How to know if LInux Mint 19 supports my AMD graphics card

[UeB]

I have laptop with a hybrid graphics, Intel graphics integrated with the Core i7 CPU and AMD Radeon HD 6650m, and I want to know if my AMD graphics will work with Mint 19.

Some background why am I asking this question:
Back in days of Mint 17.X everything worked nicely with the AMD Catalyst drivers. They came with a GUI where I could chose the graphics card and after a reboot of the laptop the chosen one was active.

1.5 years ago I upgraded to Mint 18 and since then I could not use my AMD Radeon HD 6650m. Meaning I could not play most of my games any more. According to viewtopic.php?f=59&t=248059&sid=6f96de2 ... 8d59c65977 the Catalyst / fglx dirvers cannot be used with Mint 18 and 19.

I tried some how tos on Mint 18 (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics) to get the card to work but it didn't work. I don't even care about switchabe graphics - if the AMD card would be active 100% of the time this would be fine, too.

Now I tried the the Mint 19 live DVD and of course after booting into Linux Mint 19 again only the Intel graphics were active and I could not find an obvious way on the GUI to activate the AMD graphics.

I really don't understand what is going on here. Why is the AMD card not active? If I look at https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/ my card should be supported by the open source driver that must be part of Linux Mint (Radeon HD 6650m should be a Northern Islands as far as I know)

So how can I get a definite answer if it is even possible to get the card to work under Linux Mint 19?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

[deepakdeshp]

Proprietary drivers havent been released yet for Ubuntu 18.04, Mint 19 is based on Ubuntu 18.
https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install- ... aver-linux

[deepakdeshp]

I found this on the web site
https://linuxconfig.org/install-and-tes ... n-on-linux

[UeB]

deepakdeshp thanks for your answer. But the link you provided seems to be about how to get that latest bleeding edge drivers. My laptop and therefore the graphics card is from 2012 so my guess is that either the open source drivers in Linux Mint 19 work or not. Having even newer open source drivers would hardly change anything for a 6.5 years old card, or?

Also is this something I can try with the Linux Mint 19 live DVD? Because the when my graphics card will not work with it I have no reason to go through al the trouble of upgrade to Linux Mint 19 anyway...

So my main question remains... IF my card is supported by the current open source drivers (and this https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/ page seem to suggest that) why does it now work out of the box? what am I missing?

[oldgranola]

The LM19 generic kernel driver should work. BTW, the link by deepakdeshp does not pertain. . Just make yourself a live USB, boot to it to make sure it works. I just did that on my asus Mobo with amd HD8570 APU. In LM17 I used fglrx driver. As there is no current proprietary driver for the ubuntu18 and hence LM19 kernels I was hesitant but gave it a test. Still suspicious I installed LM19 as a dual boot alongside LM17 and was pleasantly surprised. Though lacking in certain controls It works great, even better than my lm17 setup on my 72in HD monitor/TV via HDMI at 4096x2160 res. I did have to go use the HiDP 2x option in windowing settings as everything was microscopic

[UeB]

Thanks for your answer oldgranola,

are you implying it makes a difference if I try the if I use a live Linux Mint 19 USB pen drive or a live Linux Mint 19 DVD?

Because as I wrote in my first post I already tried starting Linux Mint 19 from the Live DVD I burned. And after booting from this live DVD I only my Intel graphics were active and I could not find an obvious way to activate the dedicated AMD graphics card in my laptop instead of the CPU integrated Intel graphics.

Since Linux Mint 18 it is as if the dedicated graphics card has simply vanished and all I have left are the Intel graphics.
And I still don’t know what to do or where to look in Linux Mint 19 to see if the dedicated graphics card can be activated...

[Citizen229]

Boot to bios and disable intel graphics there. You may not have that option until you make a password for the bios...FYI.
By disabling intel from bios, Kernal should load AMD opensource drivers.

I think yours worked in Mint 17 because the FGLRX drivers took control?
Mint 18 opensource only, so it defaulted to bios configuration, being Intel.
Mint 19 same as 18.

[UeB]

Thanks for you answer. But I only have two options I can set the "Graphics Device" to in my BIOS: "Switchable Graphics" and "UMA Graphic"
So either hybrid graphics or the Intel graphics...