Getting ATI HD Mobility 5650 to work

lurker · 2010-09-02 14:20:57

I have a similar problem. I'm installing Arch on a laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 and an Intel integrated chip. The BIOS doesn't have any option to enable or disable them and the "vgaswitcheroo" directory doesn't appear.
Another thing: if I don't use the "nomodeset" option, the screen always turns black (sometimes when loading UDev, sometimes in the beginning, depending on the settings).
Now I'm trying to use the Intel drivers only, which is why I've just installed "xf86-video-intel" and followed this guide: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel, but it has some strange behavior:
- If I use "nomodeset", the consoles work, but Xorg doesn't start with the intel driver ("No kernel modesetting driver detected")
- If I don't use "nomodeset", the screen turns black one second in the boot process (like before), but if I connect a VGA monitor to it, the external one works. Even more: I can start Xorg (now it doesn't complain) and then, if I switch to a console, the laptop screen starts working.
I've recently discovered that the laptop screen isn't turned off when I don't use "nomodeset", it's just the backlight. If I look closely I can see all the boot messages, the console and the Xorg windows. In this case, starting Xorg and switching to a console doesn't fix it, the backlight only turns on when an external monitor is connected.
My question is: does anybody know how to prevent the backlight being turned off at boot? Having to connect an external monitor every time I start my laptop is a bit uncomfortable.
Thank you, and sorry for my bad english.

Gillian00 · 2010-09-02 14:31:47

I think vgaswitcheroo is only working for people who have switch graphics in the bios.
Moreover, You can see on amd website my ati card does'nt support switching and yours don't support hybrid http://products.amd.com/en-us/MobilityG … d=61&id=62

But it's a good news knowing that intel driver is working Maybe with a great script, we could maybe have 2 xorg with nomedeset on or off following which chip we want to run.

lurker · 2010-09-02 16:48:45

Before installing Arch I tried Gentoo, and somehow managed to get vgaswitcheroo working, but Xorg didn't even start (segmentation fault). With Arch things are better, and I just need the screen to be lit (I don't care about 3d acceleration). Maybe it's because it's a LED screen? But I find weird that it works specifically after changing Xorg to a console when connected to an external monitor.

Edit: I think I've found a solution: if I write some numerical value (> 0) to "/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness" the backlight activates and everything works fine. What I don't understand is why its default value is 0, but as long as I can change it with a script, I'm happy.

Last edited by lurker (2010-09-02 17:25:02)

grassmonk · 2010-09-02 17:28:36

lurker wrote:

I have a similar problem. I'm installing Arch on a laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 and an Intel integrated chip. The BIOS doesn't have any option to enable or disable them and the "vgaswitcheroo" directory doesn't appear.
Another thing: if I don't use the "nomodeset" option, the screen always turns black (sometimes when loading UDev, sometimes in the beginning, depending on the settings).
Now I'm trying to use the Intel drivers only, which is why I've just installed "xf86-video-intel" and followed this guide: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel, but it has some strange behavior:
- If I use "nomodeset", the consoles work, but Xorg doesn't start with the intel driver ("No kernel modesetting driver detected")
- If I don't use "nomodeset", the screen turns black one second in the boot process (like before), but if I connect a VGA monitor to it, the external one works. Even more: I can start Xorg (now it doesn't complain) and then, if I switch to a console, the laptop screen starts working.
I've recently discovered that the laptop screen isn't turned off when I don't use "nomodeset", it's just the backlight. If I look closely I can see all the boot messages, the console and the Xorg windows. In this case, starting Xorg and switching to a console doesn't fix it, the backlight only turns on when an external monitor is connected.
My question is: does anybody know how to prevent the backlight being turned off at boot? Having to connect an external monitor every time I start my laptop is a bit uncomfortable.
Thank you, and sorry for my bad english.

I had problems with freezing initially (I have integrated Intel and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650), and solved it by putting !radeon in the modules array of /etc/rc.conf. Then later (when logging in to KDE) I have a script that loads the radeon module and turns off the ATI card with VGA switcheroo.

Gillian00 wrote:

I think vgaswitcheroo is only working for people who have switch graphics in the bios.

No, I don't have the option to switch the graphics in my BIOS and vgaswitcheroo works fine for me.

lurker wrote:

Maybe it's because it's a LED screen?

I have an LED screen too, and it works for me. I honestly don't know what else the problem could be.

lurker · 2010-09-02 17:39:00

Sorry, I edited my message moments before you replied. Everything except the ATI card (I'm working on it) works now, but I have to change the value of "/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness" to greater than 0. If I can't find a way to change the default value (oddly, it's 0), I'll have to use a script.

Last edited by lurker (2010-09-02 17:40:24)

Arch Linux

#26 2010-09-02 14:20:57

Re: Getting ATI HD Mobility 5650 to work

#27 2010-09-02 14:31:47

Re: Getting ATI HD Mobility 5650 to work

#28 2010-09-02 16:48:45

Re: Getting ATI HD Mobility 5650 to work

#29 2010-09-02 17:28:36

Re: Getting ATI HD Mobility 5650 to work

#30 2010-09-02 17:39:00

Re: Getting ATI HD Mobility 5650 to work

Board footer