Problem with dual gpu AMD laptop (linux)

>>190497
Too lazy to dig through past right now...but...isn't this setup one GPU coming on PCie and second one built in CPU? Might be some driver mixup between those.

>>190537
I'm not sure to be honest. On windows vista there was option to change card automatically or manually, but I've no clue how to do it on linux (since there doesn't seem to be AMD Catalyst option available for the newer versions).

>>190558
It doesn't "change the card".

It has the power-hungry GPU render into its own frame buffer, then blits it onto a quad on the cheap GPU.

Unless your graphics stack supports this, it won't work. It's not as simple as a switch that goes from "GPUs to use: 1" to "GPUs to use: 2".

>>190621
When I use vista, I have the option to choose between the two cards on my amd catalyst, I can even disable either card from device manager too.

Have you tried turning one of the GPUs off in your BIOS? There should be an option for that.
Of course, you would have to go to the BIOS and reconfigure anytime you want to use a different GPU.

>>190497
fglrx aka Catalyst is indeed a valid driver choice for these two graphic chips. Also install fglrx-amdcccle for the driver's control panel.

The newest AMD graphic cards use the new amdgpu proprietary driver.

However starting with Ubuntu 16.04 fglrx is deprecated seeing how the default open-source driver for older AMD graphic chips, xserver-xorg-video-radeon, is mature enough. You (normally) needn't install fglrx.

>>191136
If you want to remove fglrx, make sure you install xserver-xorg-video-radeon too (it might have been removed when you installed fglrx). It is a dependency of xserver-xorg-video-ati (the other dependencies are for legacy graphic cards).

I'm assuming you're comfortable with the GNU/Linux system of software packages and how to install/remove them (sudo apt-get ...). If not, well: software comes in packages centralized in repositories, some packages are dependents on others, and installing a particular software usually means installing a set of packages (e.g. one for the software, three for some libraries it uses, one for the documentation, etc). Use the Synaptics package manager to see all the available packages in the default repository (install it from the Software Center or with sudo apt-get install synaptics).

>>191139
>installing a set of packages
I mean a set of interdependent packages of course, you ask for one and the rest comes with it so that all dependencies are met

>>191146
lspci is the right command to find out which hardware has been detected

I'm not sure about finding out which graphic card is in use, but you can try:

* System Settings > Details > Overview
* the Catalyst driver control panel
* glxheads (on the command line): the GL_RENDERER information that is returned is the OpenGL renderer, and it's quite safe to assume that the active card is used to render OpenGL
* heat, fan noise, power use: the discrete GPU eats your battery a lot faster than the GPU integrated to the CPU, producing more heat and fan noise

>>191148
And finally, about graphics switching (aka NVIDIA Optimus), i.e. using either graphic adapter depending on the load: oh, boy... That's the difficult part. Depending on the computer, it can be near impossible (I've had a hard time with a dual-NVIDIA laptop).

I'm not sure it can be automatic (dynamic), contrary to what happens on Windows. Last time I had to configure a dual-GPU laptop I only managed to have manual switching, e.g. use the integrated GPU y default (least power-hungry) and manually launch graphics-heavy software with the discrete GPU.

I'm pretty sure the only graphics switching that works well (albeit manually) on Linux at the moment is when the laptop has an integrated Intel GPU and a discrete NVIDIA GPU.

I have never heard of dual-AMD graphics switching but I think your best bet for that is the Catalyst control center. I'm not sure the open-source driver can switch graphics.

Google AMD hybrid/switchable graphics with Linux for more information... and good luck. Switchable graphics on Linux is unfortunately technical and not beginner-friendly.