NVIDIA Confirms It's Working On Optimus Linux Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA Confirms Its Working On Optimus Linux Support

At long last, NVIDIA confirms they are working on supporting their multi-GPU Optimus Technology under Linux with their proprietary graphics driver...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTE3MzY

[halfmanhalfamazing]

I'm surprised the article didn't mention what Linus said.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTE3MzY

Yes, clearly..... I don't want to take anything away from the work that the developers mentioned in the article are doing. There's a legitimate case to be made for some of this infrastructure to exist before it could be built upon. But how could "Nvidia Optimus" now not be mentioned without also mentioning the name of Linus Torvalds?

It's the elephant in the living room.

[karolherbst]

I have an optimus setup here: ivybrdige + nvidia GT630M. I have about 4:15 hours of battery lifetime. But I need bumblebee (https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee) and vgl installed on my system to be able to use my nvidia card. a simple "optirun wine steam" would start steam in a second X server and data will transfered by vgl to the main X server. Works very good and nearly out of the box.
Additional to that: bbswitch (a kernel module) will turn off/on the nvidia card automatically in the background. So in fact: today we don't need these changes to take full advantage of a Linux optimus setup.

[mark45]

What said Linus? You mean the "FU Nvidia"? Is that it? Are you implying that Nvidia got scared or whatever and because of that started working on optimus?

[Gusar]

I'm surprised the article didn't mention what Linus said.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTE3MzY

Yes, clearly..... I don't want to take anything away from the work that the developers mentioned in the article are doing. There's a legitimate case to be made for some of this infrastructure to exist before it could be built upon. But how could "Nvidia Optimus" now not be mentioned without also mentioning the name of Linus Torvalds?

It's the elephant in the living room.

You're not seriously attributing this to the middle finger are you? Cos, well,

I've been saying for a long long time, Optimus isn't just up to Nvidia. It was the graphics stack itself (from the kernel to X) that wasn't capable and needed to catch up. With xrandr1.4 and dma-buf, the graphics stack has caught up. *This* allowed Nvidia to start working on Optimus. Not the middle finger.

[aliasbody]

Hey there..

I don't want to be rude... it is not my type at all... but this happens everytime with me... so please... F**** You Nvidia... Now that I bought a new computer you say that you are officially working on Optimus Support zs... I already knew that this was gonna be like this xD It's everytime the same... the last time it was it the Ati Drivers... never worked for me ! (back in 2008), the first day I get an Nvidia 9800GT the new drivers came out solving all the problems zs..

So guys if there is a project blocked for years by some sort of magic please tell me so I can start using it and then stop using it because it doesn't work well (or at all), so that it will magically became available and fully funcional

(I need to restart playing games now that Valve is comming to Linux.... or I'll just wait xD)

[hdas]

As usual, this will fall on deaf ears. But Michael seems to be completely ignorant about the fact that amd/ati proprietary drivers have supported muxless hybrid graphics for quite some time. Even if he does know, it is quite surprising as to why this has not received any coverage.

I personally have it working on my year old Sony Vaio S with ATI Radeon 6630M + Intel Core i5 2430M. If any one is interested, here is a link for a howto I wrote for Gentoo. As I understand, the fglrx driver works in conjuction with the Intel X.org driver to have things going. Curiously, this is the first system which has discrete graphics working with KMS!

Nevertheless, it is good that finally Nvidia has the Optimus support going. I have pretty much lost it with Nvidia over last year after they didn't bother about Optimus, while shipping it in almost every notebook. The lack of Randr 1.2 support for a long time has been a bummer. The Vaio S has been my first machine over the years to have Radeon graphics, I always used to go with Nvidia. And I haven't been disappointed .

[[Knuckles]]

Excellent! Didn't see this coming at all, but it's very welcome.

Intel has been advancing greatly on linux, but if you need performance and decent drivers, nvidia is still the way to go, at least on desktops. I'll finally be able to get back to using nvidia on my next laptop purchase.

Can't say I'm too happy with my fglrx experience...

[fritzls]

From the AMD side.
Catalyst already WORK with muxless cards. And well.
BUT!!!!
If you have how to change in bios the default output card or if the builder code the bios with the amd and not intel being the primary output ( not speaking about muxed card bios choice, but the trigger that turn the primary card using the hardware output).
If you have luck of own a good coded bios manufacturer one. will work like a charm.
But if you are a owner from a low end brand like all HP notebooks ( I'm a owner of a shit envy second generation 3d). then you are in troubles.
BAD ACPI/BIOS coded, No way of change nothing in bios. Nor the card is well coded and the amd being the primary output.

Seems all the problem are not coming just from BAD support or drivers.

But from BAD vendors like HPshit.
Nor just in linux, since in windows they abandon their product after release the product.

[Michael]

Michael seems to be completely ignorant about the fact that amd/ati proprietary drivers have supported muxless hybrid graphics for quite some time. Even if he does know, it is quite surprising as to why this has not received any coverage..

Uhhh I mentioned it back on launch day that the Catalyst driver supported it, but still from as far as I know it's not the best support possible.