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I have ubuntu 12.04.2 and kde. I have fglrx 13.1 latest drivers. Sometimes I have freezes at starup, it's very annoying, and I discovered it's bug : http://ati.cchtml.com/show_bug.cgi?id=691 So maybe I should remove fglrx proprietary drivers and go back to mesa open drivers. The problem is: when I first tried open drivers my gpu was used to work at 70C° (158 Fahrenheit) instead I have max 39C° (102 Fahrenheit) with flgrx drivers. I think it's about temperature and fan control. If I decide to remove fglrx I want to be sure that I will not have problems, so I'd like to know:

  1. Is there a way to have same very good temperatures (like with fglrx drivers) with open drivers?
  2. Is there a good updated ppa to have latest open drivers versions in order to keep them updated?
  3. At this moment my plymouth works well with fglrx, is there any change I have to do to make it works with open drivers?
  4. Last question: do you think it's a good idea to use open drivers?

My machine specs:

  • gpu: msi/ati r6870 hawk
  • cpu: i5-2500k sandy bridge
  • motherboard: P8P67 PRO

Thanks a lot.

guntbert
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Frank
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    See this Q&A on setting power profiles for the open source radeon driver. Here is how to make them permanent. – Glutanimate Apr 04 '13 at 14:25
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    Also: It is better to post separate questions instead of combining your questions into one. That way it helps the people answering your question and also others hunting for at least one of your questions. Thanks! – Glutanimate Apr 04 '13 at 14:26

1 Answers1

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I will try to answer your questions in the same order.

1) Yes there is a way to decrease temperature with open-source driver (radeon). First you should try it from terminal with the following commands

    sudo su -

    echo low >  /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

    exit

After you confirm that the temperature decreased (check the output of sensors command), you can add the command echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile to /etc/rc.local(before exit 0) to be executed in every reboot.

2) A good and "stable" PPA is considered this => Ubuntu X-Team

3) I think that plymouth is work well with radeon driver too.

4) IMHO yes. If we use the open source drivers and support them , then we will help the developers for a better release in future.

NickTux
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  • what about this ppa for my gpu? https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/graphics-drivers/ – Frank Apr 04 '13 at 17:17
  • @Frank I have not tested this PPA and I cannot have an opinion, instead of "Ubuntu X-Team" that I have used and I know that is stable. – NickTux Apr 04 '13 at 20:37