you need any information about my notebook that didnt mentioned before dont hesitate to ask

I still am hoping for a focus fix than trial and error method of mine. 

Thank you from my Gallium 0.4 on AMD CEDAR Gentoo/Linux 64-bit

Living the notebook open at night wirh radeon, i found it operational in morning. Upon reboot the switch gave me black screen. Now its late night and didnt mage to fix it for 4th time. Goodnight for now

After a month of trying...

It actually turned to be the start of hardware failure. I reflowed dgpu and this fixed the problem. 

Every time I update world laptop temperature raises too high. So half of the times dgpu wasn't working correctly giving the impression that was update's fault.

2 to 3 times, specially when laptop powered violently off cause of heat and powered on without waiting to cool down, gpu was 'auto' fixed giving the impression that new configuration fixed it.

Actually, the randomness of fixing and broking after too high temperatures of laptop pointed that it was a hardware problem and a reflow may be would solve the problem. And it did!

Thank you

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