4 ms·

Nvidia Optimus support for Linux

32 points by SandB0x 15y ago

ra 15y ago
I still can't believe Nvidia didn't do this themselves. Last year for the first time ever, I specifically refused to buy a laptop with Nvidia. I didn't want to spend money on a discrete graphics card that I wouldn't be able to use.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  We should note that nvidia has rewritten huge chunks of X internally (and that the blob provides these rewritten pieces), X isn't designed to support this kind of thing in the first place, big distros have plans to move off of X in the semi-near future (1 yr+, but still relatively short amount of value for the investment if we assume X will begin to fall into disuse) and the move to Wayland will impose significant development overhead on nvidia anyway (since Wayland requires KMS, which nvidia doesn't currently support), and nvidia has been looking for extra Linux developers for a long time without luck (see job listing at http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=61644 http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=61644 ). Also consider that nvidia's primary market for Linux is big workstations, etc. (with OpenCL emerging), a field where Optimus support is not relevant. I have also been disappointed to see poor support for Optimus and related techs on Linux but when you look at the costs involved it's not too surprising that nvidia would be reluctant to implement support in its existing blob for the existing infrastructure. Fingers crossed that they're working on it for the Wayland/KMS timeframe.
  - trotsky 15y ago
    Somewhat off topic, but do you know why KMS seems to be such a big hurdle for the 3d video vendors' drivers? ATI's binery blob driver also doesn't support KMS even though they seem to actively develop it. The open source radeon driver does, but it doesn't support a sufficient amount of OpenGL to allow commercial native linux games or wine+directx games to run. On the surface it doesn't seem like KMS support would be a big problem for people otherwise building complex graphics drivers. As an aside, I use a laptop with AMD's switchable graphics solution. You can set and forget it to either setting rather well, but if you actually try switching back and forth you start running into tons of bugs, instabilities, usability problems etc.
- mike-cardwell 15y ago
  No Linux support for Nvidia Optimus is the only reason that I haven't bought one of the new T420s, and am still using my old Macbook.
  - codedivine 15y ago
    I have been told that the T410 at least had an option in the BIOS to switch to the discrete card without Optimus as Lenovo did implement a hardware multiplexer in addition to Optimus. T420s might also do this, you should check. One of the Dell Latitudes also implemented a hardware multiplexer in addition to Optimus and thus people have been able to get the Nvidia card running under Linux though without switching ability (but thats still vastly better than no card). I have been waiting for AMD Llano based laptops as I will be able to run them without any worries about switchable graphics. I need OpenCL and OpenGL support for work purposes.
    - jwingy 15y ago
      I have a Thinkpad W520 and can confirm that Linux (Kubuntu 10.10) will run just fine with the different BIOS option. I can even run Company of Heroes under wine and it runs pretty decently. Not sure what the extra penalty to battery life is under this different BIOS option, but the lappy still runs at least 5 hours. btw, I use the proprietary nvidia drivers (just run their install scripts and it should work fine).
saintfiends 15y ago
Can this thing shutdown Nvidia GPU to save battery and can this be used to run Unity. I ask this because I got a laptop recently without proper research as Nvidia seem to release there drivers to linux, which they did but without Optimus support.

32 points by SandB0x 15y ago

ra 15y ago

I still can't believe Nvidia didn't do this themselves. Last year for the first time ever, I specifically refused to buy a laptop with Nvidia. I didn't want to spend money on a discrete graphics card that I wouldn't be able to use.

cookiecaper 15y ago
We should note that nvidia has rewritten huge chunks of X internally (and that the blob provides these rewritten pieces), X isn't designed to support this kind of thing in the first place, big distros have plans to move off of X in the semi-near future (1 yr+, but still relatively short amount of value for the investment if we assume X will begin to fall into disuse) and the move to Wayland will impose significant development overhead on nvidia anyway (since Wayland requires KMS, which nvidia doesn't currently support), and nvidia has been looking for extra Linux developers for a long time without luck (see job listing at http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=61644 http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=61644 ). Also consider that nvidia's primary market for Linux is big workstations, etc. (with OpenCL emerging), a field where Optimus support is not relevant. I have also been disappointed to see poor support for Optimus and related techs on Linux but when you look at the costs involved it's not too surprising that nvidia would be reluctant to implement support in its existing blob for the existing infrastructure. Fingers crossed that they're working on it for the Wayland/KMS timeframe.
- trotsky 15y ago
  Somewhat off topic, but do you know why KMS seems to be such a big hurdle for the 3d video vendors' drivers? ATI's binery blob driver also doesn't support KMS even though they seem to actively develop it. The open source radeon driver does, but it doesn't support a sufficient amount of OpenGL to allow commercial native linux games or wine+directx games to run. On the surface it doesn't seem like KMS support would be a big problem for people otherwise building complex graphics drivers. As an aside, I use a laptop with AMD's switchable graphics solution. You can set and forget it to either setting rather well, but if you actually try switching back and forth you start running into tons of bugs, instabilities, usability problems etc.
mike-cardwell 15y ago
No Linux support for Nvidia Optimus is the only reason that I haven't bought one of the new T420s, and am still using my old Macbook.
- codedivine 15y ago
  I have been told that the T410 at least had an option in the BIOS to switch to the discrete card without Optimus as Lenovo did implement a hardware multiplexer in addition to Optimus. T420s might also do this, you should check. One of the Dell Latitudes also implemented a hardware multiplexer in addition to Optimus and thus people have been able to get the Nvidia card running under Linux though without switching ability (but thats still vastly better than no card). I have been waiting for AMD Llano based laptops as I will be able to run them without any worries about switchable graphics. I need OpenCL and OpenGL support for work purposes.
  - jwingy 15y ago
    I have a Thinkpad W520 and can confirm that Linux (Kubuntu 10.10) will run just fine with the different BIOS option. I can even run Company of Heroes under wine and it runs pretty decently. Not sure what the extra penalty to battery life is under this different BIOS option, but the lappy still runs at least 5 hours. btw, I use the proprietary nvidia drivers (just run their install scripts and it should work fine).

saintfiends 15y ago

Can this thing shutdown Nvidia GPU to save battery and can this be used to run Unity. I ask this because I got a laptop recently without proper research as Nvidia seem to release there drivers to linux, which they did but without Optimus support.