Optiplex 390 and integrated video with discrete video with Ubuntu 16.04

On the Optiplex 390, you CAN use the onboard video along with a discrete card (in my case, the radeon 6350).

You just have to go into the bios setup and enable the Multi-Monitor option under the Video.

If you plug in a single monitor to the onboard video with a discrete card installed and you haven't enabled Multi-Monitor, the computer will respond with "Unsupported Video Configuration. Unplug the cable and plug it into the video card instead. System halted".

The bios message for the Multi-Monitor option says "It should be enabled for Windows 7 32/64 bit. It is not applicable to other operating systems."

You can't even get into the BIOS without swapping the cable to the discrete card, though it will display the boot logo and this message.


So now I can do 4 monitors, 2 on the DMS-59 discrete card + 2 on the onboard video (HDMI+VGA) though I haven't actually hooked everything up yet. No desk space available for all of that yet. 4 monitors does take up a fair bit of room.


Without enabling the Multi-monitor, the onboard doesn't show up in the lspci.

lspci -nn

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0102] (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] [1002:68f9]

lspci -vv


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
DeviceName: Onboard IGD
Subsystem: Dell 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Dell Radeon HD 6350