Catalyst with Intel IGP

[maximn]

Is it possible to run fglrx with the hybrid cards (ATI with Intel IGP)? I tried the Catalyst 10.11, but it can not find the ATI Card (despite the explicit BusID in xorg.conf). OS: Ubuntu 10.10

Thank you.

[evolution]

Is it possible to run fglrx with the hybrid cards (ATI with Intel IGP)? I tried the Catalyst 10.11, but it can not find the ATI Card (despite the explicit BusID in xorg.conf). OS: Ubuntu 10.10

Thank you.

No, you can't use the hybrid driver switching with proprietary drivers (Catalyst or nVidia).

In order to use hybrid-graphics, you need the following:

1- A recent kernel (2.6.36, at least, configured with ATI/Intel drivers modules (preferably with KMS enabled by default, otherwise, they won't work), and the Hybrid Graphics Support ("aka VGA Swithceroo") enabled).

2- Use the latest Open-Source Intel/ATI drivers and Mesa (git is recommended, although most recent versions have +/- proper support for the hybrid-graphics function.

Cheers

[maximn]

No, you can't use the hybrid driver switching with proprietary drivers (Catalyst or nVidia).

In order to use hybrid-graphics, you need the following:

1- A recent kernel (2.6.36, at least, configured with ATI/Intel drivers modules (preferably with KMS enabled by default, otherwise, they won't work), and the Hybrid Graphics Support ("aka VGA Swithceroo") enabled).

2- Use the latest Open-Source Intel/ATI drivers and Mesa (git is recommended, although most recent versions have +/- proper support for the hybrid-graphics function.

Cheers

Do I correctly understand: there is no way to use catalyst for a ATI card, if the mainboard has Intel IGP? If no, is there any plans for this? (the switching is not so important for me, but the usage of the discrete card. Unfortunately BIOS does not allow me to disable IGP)

Thanks

[evolution]

Yes, that was what I was saying: You can't currently use VGA switching features with "ATI Catalyst" driver (you need to use the OS "radeon" driver (with KMS), the OS Intel Driver and a very recent kernel (3.6.36 or 3.6.37-rc) in order to use it)... Btw, I already told in the "Ask ATI Dev thread" it would be a nice feature to have KMS in their Linux Drivers, as they already do it on Windows for (some) years .

If you can disable your Intel IGP in your BIOS, you might can use Catalyst to work with your ATI graphics card.

Cheers

[Armin]

Yes, that was what I was saying: You can't currently use VGA switching features with "ATI Catalyst" driver (you need to use the OS "radeon" driver (with KMS), the OS Intel Driver and a very recent kernel (3.6.36 or 3.6.37-rc) in order to use it)... Btw, I already told in the "Ask ATI Dev thread" it would be a nice feature to have KMS in their Linux Drivers, as they already do it on Windows for (some) years .

If you can disable your Intel IGP in your BIOS, you might can use Catalyst to work with your ATI graphics card.

Cheers

It seams you didn't get his question: He is NOT asking for the switching feature, just the usage of the "ATI Catalyst" driver, which is certainly possible!
Even with an active Intel IGP (not disabled in BIOS) it is possible, but might need some adjustment. With adjustment I mean, you have to tell the kernel explicitly not to initialize the Intel IGP, which I would try to do in the first place by blacklist the intel kernel module.

I had this configuration (Intel IGP + ATI discrete, both active in BIOS) in my Thinkpad T500 and was running the Catalyst driver. Nowadays I only have the ATI active and the Intel disabled in BIOS, since the Intel useless is in this configuration and might even consume some power.

-Armin

[evolution]

It seams you didn't get his question: He is NOT asking for the switching feature, just the usage of the "ATI Catalyst" driver, which is certainly possible!
Even with an active Intel IGP (not disabled in BIOS) it is possible, but might need some adjustment. With adjustment I mean, you have to tell the kernel explicitly not to initialize the Intel IGP, which I would try to do in the first place by blacklist the intel kernel module.

I had this configuration (Intel IGP + ATI discrete, both active in BIOS) in my Thinkpad T500 and was running the Catalyst driver. Nowadays I only have the ATI active and the Intel disabled in BIOS, since the Intel useless is in this configuration and might even consume some power.

-Armin

The first post written by maximn:

Is it possible to run fglrx with the hybrid cards (ATI with Intel IGP)? I tried the Catalyst 10.11, but it can not find the ATI Card (despite the explicit BusID in xorg.conf). OS: Ubuntu 10.10

Thank you.

I still think he's not talking about using both drivers on Ubuntu. I think he's talking about using the "hybrid graphics switching" feature to use both Intel and Catalyst drivers...
If you try do do it, it'll mess up that system completely, unless you disable the Intel DRM modules explicitly, which is not very recommended, but you can do. The easier way to disable the Intel IGP card is disabling it explicitly in the BIOS, if you can do it.

You can't enable "hybrid graphics switching" if your drivers don't work both in KMS mode! (Catalyst is using UMS mode, so, it's a no-go...)

Cheers

[maximn]

The first post written by maximn:



I still think he's not talking about using both drivers on Ubuntu. I think he's talking about using the "hybrid graphics switching" feature to use both Intel and Catalyst drivers...
If you try do do it, it'll mess up that system completely, unless you disable the Intel DRM modules explicitly, which is not very recommended, but you can do. The easier way to disable the Intel IGP card is disabling it explicitly in the BIOS, if you can do it.

You can't enable "hybrid graphics switching" if your drivers don't work both in KMS mode! (Catalyst is using UMS mode, so, it's a no-go...)

Cheers

I am not interesting in switching: i would like rather to use the catalyst driver. The problem that BIOS does not allow me to disable IGP. I tried yesterday to blacklist i915 but the module still there and x runs over intel. How can i disable intel video?

Tnanks

[evolution]

I am not interesting in switching: i would like rather to use the catalyst driver. The problem that BIOS does not allow me to disable IGP. I tried yesterday to blacklist i915 but the module still there and x runs over intel. How can i disable intel video?

Tnanks

Ok, now I'm understanding your question.
Yes, it might be possible disable the IGP by blacklisting the modules... Did you try to edit /etc/modprobe.conf and type "blacklist i915" and "blacklist drm"? (both without quotes and in different lines OC)

Cheers

[Armin]

Ok, now I'm understanding your question.
Yes, it might be possible disable the IGP by blacklisting the modules... Did you try to edit /etc/modprobe.conf and type "blacklist i915" and "blacklist drm"? (both without quotes and in different lines OC)

Cheers

Ok you might also have to give the explicit kernel-option 'nomodeset' in the grub (bootloader) to avoid loading the Intel kernel modules.

Additionally u should load the 'fglrx' module explicitly.

-Armin

[nazcaspider]

I am facing a similar issue. I have a HP laptop with both Intel IGP and ATI Mobility Radeon 5450 and no way to disable the integrated graphics from the BIOS. I am using Ubuntu 10.10

As per your suggestion I tried the following:
-Added the file /etc/modeprobe.d/blacklist-intel.conf with two lines:
blacklist i915
blacklist drm
-Added nomodeset to /etc/default/grub like the following:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"
-Executed: sudo update-grub
-Added fglrx at the end of: /etc/modules to explicitly load fglrx

However after rebooting, X does not load and gives me the following message (/etc/log/Xorg.log):

[ 1980.427] (II) fglrx(0): Detected: Switchable-graphics system with a non-AMD chipset
[ 1980.427] (EE) fglrx(0): Please disable switchable-graphics feature and configure the discrete card as the default adapter


Anymore ideas?

Thanks a lot