Only Vesa on i7 2670QM??

[AS]

Linux Hybrid Graphics Will Be A Mess For A While
Posted by Michael Larabel on October 31, 2011

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTAwOTA


see also:
http://hybrid-graphics-linux.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page#General

[ruler501]

I guess I'll just have to wait maybe someone will manage to get it working in the next few months.

Thanks for all the help.

[Texstar]

It is a mess.

http://goo.gl/aO91O

[Just18]

It is not clear to me, so if someone would clarify if my understanding is correct which is as follows  ........

The integrated graphics on the i7 will work well provided there is no other graphics card in the system.

Another graphics card will work well provided the integrated graphics can be switched off in BIOS.

Automatically switching between the two does not presently work .....  and indeed neither seems to work correctly if both integrated enabled and a graphics card is inserted.

My reason for requesting clarity is that a friend recently asked me about the adviseability of getting an i5 CPU setup.

Thanks.

[T6]

"The integrated graphics on the i7 will work well provided there is no other graphics card in the system"

yes, this was the case for other i3 and i5 users, a update in kernel and intel drivers made this possible on recent months

"Another graphics card will work well provided the integrated graphics can be switched off in BIO"

if it is not a obscure via or nvidia problematic model, chances are high that will work perfectly

most i5 cpus won't offer a second video card offering more performance and having the integrated intel when system doesn't need strong 3d or strong gpu

do you have a specific model to investigate if it has this hybrid video card?  if it doens't have it and he is not planning on laying games, the i5 cpu with the integrated video card could be more than enough for him

[Just18]

The PC will need to be able to handle high quality maps and to play some ordinary games rather than the newer super HQ games. Something like GL-117 from the repo needs to be able to run without any problem, as well as whatever is there for kids.

It seems he will be OK as long as the integrated graphics can be disabled .....  so that he can use a PCI-e graphics card if required.

[AS]

Why is Optimus a huge problem?

In short, it is a mess.

A graphics card has a GPU, some memory which may be dedicated (VRAM) or just a piece of system memory (like in many IGPs), and outputs (connectors) where you plug in a monitor. Also the laptop internal display panel is a monitor in this sense.

What makes Optimus a mess is, that you do not know what outputs are connected to which GPU, or if there is a hardware switch (a mux) in between. The mux would be controlled in software.

http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/Optimus

 

[kjpetrie]

To the OP, if you're still reading this thread, the best option at present is to go into the BIOS and look for graphics settings there. If you can disable one of the cards it should get things going. Your battery life (time between charges) might be drastically affected by which card you use, so I hope they let you choose which one to disable. Otherwise you are stuck with a lot of reading and unfriendly experimenting with kernels, boot scripts and compile-time settings which is beyond the scope of this forum. (I had to do it with my laptop which runs a kernel pclos has never used, but my hybrid graphics isn't nvidia.)

To the hijacker, you probably need to do something similar, and disable the onboard graphics so you can run the nvidia.