Is my video card correctly installed?

[nicoarg]

Hello Folks, I have some weird problem. I have a Laptop Dell Latitude 3480 with Linux MInt installed along side the original Windows 10. Windows 10 looks amazing and brillant in the laptop screen, with strong and defined colours, but my Linux looks poorly in comparison. I am sure it is a hardware problem, because when I connect it to an external monitor through HDMI, it looks better.

This is my video card:

```
nico@nico ~/Desktop/code-lab $ sudo lshw -C video
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Intel Corporation
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 02
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:280 memory:d1000000-d1ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff ioport:f000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff
*-display
description: Display controller
product: Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330]
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 83
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=radeon latency=0
resources: irq:281 memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d003ffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:d0040000-d005ffff
```

Best regards!

[rene]

Little direct practical advise to give but as long as others aren't either...

You appear to be on a muxed dual-graphics system; i.e., a system with two GPU's (in your case, an on-die Intel one and a discrete AMD Radeon R5 M330) where the output of the discrete GPU is routed through the on-die one. Your HDMI port providing you with better picture quality would suggest that the GPU that it is connected to provides you with the better quality. Not sure that makes total sense though. First thing you'd want to check is what GPU you are in fact using under Linux: the output of inxi -Gx will be useful in that sense.

But your situation of a muxed dual-graphics system is approximately the "most confusingly supported one" period -- and one of your GPU's at this time not being supported by a binary, vendor-supplied driver but only by the generic open-source "radeon" driver makes things quite a bit worse. Ideally you'd seek advise (fairly) specific to your exact system.

That's to say... I don't expect that the "bad" situation includes a non-native resolution, but the output of inxi -Gx will again tell. If it does, perhaps simple advise to upgrade the kernel and/or use the "modesetting" driver in lieu of "i915" for your on-die GPU could be useful... but your situation is a bit of potential support black hole. Don't be offended if you don't get much advise

[thx-1138]

Hello Folks, I have some weird problem. I have a Laptop Dell Latitude 3480 with Linux MInt installed along side the original Windows 10. Windows 10 looks amazing and brillant in the laptop screen, with strong and defined colours, but my Linux looks poorly in comparison. I am sure it is a hardware problem, because when I connect it to an external monitor through HDMI, it looks better.
.....................

...my Lenovo Ideapad-300 comes with the exact same 'hybrid' graphics setup:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Card-2: AMD Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430 / R7 M520] 
           driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.5 driver: modesetting resolution: 1600x900~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2) v: 4.5 Mesa 17.2.8 
           direct render: Yes

Now I wish i could really be of specific help, but...
1) I don't use Windows, so i can't really compare...
However i have no complaints whatsoever with the screen colors on this laptop, it looks pretty fine to me...
Never tried connecting an external monitor to see what happens though.

2) DRI_Prime, vga_switcheroo & friends though are a different story though, and they appear to work every 2 blue moons, if at all...
Since i don't play games etc, for the most part i simply disable the Radeon card,
which in effect gives me 40% more battery time (yes, that much), and also obviously doesn't overheat the laptop...
Never attempted so far testing the newer amdgpu driver as well instead of the 'older' radeon,
i might give it a try for the fun of it at some point when i move on to 4.15...

All in all, rene's suggestion is pretty much on spot - remove xserver-xorg-video-intel & use modesetting instead,
make sure your desktop's compositor works correctly (compton does the trick for me at least under Mate & Xfce), and try a newer kernel...
Although i don't use Windows, i find it pretty hard that the very same screen looks that much worse under Linux:
most likely something needs further tweaking / configuring. If we were discussing games, then yes...

[nicoarg]

Yes Exacly I have the same configuration.

```
nico@nico ~/Desktop/code-lab $ inxi -Gx
Graphics: Card-1: Intel Device 5916 bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330]
bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon,intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 620 (Kaby Lake GT2)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
```

What commands do I have to run?

[thx-1138]

...try sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel, and reboot.
For Mate, under Desktop Settings, set Window Manager, set it to Marco+Compton, for Xfce, set it to Xfmw+Compton.
I'm not familiar with Cinnamon myself...