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HariSeldon

Member

Registered: 2012-04-30

Posts: 18

Sandy Bridge GPU + Radeon 6630M : system freezes on switch

Hi at all,
I've a Thinkpad E320 with sandy bridge core i5 and a radeon 6630M switchable graphics.
To enable the switchable graphics with vgaswitchero, i've followed the wiki and do this steps:

#nano /etc/fstab
[added the following: debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs 0 ]

# pacman -S xf86-video-ati

[Blacklist radeon:]
# sudo echo > /etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf blacklist\ radeon

#nano /etc/rc.local
[add few lines to /etc/rc.local:]
modprobe radeon
echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

#reboot.

[Check current status:]
#cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
1:DIS: :Off:0000:01:00.0

[All seems ok, so now enable discrete graphics:]
#echo DDIS > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

[and now logout and log in to restart gdm]

at this point, when I logout system hangs.
Obviously this does not happen if I don't switch to discrete graphics. If I stay on Intel card, log out and log in works fine.

This issue is noticed also by some friend of mine, having different notebook but the same config (core i5 sandy + 6630M).

Thanks in advance,

HS

UPDATE 1

Here is another laptop with my same config and with the same issue:
http://www.33dots.com/index.php/linux/f … -15fg.html

UPDATE 2

I've installed arch+kde in another disk partition: the behaviour is the same. So it's not GNOME-Related the problem.
I think 6630m is not correctly sopported on open radeon driver

UPDATE 3

I've tested also Debian Testing and Ubuntu 12.04 and the behaviour is the same:
when you restart server X to activate the discrete GPU it hangs up. So it's definitely a driver / switcheroo issue with this videocard (6630M).
Maybe it has not an hardware mux??

The only difference i've found on debian/ubuntu is that the proprietary driver works out of the box BUT when I try to switch to Intel IGP (via amdccle) at the next reboot the window compositor shows only the desktop...something is messed up...

Last edited by HariSeldon (2012-04-30 19:53:41)

al3xxx

Member

Registered: 2012-04-22

Posts: 8

Re: Sandy Bridge GPU + Radeon 6630M : system freezes on switch

I am having the same problem with Radeon HD 6600M Series and sandy bridge. Did you ever get it solved?

gm112

Member

Registered: 2011-09-25

Posts: 21

Re: Sandy Bridge GPU + Radeon 6630M : system freezes on switch

I, too, can reproduce this bug on my Sandy Bridge + 6770M setup. To be honest, you're better off waiting till Kernel 3.5 and some updates to the radeon driver before that even becomes remotely stable. Or, switch to Catalyst if you are lucky enough in getting it to work (which I have yet to successfully do). Also I do have muxless mode turned OFF.

Hadn't had time to bother posting a dmesg which is probably why the situation hasn't been fixed yet (on top of the important API changes needed to make mux/muxless systems work awesomely on Linux).

...Just something to think about.

HariSeldon

Member

Registered: 2012-04-30

Posts: 18

Re: Sandy Bridge GPU + Radeon 6630M : system freezes on switch

I am having the same problem with Radeon HD 6600M Series and sandy bridge. Did you ever get it solved?

No, never

HariSeldon

Member

Registered: 2012-04-30

Posts: 18

Re: Sandy Bridge GPU + Radeon 6630M : system freezes on switch

I, too, can reproduce this bug on my Sandy Bridge + 6770M setup. To be honest, you're better off waiting till Kernel 3.5 and some updates to the radeon driver before that even becomes remotely stable. Or, switch to Catalyst if you are lucky enough in getting it to work (which I have yet to successfully do). Also I do have muxless mode turned OFF.

Hadn't had time to bother posting a dmesg which is probably why the situation hasn't been fixed yet (on top of the important API changes needed to make mux/muxless systems work awesomely on Linux).

...Just something to think about.

Yes...I think so. We had to wait .

You said that you've get the catalyst working: did the vga switch in the catalyst control panel works for you? If yes, can you tell s how did you do?

Tnx,

HS

HariSeldon

Member

Registered: 2012-04-30

Posts: 18

Re: Sandy Bridge GPU + Radeon 6630M : system freezes on switch

Bump!

Still no solution with fglrx driver or free radeon driver.