Asus Eee PC 1015PN - graphic cards: Optimus and ION

[mtron]

But when I went to terminal with sudo display-settings status nothing happened. No error and no text, just another prompt.

that's normal. Once you enable logging to file all output is redirected to the logfile.

Please send me the logfile and debug info. (see my post above) I can't help you if you don't provide the requested information.

So I went into nvidia settings and changed my tv to separate x display, saved the file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.asus1015pn.nvidia with merge checked

So nvidia-settings detects your TV? Once you did the edit to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.asus1015pn.nvidia just log out and back in. No need to reboot in this stage.

Probably the display driver can't detect the eld info of your TV. Ca you post the output of

cat /proc/asound/card1/eld#1.0

(or one of the other eld modes , see the HDMI section here )

Also post the /var/log/Xorg.0.log . You might need to load a custom edid.bin for your HDMI device.

2. Do I have to have my laptop screen enabled as in the instructions? My tv is my only needed display

No, you can set the laptop monitor to 'disabled' in the nvidia-settings, but let's first fix your other problems.

3. Do I want to follow "https://sites.google.com/site/mtrons/howtos/eeepc-1015pn#TOC-Install-Ubuntu" or some post in this thread?

This website is just a collection of all the information we gathered in this thread to tweak ubuntu for our eee pc's. It's my personal setup howto. You are free to use this information to tweak the system but you don't need to follow this guide step by step

So, to sum this up: I need the following logfiles / debug information from your system:

• /var/log/acpi-call.log
• /home/yourusername/eee1015pn-debug.txt
• /var/log/Xorg.0.log (with your laptop in nvidia mode, hdmi device connected, xorg.conf.nvidia edited to use seperate X-Screens, and after you tried to logout and back in)
• terminal output of

  cat /proc/asound/card1/eld#1.0

  (or one of the other eld modes, depending on your hdmi device)

[finny388]

okay
I did as you asked
The tv lit up with the an xfce wallpaper I had used before, but not the default one
I can drag the pointer to it like an extended display but can't drag windows to it (when I drag windows to it they fall off the laptop screen but don't appear on the tv). The laptop has the panels, the tv is just blank (except the wallpaper)

Thank you for all your help so far. Hopefully we're on our way.

(i had to divide the xorg log file as it is 26k and the limit is 19k for upload)

[mtron]

according to your logfiles everything is working properly.

The tv lit up with the an xfce wallpaper I had used before, but not the default one

You can set the used wallpaper for every x-screen in the xfce settings.

I can drag the pointer to it like an extended display but can't drag windows to it

Thats normal for the "Seperate X - Screen" configuration. You need to start a window on the desired X-Screen directly and configure your Desktop enviroment to draw both screens. Search the forum for information. That's not the scope of this thread.

There are various ways to Start an application on the TV Screen directly:

- move your mouse pointer to the TV and use 'alt + F2' to open the run dialog and start the application

- add

alias tv="DISPLAY=:0.1"

to your $HOME/.bashrc file and prefix the app you want to launch with "tv". E.g. if you want to run xbmc on the tv open a terminal on your Laptops X-Screen and type

tv xbmc

Another option is to use "Twinview" instead of Seperate X-Screens in nvidia-settings. this approach allows you to drag windows from one screen to the other but does not allow you to disable the laptop's monitor (among other shortcomings)

But as stated above this is a configuration issue of your Desktop Environment . The switching script is working as expected.

[mtron]

just wanted to tell you that bumblebee 3 is a huge step forward and works very good here.

As before you can install bumblebee next to our switching script without any problem (in fact you will need the GPU tool to put your laptop in optimus mode)

a quick bumblebee install howto:

- Open the gpu tool and set it to use 'Optimus' as default gpu mode (Advanced - Set default GPU)
- disable "Optimus Mode: Auto disable nvidia gpu" (Advanced) => bbswitch - which is part of the bumblebee package - takes care of the power state of the nvidia gpu
- install bumblebee

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install bumblebee
sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee $USER => replace $USER with your username

- reboot
- test it with 'glxspheres' (drawing ~ 10 FPS using the intel GPU) and 'optirun glxsperes' (drawing ~ 50 FPS using the nvidia GPU)

Current Limitations of bumblebee:

- vdpau is not useable with bumblebee. You need to boot into nvidia exclusive mode to use nvidia's hardware accel for video
- GPU modes are not handeld by bumblebee (we have the switching script so not a real problem for us 1015PN owners )
- The HDMI port is not useable with bumblebee. You need to boot into nvidia exclusive mode to use it.

Thats it. Optimus mode is finally useable! Thanks to the bumblebee devs!

[finny388]

Thanks for all your help mtron. It is greatly appreciated. I'll be home soon to test making the tv the only enabled display and see if audio works.

Cheers

Once that's settled I may well try bumblebee.

[finny388]

I set it to tv display only, logged out and in and thought I was on my way.

Now to put the laptop away: I set Closed Lid to Do Nothing, shut the lid and the mouse pointer started moving on it's own and my workspace switcher was lighting up different workspaces like a wind mill.

• So I rebooted. Boom. Back to laptop display, tv disabled.
• Set it up again. Rebooted, same thing.
• Set it up again, logged out and back in, that works - tv displays and laptop off.
• (this whole time I'm always in nvidia mode)
• I tried setting it up again, setting vga selector to reboot with nvidia,
• reboot, settings lost again.

1. What is the deal with xorg.conf.1015pnvidia file? Is it now default? Is it only used when vga selector is used to reboot? Why does it exist?

2. Why can't the settings survive a reboot?

3. With the display on the tv (after log in/out) the sound continues to come from the laptop.

aplay -Dplughw:1,7 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav

produces sound from the TV
but when I go into Sound Settings/Hardware, I've tried every Profile and all of them output to the laptop speakers. I'm stumped.

4. How do I set nVidia powermizer to 500MHz? It always defaults to Adaptive (Perf Level 0). So I set it to Prefer Max Performance (perf level 1) b/c Performance level 2 has always been greyed out.

5. I tested an mkv 720p file just to see how the video was doing but it eventually stutters and shows major artifacts.

Sorry mtron, I thought I as out of the woods but I still have more questions. thanks again.

[red-flex]

hey mtron,

sry i was a bit busy last week!

the session names are those which i put in brackets (from my last reply):

xubuntu
xfce
Lubuntu
LXDE
Lubuntu-Netbook

mfg

[mtron]

@ redflex: Thanks, i will add those Desktop sessions.

@finny:

What is the deal with xorg.conf.1015pn.nvidia file?

There a 2 GPU's in your laptop. Those gpu's require different configurations. The intel gpu config is /etc/X11/xorg.conf.1015pn.intel and the nvidia Xorg config is in xorg.conf.1015pn.nvidia. The switcher script handles the xorg.conf files for the detected gpu's, updates the glx libs and the ld.so configurations. The reason for those hacks is that Xorg does not support multiple GPU's so we need to use those quirks to work around this.

2. Why can't the settings survive a reboot?

They should, and usually do. Please post a Xorg.0.log (and all the other relevant stuff) after a unsucessful reboot so i can debug what's going wrong on your system.

3. ...sound continues to come from the laptop.

You need to set the profile on the "hardware" tab and set the device on the output tab. Most players (like mplayer) allow you to define the alsa device via the command line, so direct the mplayer sound output directly to the working plughw device.

4. How do I set nVidia powermizer to 500MHz?

this is a limitation of the nvidia binary driver. You might want to redirect this question to nvidia.

5. I tested an mkv 720p file just to see how the video was doing but it eventually stutters and shows major artifacts

.

Seems you were not using vdpau. What player do you use ? (vlc's & totems vdpau support sucks.) Good players for vdpau are all xine based players and recent mplayer builds.

[finny388]

thanks mtron, will post the files soon

[finny388]

I use VLC. I love VLC. So sad it does not support vdpau.

I tried gnome mplayer but the audio is 2-3 seconds out of sync with video on various files that sync fine with VLC. (video looks good though)

And there is no setting for audio sync like in VLC. I know I can use the keyboard shortcuts but it is easier to just enter a number like in VLC.

Obviously I got audio working, thanks for the tip. (thought I can already done that but hey, it worked).

thanks again mtron