# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Official Flavours Support > Hardware > [ubuntu] Nvidia G210M onboard ASUS UL80V

## Scrubru

I recently bought an *ASUS UL80V* in China and I was not satisfied by its performance in WIN. So I turned to *Ubuntu Karmic*. As it was first installed, I got the perfect resolution I paid for, *1366x768* (14'). But I was informed that "*no proprietary drivers are in use in this system*". I have an *Nvidia G210M* onboard, so I just installed *Nvidia Driver 185*, just as what I was told to. Then I went for reboot. However, after the Ubuntu emblem (the white ring) vanished, there appeared a few lines of words and the screen flashed incessantly. I saw that the last line was something like "scrubru@scrubru-laptop login". The orginal login screen wouldn't show up. I could hardly type in any words. So I reinstalled the system and didn't enable the proprietary driver.
Once I tried to play Counter-Strike via Wine, but the game reacted so slowly that I could hardly make any moves. Is the 3D ability of my video card not maximized because I didn't enable the driver? I'm using Compiz for 3D desktop effects now and it works well. And the orginal chess game installed has the same bad performance as CS's after enabling the 3D view.
It is my first time using Ubuntu (and Linux),and I am looking for help right now.

Configuration of my Laptop
ASUS UL80V
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala 64-bit
Intel ULV SU2300 (consisted of two U2300@1.20GHz)
Nvidia G210M with CUDA

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## Northern Mike

I had bad luck with the 185 driver.   I was trying to enable a 210m in  friends Toshiba.   There is a new beta driver available 195.22, see how to instructions here.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-ins...epidhardy.html

Seems to me though your computer uses a Intel 4500 for power savings or a 210M for performance.   I am interested in the UL30 VT model which does the same thing.  After searching the UL30 VT on here I read in Ubuntu there is currently no support for switching between the two.  I would assume it is the same for yours.   Search the other UL models and see.

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## Northern Mike

Sorry I see they can't turn off the G210M 

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...t=g210m&page=6

And the beta driver is a 195.30 now but I haven't tried it yet.

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## wentzr

> .....So I reinstalled the system and didn't enable the proprietary driver.


ouch. you could have just renamed, moved or deleted your xorg.conf using the kernel's rescue mode or from a live dvd.

but for the record, after a period of tinkering with these drivers It's plain and clear the G210M is not supported under linux on certain laptops, mine in particular a sony vaio VPCCW13FX.

Solution? SEND BUG REPORTS TO NVIDIA. 

From Nvidia's web site:
To submit Linux bug reports please email (In English only) linux-bugs@nvidia.com or linux-nforce-bugs@nvidia.com please attach an nvidia-bug-report.log, which is generated by running "nvidia-bug-report.sh".

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## JuckNorris

> ouch. you could have just renamed, moved or deleted your xorg.conf using the kernel's rescue mode or from a live dvd.
> 
> but for the record, after a period of tinkering with these drivers It's plain and clear the G210M is not supported under linux on certain laptops, mine in particular a sony vaio VPCCW13FX.
> 
> Solution? SEND BUG REPORTS TO NVIDIA. 
> 
> From Nvidia's web site:
> To submit Linux bug reports please email (In English only) linux-bugs@nvidia.com or linux-nforce-bugs@nvidia.com please attach an nvidia-bug-report.log, which is generated by running "nvidia-bug-report.sh".


could anyone get this work? I tried to install the nvidia driver with ubuntu karmic but as soon as I start up the system I only see a black screen instead of X.

Does anyone have Nvidia G210M work with the ASUS UL80V?

(please post a short instruction..and xorg.conf)

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## Dimtar

I am in the same boat with the Asus UL30VT

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## Nidwow

> I am in the same boat with the Asus UL30VT


Add UL50VT as well  :Sad: 

So, Linux is out Windows 7 went back in until there is a fix.

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## M1ke

It's not sounding good for my new laptop - went for an nVidia card specifically because I'd heard their linux driver support was much better than ATi's. Having had the suggested proprietry driver fail on me last night I've been trawling the internet for good news this morning with no luck.

Lenovo G550 here by the way. Guess I have to return to Windows 7 too  :Sad: 

Edit: With a little more digging, the outlook is starting to look a bit brighter. The posts above refer to beta nVidia driver 195.30 back in December '09. The newest driver version appears to be *195.36.15*, available here, and it lists the G210 under "Supported Products". Could this be the answer..? I can't get to my own laptop to try it until tomorrow morning. If anyone's keeping an eye on this topic, let us know how you get on!

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## The Flying Penguin

Has anyone tested the new driver? It says it supports the g210 not the g210m. I'm not sure how much of a difference that will make.

I'd really like to know how this turns out to help me decide if I will purchase this laptop or not.

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## M1ke

Quick update on my progress: On booting the laptop again yesterday morning the proprietry driver ubuntu suggested post-installation appears to be working properly. The version number is given as 185 and I have full compiz effects, desktop cube, the works. As such I've not tried the new driver myself, but can at least confirm that 185 works for the Geforce G210M on the Lenovo G550.

Seems odd that the same driver didn't work for the same graphics card on the reported Asus laptop models though. Why might that be? I didn't think the rest of the hardware could make a difference.

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## dakilla

the problem is the hybrid-graphic card.

you only got one screen connector and 2 graphic cards, how did they solve this? by using a multiplexer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplexer

so when you have sucessfully installed nvidia drivers on your hybrid laptop, you shuld have a blank screen, because nothing is connected to the nvidia graphic card. you will manually have to switch this. this is a feature not supported by Nvidia, Nvidia do not even support new drivers för windows on hybrid laptops, so all new drivers will have to go through asus.

if you look at nvidia driver page, at the bottom of any driver page, there are a text about "no support for hybrid laptops".

there are stuff in the works for linux, hybrid ATI cards are already supported. if you want to know more, take a look at this page: http://airlied.livejournal.com/

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## Nidwow

> the problem is the hybrid-graphic card.
> 
> you only got one screen connector and 2 graphic cards, how did they solve this? by using a multiplexer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplexer
> 
> so when you have sucessfully installed nvidia drivers on your hybrid laptop, you shuld have a blank screen, because nothing is connected to the nvidia graphic card. you will manually have to switch this. this is a feature not supported by Nvidia, Nvidia do not even support new drivers för windows on hybrid laptops, so all new drivers will have to go through asus.
> 
> if you look at nvidia driver page, at the bottom of any driver page, there are a text about "no support for hybrid laptops".
> 
> there are stuff in the works for linux, hybrid ATI cards are already supported. if you want to know more, take a look at this page: http://airlied.livejournal.com/


 
So how did it got connected under Windows 7? Unable to use G210M, this stinks  :Sad: 

Noone is to blame but myself, I should have reserach this before. Although when I bought this laptop I wasn't thinking of trying Linux just because I've heard that Linux is much better than Windows so I gave it a try.

When people are saying Linux is Better than Windows 7. They are wrong at least from my point of view. 

I guess back to Windows 7 again and take it like a man  :LOL:

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## dakilla

ok this is so dame simple, have been locking for a solution for months.

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!

Anyone more then me who want to hit the people who wrote the bios?
running the latest bios. ends with 10.

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## dressanderc

> ok this is so dame simple, have been locking for a solution for months.
> 
> 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)
> ...


Wow, that works! I can confirm, i'm running 10.04 on a Asus UL50VT. Thank you so much!

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## Radium3D

Switching SATA to compatibility mode worked for me too. Running Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit dual booted with Windows 7. I doubt ASUS will ever fix this.

One question - In Windows 7 after rebooting it installs IDE drivers. Is the hard drive still running at SATA speeds, or will this slow down the hard drive?

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## Nidwow

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


So, what is the correct Xorg.conf should look like?  Mind sharing what inside it?

Thanks,

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## dakilla

this is how mine looks. 10.04 on ul30vt

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder58)  Thu Apr 22 20:35:23 PDT 2010

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

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## Nidwow

I never did do anything. Just changed the BIOS SATA setting to compatibility.

Fired up 10.04 installation, got the recommended drive from repos = DONE!  :Guitar: 

Nvidia X Server settings is showing up on system>administrator menu as well.

lspci |grep VGA is showing NVIDIA card *only* no more showing two video cards.

ASUS BIOS used to have a feature to turn off Intel card but the latest BIOS that feature has been removed. Now I am wonder if somehow the person that wrote the BIOS got mixed up. SATA Enhanced to Compatibility is actually Intel card ON to OFF  :LOL:

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## rlogan

I had a laptop with G210M running beautifully under Karmic on the 190.42 driver but with Lucid it now has a issue again by the looks of it.

If you are still using Karmic and want to try it give this a shot.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-nv...epidhardy.html

It worked for us just fine!

Hope it helps

Cheers

Richard

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## bander013

> ok this is so dame simple, have been locking for a solution for months.
> 
> ...
> 
> 4. change the SATA option in the bios from enhanced to compatibility. ( yea, this makes sense? NOT! )
> 
> ...
> 
> Anyone more then me who want to hit the people who wrote the bios?
> running the latest bios. ends with 10.


Man, you are the bloody wizard! X)
How do you ever thought about that possibility??

Asus UL30VT with gentoo, running fine. 
I only had to include pata_iix into kernel modules (my kernel was without IDE support).
Best way to find out which module you need - run ubuntu LiveCD and look at Administration=>Disk Manager. There described which module your storage have.
Than add it in:


```
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drivers (ATA [=y])
           -> ATA SFF support (ATA_SFF [=y])
```

In other case you will catch a kernel panic

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## Scrubru

Thank you for all your posts!

I sort of figured out the logic behind the SATA/Compatibility Switch.
WIndows XP/2000 do not support graphics card hot-switching. They even don't support native SATA mode.

By turning to Compat Mode, Windows XP/2000 can be installed and one of the graphics card will be turned off ( or it will cause panic to the Windows system). The best option, it seems, is to turn of the integrated Intel card.

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## Scrubru

Hold on, does anyone here really have a UL80V (instead of UL80Vt)?  The BIOS for UL80V, according to Asus websites, stays at version 208, while the BIOS for UL80Vt goes up to version 213 (where switching of SATA mode does the trick).

UL80V comes with Intel Core 2 @1.2Ghz and UL80Vt comes with Intel Core 2@1.3Ghz. UL80Vt also has the feature of "Turbo 33" which enables the overclocking to 1.6Ghz. Has anyone really succeeded in using the BIOS file for UL80Vt in UL80V? Someone here in China reported that he has done so using Asus' app in Windows XP. Not only could he use the discrete video card in Windows XP (Windows XP does not support graphics hot-switching), he could also overclock his 1.2GHz CPU in an awesome speed of 1.6GHz. See (if you could read Chinese) http://bbs.bios.net.cn/thread-148196-1-1.html

I have a pure Ubuntu install so I am not able to use Asus' app to change the BIOS. I could only use the update feature directly in the BIOS. Has anyone applied the change successfully directly in the BIOS? I mean, a change from UL80V to UL80Vt?

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## willysr

i have ASUS UL80VT and the solution provided is not working here

the default VGA running is still Intel even though i have use the new xorg.conf from NVidia installer

here's the result of lspci | grep VGA

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0a74 (rev a2)

PS: I'm using Slackware 13.1 though, but i think it's not related

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## MarcoParentho

> i have ASUS UL80VT and the solution provided is not working here
> 
> the default VGA running is still Intel even though i have use the new xorg.conf from NVidia installer
> 
> here's the result of lspci | grep VGA
> 
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0a74 (rev a2)
> 
> PS: I'm using Slackware 13.1 though, but i think it's not related


Hi, the solution proposed by Dakila is fine IF YOU FLASH THE BIOS with a newer version (I've tried with the last provided by asus : 213 -> OK).
Then, you'll have only one VGA with lspci.
Now I can test openCL codes with this laptop within a linux environment !

To flash the bios, I've used asus tools provided with windows7 with success.

remark :
I did first tried with easy flash from asus bios setup menu; but I dont realy know what "C:" means. On my computer, it is /dev/sda2 : where is the widows7 root partition. I copy the UL80VT.213 file for bios update into that repertory but could not see it from the bios easy flash ??? changing this filename extension (.213 -> .bin?) does not fixe the problem.

I hope that linux software solutions will make it as simple as for windows in a not to far futur !

Marc.

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