Last update: Ubuntu 20.04 fixed everything. Default is intel, and it automatically uses the dedicated one when needed (so far!) And if it does not work, there is now an option in the applications menu when you right click an app > it will say "Launch using dedicated graphics card".
PROBLEM SOLVED: I had to use the 'nomodeset' command in my grub to launch my OS in order to not get the blank screen. Doing radeon.modeset=0 would cause the screen to go blank. So I set it to intel.modeset=0, to boot default with the intel GPU and it works really nicely, and I'm seeing a very optimistic battery life! Then finally, to use my dedicated GPU, I use the DRI_PRIME=1 command on the software I would like to use.
To anyone that ends up reading this with your Macbook, this is probably your solution. I have searched a many for this solution. If you need to use nomodeset to boot, then you are most likely having a graphics driver fault somewhere. This may not be exactly your solution, but it's a really good place to start.
Cheers!
I figured I would also do a small write up step by step, as this seems to be common with earlier Macbooks that have a dedicated GPU.
So, first install Ubuntu. If it works, great. If you get a blank screen by installing it without using 'safe graphics mode', then odds are your drivers aren't doing their job. So, install in safe graphics mode, then reboot. After reboot if you are getting a blank screen, then you will need to boot into 'try ubuntu with safe graphics' mode via USB or CD, or whatever else you installed your operating system with.
Once in the desktop, open up the terminal.
You are going to need to edit your grub files in order to use the generic driver, or intel driver if it works right away for you. I did not reinstall my OS after changing my boot command to intel.modeset=0 so I am unsure if it will work right away. But anyways, the concept to the following edits are the same:
From this answer is how I was able to edit my grub root, since Macbook doesn't have the same BIOS or entry features like other computers. https://askubuntu.com/a/941322/1068231
Run from the Live CD, and either install Ubuntu or move on if already done
Check your installed partition with the command "gparted". It opens a Window telling you where you installed Ubuntu. In my case it was /dev/sda2 which contained an ext4 partition.
Mount the partition: sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt
Then mount/bind the directories Grub needs to access:
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev &&
sudo mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts &&
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc &&
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
Then move on to this environment using chroot, which I found a supersmart idea: sudo chroot /mnt
You should now be able to edit /etc/default/grub, as the others pointed out. Like: sudo vi /etc/default/gruband change the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset" **Or do intel.modeset=0 here** I found it very useful to also remove quiet and splash so I could see something moving on behind the scenes.
Then do sudo update-grub
I will start as an introduction, as this is my first post. I have played around with Ubuntu around the 11-13 area. That was long ago, and I have decided to go in this direction to learn more about Debian, and boycott OSX and Windows when I can. (Which is hopefully going to be 100% one day!)
Anyways, I have an old, but gold, early 2011 17" Macbook Pro, and since OSX is NOT SUPPORTED (even though there is a looparound to actually make it work...) I have decided to go with Ubuntu 19.10, and eventually upgrading to 20.04 when it comes out.
Now, onto my issue. This laptop has Intel HD graphics 3000, as well as a Radeon HD 6750M.
When I first tried installing Ubuntu LTS, I got a black screen right after pressing enter on 'install Ubuntu'. I then tried Ubuntu 19.10, and the same story there. So I did it with safe graphics mode, and it worked! Which led me to believe, that there was some sort of mix up with my graphics cards. I know for a fact that both graphics cards are in good working order, so it cannot be a hardware issue.
I ran into another problem after installing Ubuntu in safe graphics mode. After the installation was complete, I was told to remove my USB and restart, and so I did. The same thing had happened, and looking into it I had to add a 'nomodeset' command to one of the lines in my Grub2. I booted into 'try ubuntu in safe graphics mode' and used chroot to edit my Grub2 root with the 'nomodeset' line added, which is what fixed my booting problem. Now I can boot, and use my OS almost fine. When I got onto the system, I did all the updates and upgrades and the computer is working really good. Except for the graphics.
So to my knowledge, the 'nomodeset' line had disabled my ability to use a graphics driver. I've encountered a bug where when I go into suspend mode, my backlight will not turn back on after waking the device up. I can hear my audio pressing up and down, so I know the system is on but backlight is off. But that's not really a big issue for me. Mini edit: the new driver setup fixed my suspend issue as well
I mainly would like to use my dedicated AMD card to use 3D programs, and video games if need be.
So this is the tricky part.
How do I use my Intel card while doing normal tasks, and switch to the video card when using more demanding software? (to save on battery, this is a big deal for me)
And with the 'nomodeset' line being the only way I can boot into the OS, would installing the drivers fix the problem for me?
From what it looks like, I already have the stock drivers for both my Intel card and Radeon card (Radeon using 'radeon' drivers) Also, my 'additional drivers' tab has no awareness of any graphics cards. BUT, in my 'About' section, by graphics, it says "llvmpipe (LLVM 9.0, 256 bits)" which seems to be some sort of generic display driver. Probably used because of the nomodeset command.
So to my understanding, the 'nomodeset' needs to go, and my Intel card needs to be my default, and I also need some sort of command to switch between the two GPU's.
If you got this far, thank you. I look forward to any advice. I've worked on this for 1 day, and it seems I haven't gotten anywhere yet. :D
Edit:
I have made an interesting discovery. After reinstalling Ubuntu 19.10 again, I gave it time to boot up fully, and I was able to adjust my keyboard light setting, and also my audio was adjusting. The screen remains blank. I believe there was a hyphen, or underscore just sitting there on the screen without anything else.
Also quite important, on the first boot when I restarted after installing, there was a quick message that said something along the lines of "UMS not recognized for AMD something something"
Would this mean that it tried to load a radeon driver, but could not find the correct one?
On another note.. I have also tried installing the proprietary drivers from the AMD website, and it said that something with my Xorg was either out of date, or too new for the driver.
Here is my lshw -c video command:
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 00
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:90000000-9fffffff memory:b0800000-b081ffff ioport:2000(size=256) memory:b0820000-b083ffff
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 09
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:b0000000-b03fffff memory:a0000000-afffffff ioport:3000(size=64)
And my lspci -nn | grep VGA command:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0126] (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M] [1002:6741]
Install xerver-xorg-video-radeon command:
sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-radeon Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done xserver-xorg-video-radeon is already the newest version (1:19.0.1-1ubuntu1). xserver-xorg-video-radeon set to manually installed. The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: gir1.2-geocodeglib-1.0 gir1.2-gst-plugins-base-1.0 gir1.2-gudev-1.0 gir1.2-udisks-2.0 grilo-plugins-0.3-base gstreamer1.0-gtk3 guile-2.2-libs libboost-date-time1.67.0 libboost-filesystem1.67.0 libboost-iostreams1.67.0 libboost-locale1.67.0 libcdr-0.1-1 libclucene-contribs1v5 libclucene-core1v5 libcmis-0.5-5v5 libcolamd2 libcurl4 libdazzle-1.0-0 libe-book-0.1-1 libeot0 libepubgen-0.1-1 libetonyek-0.1-1 libevent-2.1-6 libfreerdp-client2-2 libfreerdp2-2 libgc1c2 libgom-1.0-0 libgpgmepp6 libgpod-common libgpod4 libgrilo-0.3-0 liblangtag-common liblangtag1 liblirc-client0 liblua5.3-0 libminiupnpc17 libmspub-0.1-1 libodfgen-0.1-1 liborcus-0.14-0 libqqwing2v5 libraw19 librevenge-0.0-0 librsync2 libsgutils2-2 libsuitesparseconfig5 libvncclient1 libwinpr2-2 libxmlsec1 libxmlsec1-nss lp-solve media-player-info python3-bcrypt python3-fasteners python3-future python3-lib2to3 python3-lockfile python3-mako python3-markupsafe python3-monotonic python3-paramiko syslinux syslinux-common syslinux-legacy usb-creator-common Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
And the same thing happened with the intel command.^
PS. I would like to reward whom(s)ever helps me through this, maybe I'll order you a pizza or something. lol
Another Update:
I changed my 'nomodeset' to 'radeon.modeset=0' and it did the same thing where it boots into the log in screen, but the display remains off (while I can adjust volume, keyboard brightness). But then I did ctrl+alt+f2 or f3, and it brought out a terminal and the screen was working!
I feel like I'm getting closer.
Edit 3:
I verified my drivers are up to date, both intel and AMD side. The nomodeset is causing the system to use the generic driver. When I disable the generic driver, my display stops working.
Edit 4:
I set it up so that it boots with intel.modeset=0 and it worked, but there was nothing on my screen when I logged in except for the background. It took me a while to realise it was detecting two displays! And I moved the mouse around and it ended up on the "second" display. So right click > display settings > single display, now it shows that both of my GPU's are detected!!!! WOW! Off the bat, my scrolling and mouse movement look a lot smoother.
I will test some programs and report hopefully with the last update.
LAST UPDATE! :
It all works great! The intel GPU is used by default for everything, and I use the DRI_PRIME=1 command for anything I need to use my other GPU for!!!
In order to use the DRI_PRIME=1, I used this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PRIME And I had to set my AMD card ahead of the Intel card. It still used the Intel card after doing so, but enabled the command "DRI_PRIME=1" to use my second AMD Card.
For example on a Steam video game, in launch options, I would put:
'DRI_PRIME=1 %command%'
What a journey.
