Switch on/off nvidia card Asus UL30Vt, UL50V, UL80V laptops

[Teodore]

Works fine on 10.04.
i just got my g210m to work on ubuntu 9.10 on a asus ul30vt.
checking the status on 10.04. will be back with a simple howto soon.

UPDATE:

to get the nvidia card to work you have to do this:

this is how you get g210m to work on ubuntu 9.10 / 10.04.

1. download and install nvidia drivers. (i have only tested the ones in the repos)

2. make sure you got an Xorg.conf that is correct. ( if not, run nvidia-xconfig )

3. reboot into bios (press delete while booting)

4. change the SATA option in the bios from enhanced to compatibility. ( yea, this makes sense? NOT! )

5. boot into linux and smile!

Finally, after 2 days i figured out why so many people's laptop is working with the above steps and mine don't.
I was using UL80VT with ubuntu 10.04.1 64 bit and i followed the steps above other than step 2 as the settings for my Xorg.conf is correct.

When i rebooted, i was prompted with a blank screen but the Ctrl-Alt-Del button is still able to reboot the system.

The problem is that i am still using an old bios version (BIOS 206) for my laptop, the new BIOS 213 can be obtain at asus download site. Once i flashed in the new bios, everything is working fine =) and now i can output to an external monitor with a little tinkering of the nvidia settings.

Thanks Dakilla!

[josedb]

Wouldn't be a good idea to add noveau to blacklist?

[OneArtPlease]

EDIT: It's the BIOS - I had an early version #204 flashed. Upgrade to 211 and it works great.

-----------------------------

there is a lot in here about shutting the nvidia off, but my trouble is that I can't enable it with nvidia drivers in 10.10/32 bit (ul30vt).

When I install nvidia hardware drivers, then enter "compatibility" mode in the bios, and then boot, X server just hangs. startx from tt1 errors out: device not found. the same is true if I run dpkg-reconfigure xserver, or nvidia-xconfig to generate xorg.conf.

now here's the weird part: lspci | grep VGA reports BOTH cards active. Definitely I am using compatibility mode, so this is a big mystery to me that I haven't seen on any of the forums.

So when i delete my xorg.conf file and starx, viola, i get a full desktop. I assume that the intel card is being used by xserver, but I'm not sure how to tell exactly. Compiz can't be enabled, but Additional Drivers shows the nvidia as active. very confusing to me.

Anyway I have been hacking away at this problem for a long time now and have no clue how to fix it. All the wikis and forums just say that compatibility mode should just work with nvidia drivers enabled. Anyone else have the experience I am having or know how to fix?

thx

I have exactly the same issue with Ubuntu 10.10 and my UL80VT in "compatibility" mode.

I wonder why there is so little information available about Maverick usage, the release is now out for 3 months!

[danhatch333]

Originally Posted by OneArtPlease
I have exactly the same issue with Ubuntu 10.10 and my UL80VT in "compatibility" mode.

I wonder why there is so little information available about Maverick usage, the release is now out for 3 months!

There isn't very much information because using the nvidia card is os independent. The instructions from 10.04 work in 10.10 and slackware for that matter. Check your bios revision number and make sure it is a recent one like 213 (a little lower might be ok.)

SideNote: Before changing the bios option you have to install and configure nvidia drivers so it works on next startup with "compatibility"

[mpw]

Hello guys,

with this thread I got my nvidia g210m in my asus ul30vt working. So thanks to you!

I have a question:

Is it possibile to have both cards activated and use the intel for graphic output?

Background: I want the nvidia for boinc cuda crunshing. And as the windows are slowing down when the gpu crunshes while I'm working on the pc, I would like to use the intel chip for the Xserver as it's quick enough for me.

So how can I switch to the intel graphic chip without deactivating the nvidia chip?

Bye
MPW

[ubuntoide]

By now you can't, there is some work with the PRIME project going on, but nothing usable till now.

[_JT]

I fixed it it works from hibernation or from suspend. Acpi_call script needs to be copied to /lib/modules/`unaame -r`/kernel/acpi_call/ than you need to create script in /etc/pm/sleep.d/ which is called 99-nvidia-off.sh and add code:

#!/bin/sh 

case "$1" in 
        resume|thaw) 
        /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/acpi_call/test_off.sh 
        ;; 
esac

If you say copy the script, which of the files in the directory need to be copied? All of them?

[cobra11]

Yes i copy whole map acpi_call to dir /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/ with sudo cp command.

[mirko_r]

Hey,

I just updated my kernel to 2.6.35-25 and now I get the following error when trying to insert acpi module.

mirko@mr-linux:/lib/modules/2.6.35-25-generic/kernel$ sudo modprobe acpi_call
FATAL: Error inserting acpi_call (/lib/modules/2.6.35-25-generic/kernel/acpi_call.ko): Invalid module format

Is there anyone with the same problem? Or does anyone have an idea?

[krushaaa]

Yes i copy whole map acpi_call to dir /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/ with sudo cp command.

hey do you mean the folder or the files in the folder?

cheers in advance

EDIT:
the thread answers the quetion.