nVidia Optimus and Ubuntu explained

[rd1381]

can you answer these question for me plz?
1)after installing bumblebee i cant run glxgears alone and have to use optirun glxgears.
when i enter glxgears it says :


Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

but before installing bumblebbe i didn't have this issue.yes frame-rate was low but it didn't give error and it ran.

2) i know from your help on launchpad page that there is a way to turn off nvidia card though i couldn't do it. now is there a way to tell ubuntu to ignore" Intel" card and boot with nvidia card alone? the reason for this is that i don't care about power consumption but i cant run some apps in optirun mode( like vmware), so i want my ubuntu to see only my nvidia

[chukis13]

2) i know from your help on launchpad page that there is a way to turn off nvidia card though i couldn't do it. now is there a way to tell ubuntu to ignore" Intel" card and boot with nvidia card alone? the reason for this is that i don't care about power consumption but i cant run some apps in optirun mode( like vmware), so i want my ubuntu to see only my nvidia

I'd like to know this as well.

[realzippy]

AFAIK (may 3602 or anybody correct me) this is not possible.

[SuchetBargoti]

I am trying to get my external monitor working on my Ubuntu 10.04. I haven't installed bumblebee as I have had issues with it before. Also haven't installed the nvidia restricted drivers so dont have that xorg.conf file that all the dual monitor tutorials talk about.

This is my output from

lspci | grep VGA

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 0126 (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0dcd (rev a1)

Can some one give me a hand on how to set up a dual monitor considering I am using my integrated intel card (atleast I think I am) and not my optimus nvidia card.

[realzippy]

I don't know this exactly,but as I understood,there are laptops around where
the laptop screen is driven by the onboard intel chip,while the VGA/DVI
output connector is connected to the discrete nvidia card.
This would mean:
No way.
Maybe someone with more optimus know-how can confirm or correct this.

[iammeagain]

Quick Question: Is there a way to get the mini display port to output without Nvidia drivers for the xps15/l501x? PM if you could, I'll probably forget to check back.


I haven't read this whole thread, but thought I would throw in my tid bit. I did some messing around with the Nvidia 420m on my xps15 aka l501x. I was able to turn off the Nvidia card so it wouldn't drain my battery. Also unless I purged all the Nvidia drivers and reinstalled the Intel ones I couldn't get much 3d to work.

Heres the info I wrote up. It could use some revising, but I have been more than busy.
This is the original way I got Nvidia turned off:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1703301
There is more info if you read, I don't think that is the most up to date process I was using at the time. Haven't messed with it in a while so it isn't fresh in my memory.

Post #26 explains the purging nvidia process:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...8#post10754388

[realzippy]

Just want to add here that Bumblebee has forked to
ironhide and bumblebee Project.

[nibodads]

nice tutorial and i must say very simple...... i learned this much after i bricked the whole os and made a second clean install. and i m happy without nvidia driver in ubuntu in my asus ul80jt......

[danger89]

Bad news about nVIdia Optimus in combination with Linux However I see hope in the Bumblebee Project.

[TweFoju]

ok guys can you guys tell me if i am doing these steps the right way?

so i clean install 11.04

then i do this as the 1st step:

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mj-casalogic/bumblebee
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install bumblebee

this is to download the Bumblebee, after this, i restart Laptop

then i use these command to switch on and off between the nVidia and Intel:

sudo apt-get install git
git clone git@github.com:mkottman/acpi_call.git cd acpi_call make sudo insmod acpi_call.ko
chmod +x ./test_off.sh

./test_off.sh

then using these command to switch on and off ( Nvidia )

echo '\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.GFX0.DOFF' > /proc/acpi/call

echo '\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.GFX0.DON' > /proc/acpi/call

Source:

http://linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspo...tch-onoff.html

and both of the Additional driver, the original "Nvidia accelerated graphics driver" and the " experimental nVidia 3D support" from BumbleBee is both inactive and not in use

so does this make my steps correct to use the nVidia?