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I've just purchased a brand new asus laptop and I want to put ubuntu 14.04 on it.

From the install phase I encountered problems with the graphic card, it does not function properly.

I was able to use the option "try ubuntu without installing" to boot into it, but here the same problem, as you can see in the screen shoot. Strangely, the task bar it is displayed correctly. That is a terminal window opened on the screen, btw. Any window or program that I open looks like that.

This is the model of the graphic card: AMD Radeon® R5 M230 + Radeon® R7 M270 DX Dual Graphics with 2GB DDR3 VRAM Built-in FX-7600P

Any ideas how to solve this? Thx.

user7646353
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4 Answers4

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Fist step after an installation always is to upgrade all packages including open source graphic drivers to get bugs fixed. This can be done from a terminal or TTY even if graphics are not working: 

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

In general, for an AMD card, the Open Source radeon driver is supported very well and should only be replace by a proprietary driver in case of issues.

If after that we still had grahics card issues we should proceed using the tested drivers from the official Ubuntu repositories accessible via System settings > Software & Updates > Additional Drivers (proprietary drivers (restricted) repository needs to be activated first):

enter image description here
Here shown for Nvidia

If after that the issue was not resolved we may look for a repository, a ppa or a Debian package providing a more recent graphics driver for your specific AMD card. This will already introduce a high risk of making your system instable but in case your system breaks at least it can usually be reverted.

Only if after all that the issue still was not resolved we may try our luck with downloading the bleeding edge untested newest and possibly buggy driver from the manufacturer website. This may also involve runnign a proprietary installation with a custom-made install script. In case our system does not work afte that we can not easily revert the changes we had made. So this step really should be a last resort reserved for rare cases that can not be resolved otherwise (e.g. a brand new high end card). Before you do that you should read other people's experiences, and you should also be sure that your issue will be resolved.

Also see

Community
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Takkat
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1

The drivers for all of AMD's graphic cards are at their website here http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/. The first thing you should do is to download the appropriate driver(s) for your system.

Next, install the operating system. Don't worry if the graphics don't work after install. Once system boots up, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to go to one of virtual consoles. From there you can install the driver.

Community
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darksky
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0

I hit this problem in 2022 with a similar chipset on an Asus laptop. (I tried other Linux distributions too, including Fedora and Debian with an X.org, and Ubuntu with both X.org and then Wayland.)

Each time I was able to see the console (Ctrl-Alt-F2), but the graphics did not work.

I was able to resolve this problem (with either distribution) by blacklisting the Radeon driver / module.

It took me quite a long time to figure out. I believe we should contact the radeon driver developers team.

This is how you blacklist the radeon module:

Edit (or create) the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf as super user.

Add the line

blacklist radeon

Then run

 $ sudo update-initramfs -u

to create a new boot image.

(If a Fedora user comes upon this forum, run

 # dracut --regenerate-all --force     
)

Then, reboot your computer. Double-check that radeon is blacklisted by running

# lspci -v

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV620/M82 [Mobility Radeon HD 3450/3470] (prog-if 00 [VGA co
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 19e2
    ....
    Kernel driver in use: radeon
    Kernel modules: radeon

#lshw -c video

    *-display
         description: VGA compatible controller
         product: RV620/M82 [Mobility Radeon HD 3450/3470]
         vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
         ....
         configuration: ******** driver=radeon latency=0
Maxim
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0

Seems that the Ubuntu 14.04 is too old for your graphics card (both card and the OS are released almost at the same time). The Live-mode runs free driver from the Linux kernel which can't handle your graphics card properly.

So, try Ubuntu 14.04.4 that ships modern kernel 4.2. If the graphics will fail again try to go to the virtual console (as described in one of the answers to your question) and install latest proprietary driver (AMD Catalyst).

Also please upload the probe of your computer to the Linux-Hardware.org so that we can share your experience for developers.

linuxbuild
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