I can't deactivate my video card

[briandc]

Hi everyone,
I recently installed PCLOS to my desktop (second time). The first time the graphics seemed to work well. But this time the windows pop up rather sluggishly and full-screen videos are not smooth.

I have two graphics cards: the pre-installed, and an ATI Radeon 2600 card. But I can't choose between the two, only the ATI card is activated.

In the past, the default card has worked well, even better than the ATI (on another distro, for example).

Can /should I deactivate the ATI?  If so, how do I do it?


Thanks to all for the time,
brian

[T6]

hello and welcome to the forum

if i understand you well, the mainboard has a onboard video card and you added a ati 2600

usually the onboard video card is deactivated when you put another video card

if this is not the case you need to check bios settings handling the onboard video card so it doesn't work and also it doesn't use ram memory for onboard video card

about the ati card, you need to install the amd video driver available on synaptic but i can't guide you because i don't have similar hardware

[briandc]

Hi T6,
Glad to be here!

Sorry if I was not so clear; the first part of your post is correct. The onboard card is indeed deactivated. I wouldn't mind reactivating it, since it seems to work better than the ATI card.

Still, the last time I installed PCLOS I didn't have any problems with the ATI card at that time, so I don't understand why now this time it's causing problems.

I've downloaded a driver from the AMD website (recommended in this website docs), but I don't know how to install it. It has a .run extension.

Any thoughts?

[T6]

as i mentioned earlier in pclinux we only use what the repos have

the repos have the same dirver you mention you downloaded but you don't have to do it by hand

synaptic is the app that download and install everything for you from the repos

ati cards are famous in linux because amd never gave the best support, most users just will tell you to remove the ati card and use any onboard nvidia card you could have

in your particular case the poor performance is caused by the wrong /improper driver being used and that is why i say that you need to install the driver but i can't help you in that process because i don't have the mentioned hardware

by the way, what onboard video card do you have?  if it is something bigger than a nvidia 6150 it is possible that the onboard is better than the ati card

[briandc]

I checked the synaptics driver which was already installed. Version alot.  I compared it with the one I downloaded from AMD, and it's the same one.

So I disinstalled the driver through synaptic and rebooted. It told me the driver was missing, and I think I'm now using the onboard driver, because it's faster now.

Is there a line command I can run to find out what card is currently in use?  I bet it would give me the onboard one...

[T6]

onboard driver?

the onboard card remains disabled while the ati card remains in place, the driver has no relation with the bios settings i mentioned before

uninstall the driver doesn't do anythings than just force kernel to use another driver, maybe the free radeon driver available that comes preinstalled in pclinux iso

the video driver that was installed must be reinstalled and properly configured to make it work well as you need it but as i said before i don't know how

[briandc]

Ok, I'll check out re-installation tomorrow, as it's late here. I think I'll be able to reinstall it ok, just takes time..
 
Thanks for your help!

Brian

[jaydot]

briandc, you can enable or disable the onboard video in the bios.

[DeBaas]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,92281.0.html

It's is an interesting read in tweaking and adjusting old(er) ATI Radeon video cards with newer software/drivers.

[briandc]

I'm back!
Thank you for the link. Sometimes the ATI works well, sometimes it's a problem. Seems to depend on the OS. Bodhi linux didn't recognize it.

How can I change it in BIOS?

[djohnston]

How can I change it in BIOS?

Not knowing what computer brand and model you have, it could be the F2, F10, Esc or Del key. When you start your computer, the first screen that comes up should say "Press xyz to enter setup", xyz being the key to press. Once you're in the BIOS setup screen, the video settings should be in the PCI section.

[T6]

chances are very high that you have to remove physically the ati card to use again the onboard card, the bios sometimes doesn't do much than ask what video card should be used first, onboard or pci express

when the bios on older mainbards see a video card in the pc express slot it deactivates the onboard one

recent mainbards can use both or switch form one to another depending on what the system is doing, this feature is not what you want it to be in linux, well in windows it is somewhat stable

[kjpetrie]

Switching ATI cards on and off from within pclos might need radeon-kms enabled in the kernel. Unfortunately, compiling the pclos kernel with that enabled causes it to hang on shutdown, and it isn't enabled in the kernels provided. I have got it to work by compiling my own vanilla kernels, but then certain pclos goodies like remastering won't work. Of course, compiling kernels is definitely for the advanced users' section.

As T6 says, the easiest way out might be to see what happens if you remove the card.