vgaswitcheroo - Can't switch to dedicated GPU

[Nicolás Abel Carbone]

I have a dual-GPU notebook, with a Intel Ironlake integrated GPU and a AMD 5650m dedicated GPU. Due to the fact that the privative AMD drivers doesn't work with this particular combination of GPU (muxed system) I am stuck with open source drivers and vga_switcheroo to choose between them.

However since the upgrade to 13.04, I can't switch to the dedicated GPU as I could in 12.10. When I activate the AMD card and logout of the active session (in order to kill X, as needed by vgaswitcheroo), I can't get to lightdm and I get this message: "vga_switcheroo: client 1 refused switch" and "vga_switcheroo: client 101 refused switch". After this, the only option is to drop to TTY and restart the system.

Also, possible related, when shutting down the notebook I get a lot of "atombios stuck executing... for more than 5 secs" errors.

Both GPUs are working fine in Windows and, as said, used to work fine in Ubuntu 12.10.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: linux-image-3.8.0-15-generic 3.8.0-15.25 [modified: boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-15-generic]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-15.25-generic 3.8.4
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-15-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: nicolas 3895 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: nicolas 3895 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: nicolas 3895 F...m pulseaudio
Date: Sun Mar 31 13:30:38 2013
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=d55a83c8-f045-4c6f-ad18-f2fa84bcfd73
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-03-30 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Alpha amd64 (20130328)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY 14 Notebook PC
MarkForUpload: True
ProcFB:
 0 inteldrmfb
 1 radeondrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-15-generic root=UUID=67db7fed-d0f3-4c33-9a58-eb3860cfc7be ro quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-15-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-15-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.104
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/01/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: F.26
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 1436
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: 59.24
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: CNU03538DZ
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrF.26:bd12/01/2011:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPENVY14NotebookPC:pvr0492100000241910000620000:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1436:rvr59.24:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: HP ENVY 14 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: 0492100000241910000620000
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Nicolás Abel Carbone (nicocarbone)]

I did some research and the problem seems to be widespread.

Using the workaround posted by Vangel Ajanovski in askubuntu (http://askubuntu.com/questions/142506/hybrid-graphics-on-ubuntu-12-04-switching-to-discrete) I can switch to the discrete graphics, but when I do the laptop backlight turns off and I can't turn it on by any method I tried. It does work with an external HDMI display. I reported another bug report about this (#1163418)

I don't close this bug because this is only a workaround and is clearly a regression from Ubuntu 12.10.

[Nicolás Abel Carbone (nicocarbone)]

Doing some more testing with the final version of Ubuntu 13.04, I can say that this bug is not longer present. I can successfully switch to the dedicated GPU as I did on Ubuntu 12.10. However, after switching backlight is off and can't be turned on, as stated in bug Bug #1163418.

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Same combination here, the problems is still there however... It seems somewhat caused by pulseaudio I think.

In fact, if once lightdm starts I go to tty1 → sudo service lighdm stop → sudo killall pulseaudio → echo OFF| sudo tee /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch #switch to integrated card

Evertyhing will work since then...

Otherwise I'm getting similar errors, still on 13.10:

[ 489.177732] hda-intel 0000:01:00.1: Disabling via VGA-switcheroo
[ 489.297129] hda-intel 0000:01:00.1: Cannot lock devices!
[ 489.297139] radeon: switched off
[ 489.300356] [drm] Disabling audio support
[ 489.319552] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 5 use gpu addr 0x000000000015e418 and cpu addr 0xffffc90009df0418
[ 489.973886] ACPI: \_SB_.PCI0: ACPI_NOTIFY_BUS_CHECK event: unsupported
[ 489.973903] _handle_hotplug_event_root: Bus check notify on \_SB_.PCI0
[ 620.618515] systemd-udevd[11062]: NAME="autopilot-uinput" ignored, kernel device nodes can not be renamed; please fix it in /lib/udev/rules.d/61-autopilot-uinput.rules:2
[ 625.865633] type=1400 audit(1376040689.481:56): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" parent=11322 profile="unconfined" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5" pid=11324 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 625.866080] type=1400 audit(1376040689.481:57): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" parent=11322 profile="unconfined" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-*" pid=11324 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 625.937081] type=1400 audit(1376040689.553:58): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" parent=11322 profile="unconfined" name="pxgsettings" pid=11324 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 625.937705] type=1400 audit(1376040689.553:59): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" parent=11322 profile="unconfined" name="sanitized_helper" pid=11324 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 625.937903] type=1400 audit(1376040689.553:60): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" parent=11322 profile="unconfined" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-ofono" pid=11324 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 666.436776] compiz[3802]: segfault at 7fa0020c64b0 ip 00007f9ffe786c0d sp 00007fffdb31ce00 error 4 in libc-2.17.so[7f9ffe707000+1bc000]
[ 678.992375] [drm:atom_op_jump] *ERROR* atombios stuck in loop for more than 5secs aborting
[ 678.992453] [drm:atom_execute_table_locked] *ERROR* atombios stuck executing CD0C (len 62, WS 0, PS 0) @ 0xCD28
[ 683.996303] [drm:atom_op_jump] *ERROR* atombios stuck in loop for more than 5secs aborting
[ 683.996377] [drm:atom_execute_table_locked] *ERROR* atombios stuck executing CD0C (len 62, WS 0, PS 0) @ 0xCD28
[ 683.996453] [drm:atom_execute_table_locked] *ERROR* atombios stuck executing C3DC (len 871, WS 0, PS 0) @ 0xC439
[ 689.000275] [drm:atom_op_jump] *ERROR* atombios stuck in loop for more than 5secs aborting
[ 689.000349] [drm:atom_execute_table_locked] *ERROR* atombios stuck executing CD0C (len 62, WS 0, PS 0) @ 0xCD28
[ 694.004285] [drm:atom_op_jump] *ERROR* atombios stuck in loop for more than 5secs aborting
[ 694.004363] [drm:atom_execute_table_locked] *ERROR* atombios stuck executing CD0C (len 62, WS 0, PS 0) @ 0xCD28
[ 699.008330] [drm:atom_op_jump] *ERROR* atombios stuck in loop for more than 5sec...