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I have a notebook with graphics card Radeon HD 8250/8280G (it's a Sony ATIV book 9 Lite). I used to use the proprietary fglrx driver, but when I upgraded to ubuntu 16.04, it was replaced by the open source radeon driver. Now my external monitor is no longer recognized: xrandr doesn't even list it as an output.

Which graphics cards are supported by the new AMDGPU driver in Ubuntu 16.04?

tells me that the AMDGPU driver doesn't support my graphics card and fglrx is not compatible with 16.04 due to some incompatibility with the new xorg, so it seems I am stuck with radeon.

Xorg.0.log tells me that radeon is loaded, but the list of compatible devices (that gets dumped into the log file) doesn't include any Radeon HD 8xxx, so I'm a bit confused whether this is the right driver in the first place. lsmod | grep radeon shows nothing, so I'm wondering if the card is recognized correctly.

  • Can you help me find out if my card is really supported by the radeon driver?
  • Has anyone been able to use the external output of the ATIV Book 9 Lite in 16.04?
  • Do you think the issue is with my card being recognized or the right settings? Can I "force" my system to use the driver somehow?
  • Do you know any alternatives to radeon? I only want to get the external monitor to work, I don't need 3D acceleration or anything. Thanks a lot!
Ulrike
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  • Any AMD card not supported by the newer drivers is supported by radeon. There's currently no alternative, live with it. –  Oct 03 '16 at 11:40

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I had to activate kernel mode settings (KMS) for the radeon driver by setting the kernel parameter 'radeon.modeset=1'. This can be done by adding it to '/etc/defaults/grub' and running 'update-grub', then restarting the system.

Better try this out without saving the parameter permanently first -- I heard it can lead to problems on some machines: During boot hold SHIFT in order to force the 'GNU GRUB' menu to appear. When the 'GNU GRUB' menu appears, release SHIFT and press the 'e' key. Move the cursor to the line beginning with the word 'linux'. At thhend of this line you will find 'quiet splash' and perhaps 'radeon.modeset=0'. Change it to 'radeon.modeset=1'. Then press Ctrl + x to finish the boot process.

Ulrike
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