Better power management for AMD/ATI Radeon R600 and newer hardware was introduced in the 3.11 linux kernel and refined in the 3.12 kernel. A PPA of the 3.12.6 kernel is available at http://kernel.ubuntu.com /~kernel-ppa/mainline/ and instructions on how to install and uninstall it are available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds
To use this power management for the AMD/ATI Radeon you will need to select it at boot by adding radeon.dpm=1 to your GRUB kernel boot options as described at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Troubleshooting#Editing_the_GRUB_2_Menu_During_Boot If you have R700 or newer hardware (other than APUs) you will also need to install the latest AMD graphics microcode (ucode) files to /lib/firmware/radeon These are available at http://people.freedesktop.org/~agd5f/radeon_ucode/ Get the version ending in "smc". R700 basically means Radeon HD 4000 series and newer. However note that according to Wikipedia and http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/#index5h2 the Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250 is a RV620 chip, so anyone with one of those shouldn't need the updated firmware files. See the blog post at http://www.botchco.com/agd5f/?p=57 for further information. Unlike the older dynpm method, the new DPM method works with multiple monitors and there shouldn't be any flickering as the performance level changes are handled by dedicated hardware rather than the driver. The currently under-development 3.13 upstream kernel enables DPM by default (without needing the radeon.dpm=1 boot parameter I mentioned above) for Radeon HD 4000 through Radeon HD 7000 series graphics processors but with some specific ASICs being excluded. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to xserver-xorg-video-ati in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/887842 Title: Open-source radeon driver causes system to run hot. Status in “xserver-xorg-video-ati” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Open-source radeon driver causes system to run hot. 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M56P [Radeon Mobility X1600] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30b4 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+ Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx- Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 45 Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M] Region 1: I/O ports at 4000 [size=256] Region 2: Memory at f4600000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] [virtual] Expansion ROM at f4620000 [disabled] [size=128K] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2 Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-) Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME- Capabilities: [58] Express (v1) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00 DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE- FLReset- DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported- RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+ MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr- TransPend- LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <64ns, L1 <1us ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot- LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+ ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt- LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt- Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Address: 00000000fee0300c Data: 4199 Kernel driver in use: radeon Kernel modules: radeon Thank you ! Best regards, Denis ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10 Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4 Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4 Architecture: amd64 Date: Wed Nov 9 01:46:05 2011 InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111011) SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/887842/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp