Problem with ATI switchable graphics

[Guest]

I have an HP laptop with dual Intel and ATI graphics (Radeon HD 6470M). The intel GPU worked out of the box, but when I try to switch to ATI with this shell script, I got a kernel panic. Here is the stack trace from the error log:

Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675332] radeon: switched off
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675343] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at  (null)
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675373] IP: [<f8972b28>] radeon_suspend_kms+0x78/0x1e0 [radeon]
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675411] *pdpt = 000000002f554001 *pde = 0000000000000000 
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675432] Oops: 0000 [#2] SMP 
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675444] last sysfs file: /sys/devices/system/cpu/sched_smt_power_savings
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675468] Modules linked in: parport_pc ppdev dm_crypt joydev snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_idt snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_pcm snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi hp_wmi snd_seq_midi_event sparse_keymap snd_seq snd_timer snd_seq_device uvcvideo videodev snd psmouse serio_raw rt5390sta(P) soundcore snd_page_alloc rts_pstor(C) lp parport usbhid hid radeon(+) i915 ttm drm_kms_helper ahci libahci drm r8169 i2c_algo_bit video
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675621] 
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675628] Pid: 1071, comm: rc.local Tainted: P   D C 2.6.38-11-generic-pae #50-Ubuntu Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC/1696
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.675673] EIP: 0060:[<f8972b28>] EFLAGS: 00010297 CPU: 0
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.676813] EIP is at radeon_suspend_kms+0x78/0x1e0 [radeon]
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.677969] EAX: f69742a0 EBX: fffffeac ECX: c176eee8 EDX: 00000002
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.679118] ESI: f69742a0 EDI: f6974000 EBP: eeb93ed0 ESP: eeb93ea8
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.680257] DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 00e0 SS: 0068
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.681394] Process rc.local (pid: 1071, ti=eeb92000 task=eed53f20 task.ti=eeb92000)
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.682558] Stack:
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.683690] eeb93efc c110b29e c34a7dd9 f6974000 00000000 00000002 f6b24000 f6974000
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.684863] 00000000 ffffffea eeb93ee4 f8972ddb f8a0f75f 00000004 00000020 eeb93f64
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.686063] c1349490 00000000 00000001 ef554220 ef4de458 eda0a540 00000002 00000001
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.687251] Call Trace:
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.688415] [<c110b29e>] ? handle_pte_fault+0x2be/0x2f0
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.689593] [<f8972ddb>] radeon_switcheroo_set_state+0x4b/0xa0 [radeon]
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.690792] [<c1349490>] vga_switcheroo_debugfs_write+0x140/0x370
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.691948] [<c1255f66>] ? apparmor_file_permission+0x16/0x20
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.693081] [<c113272c>] ? rw_verify_area+0x6c/0x130
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.694216] [<c1132ab2>] vfs_write+0xa2/0x170
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.695314] [<c1349350>] ? vga_switcheroo_debugfs_write+0x0/0x370
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.696410] [<c1132d92>] sys_write+0x42/0x70
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.697498] [<c100ab5f>] sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x28
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.698595] Code: 00 89 7d f0 89 f7 89 c6 81 eb 54 01 00 00 eb 1b 8d 76 00 89 d8 ba 03 00 00 00 e8 34 bf ba ff 8b 9b 54 01 00 00 81 eb 54 01 00 00 <8b> 83 54 01 00 00 0f 18 00 90 8d 83 54 01 00 00 39 f0 75 d4 89 
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.700948] EIP: [<f8972b28>] radeon_suspend_kms+0x78/0x1e0 [radeon] SS:ESP 0068:eeb93ea8
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.702168] CR2: 0000000000000000
Oct 12 20:42:18 Kubuntu kernel: [  15.707807] ---[ end trace 9fe169d51d376afe ]---

I'm currently using the open source drivers; the ATI drivers didn't cause a kernel panic but there was a weird graphics bug that made X unusable.

[ardvark71]

Re: Problem with ATI switchable graphics

Hi...

To my knowledge, switchable graphics in Linux is not yet fully supported. However, as of 10.10, there is a level of support provided by a program called "switcheroo." Documentation and instructions can be found here.

EDIT: Never mind, I didn't read close enough. Not sure how to help you at this point.

Regards...

[richb]

Re: Problem with ATI switchable graphics

Same issue with an Acer 5750G and nVidia graphics. However the integrated Intel graphics work quite well for normal ops including compositing. There is also a dolution called Bumblebee. but I have not been able to get it to work.

[realzippy]

Re: Problem with ATI switchable graphics

@richb
Bumblebee kinda works on your machine;means running apps on the nvidia-card.
Switching off the nvidia-card (to safe battery power) seems to be a problem,there are different
versions of the Acer 5750G out there.
Let me know if you need help for installing bumblebee_stable on your machine....but maybe you open
an own thread then,since this would derail this one,the solution won't work for OP's issue (ATI dual graphics).

[richb]

Re: Problem with ATI switchable graphics

@realzippy

Thanks may take you up on that in the future. At the present it does not seem to offer enough utility as I cannot think of an app I would need the nVidia for.