sony-vaio-z-series team mailing list archive

[Raphael Gradenwitz <raphael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi André,

Am Mittwoch, den 02.12.2009, 13:49 +0100 schrieb André Bergner:

>         >
>         > So what I don't understand is that the system can access
>         both cards
>         > and linux drivers exist, what is the problem?
>         
>         All your questions have been answerd in the mailing list
>         thousends of
>         times!
> 
> 
> I know. I'm following the discussion already for some time but my
> question dows not seem to be answered, yet.
> I try a rephrase...
> 
> 
> Ok, I see both cards with lspci (in Jaunty and Karmic). So there
> should be no problem using them and switching between them via some
> script.
> So what is the whole problem? Why is everybody talking about booting
> into windows and back into linux in order to use the Nvidea card?
> What does that change?

boot into windows and back into linux is absolutely not necessary!

The VGN-Z with hybrid graphics changes by acpi which cards are 'visible'
and which ar not.

You can change the visibility with a hacked bios or with the kernel
commandline.

How to hack your BIOS is described here:

http://feature-enable.blogspot.com/2009/07/enable-vt-on-insydeh2o-based-sony-vaio.html

but be aware: not all BIOSes can be hacked and you do it on your own
risk!
It is NOT necessary to hack your BIOS!
      ===

Default the BIOS is set to 'automatic' since Vista can switch this 'hot'
but Linux cannot yet.

After booting (twice) with the kernel commandline like described here:

http://global-social.net/sony-VGN-Zseries#comandline

you will see only the GPU switched with the stamina<->speed slider;
Intel in Stamina-Mode and nVidia in Speed-Mode

If you boot without it, you'll see both but only the intel will be
connected. That was the reason why your system did not seem to work
after reboot because the Open-GL libs for nVidia where linked and the
xorg.conf file for nVidia was parsed but only your intel GPU was
connected to your LCD-Monitor.

regards,

Raphael