HP Pavilion dv7 Graphics Driver [closed]

Question

I just installed Ubuntu 11.10 and I did all the software updates. When I went into Additional Drivers, I saw that my ATI/AMD Proprietary FGLRX Graphics Driver is not activated. It says (post-release updates). I tried activating it, but it does not work? Ubuntu is really slow and nothing seems smooth? Also, my laptop fan is constantly on, which makes my laptop SUPER HOT. Someone please help!

Answer 1

do you have multiple graphics cards in the computer? I have a dv7 using xubuntu and I've got a discrete ATI graphics cards and an intel integrated one.

fglrx-update packages will not work. this is a bug

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jockey/+bug/870560?comments=all

read through that.

For xubuntu, I don't require the graphics of unity so the intel card works fine. Try unity in 2D. If fglrx is not installed, find out the outcome of

sudo su
cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

you should see

0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0 --integrated graphics processor

1:DIS: :Pwr:0000:01:00.0 --discrete graphics processor

The fan on problem might be that both gpus are powered up even though only one is used.

For the fan problem, try

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

and then re-run: cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

this should give 

0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0

1:DIS: :OFF:0000:01:00.0