sony-vaio-z-series team mailing list archive

[Adam Hill <sidepipeuk@xxxxxxxxx>]

	This does, indeed, look very interesting. I haven't looked at it ( other 
than the first web page ) but as Dave says it should be possible, maybe, to 
write a very small stub which switches to the NVidia in console mode so that 
the proprietary driver could then be loaded.

	I can't promise anything, because I really am being crushed under the 
weight of stuff to do at the mo, but if I get a chance over the weekend I'll 
try to dig a bit deeper in to what he is doing and see if it is at a point 
where it is useful on the Z.

Adam.


On Friday 10 December 2010 11:47:06 Joël Bourquard wrote:
> Thanks Michael, this looks very nice !
> 
> Only drawback is that it wouldn't work with Nvidia's drivers yet, so CUDA
> acceleration would be out of the question, unless I'm mistaken...
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 12:40 PM, Michael Zugelder <
> 
> michaelzugelder@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Dave Airlie is currently making some progress in the intel<->nvidia
> > switching
> > area (http://airlied.livejournal.com/74176.html). I haven't tested his
> > drm-nvidia-switch branch yet, but it looks very interesting. If the
> > "correct"
> > runtime switching works, there shouldn't be much issues in getting the
> > brightness control to work, regardless of which graphics card is
> > currently used
> > to output video.
> > 
> > Michael
> > 
> > On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Adam Hill <sidepipeuk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >> This is interesting, so that would mean that the "physical connection"
> > 
> > of
> > 
> > >> the Intel card to the backlight is in fact *not* physical at all, but
> > >> instead it's a software situation that results from the BIOS's way of
> > >> initializing things ?
> > >> 
> > >        Ahh, no, I don't believe so. The reason that I say this is that
> > >        we
> > 
> > use
> > 
> > > either a modified BIOS to enable static switching, or the old kernel
> > > boot trick, in order to get the Vaio to initialise the NVidia card and
> > > disable
> > 
> > the
> > 
> > > Intel card completely in order to get the NVidia drivers to work. If
> > > the
> > 
> > link
> > 
> > > to brightness was configurable, then it would seem strange that Sony
> > 
> > added
> > 
> > > these options in the BIOS, but then didn't link the brightness to the
> > 
> > NVidia
> > 
> > > card at the same time!
> > > 
> > >> It would be really, really great to be able to fix the mapping, so
> > >> that
> > 
> > the
> > 
> > >> NVIDIA card can then control everything.  I'm pretty damn sure this is
> > 
> > just
> > 
> > >> a matter of getting more exposure (ie: more knowledgable kernel and/or
> > >> "Nouveau" developers) about this issue, what do you think ?
> > >> 
> > >        Well, what it needs is someone who really knows how VGA cards
> > >        work
> > 
> > in
> > 
> > > terms of initial set-up by the BIOS. We could then "undo" what was done
> > 
> > for
> > 
> > > the Intel card and re-do what the BIOS does in static mode for the
> > 
> > NVIdia.
> > 
> > >        Moving on from that, if X has a way of saving a session ( well,
> > 
> > window
> > 
> > > posisions and screen content in a way that is independent of VRAM, )
> > > then
> > 
> > we
> > 
> > > could even have dynamic switching working, i.e.
> > > 
> > > Save session state and exit X.
> > > Unmap Intel card
> > > Remap NVidia
> > > Run X with restored session.
> > > 
> > >        Unfortunately I don't have this knowledge or the time to acquire
> > 
> > it :(.
> > 
> > > Adam.
> > > 
> > >> On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Adam Hill <sidepipeuk@xxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> > wrote:
> > >> > > Same here, I would be very happy if we could control brightness
> > 
> > while
> > 
> > >> > > running on the NVIDIA card.  I don't know exactly what it takes,
> > 
> > maybe
> > 
> > >> > the
> > >> > 
> > >> > > Intel card needs to be accessible from the PCI bus (since, as I
> > 
> > heard,
> > 
> > >> > the
> > >> > 
> > >> > > physical brightless control is connected to the Intel card).  As I
> > 
> > see
> > 
> > >> > it,
> > >> > 
> > >> > > initializing the Intel card without allocating any of its buffers
> > 
> > (ie:
> > >> > > initialize it just enough so we can ask it to set the brightness)
> > 
> > might
> > 
> > >> > be
> > >> > 
> > >> > > the way to do it.
> > >> > > 
> > >> >         I fear that it may be much more complicated than that
> > >> >         because
> > 
> > as
> > 
> > >> > far as I
> > >> > know the BIOS initialises the Intel card at boot time regardless of
> > 
> > the
> > 
> > >> > position of the hybrid graphics switch. That means that by the time
> > 
> > the
> > 
> > >> > Linux
> > >> > kernel starts the Intel card already has its BIOS and VRAM mapped in
> > 
> > to
> > 
> > >> > where
> > >> > the NVidia drivers expect their stuff to be.
> > >> > 
> > >> >        The simplest solution overall would be if Sony modified the
> > 
> > BIOS
> > 
> > >> >        to
> > >> > 
> > >> > initialise the correct card at first boot, but that isn't going to
> > 
> > happen
> > 
> > >> > because Windows doesn't care. So, the two sensible options would
> > >> > seem
> > 
> > to
> > 
> > >> > be:
> > >> > 
> > >> > 1) Unmap the Intel card's resources and map in the NVidia card
> > >> > before
> > 
> > the
> > 
> > >> > NVidia module is loaded.
> > >> > 
> > >> > 2) Somehow map both cards in. I'm not sure if this is possible
> > >> > because
> > 
> > I
> > 
> > >> > don't
> > >> > really know much about how video BIOS is accessed - if it is
> > >> > expected
> > 
> > to
> > 
> > >> > be in
> > >> > a particular place in the memory map then this would be impossible.
> > >> > 
> > >> > Adam.
> > >> > 
> > >> > > Maybe we could set up a bounty that would go to the one who
> > 
> > publishes a
> > 
> > >> > > kernel patch and/or generic shell script and instructions to do it
> > >> > > ?
> > >> >  
> > >> >  That
> > >> >  
> > >> > > could be nice...
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Jordi Augé <jordi@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >> > > > Hi,
> > >> > > > 
> > >> > > > I'm a new Vaio Z user, and I've successfully installed Linux as
> > 
> > Main
> > 
> > >> > > > OS on a VPCZ11X9/e, after some struggling I've gotten everything
> > >> > > > working, including hsdpa and graphics switching. My only gripe
> > >> > > > so far is the inability to control screen brightness when using
> > 
> > nvidia
> > 
> > >> > > > graphics.
> > >> > > > 
> > >> > > > Any updates on this issue? what changes will be necessary to
> > >> > > > implement it?
> > >> > > > 
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