sony-vaio-z-series team mailing list archive

[Adam Hill <sidepipeuk@xxxxxxxxx>]

> > 	That isn't! I think that you may need to blacklist the nouveau module.
> > 	In
> > speed mode you won't get the NVidia card to work because of the issue
> > that you describe - you need to boot an old kernel first to get to
> > static switching mode. However, the Intel driver should "just work" when
> > in speed mode.
> 
> I do not understand what you mean, could you explain this again? Nouveau
> is blacklisted on my system.
> Important first question: I thought that the new kernel does not need an
> older kernel for switching anymore...?
> If I just use the new kernel and set the switch to speed the led goes to
> speed just before GDM starts. If I boot with in the stamina setting the
> led for stamina switches on just before GDM starts.

	The problem is not with the kernel but with the NVidia and Nouveau 
drivers ( or at least that is how it appears. ) The problem is that in both 
modes, both cards appear on the bus, and at boot time the BIOS sets up the 
Intel card REGARDLESS of the mode ( well, without booting the old kernel or 
setting static switching using the BIOS hack. ) So, when the NVidia driver 
tries to load, it assumes that it already has its resources mapped but in fact 
it doesn't - only the Intel card has been mapped in. So, you STILL have to 
boot the old kernel to use the NVidia card so that the Intel one is completely 
disabled and not mapped at boot time.

> > glxinfo | grep ender
> 
> This does not work, since I have no working glx module ("extension GLX
> missing").

	I think that the issue here may be that the NVidia driver also has its 
own mesa/glx libraries. I think that to get GLX working with Intel you will 
have to re-install the Ubuntu ones, and then again to get the NVidia working 
install the NVidia ones again. In my files directory is an rc.local file which 
in theory could be re-written to copy the appropriate files when needed... it 
should be fairly easy to do but unfortunately I don't have the time at the 
mo... if I get some time in the near future I'll give it a go.

> > 	That would seem a little odd if you say you get the desktop - the
> > 	desktop
> > 
> > would seem to constitute a "screen" ! For speed mode you should not need
> > an xorg.conf file at all - if you have one move it out of the way.
> 
> There must be something wrong with my system configuration. I just
> started in Speed mode a few times. X loads the i915 driver (lsmod shows
> i915 loaded), although I blacklisted that, my xorg.conf specifies
> "nvidia". X also tries to load the NVIDIA glx module. Excerpt from my
> Xorg.0.log in Speed mode:

	As above, in "speed" mode both the Intel and NVidia cards are active. The 
NVidia driver needs to realise that! Also, in theory we should probably patch 
the i915 driver to not load in speed mode, but this would be a very Vaio-Z 
specific patch unless it could be fitted in with the vga switcheroo code.

> I can currently only use my Z11 without problems if I boot the 2.6.31-20
> kernel with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers and an xorg.conf that
> specifies to use the nvidia driver.

	It should also work if you boot my 2.6.28 kernel which reboots ( then 
select the 2.6.36-0-vaioz one. )

	I'm sure that one day this will all "just work" :(.

Adam

> I hope this helpt in making the kernel work for everybody.
> I'd gladly do some more testing.
> 
> Philippe