Trying to revive old laptop. AMD 6480g video drivers not loaded

[halfnhalf]

I have an asus a53ta and I pulled it out of retirement to try and get linux mint running on it but its stuck at 1024x768 and the amd proprietary drivers are outdated. Any idea if another driver can be loaded?
Here's my system info from inxi -Fxz

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-91-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
    base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: K53TA v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: K53TA v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
    BIOS: American Megatrends v: 205 date: 07/05/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 15.7 Wh (98.7%) condition: 15.9/57.7 Wh (27.5%)
    volts: 12.5 min: 11.1 model: ASUS PA3533U status: Charging
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: AMD A4-3300M APU with Radeon HD Graphics bits: 64
    type: MCP arch: Fusion rev: 0 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/1900 boost: enabled cores: 1: 800
    2: 800 bogomips: 7586
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Sumo [Radeon HD 6480G] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A
    bus-ID: 00:01.0
  Device-2: AMD Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A bus-ID: 01:00.0
  Device-3: Alcor Micro ASUS USB2.0 WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-3:2
  Display: server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: ati,vesa
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon gpu: N/A resolution: 1024x768
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.7 128 bits)
    v: 4.5 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD BeaverCreek HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500D and 6400G-6600G
  series]
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:01.1
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.2
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-91-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: AzureWave AW-NE785 / AW-NE785H 802.11bgn driver: ath9k v: kernel
    bus-ID: 03:00.0
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 11.73 GiB (2.5%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS725050A7E630
    size: 465.76 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.88 GiB used: 11.72 GiB (2.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 512 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 28 MiB (1.4%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 6280.4 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 203 Uptime: 25m Memory: 3.31 GiB used: 1.13 GiB (34.1%)
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 Packages: 2168
  Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13

[SMG]

I have an asus a53ta and I pulled it out of retirement to try and get linux mint running on it but its stuck at 1024x768 and the amd proprietary drivers are outdated. Any idea if another driver can be loaded?

Welcome to the forum, halfnhalf.

The drivers are in the kernel and should load automatically when you boot the computer. Yours did not for some reason.

Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Sumo [Radeon HD 6480G] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A
bus-ID: 00:01.0
Device-2: AMD Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A bus-ID: 01:00.0

You did not boot in Recovery mode did you?

Please boot to your install usb and post the output of inxi -Gxxxz.

[halfnhalf]

After I installed mint for the first time earlier today it black screened every time I booted, so I booted to recovery mode and did apt upgrade. That seemed to at least let me boot into regular mode. The inxi output was posted from a regular boot. I'll try the live usb in a bit, just got home and not on that laptop. The other problem I have with it is it hangs after going to sleep. Won't wake up and have to restart. Also driver manager says everything is up to date

[SMG]

The other problem I have with it is it hangs after going to sleep. Won't wake up and have to restart. Also driver manager says everything is up to date

Sleep/suspension will not work properly if the graphics drivers are not loaded.

Driver Manager is only for proprietary third party drivers. That does not apply for your hardware. As I already stated, the graphics drivers are in the kernel and should load automatically. They are not proprietary.

[halfnhalf]

So I just tried it and it's now not booting into anything but recovery mode (which after apt upgrading earlier let me boot into what it called regular boot). Right now a regular boot just hangs with zero video output. Live usb disc has the same problem. I have to boot into compatibility mode or it wont work.

[SMG]

So I just tried it and it's now not booting into anything but recovery mode (which after apt upgrading earlier let me boot into what it called regular boot). Right now a regular boot just hangs with zero video output. Live usb disc has the same problem. I have to boot into compatibility mode or it wont work.

See if the suggestion in this topic [SOLVED] Linux Mint 21.1 boot hang - probably issue with Radeon graphic card about just using the integrated graphics is possible with your ASUS. That topic is a Lenovo, but it has Sumo and Whistler like you have. The setting to just use the onboard is in the BIOS/UEFI for that laptop.

[halfnhalf]

Unfortunately my bios is so bare bones it doesn't have an option to turn off the discrete graphics. It's also an old bios version so I'm trying to upgrade it but asus only released a win flash exe file and the bios file isnt there to run from the bios, so I'm making a wintogo usb and hoping I can run it off there. Lmao this probably won't even work because the usb has to be fixed and not dynamic afaik. Might install Windows if this doesn't work but even then I have no idea if the new bios version will have the option to turn off discrete graphics. Oh well, I guess that will be the end of my journey if it doesn't.

[seasons]

If disabling the discrete GPU doesn't work, I'd probably try the 6.5 kernel and/or update to the latest BIOS: https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/k53 ... desk_bios/
(One of the updates mentions UMA VBIOS update).

I had a laptop with the same A4-3300 APU and it ran Ubuntu 22.04 just fine.

[SMG]

Might install Windows if this doesn't work but even then I have no idea if the new bios version will have the option to turn off discrete graphics.

You might have the option in Windows to turn off/disable the discrete GPU or set it to only use the onboard. A number of manufacturers (I know HP was one) made it possible to select from an option in Windows rather than in the BIOS/UEFI. However, I don't know if that was HP-specific software or something in Windows.