lspci | grep VGA does not detect my dedicated AMD Radeon HD 8550M / R5 M230 in ubuntu 14.04 64 bit

Question

My Ubuntu 14.04 in Lenovo b40-70 do not detect my AMD/ATI Radeon HD 8550M / R5 M230 , it shows only Intel integrated graphics card here's the output :

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b)

I've tried both xorg driver and fglrx from additional hardware section and still the output of lspci | grep VGA remains same

here's the output of lspci :**

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller (rev 0b) 
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b) 
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller (rev 0b) 
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series USB xHCI HC (rev 04)  
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series HECI #0 (rev 04) 
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller (rev 04)  
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev e4) 
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev e4)  
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev e4)  
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev e4)  
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev e4)  
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)  
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series LPC Controller (rev 04)  
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)  
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series SMBus Controller (rev 04) 
02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)  
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI   Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)  
09:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter  (rev 01)  
0a:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Sun LE [Radeon HD   8550M / R5 M230] 

please help me out , I want to use the xorg driver as it keeps my laptop cooler and I am able to use wacom tablet. i do not want to switch to windows 7 after using Ubuntu for 4 years on my old dell laptop.

what is best way to make use of the open source driver with the graphics switching if possible.

Answer 1

For the command you use: lspci | grep VGA for parsing video cards from the command-line output is NOT the proper way to detect what graphic controller you have.

The reason is that for some video cards, they're not listed as a "[0300] VGA compatible controller", they could be a:

• "[0302] 3D controller"
• "[0380] Display controller" (in your case)

Note that the number in the bracket is the class number.

A more reliable way to do this is to get the class number [03xx] for them:

lspci -nn | grep '\[03'

Or you could do this with: sudo lshw -c video command

If your "Additional Driver" section could let you install proprietary driver, then it's working well for detecting your graphic controllers.

If you want to use your laptop in power-saving mode, there is an option for switching powersaving / high-performance profiles in the AMD Catalyst Control Center (if available):

You just need to execute sudo amdcccle in your terminal to access the Administrative mode for the control center.

Without the proprietary driver install, you will be running with the open-source driver (the Xorg driver) by default. So no worry about it!