Laptop screen only displays when something is plugged into the HDMI port

[Andrew Dillon]

HP Laptop

AMD A8-5550M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics x4

Model 17-e016dx

When booting in to "Try Ubuntu without installing" with nothing plugged in to the HDMI port I get a blank screen on the laptop, but seems to boot normally other wise.
Reproduced 3 times

When booting in to "Try Ubuntu without installing" with a device plugged in to the HDMI port I can get to the desktop without issue and displays normally on the laptop screen.
Reproduced 3 times

Ran install from the same USB install with device plugged in to HDMI, display shows normally

Note: I can install 13.10 without this work around

After Install was finished laptop booted fine with HDMI cable plugged in.

Removed HDMI, boot to desktop but no video again.

Plugged HDMI back in, booted fine.

Tried to change graphics drivers to fglrx-updates or fglrx would not take

Rebooted, still would not take ether one of the fglrx graphics drivers, no error message.

Downloaded New BIOS from HP
Version: F.31

Needs Windows 8, to update BIOS

Updated BIOS

Booted from Ubuntu USB "Try Ubuntu without installing" without HDMI plugged in black screen again

Plugged HDMI in, booted from USB "Try Ubuntu without installing" and got to Ubuntu desktop.

Was able to install fglrx-updates in Live Boot

Restarted and ran install from bootiable USB

installed Ubuntu 14.04 still had no video without HDMI plugged in

installed fglrx-updates in Additional Drivers, and it stuck, rebooted

Worked

Shutdown, removed HDMI cable

Booted and it worked. Laptop video works with out HDMI plugged in.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-20.42-generic 3.13.7
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-20-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Mar 30 10:04:05 2014
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: fglrx-updates, 13.350.1, 3.13.0-20-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Richland [Radeon HD 8550G] [1002:990d] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:1984]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-30 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Beta amd64 (20140326)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-20-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=b4007e1a-20b8-4530-ab38-1841cea0a9e6 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/04/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: Insyde
dmi.bios.version: F.31
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 1984
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: 01.13
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnInsyde:bvrF.31:bd12/04/2013:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPPavilion17NotebookPC:pvr0883100000305B10000620100:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1984:rvr01.13:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: 0883100000305B10000620100
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140320.1-0ubuntu1
version.fglrx-installer: fglrx-installer N/A
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Sun Mar 30 09:49:59 2014
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:
 open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
 AIGLX error: failed to open /usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/dri/fglrx_dri.so, error[/usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/dri/fglrx_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory]
 AIGLX error: failed to open /usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so, error[/usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory]
 AIGLX error: failed to open /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/fglrx_dri.so, error[/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/fglrx_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory]
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7
xserver.video_driver: fglrx

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Andrew Dillon, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. As per http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-Pavilion-17-e000-Notebook-PC-series/5375409/model/6521462 an update to your computer's buggy and outdated BIOS is available (F.35). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate does it change anything?

If it doesn't, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful. As well, you don't have to create a new bug report.

Once the BIOS is updated, if the problem is still reproducible, and the information above is provided, then please mark this report Status New. Otherwise, please mark this as Invalid.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]