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So I currently have a dual-ati video card setup on my laptop. A low-power one and a high power one.

In windows 7 the drivers switch video cards when on external vs internal power. Also one of the video cards contains an HDMI output which I would like to use as it lets me plug in my monitor.

So is there an easy way to configure this?

Video Cards:

  • Radeon HD 4200 - Low power
  • Radeon HD 5600 - High power (contains the HDMI output)

Potential acceptable solutions:

  • Deactivate low power card and use high power only. Worse battery life but whatever. However I don't want this done in BIOS since I want the good behavior in windows when dual booting.
  • Get low power card working without high power card BUT HDMI output needs to work so I can plug monitor in.

Some progress:

aticonfig --adapter=all --initial finds both adapters after restart. The problem is X cannot start. It goes to black screen and must be restarted.

aticonfig --list-adapters only shows one adapter in a working config. The undesirable

configuring the high power adapter leads to same x not loading as --adapter=all

Dmitriy Likhten
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    You might be interested in the [Linux Hybrid Graphics site](http://linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.com/). – Lekensteyn May 06 '11 at 17:29
  • @Lekensteyn post that as an answer. At least its something so far. – Dmitriy Likhten May 06 '11 at 17:38
  • it all comes back to the x config. there seem to be more configs available for nvidia, but check them out. one of them might spark how you can modify your config to work. – RobotHumans May 28 '11 at 04:51
  • @aking1012 i can't figure out which xconfig is being used. There are many but no base one. Where can I look up which xconf is used. – Dmitriy Likhten Jun 01 '11 at 23:08
  • For a bit more background information on hybrid-graphics and the current Linux solutions, check this website out: http://hybrid-graphics-linux.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page – 719016 Jun 11 '11 at 02:39

2 Answers2

2

Hybrid graphics has improved a bit lately. The latest Catalyst drivers provide a login/logout switch. Have a look at these websites:
https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux
http://linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.com

719016
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Have you installed CCC? I've found that it has most of the settings one can expect. I don't have the hardware to replicate your situation, but in my experience the control centre has worked better in setting up my various screen layouts than any of the other apps I've used.

Dirk Hartzer Waldeck
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