Dtyjlui

On 12.04 I used to utilize this procedure, to power off my ATI graphics and prevent my system from overheating, it worked fine.
After installing 16.04, I've been trying everything I could find on the net, but no solution. My system runs extremely hot, causing the fans to run at max almost all the time. Can anybody come up with a little hack to shutdown that discrete ATI Radeon card?

thanks.
M.Schoofs

System: HP Pavilion dv7-6190ed (FW F.18) [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6730M/6770M/7690M XT]

Check graphic drivers which are in use (radeon/amdgpu should be listed):

lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'in use'

Note: If amdgpu is listed, replace radeon with amdgpu in the instructions below!

Open the following file:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Modify the following line by adding radeon.modeset=0:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.modeset=0"

Save and Exit

Back to Terminal:

sudo update-grub

sudo reboot

Check again which graphic drivers are in use (radeon/amdgpu should not be listed anymore):

lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'in use'

Now, your ATI/AMD graphic card is disabled and your computer works only with the Intel graphics. The fan speed should significantly decrease.

Following Neni's answer, I had kernel panic after sleep. I solved my problem by adding radeon.modeset=0 amdgpu.runpm=0 acpi_backlight=intel_backlight to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

To edit file :

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Find line :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

And replace with :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.modeset=0 amdgpu.runpm=0 acpi_backlight=intel_backlight"

To regenerate config :

sudo update-grub

Reboot :

sudo reboot

What those options do :

• 
  radeon.modeset=0 disables radeon driver


• 
  amdgpu.runpm=0 disables the power management from amdgpu driver


• 
  acpi_backlight=intel_backlight uses intel driver to control laptop screen backlight

Official bug report suggests as a workaround either manually install newer kernel (which you would have to manually update) or run those steps :

1. /etc/default/grub: Add amdgpu.runpm=0 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
   
   Included above.



2. 
   

   /etc/rc.local: Add the following command:
   

   
   

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

   
   This step caused my system to freeze on shutdown so I just skipped it.


3. 
   

   /etc/X11/xorg.conf: Create the file if it doesn't exist, and add the
   following in order to get the backlight controls working (otherwise
   it would be misdetected):
   

   
   

   Section "Device"
   
       Identifier "Card0"
   
       Driver "intel"
   
       Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
   
   EndSection
   
   

   
   This step is replaced replaced above by acpi_backlight=intel_backlight