Disable my discrete graphics card

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rumplestiltskin
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Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by rumplestiltskin »

I have a 2011 15" MacBook Pro with one of the "fried" discrete AMD Radeon cards. Following some helpful advice I found online, I used a firmware command to turn off the card and then deleted all AMD 'kexts' (drivers) so, when the Mac boots in macOS Sierra, the motherboard Intel video chip is used, never the discrete card. It was a neat trick; otherwise, the Mac was destined for the recycling center.

But now I've installed Mint on it and the System Info app reports the presence of the AMD card. Everything is running well so I think Mint is ignoring the card—and what little research I've done suggests that Mint tends to do just that—but I haven't yet tried things like photo- or video-editing apps. I want to make sure that -only- the Intel motherboard video (HD3000 chip) is used. When I looked in the Hardware Drivers app, only the Microcode and b43 wifi showed up so that's not the right place to look.

I did just look in the Synaptic Package Manager and searched for "AMD" which did reveal some software that appears to be what I'm looking for. (xserver.xorg.**, etc.). Should I just delete anything that's AMD-related?

Thanks for any advice!

Barry
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Pjotr
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by Pjotr »

Removing these three should suffice:
xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu
xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-radeon

In one stroke:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon
Afterwards, reboot your computer.
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rumplestiltskin
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by rumplestiltskin »

Thanks. Removed those items and rebooted. Now I'll play with some graphics apps and see how it all goes. So far, so good.

Barry
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by Pjotr »

If you want to be sure, check the output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -G
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by rumplestiltskin »

Hmm... Here's a screenshot. I had restarted after using the sudo apt-get remove...
Screenshot from 2018-11-23 17-46-51.png
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by MrEen »

You're good, rumplestiltskin. The card is still in the computer, but there are no drivers running. Here's my inxi -G showing the ati and radeon drivers loaded:

Code: Select all

scott@scott-HP ~ $ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7560D]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@59.96hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD ARUBA (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.13.0-45-generic, LLVM 3.8.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 12.0.6
scott@scott-HP ~ $ 
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rumplestiltskin
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by rumplestiltskin »

Ahh; perfect. This (Mint) is really a great solution to the defective video card issue as I can keep running an up to date and secure OS in spite of running only mobo video.

Thanks for your help. As I learn more, perhaps I might help others. 😁

Barry
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by rumplestiltskin »

Just encountered another 15" MacBook Pro with defective video card. Did the same firmware update to disable the card and deleted the xserver entries. The Mac runs like a top now (in Mint, of course). Saved the unit from the recycling center. :D
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by Pjotr »

rumplestiltskin wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 1:30 am Just encountered another 15" MacBook Pro with defective video card. Did the same firmware update to disable the card and deleted the xserver entries. The Mac runs like a top now (in Mint, of course). Saved the unit from the recycling center. :D
You make me eager to get one, too.... Apple makes great hardware. :mrgreen:
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rumplestiltskin
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by rumplestiltskin »

Pjotr wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:17 am
rumplestiltskin wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 1:30 am Just encountered another 15" MacBook Pro with defective video card. Did the same firmware update to disable the card and deleted the xserver entries. The Mac runs like a top now (in Mint, of course). Saved the unit from the recycling center. :D
You make me eager to get one, too.... Apple makes great hardware. :mrgreen:
Also installed mint on iMacs from 2008 and 2006. Nice to have a secure system. :D
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rumplestiltskin
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by rumplestiltskin »

So nine months later I'm sitting with another MacBook Pro that has a malfunctioning video card and I'm wondering how to disable this card in Mint so I Google it and what do I find? My own question from last November that was answered by the kindly members of this forum.
:lol: :lol: :D
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Re: Disable my discrete graphics card

Post by karlchen »

<mod> skotip's post can be found here: viewtopic.php?p=2026622#p2026622 </mod>
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