ATI Driver: Can't Boot After Switching to Intel Graphics

[Mindstormscreator]

My computer is an HP Pavilion dv7-6199us (has an Intel Core i7-2670QM CPU, and an AMD Radeon HD 6770M GPU).

So, recently I had installed LMDE x64, installed all the updates, and was booted into the new kernel. I installed the latest AMD driver for the GPU from here, and rebooted like it said. All was fine on reboot, and I noticed the system was running cooler than without the driver (my main modivation for even bothering with this driver). I thought it had something to do with "hybrid graphics" or something, where it could be using my apparently built-in Intel graphics along with the AMD graphics to balance performance I guess. This curiosity (now regretted) led me to see what would happen if I chose the "Use Intel Graphics" option under the super-user AMD Catalyst Control Center. I rebooted like it said, and during the boot, after the screen of text had cleared and it was supposed to load the graphics, I only saw a flickering cursor in the top-left of the screen (it wasn't "blinking", but rather "flickering", as in fading in and out randomly). I pressed the power button on my laptop, and then I saw text saying "Sending Kill Signal..." etc like a normal shutdown, except it was flashing on and off, and then the computer shut down.

I tried booting to a recovery console and executed 'aticonfig --initial' to see if I could get the original settings back. Nope. I then tried 'aticonfig --uninstall', which let me boot afterwards, but then after reinstalling the driver and rebooting immediately after, I was greeted with the same flickering cursor.

Now I'm doing a full reinstall as I type this.

So this probably has something to do with Xorg? Something to note is that I did do the following to make my touchpad taps activate faster (don't know if this could have caused it):

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
sudo cp /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf
gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf

and put in the line: Option "FastTaps" "1"
I did this before installing the driver.

Anybody have any idea what's going on here? I guess I can survive with strictly only choosing "AMD Graphics" in the Catalyst options, but it would be nice to try Intel graphics for lower power consumption.

[Beardedragon]

Quite simply, if you have an ATI graphics card use the correct Graphics Driver. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[chakramint]

Anybody have any idea what's going on here? I guess I can survive with strictly only choosing "AMD Graphics" in the Catalyst options, but it would be nice to try Intel graphics for lower power consumption.

When I had my HP dv-7se with Mint 11 (at the time), here's how my dv-7 acted:
1) In Win7, I set to Intel option; rebooted into Mint, and the graphics defaulted to Intel's.
2) In Win7, I set to ATI option; rebooted into Mint, and the graphics defaulted to ATI's.

**It never occurred to me to switch graphics at the time while in Mint; just wanted to test dual-booting w/ Win7's being the default boot loader.

[Mindstormscreator]

When I had my HP dv-7se with Mint 11 (at the time), here's how my dv-7 acted:
1) In Win7, I set to Intel option; rebooted into Mint, and the graphics defaulted to Intel's.
2) In Win7, I set to ATI option; rebooted into Mint, and the graphics defaulted to ATI's.

Hmm, so could that mean that some option is being set in the BIOS? I know it has an option for "dynamic graphics" vs "fixed graphics" and I think mine is on dynamic. Right now I'm using no driver and my system's graphics seem speedy, but the fans run constantly. With the driver installed, graphics lagged a bit but my system usually ran pretty cool, but the fan still seemed to turn on even when performing minuscule tasks.

So, anybody know how I can set Intel graphics by default without Windows? (I only have LMDE installed)

[chakramint]

...but the fans run constantly. With the driver installed, graphics lagged a bit but my system usually ran pretty cool, but the fan still seemed to turn on even when performing minuscule tasks.
So, anybody know how I can set Intel graphics by default without Windows? (I only have LMDE installed)

Yes, the fan...I thought a 17incher wouldn't have such issue, but I was badly mistaken--another reason I sold it.

Now I see, w/out Windows installed, you're missing out on the seamless switching.
(why not give win7 ~15gb and just dual-boot? assuming you still have the recovery dvds)

[Mindstormscreator]

why not give win7 ~15gb and just dual-boot? assuming you still have the recovery dvds

I really don't want to mess with that, with then having to fix Grub and installing drivers etc. There's got to be a way to modify xorg or something to switch to Intel graphics, or some other way to get hybrid graphics between my AMD and Intel gpus besides this AMD driver (how well would open source drivers do this? I'm curious about these). Or, is it possible to just get a different gpu that runs cooler, like NVIDIA?

This is the primary problem with LMDE on my laptop right now.