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Message #02172
Re: Macbook Pro graphics switching
Hi everyone,
I fixed a lot of stuff and now have a first working version.
It's not yet perfect and I expect the internals to change quite a bit, but it already works pretty well for me.
Since everybody loves videos I made two:
A full demo showing everything (switching between the GPUs, bumblebee with both the nvidia and nouveau): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FYP3nMyxcQ
And a screen recording showing bumblebee in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdY_qZWNM6E
If you own a Macbook Pro 6,2 or 6,1 and are adventurous enough to try it you can find the source here:
https://github.com/ah-/gmux-scripts
https://github.com/ah-/ubuntu-kernel-mbp
https://github.com/ah-/gmux
There's also some documentation at https://github.com/ah-/gmux-scripts/blob/master/README
The gmux switching driver itself should also work on other models, but the scripts and some of the kernel patches won't, because the newer models use AMD graphics instead of NVIDIA. I only have access to my Macbook Pro 6,2, but if you're interested in getting graphics switching to work on other models I'd be happy to help.
Over the next time I plan to clean things up and hopefully get some of this merged. If someone who knows the linux graphics stack well reads this, I'd be happy to get in touch with you to get some help about how to solve the whole reprobe/lock_ddc problem properly. There are also an issue with the intel card not properly resuming after a suspend.
Cheers,
Andreas
Am 10.03.2012 um 13:12 schrieb Albert Vilella:
> Really good stuff!! Keep up the good work!
>
> BTW, what version of the Macbook Pro is that you are testing here? Is
> it "MacBookPro7,1"? Should "MacBookPro6,1" also work?
>
> sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name
>
> I am guessing the models in Apple's website that have hybrid graphics
> now are the ones called "MacBookPro8,2" and "MacBookPro8,3" in these
> ubuntu and wikipedia pages, but these are with Intel/AMD combo -- it
> seems the 13'' model is Intel-only MacBookPro8,1 (13"):
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro
>
> A.
>
> On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 12:01 PM, Andreas Heider <andreas@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Am 09.03.2012 um 10:10 schrieb Albert Vilella:
>>> Do you folks think this is ready for a blog post?
>>
>> There's still a bunch of stuff missing. At the moment switching works, but only if you know exactly what you're doing. The next step is to make it work without requiring too much manual intervention, so it's possible to simply boot the system and switch between nouveau/i915 (and potentially turn the dedicated card on/off).
>>
>> This is not only related to the gmux driver itself but also to nouveau/i915 and how they handle not having a monitor attached at boot. I don't think it will be too long until this works but I'd prefer to wait a bit until it does, since the many of the readers of the hybrid-graphics-linux blog are normal users.
>>
>> In other news, I found a first solution to the vbios problem. There is a register on the card (0x619f04, if i'm not mistaken PDISPLAY.VGA.ROM_WINDOW) which points to where the vbios should be. Initially this register is set to 0x000ffe09 on my card but after a powercycle it's set to 0x1.
>>
>> If I manually restore it to 0xffe09 using nvapoke and copy the vbios back with nvafakebios (otherwise it points to a location with just 0xff) both nouveau and the nvidia-blob load successfully!
>>
>> For more information see the excellent documentation at https://github.com/pathscale/envytools/blob/master/hwdocs (especially nvbars.txt) and the source of the envytools.
>>
>> This is really amazing, because that means that the standard bumblebee switching will work without major modifications, especially with the nvidia blob.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Andreas
>>
>>>
>>> Now that Linus has Linux running on a Macbook Air, it may be good to
>>> show Macbook Pros with hybrid graphics have half-decent Linux support
>>> as well... :-p
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 9:34 PM, Andreas Heider <andreas@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> Hi Peter,
>>>>
>>>> I blacklisted both nvidia and nouveau during boot and did exactly these
>>>> eight steps. I used dd to save the config space, if that is of any
>>>> importance (e.g. "dd if=/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/config
>>>> of=7-restored").
>>>>
>>>> Because I'm not sure wether the pci_save/restore_state functions work I did
>>>> the test twice. You can find the results for the run with
>>>> pci_save/restore_state at http://andreas.meetr.de/nouveau/pcs/ and the one
>>>> without at http://andreas.meetr.de/nouveau/pcs-2.
>>>>
>>>> Both lead to the same result, the vbios is not
>>>> accessible. http://andreas.meetr.de/nouveau/nouveau.dmesg shows how a normal
>>>> boot with nouveau looks like.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Andreas
>>>>
>>>> Am 08.03.2012 um 21:31 schrieb Lekensteyn:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Andreas,
>>>>
>>>> What about nouveau? The blob sometimes do not get completely unloaded
>>>> (/dev/nvidia* devices then still
>>>> exist).
>>>>
>>>> What if the following steps are followed:
>>>>
>>>> 1. ensure that the blob has not been loaded (reboot if necessary)
>>>> 2. unload nouveau if necessary
>>>> 3. save pci configuration space
>>>> 4. disable card
>>>> 5. save pci configuration space, it should be all 1's (ff in xxd)
>>>> 6. enable card
>>>> 7. save pci configuration space, it should be similar to (3)
>>>> 8. load the nouveau driver, does it work?
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Peter
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 7:17 PM, Andreas Heider <andreas@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Peter,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm already saving the pci configuration space with pci_save/restore_state
>>>>> and I've also tried manually changing it through /sys/bus/pci/..., but I
>>>>> still have the problem that the blob can't load the vbios.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've uploaded dumps of it, maybe you can spot something thats obviously
>>>>> wrong with it:
>>>>> 1. After boot: http://andreas.meetr.de/gmux/nv.config
>>>>> 2. After one powercycle: http://andreas.meetr.de/gmux/nv.bad.config
>>>>> 3. After one powercycle and copying the first config space
>>>>> back: http://andreas.meetr.de/gmux/nv.bad.config_restored
>>>>>
>>>>> Unfortunately this still gives me the NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed!
>>>>> (0x30:0xffffffff:858) error.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Andreas
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Am 08.03.2012 um 12:38 schrieb Lekensteyn:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Andreas,
>>>>>
>>>>> I've documented about the PCI configuration space issue on
>>>>> http://wiki.bumblebee-project.org/ACPI-for-Developers. Bumblebee also
>>>>> saves
>>>>> and restores the PCI configuration space before enabling/after disabling.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Peter
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 2:47 AM, Andreas Heider <andreas@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll just continue using this mailing list as a blog. After a lot of
>>>>>> wild guesses in all directions I now have a setup that could be a base
>>>>>> for useful graphics switching on Macbook Pros. It's not completely
>>>>>> reliable yet but hopefully that will improve in the future.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Switching between two running GPUs works pretty well and just needs a
>>>>>> bit more work. But that shouldn't be a big issue.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The main problem I fought with is that after powering down the external
>>>>>> GPU the vbios vanishes and it's impossible to load the proprietary
>>>>>> nvidia driver:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [ 214.505208] NVRM: failed to copy vbios to system memory.
>>>>>> [ 214.507347] NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x30:0xffffffff:858)
>>>>>> [ 214.507357] NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The same problem exists with nouveau, after the first power cycle
>>>>>> nouveau doesn't load again if I unload it. I guess this is actually a
>>>>>> BIOS/EFI/firmware bug, since Apple's switching driver just keeps the
>>>>>> driver loaded.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So it's necessary to load the driver once and keep it loaded. This works
>>>>>> well with nouveau+vga_switcheroo but is a bit problematic with the
>>>>>> blob.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> At the moment I have the blob running with the patch from my first mail
>>>>>> and noticed that it survives a powercycle if X _is_ loaded while the GPU
>>>>>> is powered down. If I shutdown X I get this error when I try to start it
>>>>>> again afterwards:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [ 144.390920] NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x26:0xffffffff:1170)
>>>>>> [ 144.390930] NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm not 100% certain that this really works but at the moment it's the
>>>>>> only possibility for getting full switching support with the blob.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Speaking of nvidia bugs, I also had problems with the blob not reliably
>>>>>> loading when I boot with EFI.
>>>>>> Luckily it's possible to also enable the integrated card in BIOS
>>>>>> emulation mode. After staring a lot at the output of lspci -xxx from
>>>>>> both EFI and BIOS boot I noticed that this just requires flipping one
>>>>>> bit in the pci configuration space. This can be done by adding "setpci
>>>>>> -d 8086:0044 54.b=0b" in grub. This value will most likely only work for
>>>>>> this exact model, a MBP 6,2. For more information see
>>>>>> http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/322813.pdf page 62.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If anyone has some hints how to better deal with the blob that would be
>>>>>> greatly appreciated.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, 2012-02-29 at 10:33 +0100, Lekensteyn wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi Andreas,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm using nouveau + bbswitch (switcheroo also works, but not after
>>>>>>> resume), not on
>>>>>>> a mac, but a Clevo B7130 (branded as "BTO P-BOOK 17CL34").
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The restoration of the PCI configuration space is a hack to allow the
>>>>>>> driver to load
>>>>>>> in case it was accidentally loaded while the card was off. This is
>>>>>>> especially necessary
>>>>>>> for the nvidia blob driver which loads itself if you try to
>>>>>>> access /dev/nvidia* devices.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In the case of switcheroo, no driver is attempted to be unloaded (see
>>>>>>> the second field
>>>>>>> of the switching_method struct and line 30 of src/switch/switching.c.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sorry, that was my fault. I changed that for testing purposes and then
>>>>>> forgot about it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> gmux can be integrated into BB. Writing a new switcher module
>>>>>>> (src/switch/gmux.c)
>>>>>>> which also takes care of loading the switcheroo module (only if that
>>>>>>> is a safe operation!)
>>>>>>> should do the trick. Just be careful not to conflict with switcheroo.
>>>>>>> The other way is leave
>>>>>>> BB as it and require users to load gmux before BB.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Because of vbios situation and nouveau already working pretty well with
>>>>>> switcheroo I'd prefer to keep using that.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>> Peter
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> Andreas
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 12:25 AM, Andreas Heider <andreas@xxxxxxxx>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi Peter,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I took another look at bumblebee today and got it running with
>>>>>>> nouveau!
>>>>>>> Bumblebee automatically powers the nvidia card down when it's
>>>>>>> not in
>>>>>>> use and starting programs with optirun works well.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This required a dirty hack to bumblebee which you can find
>>>>>>> here:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://github.com/ah-/Bumblebee/commit/c5ab6f0e7f841045cee6905bb367c79091b0eb6b
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The problem is that bumblebee wants to save/restore the pci
>>>>>>> configuration
>>>>>>> space, which is already done by nouveau. (See
>>>>>>> https://gist.github.com/1935992)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It also shouldn't try to unload the driver.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Do you think this could somehow be integrated into bumblebee?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>> Andreas
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tue, 2012-02-28 at 16:14 +0100, Lekensteyn wrote:
>>>>>>> > Hi Andreas,
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > vga_switcheroo is a supported method since Bumblebee 3.0,
>>>>>>> but I
>>>>>>> > assumed that
>>>>>>> > it would not be used for the nvidia driver. If you wish to
>>>>>>> use the
>>>>>>> > nvidia blob with
>>>>>>> > switcheroo, you have to recompile Bumblebee and apply commit
>>>>>>> > 85636d1f21b0644e7dd47e3931479860c55b7a05 (or use the develop
>>>>>>> branch).
>>>>>>> > The
>>>>>>> > next version will have this change too.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > One shortcoming of vga_switcheroo now is that the state is
>>>>>>> messed up
>>>>>>> > after
>>>>>>> > suspend: switcheroo remembered that the card was off, but in
>>>>>>> reality
>>>>>>> > the card
>>>>>>> > is on. The module bbswitch worked around this by enabling
>>>>>>> the card
>>>>>>> > before
>>>>>>> > suspend and disabling the card on resume.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > In some cases, while the card was turned off with switcheroo
>>>>>>> caused
>>>>>>> > the machine
>>>>>>> > to lock when the card is tried to be accessed. If switcheroo
>>>>>>> is not an
>>>>>>> > option for
>>>>>>> > Bumblebee, you can write your own switching code. See the
>>>>>>> src/switch/
>>>>>>> > directory
>>>>>>> > for examples.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Regards,
>>>>>>> > Peter
>>>>>>> > (Bumblebee and bbswitch developer)
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 3:16 PM, Andreas Heider
>>>>>>> <andreas@xxxxxxxx>
>>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>> > Hello everybody,
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > I'm developing a vga_switcheroo driver for the Apple
>>>>>>> Macbook
>>>>>>> > Pro models
>>>>>>> > with switchable graphics and have a few questions
>>>>>>> about how to
>>>>>>> > integrate
>>>>>>> > it with the current linux hybrid graphics
>>>>>>> infrastructure.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Apple implemented the switching using a "chip"
>>>>>>> dubbed the
>>>>>>> > "gmux" (probably short for graphics multiplexer or
>>>>>>> something
>>>>>>> > similar).
>>>>>>> > The gmux can power down the external graphics card,
>>>>>>> switch the
>>>>>>> > DDC,
>>>>>>> > internal and external display connections
>>>>>>> (individually)
>>>>>>> > between both
>>>>>>> > cards and set the backlight brightness. Unlike most
>>>>>>> newer
>>>>>>> > laptops with
>>>>>>> > hybrid graphics, Apple's Macbook Pros use a physical
>>>>>>> mux.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Luckily the gmux has remained mostly the same
>>>>>>> between all
>>>>>>> > models with
>>>>>>> > switchable graphics, so it should be possible to
>>>>>>> develop one
>>>>>>> > driver that
>>>>>>> > supports all of them.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > This driver has actually been lying around in
>>>>>>> unfinished state
>>>>>>> > for some
>>>>>>> > time now, until Seth Forshee from Canonical recently
>>>>>>> rewrote
>>>>>>> > it into a
>>>>>>> > clean, backlight-only driver that will hopefully
>>>>>>> find it's way
>>>>>>> > into
>>>>>>> > mainline soon.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > My goal is to use Seth's work as a base and add the
>>>>>>> other
>>>>>>> > features back
>>>>>>> > again and make it work well. A first version is
>>>>>>> already
>>>>>>> > working and up
>>>>>>> > at https://github.com/ah-/gmux
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > This driver supports all vga_switcheroo operations
>>>>>>> (discrete
>>>>>>> > power
>>>>>>> > on/off, display switching) and they all work on my
>>>>>>> MBP 6,2
>>>>>>> > using the
>>>>>>> > intel and nouveau drivers.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > But unfortunately, it doesn't work with bumbleebee
>>>>>>> and/or the
>>>>>>> > proprietary
>>>>>>> > nvidia driver yet.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Because I'm using CUDA in other projects, getting
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> > proprietary NVIDIA
>>>>>>> > driver running well is very interesting to me. The
>>>>>>> setup
>>>>>>> > bumblebee plus
>>>>>>> > intel + nvidia_current without power management
>>>>>>> works well on
>>>>>>> > my laptop
>>>>>>> > if I switch to the intel card in grub. (It's just
>>>>>>> three
>>>>>>> > outbs). But that
>>>>>>> > breaks suspend and uses 10W more power than
>>>>>>> necessary.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Does/should bumblebee work with a vga_switcheroo
>>>>>>> driver just
>>>>>>> > for ON/OFF?
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > One thing I stumbled upon is a patch for the
>>>>>>> proprietary
>>>>>>> > NVIDIA
>>>>>>> > driver originally written by "Kayo
>>>>>>> <kayo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>" which
>>>>>>> > adds
>>>>>>> > some kind of vga_switcheroo support to it. I
>>>>>>> modified it to
>>>>>>> > just register
>>>>>>> > with switcheroo (patch is attached), and that part
>>>>>>> works well.
>>>>>>> > Turning
>>>>>>> > off the card works, but turning it on afterwards
>>>>>>> doesn't. Any
>>>>>>> > Ideas?
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Ultimately I'd like to get two scenarios/workflows
>>>>>>> to work
>>>>>>> > well:
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 1. Real switching, by disabling one card completely
>>>>>>> and only
>>>>>>> > using
>>>>>>> > the other one, requiring a logout/login.
>>>>>>> > Preferably using the NVIDIA driver.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > 2. Bumblebee switching with working power management
>>>>>>> when the
>>>>>>> > NVIDIA
>>>>>>> > GPU is not in usw.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > I'd appreciate any comments and thoughts on how to
>>>>>>> implement
>>>>>>> > this and
>>>>>>> > how to integrate it with the current hybrid graphics
>>>>>>> > environment.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Cheers,
>>>>>>> > Andreas
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> > Mailing list:
>>>>>>> https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux
>>>>>>> > Post to :
>>>>>>> hybrid-graphics-linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>> > Unsubscribe :
>>>>>>> https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux
>>>>>>> > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux
>>>> Post to : hybrid-graphics-linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux
>>>> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
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