Can't use nvidia card/driver on optimus notebook

Question

I installed (once again) the latest official nvidia driver for my GT540m on Ubuntu 11.10. Even though everything seems OK with my xorg.conf file (I've manually added BusID "PCI:1:0:0", since lspci shows 01:00.0 for my GPU).

The problem is, when I use the xorg.conf file generated by Xorg -configure, Xorg automatically loads the Intel GPU.

So I removed everything that was not related to my nvidia card, basically leaving my xorg.conf with one screen and one device (with the nvidia driver and the above-mentioned BusID), and Xorg fails to start.

The log says something like "Devices on GT540m [newline] none" And a few lines later, something like "NVIDIA(0) found a screen, but have no device for it".

When I don't set the BusID, it doesn't seem to detect my card either.

Thank you for any suggestion.

PS: If possible, I'd like to avoid bumblebee or any similar "hybrid graphics" solution, last time I tried I ended up reinstalling Ubuntu.

Edit: Allow me to clarify the problem.

I have a notebook with a GT540m graphics card, and an integrated intel gpu. I want to use the graphics card with full hardware acceleration and its official driver, as I do under windows.

Solution 1

There is no way you can turnoff intel and work with nvidia only because the images are transported through intel card. Aim of most projects in dual graphics card is to turn off nvidia gpu and use it when required using a special command.(like optirun).

Use the bumblebee project (its a fork from bumblebee project by Mrmee. The whole code was rewritten in C for more stability) to install and turn off nvidia card and use it when required.

Alternatively you can use the original package by MrMee - ironhide .But this is no longer maintained and it caused too many problem earlier for me.

I own a dell xps l502 , nvidia gt 540m with optimus. Its working extremely well in 12.04 beta (kernel 3.2.0-21). I got around 2.3 Hrs of battery life with wi-fi on. without bumblebee its 1hr

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Linked Questions:

How well will Nvidia Optimus cards be supported in 12.04?

Is a NVIDIA GeForce with Optimus Technology supported by Ubuntu?

Solution 2

It is not impossible to turn off your laptop's Intel graphic card in Linux. For example you can install acpi_call to perform such task:

# turn off discrete graphics card
echo '\_SB.PCI0.PEG1.GFX0.DOFF' > /proc/acpi/call
# turn it back on
echo '\_SB.PCI0.PEG1.GFX0.DON' > /proc/acpi/call

Here is the website you can download and install the package:

https://github.com/mkottman/acpi_call

Comments

[Hanynowsky]

In an optimus enabled laptop, you cannot disable the Intel onboard graphics. You should understand what Nvidia Optimus: linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.fr

[Lekensteyn]

possible duplicate of How well do laptops with Nvidia Optimus work?

[Lekensteyn]

I'm closing this issue as an exact duplicate as it covers the same grounds. Unless you have a BIOS option that allows you to use the nvidia card, you won't be able to use the full potential of the card. Sorry, if you don't want to use Bumblebee, you can leave your card wasting power without doing anything useful. Looking forward to "real" solutions like PRIME.

[Web-E]

@fossfreedom: Thanks for the links. Great stuff

[Eti]

Thank you for your answer, but I'm not really looking for a way to disable intel (although if that was possible, that would be nice). I just need to use my real GPU in order to get OpenGL acceleration with the nvidia drivers. Software rendering or intel's alternatives to nvidia hardware rendering are not an option for me. Bumblebee is (or at least, was, when I used it some months ago) a real shame: it never worked and broke my Ubuntu installation (I don't remember much, but I remember I couldn't boot anymore)...

[Hanynowsky]

You might have mis-installed Bumblebee. It works fine if you follow instructions. I have an optimus notebook and everything works great. The only way to use your Nvidia card for now is to use Bumblebee. Use Version 3.0 on Ubuntu 12.04.

[Bruno Pereira]

@Mr.Pixel There nothing you can do if disabling the Intel card in your BIOS is not an option, you need to run Bumblebee or similar when running Ubuntu or any other distro. Nvidia drivers do no support these kind of hybrid systems under Linux yet. Nothing you can do about it. If you want to use your Nvidia card use Bumblebee.