How can I make hybrid graphics(AMD/Intel) work on Ubuntu?

Question

I own a HP ProBook 450 G0 laptop, running Ubuntu 14.04 (3.16.0-33-generic x86_64). This particular laptop has two GPUs and I want to be able to switch between them. I'm looking for a free driver or utility that would allow me achieve this, but I'm wiling to install proprietary software if no other solution applies.

Things I have tried so far:

• I tried locating vga_switcheroo, but file /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch is not present on my system.
• I downloaded the official AMD drivers and tried installing them using aptitude, but it didn't complete the installation because of a missing dependency (fglrx-core).
• I found out I am able to disable the discrete graphics card in BIOS.

Output of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev c4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev c4)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM76 Express Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Mars [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8750M] (rev ff)
02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
03:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
03:00.1 Bluetooth: Ralink corp. RT3290 Bluetooth
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)

Output of lshw -C display:

*-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:50 memory:d0000000-d03fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:4000(size=64)

Answer 1

From the lspci output I can only see one Intel graphics card, make sure there is a AMD card and that it is enabled in BIOS. Also you can use the Additional Drivers window to install the proprietary fglrx drivers:

If that or installing fglrx/fglrx-updates does not work, you can download the drivers from AMD's site (this may help there - I will add that when I had to do this recently I had to purge the existing fglrx install from the repo and ocl-icd-libopencl1)

Once you have the AMD card enabled with a driver (doesn't have to be fglrx, the open source ones can work better), you might be able to use vga_switcheroo if you have a kernel older than 3.11 - otherwise it may be managed by Radeon DPM.

Answer 2

Apparently there's a bug in the fglrx packet. As J0nDaFr3aK noted in Ubuntu forums, the following lines are a viable workaround.

sudo apt-get install libcheese*
sudo apt-get install xorg-video-abi-15
sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates

Answer 3

had the same problem with a similar radeon graphic card.

i installed the mainline kernel version 4.6 from here:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.6-yakkety/

Here is a guide for the installation:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds#Verifying_the_mainline_build_binaries

After booting the new kernel, i tested the card with the following command, and the changing to the radeon graphic card was working:

$ DRI_PRIME=1 glxgears -info

this answer i also posted here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/778205/16-04-radeon-r7-m260-errors/780515#780515