Ubuntu 16.04.1 Nvidia Working but Intel Shows Black Screen

Question

I have a fresh install of ubuntu 16.04.1 (only installed today) and oddly enough I have no problems with NVIDIA drivers on my system however when switching to Intel I get a black screen.

Most of the posts I have seen are about Nvidia drivers not working but since I am only using linux for work and some video playback I dont really need the nvidia card to be working I only need Intel graphics so I can save a bit of battery power too.

My system is an Inspiron 15 7559 2016 model with HD570 Intel graphics and a GPU of 960m. As I said I have no problem with Nvidia but for some reason when running

sudo prime-select intel 
sudo reboot

I get a black screen after the boot up process. If I add

nomodeset

to the kernel options I get it to start fine but without any options for the graphics (i.e. scaling doesnt work, which is essential on a 4k screen or else everything is really really small).

I have been through a bunch of posts here and on other forums but they all relate to the nvidia drivers not working rather than intel.

I installed the NVidia and Intel drivers through the "Additional Software" tab (both are enabled; intel microcode and Nvidia) and directly after installing prime-select query returns "Intel" but after a reboot I get a blank screen unless I change back to nvidia.

I have also tried to access TTY (to see if I can find some errors from dmesg) when faced with the black screen but there is no output, I have to hold down the power button and do a hard shutdown.

Laptop specs are available here:

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7559-laptop

Its the last one on the right of the selection.

Ofcourse I could keep it running in Nvidia but then my battery drains really fast (max 2 hours with light usage). On Windows it runs normally and gives me hours of battery life (more than 4 usually).

Furthermore in Nvidia I see some screen distortion when coming out of sleep mode.

I previously had elementary OS 0.4 Loki installed (yesterday) but after no luck with that I thought maybe there was something not supported by that particular distro so I went for a clean Ubuntu installation.

I am running on kernel 4.4 and what I have seen online this is supposed to fix the issue? (I maybe mistaken). I am still a novice at linux so if there is any required logs, etc. that are required please let me know I will update my post.

UPDATE

Upgrading to 4.5 kernel did not help I am currently using the Intel linux graphics update tool and will update if that works.

Solution

I managed to get it working after many many ours. I initially wanted to install Elementary OS but I first wanted to get it working on a clean Ubuntu 16.04 install and then try the same steps on Elementary.

Heres how I did it.

• Disable Secure Boot
• Fresh install Ubuntu/eOS (requires nomodeset kernel parameter in boot options)
• Download updates during installation
• After the reboot you should be able to boot in without "nomodeset" added in the kernel params.

For Ubuntu

• Install intel microcode from proprietary drivers and reboot
• Install Nvidia drivers from proprietary drivers and reboot
• Open up terminal and enter sudo prime-select query which should return nvidia which ofcourse is good as it means the nvidia drivers are working but not ideal for battery life
• Enter in terminal sudo prime-select intel and press enter
• Instead of log out/in, reboot the entire machine and go into the bios and re-enable Secure Boot
• Machine should boot normally and now sudo prime-select query shoukd return intel

For eOS (Elementary OS 0.4 Loki)

• On a clean eOS install first install the Nvidia drivers (i am using 361.42) so open up a terminal and sudo apt-get install nvidia-361
• Reboot the machine and verify the drivers for Nvidia loaded correctly with sudo prime-select query (nomodeset should no longer be required in your kernel options)
• Go to Intel Linux Graphics Firmware and download Kabylake DMC and Skylake DMC and GUC drivers from their links on the page.
• Install it by following the instructions on the page:

For GUC Firmware File

$ tar xf _guc_ver_tar.bz2

$ cd _guc_ver_

$ sudo bash ./install.sh --install

For DMC Firmware File

$ tar xf _dcm_ver_tar.bz2

$ cd 'product code_dcm_ver'api version'_'min version'

$ sudo sh install.sh

• Once installed reboot once again and verify the system is loading without nomodeset param and current selection is on nvidia with sudo prime-select query

• If all is well you can run sudo prime-select intel and reboot (last reboot I swear!

• Finally during the restart hit F2 for the bios and re-enable Secure Boot

After this point you should be able to load up the OS without any added kernel parameter and sudo prime-select query should return intel.

For any additional troubleshooting if you are still getting a blackscreen after the splash screen add the following to `/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf'

blacklist amd76x_edac

blacklist vga16fb

blacklist nouveau

blacklist rivafb

blacklist nvidiafb

blacklist rivatv

and then run sudo update-initramfs -u and reboot once again.