Install AMD Radeon HD 6470M and solve overheat on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric


UPDATE: Try upgrade your BIOS. Several people have said they reduce heat by upgrading the BIOS.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=th&prodNameId=5086746&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=5086745&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4061#93211

Please note that installing the latest AMD ATI Radeon FGLRX still not solve the overheat issue. I recommend you to switch off the radeon VGA and use Intel VGA card. It will decrease overheat from 90 C fall into 57 C.

I have HP 431 which support with 2 VGA driver, Intel and AMD Ati Radeon HD 6470M. I start install fresh Ubuntu Oneiric by default & use open-source ATI Radeon proprietary driver. Suddenly, my laptop got overheat about 80 C when i start my activity like writing code, run VM and many else. I thought it was kernel bug. After searching through Google and find there no right solution there.

So i start diving into my Ubuntu Oneiric and find that dual-VGA is the main problem here. To check your VGA availability, do “lspci -nn | grep VGA” :

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00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc NI Seymour [AMD Radeon HD 6470M] [1002:6760]


Ubuntu Oneiric use Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor as default VGA. Which this is make my laptop overheat all times! So the solution is forcing Ubuntu 11.10 to use “AMD Radeon HD 6470M” as primary VGA. So, here are the solution :

Please edit your /etc/default/grub :

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash pcie_aspm=force radeon.nomodeset=1"

And update it by :

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sudo update-grub

1. Uninstall all ATI Open-source driver

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sudo apt-get remove fglrx-* fglrx-amdcccle jockey-common jockey-gtk
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/ati/
sudo apt-get remove –purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
sudo apt-get install –reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx xserver-xorg-core
sudo apt-get install –reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx:amd64 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo update-grub

2. Install dependency packages

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sudo apt-get install ia32-libs dkms build-essential

Download latest ATI Driver from :
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx

3. Installing Latest ATI Proprietary Driver
In this post, i use “ati-driver-installer-11-9-x86.x86_64.run”. To installing :

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chmod a+x ati-driver-installer-11-9-x86.x86_64.run
sh ati-driver-installer-11-9-x86.x86_64.run –buildpkg Ubuntu/oneiric
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

If you got error “Permission Denied” even try with sudo, then to this :

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sudo cp ati-driver-installer-11-9-x86.x86_64.run /root
sudo su
cd /root
sh ati-driver-installer-11-9-x86.x86_64.run
dpkg -i *.deb

If still can’t build packages, then do this :

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sudo rm -R /usr/share/ati
sudo apt-get install fglrx

*kudos to dmitriv

ATI Driver already installed in your system.

4. Switch into Graphic Card into ATI Radeon

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sudo /usr/lib/fglrx/switchlibGL amd

5. Generate Xorg.conf

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sudo aticonfig –initial -f –adapter=all

You will get results :

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Uninitialised file found, configuring.
PowerXpress error: Cannot stat ‘/usr/lib64/fglrx’: No such file or directory
Failed to initialize libglx for discrete GPU
Using /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Saving back-up to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.original-0

This is my xorg.conf that works :

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Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "aticonfig Layout"
    Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "fglrx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
    Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
    Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
    Option      "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
    Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
    Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Now do “sudo lightdm restart” to start using your ATI Radeon Graphic Card.

6. Check if Driver already installed and use properly
Do “lspci -v” and see your Radeon part like this :

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01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc NI Seymour [AMD Radeon HD 6470M] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 3673
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
    Memory at a0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Memory at c2600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
    I/O ports at 4000 [size=256]
    Expansion ROM at c2620000 [disabled] [size=128K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
    Kernel modules: fglrx, radeon

Now, i use modules fglrx. It’s works now and no overheat again 🙂

Updates from @DonTomaso :

Nice step by step guide. I have a Dell Vostro 3350 notebook with the same graphic configuration Intel HD3000 / 6470M.

Under Oneiric and also on Natty I was able to use fglrx module instead of radeon just like you described above, but in my case the fan is spinning all the time and battery is draining quicker than under Windows no matter if the system uses Intel graphics and radeon or fglrx module the fan is always annoyingly on. These ATI modules be it open source or proprietary can not yet control the GPU’s power levels.

The only way to get around this is to switch off the ATI gpu with vga_switcheroo:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics

After booting up I need to run this command and as a result the fan is slowing down, then stopping, just like under Windows:

echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

So for me the only option is now to use the Intel HD 3000 only and turn off ATI until a fully working driver is released.

Solve

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link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf is broken
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sudo apt-get install –reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx
sudo update-alternatives –config x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf

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