Can't get Graphics to work on HP Pavilion G6

Question

I have this crappy HP Pavilion G6 laptop (no other choice, provided by office) which is having troubles dealing with graphics (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS).

Details of the machine:
Its having a ATI Radeon graphics card, and I feel it is the main culprit.

I also had troubles installing it and only after following this link, I could install it.
(setting nomodeset in GRUB)

Now startup works good, but many things related to graphics don't. (I installed Cinnamon too, but it also doesn't seem to work correctly) I have all the updates applied.

I am currently facing problems in starting Android emulator to test my Android apps.
Whenever I try to start the emulator, I get following error message:

Starting emulator for AVD 'Phone_41'
X Error of failed request: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
Major opcode of failed request: 153 (GLX)
Minor opcode of failed request: 19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
Serial number of failed request: 12
Current serial number in output stream: 12

Apart from this, many other graphic related things do not work (Window switcher in graphic mode, Cinnamon)

If I head to Settings>Drivers I see two graphics drivers for the card being displayed:

The post-release-updates don't get installed and mess with the other one too (the one which is showing that it requires a restart)

Problems:

• Graphic Drivers can't be installed
• Android Emulator doesn't start, throws the above errors (maybe because of the graphics)

Is it a known issue or is there any workaround for this?

Solution 1

First things first Your Graphics Card

The link presented in your question contains outdated instructions to correctly install ATI graphics drivers for 12.04. You need to purge this installation and reinstall the coorect graphics driver (ensuring you all meet all the correct dependencies). This may also be the cause of Cinnamon not working (but if it il doesnt work you can ask a new question here).

Hopefully some else has knowledge about the Android Emulator (not a strong subject with me) but lets get you system stable first

Instructions on how to install your graphics driver can be found here

Solution 2

I have had the exact same problem. I have: -Followed all the links. -Installed all the libraries. -Uninstalled/reinstalled, sudo aticonfig --initial=dual-head, ... nothing helpful.

My advice, although not very helpful, is to make a new installation on a computer that already has drivers available. Build a computer with known working components that have the software to support it. Otherwise I will keep my eye on this link for something USEFUL.

Comments

[stephenmyall]

Im having trouble undertsanding what your bottom-line question is here. Is it to fix your graphics or having the ability to start Android Emulator? Please consider editing you question to be more specific. As a starting point, the fact that you are suing 12.04, I think the instructions you used to install your ATI drivers are out dated. Have a look at this Q&A askubuntu.com/questions/124292/…

[Aman Alam]

Sorry for creating the confusion, I have edited the question, I hope its less confusing now. I am going through that link. Will I have to reinstall 12.04 all over again for the drivers?

[stephenmyall]

No you dont have to reinstall 12.04 all over again but you may have to purge your current ATI driver installation. In the link you are looking In the question stem there is link to an older question, the instructions for purging are there, good luck

[Aman Alam]

Good, Lord! I am just going to do what it says. Thanks a lot! :)

[Emerson Hsieh]

You can't install the post-release-update driver now. It's a bug and will be fixed sonner or later.

[stephenmyall]

-1 Neither of these points are a solution to the issue presented there fore should be comments not answers. You have just stated you understand the issues and provided links (which may or may not be useful) but you do not definitely state that these will fix these issues. please edit and improve the quality of your answer.

[Aman Alam]

I installed Ubuntu on my Samsung laptop yesterday along with its Bumblebee driver for Nvidia card, and it all worked like a charm. But no success with this HP laptop :-/

[Aman Alam]

I just recalled that I have GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset" set in /etc/default/grub Can this line be stopping the drivers to come into effect?

[Aman Alam]

I tried removing nomodeset from grub during boot, and it again gives me a black screen after boot

[Aman Alam]

I tried reinstalling it, and then received errors during boot that your system is running in low graphic mode. I repaired and switched back to the default version to make it work.

[Aman Alam]

So if we don't use nomodeset then how else will that blank screen issue is resolved?

[Aman Alam]

Surprisingly, I do get till the point where I am given this wizard, but then the wizard doesn't display any text. What I see is this: i.imgur.com/vVIPz.png

[Ankit]

well I use the brightness keys for now.

[Aman Alam]

Brightness is not a problem as of now. getting the drivers to work is. Did you see that image I posted above?

[Ankit]

alright; i tried nomodeset at the time 12.04 was released; brightness was an issue then. Either the link i posted earlier or this askubuntu.com/questions/124292/… might help you with the graphic drivers. You have to install it manually, i guess.

[Aman Alam]

Brightness is still an issue, and without nomodeset I can't boot (I get a blank black screen) and that link above, One of the answers is already about it; I have tried it but it didn't work, so.. :-/

[Ankit]

let us continue this discussion in chat

[Aman Alam]

@Mathew any other suggestions?