hybrid-graphics-linux team mailing list archive

[Alex Williamson <alex.l.williamson@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 3:02 PM, Eemil Lagerspetz <eemil@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello,
>> >
>> > Asus.UL30VT
>> > Asus.UL50VT
>> > Asus.UL80VT.1.0
>> > HP.dm3
>> > HP.SLIC-MPC
>> > Lenovo.T410.2516CTO
>> > Lenovo.T410s
>> > Lenovo.T510
>> > Sony.Vaio.VPCZ136GG
>> > Sony.Vaio.VPCZ13V9E
>> > Sony.VGN-Z51XG
>> > Sony.VPCZ12C5E
>> >
>> > People with these laptop models willing to give it a try, please read
>> > the following and report back by replying to this email:
>> >
>> > https://github.com/awilliam/asus-switcheroo/blob/master/README
>> >
>> > git clone git://github.com/awilliam/asus-switcheroo.git
>> > cd asus-switcheroo; make; modprobe -r nouveau; insmod
>> > ./asus-switcheroo.ko; modprobe nouveau
>>
>> Thanks Albert, I look forward to seeing how many laptops we can get
>> working with this module.  Thanks,
>>
>> Alex
> I have an ASUS UL30VT and I use the proprietary driver for serious 3D
> apps and the Intel driver for power saving. I am on Linux Mint Debian. I
> have used acpi_call to disable the nvidia card when not needed, and I
> have a script that switches between the proprietary and open-source
> libGL and libglx libraries. I have had to switch a bios option on/off to
> make the nvidia card work. When I use asus-switcheroo (with
> dummy_client=1) with my script, I can switch without rebooting.

Awesome!  Thanks for being brave enough to try the dummy client.

> The only snag is that if I switch manually from a terminal, the terminal
> goes black and I have to type in the dark to run my script and re-start
> gdm. I also cannot use the VTs if on the proprietary driver, except if I
> reboot with the "compatibility" bios flag on.

Yep, I'm not sure how to handle that.  Switching between intel and
nouveau switches between two frame buffers drivers.  I assume we could
use a standard vga console with nvidia w/o nouvea, as happens when you
flip the switch in the bios, but I'm not sure how to reverse the
vga->fb switch.  I wonder if we could activate vesafb on the nvidia
card and still have the nvidia driver work.

> All in all, I am happy about this great new module that allows switching
> without rebooting. I saw the switcheroo gui somewhere; I don't know if
> that would allow me to call my libGL/glx script before the switch. I
> will probably create a small script to switcheroo-switch between cards
> just before gdm starts.

I'm glad it's an improvement for you.  I've heard some reports that
flipping the IDE compatibility mode switch in the BIOS to get only the
nvidia device visible hurts disk performance, so maybe this will be
faster for you in that respect.  If you have any scripts to share, I'd
be happy to add a contrib directory to my asus-switcheroo repo.
Thanks,

Alex