Only Vesa on i7 2670QM??

[Kaljo]

 Bought a brandnew laptop:

i7 2670QM
8GB
Intel HD3000 (integrated in the i7)
Nvidia GT555

When running the livecd full KDE 2011.09 or FullMonty 2011.09 from USB they both give problems.
When it wants to start X (screenflicker) it stops with a black screen. Started with safe settings at the command-prompt entered startx. Fatal Error no screen found and errors about i915

Downloaded 2011.06, just started fine , in Vesa mode
Installed to harddisk and changed card to Vendor Intel 810 and above, again a black screen same for Nvidia 6100 and above
Updated everything via Synaptic and changed kernel to 38.8 PClos3 PAE.Bfs
Still the same, it only runs in Vesa mode

Any idea how to solve this??

[Kurdistan]

PCLinuxOS does not work with hybrid card. If you are lucky you can disable Nvidia card in your BIOS setting, otherwise PCLinuxOS in the moment does not work with hybrid cards. The PCLinuxOS kernel does not have vga switcheroo module which is require for hybrid cards to work. You can read about hybrid cards here:
http://linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.com/
https://launchpad.net/~mj-casalogic/+archive/ironhide/

[ruler501]

Is there any way to make this work. Something like installing a new kernel should work shouldnt it? I'd love to be able to use the nvidia card on my system.

[T6]

hello and welcome to the forum

what kernel are you using at the moment?

please open konsole and write uname -r to see what kernel you have

at the moment, the latest kernel is 2.6.28.8-pclos3

afik, this kernel doesn't support yet the required feature, not sure if kernel 3.1 that will be available next year will do it

i found this page on arch linux forum

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hybrid_graphics

maybe something there could help here?

[ruler501]

i have the default kernel  for the most recent xfce version and i tried to use the nvidia driver and my system no longer boots into graphics so ill have to fix that before i can do much.
How might i update the kernel through the terminal so i can use my nvidia card? or is that even possible.

and thanks for the welcome

[T6]

"i have the default kernel  for the most recent xfce version"

no idea which one is that but as i said, you can run a command to see what kernel you have and if you can upgrade it

about the video problem, if you can write commands in console because system won't load graphical desktop you can write XFdrake to reconfigure video settings to use another driver and not the nvidia one, also remember to set the proper resolution

the kernel i mentioned 2.6.38.8 is possibly the one you have now so there is not a newer one on pclinux stable or usable available, you have latest available but you have to use the uname -r command to confirm

[ruler501]

XFdrake seemed to work. I am currently running the vesa driver as it was the only one I was sure would work.
the kernel is 2.6.38.8-pclos.bfs
Sorry for not running that earlier

[Archie]

Try uninstalling the NVIDIA proprietary drivers and and leave the rest of the NVIDIA drivers. Reboot.

[ruler501]

I'm sorry to sound like a noob but how do i do that?

[Archie]

Use Synaptic. Search for nvidia. Remove the drivers with nvidia-285-something. Click Apply. Reload. nvidia-280s should appear. Install them. Click Apply. Reboot.

This solution  --> http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,99423.msg843908.html#msg843908

[ruler501]

I did that and I cant see any difference do I need to run FXdrake again and change to the nouveau driver?

EDIT:nvm didnt see your edit till after i posted following its instructions now

[Archie]

Basically, what you are doing is downgrading from a bad nvidia driver. It was posted by Texstar that 285 causes problems so we are sticking with 280 until nvidia can push something that isn't broken.

[ruler501]

I installed the 280 driver but when i rebooted and tried to make that the device xorg would use xorg couldnt find any screens. I think this is back to the problem of no vga_switcheroo in the kernel. I guess Ill just have to wait for it to get support for my other card. I switched to the intel driver which seems to work alright.

Is there any way for me to install a kernel with vga_switcheroo in it without breaking my install. If so could you link me to a guide or something on installing a custom kernel?

[Archie]

As root, you can try deleting your xorg.conf. This file will be regenerated with the new settings.

$ su -  [Enter your root password]
# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.original
# rm -rf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
# XFdrake

and configure your Display.

[ruler501]

I did that then when testing it popped up the same message that no screens were found when i tried to use the 280 nvidia driver