5 ms·

I wonder if unity can work on my recent laptop. It has a recent nvidia and like most of these, it has the optimus "feature" which for now requires the hackish b

by Iv 15y ago

I wonder if unity can work on my recent laptop. It has a recent nvidia and like most of these, it has the optimus "feature" which for now requires the hackish bumblebee. It has been years since I had to go in the xorg.conf file, that was the main reason I switched from debian to ubuntu. That is the only feature I wish of any Ubuntu release. Can someone tell me if it has now been implemented ? From the release notes, they don't seem to mention it.

rbanffy 15y ago
In general, I stay away (and recommend others do the same) from graphic subsystems that require extensive hacking to properly work under Linux. Buying computers with them rewards manufacturers who do half-assed work - they pocketed your money after all. It's not like notebooks equipped with Intel graphics are more expensive or hard to find. Or that it would be an insane amount of work to provide functional (even if not fully-functional) Linux drivers for their product lines.
noamsml 15y ago
Check if Optimus can be disabled in the BIOS. It often can.
- Iv 15y ago
  It canont on mine, Asus N73S with GT540M
- Symmetry 15y ago
  For my T520 I can get by disabling Optimus, but then I can't use external monitors.
xxpor 15y ago
I just bought a 570GTX explicitly because Nvidia has always been better on Linux. I'm not familiar with this "feature". What does it entail, and how does it affect linux?
- jamii 15y ago
  It's basically cpu scaling but for the graphics card. It saves power but its not well supported in linux (apparently - I have no issues).
  - kiloaper 15y ago
    Nope. This is Optimus: http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html. Nvidia have said they have no plans to support it under Linux officially which really sucks. I ended up returning a laptop because of it.
    - kamechan 15y ago
      IIRC, there's an option to compile optimus support into newer linux kernels. I'm just using a intel HD3000 card so i've not tried it myself. unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't have the friendliest policy towards custom kernel compilation, so you might have to "break the rules" or look elsewhere.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- Iv 15y ago
  It is a mobile feature : there are two GPUs in the laptop. One is a small one, poor performances, low consumption and the other one is a full-fledged GPU. When the usage of the small one is two high, the big one is switched on and used. By default, it is switched off and nvidia does not provide a way to switch it on on linux and stated they would not support it under linux. I was under the impression that nvidia was the most linux-friendly GPU manufacturer and bought one because of that. I should have looked more into details but I was in a kind of hurry.
  - Symmetry 15y ago
    It was certainly the case that NVidia was the best for Linux until recently. But Intel has been working hard on their open source drivers and ATI has been catching up fast, and recently NVidia threw up their hands and said they had no plans to support Optimus under Linux.
heyrhett 15y ago
> It has been years since I had to go in the xorg.conf file You must have a pretty high general satisfaction for how your life is going. http://xkcd.com/963/ http://xkcd.com/963/
- Iv 15y ago
  Not anymore :-( But really, the horizontal axis in my case would be labeled "perceived maturity of the linux distribution I am using"
- lsdafjklsd 15y ago
  LOL
ralphc 15y ago
I'm running the Live CD in a VMWare Fusion VM, and it just goes to Unity 2D, so I'm guessing that a lot more hardware will see Unity in one form or other with this release.
- bilban 15y ago
  Tried it on Nvidia 6200, initially all looked well. But something died with the desktop. Also compiz was constantly stealing about 8% of a 2GHZ cpu. So I reverted to 2D. Which was pretty similar - albeit for a few of the transitions. It was missing drag to top - to full screen, but you can double click the window bar instead.
  - bilban 15y ago
    What I was trying to say with the above post. Was you get a little extra gloss with Unity3D, but it's not over the top. And the 2D fallback isn't miles away. I have noticed that 2D does look uglier in places - like modal popups - that are not at all in keep with the rest of the interface. Which reminds me of the kde shutdown window - which is also fugly.
sciurus 15y ago
For the curious, https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee
- mark_h 15y ago
  Bumblebee was a life-saver when I got my Lenovo T520 and first learned about Optimus, but note that link is out of date now. He's forked off that to start again with "Ironhide", while there's another fork that's aiming to maintain bumblebee but fix bugs, etc. Details here: http://www.martin-juhl.dk/2011/08/ironhide-reporting-for-duty/ http://www.martin-juhl.dk/2011/08/ironhide-reporting-for-dut... (If you haven't looked into it, I thought bumblebee was a great hack! As I understand it, it uses the nvidia card for rendering whatever apps you tell it too in a separate X instance -- using the "optirun" command, it doesn't happen automatically automatically -- then uses virtualGL to display the results on your desktop)

by Iv 15y ago

rbanffy 15y ago

In general, I stay away (and recommend others do the same) from graphic subsystems that require extensive hacking to properly work under Linux. Buying computers with them rewards manufacturers who do half-assed work - they pocketed your money after all. It's not like notebooks equipped with Intel graphics are more expensive or hard to find. Or that it would be an insane amount of work to provide functional (even if not fully-functional) Linux drivers for their product lines.

noamsml 15y ago

Check if Optimus can be disabled in the BIOS. It often can.

Iv 15y ago
It canont on mine, Asus N73S with GT540M
Symmetry 15y ago
For my T520 I can get by disabling Optimus, but then I can't use external monitors.

xxpor 15y ago

I just bought a 570GTX explicitly because Nvidia has always been better on Linux. I'm not familiar with this "feature". What does it entail, and how does it affect linux?

jamii 15y ago
It's basically cpu scaling but for the graphics card. It saves power but its not well supported in linux (apparently - I have no issues).
- kiloaper 15y ago
  Nope. This is Optimus: http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html. Nvidia have said they have no plans to support it under Linux officially which really sucks. I ended up returning a laptop because of it.
  - kamechan 15y ago
    IIRC, there's an option to compile optimus support into newer linux kernels. I'm just using a intel HD3000 card so i've not tried it myself. unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't have the friendliest policy towards custom kernel compilation, so you might have to "break the rules" or look elsewhere.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
Iv 15y ago
It is a mobile feature : there are two GPUs in the laptop. One is a small one, poor performances, low consumption and the other one is a full-fledged GPU. When the usage of the small one is two high, the big one is switched on and used. By default, it is switched off and nvidia does not provide a way to switch it on on linux and stated they would not support it under linux. I was under the impression that nvidia was the most linux-friendly GPU manufacturer and bought one because of that. I should have looked more into details but I was in a kind of hurry.
- Symmetry 15y ago
  It was certainly the case that NVidia was the best for Linux until recently. But Intel has been working hard on their open source drivers and ATI has been catching up fast, and recently NVidia threw up their hands and said they had no plans to support Optimus under Linux.

heyrhett 15y ago

> It has been years since I had to go in the xorg.conf file You must have a pretty high general satisfaction for how your life is going. http://xkcd.com/963/ http://xkcd.com/963/

Iv 15y ago
Not anymore :-( But really, the horizontal axis in my case would be labeled "perceived maturity of the linux distribution I am using"
lsdafjklsd 15y ago
LOL

ralphc 15y ago

I'm running the Live CD in a VMWare Fusion VM, and it just goes to Unity 2D, so I'm guessing that a lot more hardware will see Unity in one form or other with this release.

bilban 15y ago
Tried it on Nvidia 6200, initially all looked well. But something died with the desktop. Also compiz was constantly stealing about 8% of a 2GHZ cpu. So I reverted to 2D. Which was pretty similar - albeit for a few of the transitions. It was missing drag to top - to full screen, but you can double click the window bar instead.
- bilban 15y ago
  What I was trying to say with the above post. Was you get a little extra gloss with Unity3D, but it's not over the top. And the 2D fallback isn't miles away. I have noticed that 2D does look uglier in places - like modal popups - that are not at all in keep with the rest of the interface. Which reminds me of the kde shutdown window - which is also fugly.

sciurus 15y ago

For the curious, https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee

mark_h 15y ago
Bumblebee was a life-saver when I got my Lenovo T520 and first learned about Optimus, but note that link is out of date now. He's forked off that to start again with "Ironhide", while there's another fork that's aiming to maintain bumblebee but fix bugs, etc. Details here: http://www.martin-juhl.dk/2011/08/ironhide-reporting-for-duty/ http://www.martin-juhl.dk/2011/08/ironhide-reporting-for-dut... (If you haven't looked into it, I thought bumblebee was a great hack! As I understand it, it uses the nvidia card for rendering whatever apps you tell it too in a separate X instance -- using the "optirun" command, it doesn't happen automatically automatically -- then uses virtualGL to display the results on your desktop)