[SOLVED] Help configuring Xorg Server

[senorcronopio]

Greetings,

I own a Samsung NP-350V4C, running Mageia 3 64 bit with a KDE desktop. The Laptop was a win-8 ready pc but I deleted it entirely (i.e. no double-boot).
The laptop comes with a dedicated ATI Radeon HD 7670M video card. But with windows 8, ATI Catalyst used to "share" the video load between the chipset integrated video hardware and the dedicated ATI card (that is, I used to select which programs used which card.)

This is what I get from lspci

Code: Select all

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port (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.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (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)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Thames XT [Radeon HD 7670M]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 09)
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)


You can clearly tell that there's two VGA controllers: The Intel chipset card and the ATI card.
I had some issues with vsync when watching movies so I figured that I needed to configure my card. I couldn't. So I tried opening ATI Catalyst and I got the following error:

There was a problem initializing Catalyst Control Center Linux edition. It could be caused by the following.

No AMD graphics driver is installed, or the AMD driver is not functioning properly.
Please install the AMD driver appropriate for you AMD hardware, or configure using aticonfig.

I went to the Mageia Control Center to try configuring the video drivers. However, whenever I do, I see that it's configured only (I guess) for the intel chipset video:


So I tried changing the drivers to both flglrx and the free xorg ati drivers, and I get a message that says that I can configure multiple heads, and which one should I configure:



Choosing the ATI card, selecting propriety drivers and testing makes the entire computer go to a black screen which doesn't revert (I've tried waiting for over 10 minutes). So I force restart.

If I choose "Configure all heads independently" and selecting propriety drivers and testing gets me a "no screens found" error.

So I don't know what to do. I can't configure the video card properly and I still have video card issues.

By the way, this is my xorg.conf

Code: Select all

# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Plug'n Play"
   
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
   
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor2"
   
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
   
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "Intel Corporation"
    BoardName "Intel 810 and later"
    Driver "intel"
    Screen 0
    BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device2"
    VendorName "Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI"
    BoardName "ATI Radeon HD 5000 to HD 6300 (radeon/fglrx)"
    Driver "ati"
    Screen 0
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
EndSection

Thanks a lot.

[martinw]

By "testing" do you mean using the "Test" option in the Mageia Control Centre. This usually fails as you describe if you change the video driver (it's only really useful for testing changes to the screen resolution). Try choosing the ATI card, selecting proprietary drivers, closing the Mageia Control Centre, and rebooting.

If this doesn't work and you end up with a black screen, you can recover by booting in "failsafe" mode and rerunning the configuration tool in text mode, by typing

Code: Select all

XFdrake


on the command line. At the same time, you can look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if there are any useful error messages that indicate what went wrong.

[senorcronopio]

Thanks! It worked. However, my switchable graphics configuration is grayed out in AMD Catalyst:


But it now opens! That's a plus.

EDIT: Me is dumb. I know, I know. Administrative rights.

Also I've had KDE crash, sort of, entirely (twice). Both times it occurred during a Google Hangout; the screen went black and it sent me back to the login screen. One of the times, none of the USB ports were working. That could be an entirely different issue though.

I'll try and see if these crashes keep occurring, but thank you, anyway!

[martinw]

Glad to help. Please could you edit your original message and add [SOLVED] at the start of the Subject line (as you'll see in other threads).

If your crashing problem persists, please start a new thread for that.

[yankee495]

I have been trying to get my ATI and Intel graphics going for ages. The problem? I'm on a desktop with onbaord Intel and an AMD 6870 PCIE card.

I don't get a switchable graphics option in Catalyst but I do see the Intel card listed when I do lspci.

Does anyone know how to get this working on a desktop?