The computer:

notebook, HP Envy 15 (2012) AMD Radeon 7690M also Intel HD graphics.

The problem:

After installing Ubuntu 14.04, my resolution is automatically at 1024x768 and system settings and xrandr give no other options for resolution. while native resolution of notebook is 1920x1080. as you can imagine, everything is ugly.

Some solutions I have tried:

1 installing proprietary amd drivers via additional drivers -- while this does fix the resolution, (at least as far as the login screen on next boot) as soon as I log in, it stays on blank wallpaper with mouse, it is not frozen as i can ctrl-alt-f2 to access console, i just can't load the GUI.

2 using xrandr to add mode -- this does not work as it tells me that my chosen mode has resolution larger than maximum. -- I try to remedy this by editing xorg.conf but I have no xorg.conf -- I make an xorg.conf and when I reboot, the same problem as above occurs. (failing to load GUI after login)

3 downloading amd driver from amd website -- boots into low graphics mode and gives errors.

Help would be very very appreciated. Thank you.