Showing posts with label optimus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label optimus. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
More Work To Support Nvidia Optimus Lands In Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr
More work to properly support Nvidia Optimus landed in Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr.
1. nvidia-prime 0.5 has been released today with a new feature that allows users to switch between the integrated and discrete GPU ("prime-select" command line tool). Other changes include:
- improved hardware detection - make sure the the laptop uses Nvidia Optimus and Nvidia driver >= 319;
- more robust system to deal with xorg.conf: broken xorg.conf files will be automatically restored to a configuration that works with hybrid graphics;
- make sure that NVIDIA is always enabled on shutdown - this will avoid issues with the BIOS;
- more.
nvidia-prime is a package that comes with a set of tools to enable Nvidia's Prime on MUXless systems.
Currently, nvidia-prime 0.5 is available in the Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr proposed repository and it will take a while before it's promoted to the main repositories.
2. Thanks to the latest nvidia-prime, we can also see a change in Nvidia Settings that landed about two weeks ago in Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr: an additional tab was added, allowing users to switch between GPUs:
This tab is only visible if nvidia-prime >= 0.5 is installed. After changing between the Nvidia and Intel GPUs, you'll need to log out or restart the system to apply the changes.
3. And finally, xorg-server was updated (version 1.14.4.901) with various Nvidia Optimus fixes, including a patch to fix GPU screen output hotplugging. Like the latest nvidia-prime, this update is only available in the Ubuntu Trusty proposed repository for now.
In my test under Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with these updates installed, I noticed some important improvements: there's no more screen / GTK theme corruption, my external monitor works out of the box (connected via a mini DisplayPort port that's hard-wired to the Intel graphics adapter; connecting a monitor via HDMI which is hard-wired to the Nvidia card doesn't work) and the temperature seems lower than in my previous experience with this under Ubuntu 13.10, although it's still a bit too hot for everyday use, at least with my laptop.
More Nvidia Optimus fixes will probably follow since Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr is in its early development stages and there are about four months until it's released.
More Nvidia Optimus fixes will probably follow since Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr is in its early development stages and there are about four months until it's released.
If you want to try this out in Ubuntu 14.04, firstly enable the proposed repository (not recommended!) and then simply follow the instructions from HERE.
Prime Indicator Lets You Quickly Switch Between Nvidia And Intel Graphics
Prime Indicator is a small, helpful Ubuntu AppIndicator for Nvidia Optimus users running Ubuntu 14.04 which allows users to quickly switch between Intel and Nvidia graphics cards.
As we pointed out a while back, it's possible to switch between Nvidia and Intel graphics in Ubuntu 14.04 and to do this, you must open Nvidia Settings, change the graphics card, enter your password, then log out and log back in. Using Prime Indicator you can do this easier: a single click will automatically switch the graphics card and log out.
This is useful if you often need to switch between Nvidia and Intel graphics cards (to play games under Nvidia grapics for instance). Or at leat it will be useful, since Ubuntu 14.04 hasn't been released yet.
Since this is an "indicator", it also indicates the running graphics chip as an icon (it displays the Nvidia or Intel logo on the panel).
Prime Indicator probably also works in Ubuntu 12.04 with the newest hardware enablement stack, but I didn't test it so the PPA provides packages for Ubuntu 14.04 only however, you can manually install the deb under Ubuntu 12.04 if you want to give it a try (there's a deb download link under the PPA installation instructions below).
Install Prime Indicator in Ubuntu
Prime Indicator is available for Ubuntu 14.04 (update: the package is now also available for Ubuntu 12.04, 14.10 and 15.04) users in the main failsdownloads PPA. To add the PPA and install it, use the commands below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/failsdownloads
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install prime-indicatorIf you don't want to add the PPA or you're using Ubuntu 12.04 and want to give this a try, you can manually download the deb from HERE.
Prime Indicator should start automatically when you log in so to start it for the first time, log out and log back in.
For source code, bug reports and so on, see Prime Indicator @ GitHub.
Thanks to Alfred for the tip!
Recent Update Broke Ubuntu Desktop On Some Nvidia Optimus Laptops [Fix]
According to a bug report, a recent Ubuntu 14.04 update broke the desktop for some Nvidia Optimus users:
"Until yesterday the 14.04 install on this Thinkpad T530 (nvidia Optimus) with nvidia-331 drivers worked just fine, including excellent multi-monitor behavior. Yesterday the set of packages below [1] was updated. I shut down, booted this morning and found out that I was not shown the lightdm login screen: I was stuck at the purple screen that precedes it (into which I enter my disk encryption password)".- lp #1365695 bug
This bug doesn't affect all Nvidia Optimus users though. In fact, my laptop has Nvidia Optimus and this bug doesn't occur for me. That's why I can't guarantee that the solution below will work 100% however, I don't see why it wouldn't (and it was confirmed by users in the bug report comments).
Until the Ubuntu developers fix this Nvidia Optimus issue (the bug itself is caused by the ubuntu-drivers-common package), here's a work-around / temporary fix that you can use to get your Ubuntu desktop back. Press CTRL + ALT + F1 (because, if you're affected by this bug, you can't access the desktop), log in via the command line and type the following command:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-drivers-common=1:0.2.91.4 nvidia-common=1:0.2.91.4The command above downgrades the ubuntu-drivers-common and nvidia-common packages to the last working version available in the repositories (0.2.91.4).
Then reboot your system using:
sudo rebootNote that you must not upgrade to the latest nvidia-drivers-common 2.91.6 (or to 2.91.7 from the Ubuntu Proposed repositories) because both seem affected by this bug. Check the bug report to see when the bug is fixed and only then upgrade this package.
Thanks to Fabio Colella for the tip! Image via
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