Help! Switchable graphics on Ubuntu

[TheSagetEffect]

I have Ubuntu running on my Lenovo Z570 laptop with switchable graphics (between integrated Intel 3000 graphics and a GT630M dedicated card). If it matters, I used the Wubi installer from the Ubuntu website, so I installed it on a virtual hard disk on my C:/ drive and not in a separate partition.

Anyways, Ubuntu can't recognize my graphics device. Last time, I tried to install the GT630M driver for Linux and ended up completely screwing up my resolution, couldn't find a way to fix it and reinstalled Ubuntu. I'm afraid to install the Intel HD3000 driver because the same thing might happen.

How can I

a) Get Ubuntu to recognize my graphics card
b) View whether or not the dedicated card is currently running (the light on the front of the laptop is stuck in the on position)
c) Enable switching between the graphics cards.

[skippy72294]

Originally Posted by TheSagetEffect

I have Ubuntu running on my Lenovo Z570 laptop with switchable graphics (between integrated Intel 3000 graphics and a GT630M dedicated card). If it matters, I used the Wubi installer from the Ubuntu website, so I installed it on a virtual hard disk on my C:/ drive and not in a separate partition.

Anyways, Ubuntu can't recognize my graphics device. Last time, I tried to install the GT630M driver for Linux and ended up completely screwing up my resolution, couldn't find a way to fix it and reinstalled Ubuntu. I'm afraid to install the Intel HD3000 driver because the same thing might happen.

How can I

a) Get Ubuntu to recognize my graphics card
b) View whether or not the dedicated card is currently running (the light on the front of the laptop is stuck in the on position)
c) Enable switching between the graphics cards.

I don't believe Linux supports Nvidia Optimus (i.e. graphics switching) sadly.

[ViRUS2008]

I also believe it doesn't. In fact, I think nVidia's poor Linux support was the reason Linus gave them the finger recently.

[Dоgs]

Switchable graphics will work with Nvidia Optimus on Linux....Just not with Ubuntu (but Ubuntu is junk anyways, so you're really not missing out on much)

I've gotten Nvidia switchable graphics to work on Arch before, and it is best packaged for this particular platform. If you really want to use Linux, I would go there. However, be warned: It can be frustrating to get optimus working correctly. Look for information on something called 'bumblebee'.

Originally Posted by ViRUS2008

I also believe it doesn't. In fact, I think nVidia's poor Linux support was the reason Linus gave them the finger recently.

Nvidia has supported Linux with their drivers better than any other video card manufacturer has. The problem is, the fools in the FOSS world won't be happy until Nvidia's drivers go completely open source. They claim that everything will be better that way, of course, even though writing drivers is difficult and anybody talented at it values their time too highly to write open source drivers.

If I'm not mistaken, AMD caved and made their driver project open source, and even gave a substantial amount of expertise towards getting the project going. Funny thing: The drivers haven't gotten any better yet and the 'armies' of technological talent that were supposed to carve out incredibly robust drivers are nowhere to be found.

[TheSagetEffect]

Would I be able to enable Optimus easily enough on Mint? I've been thinking about switching over since I hear it is faster, although I'm a little nervous about having to actually partition my drive since I hear such a change is difficult to reverse/uninstall (with Ubuntu, I'm running it on a virtual hard drive on my C: drive)

I don't want to go far beyond Mint. I'm not a technophobe or something but I don't think I'm quite knowledgeable enough about computer science to delve much "deeper" into less consumer-friendly distros. Also, does Mint offer better battery life?

Did some Googling. Found out that Mint does, in fact, have a Windows installer that seems to work just as well as the standard disc install. Furthermore, it appears that Bumblebee does work with Mint.

I'll install it from Windows and try it out.

[Dоgs]

Originally Posted by TheSagetEffect

Did some Googling. Found out that Mint does, in fact, have a Windows installer that seems to work just as well as the standard disc install. Furthermore, it appears that Bumblebee does work with Mint.

I'll install it from Windows and try it out.

I don't remember Mint having it's own packaging of Bumblebee. You'd probably be no better off on Mint than on Ubuntu, if so. The real pain, at least when I did it, was trying to do it the 'generic' way, without the aid of any sort of package manager.

Edit: Actually, it looks like Ubuntu has had support added since the last time I tried to get bumblebee working. If the apt package actually works as intended, it might not be so hard anymore.
http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html


Also, this is extremely important: Make 100% sure to use the proprietary Nvidia drivers. Do not use the open-source Nouveau drivers, as they're horrible. They will not offer you any better performance than simply using your Intel chip, while at the same time they will use the full draw of the Nvidia chip: Thus, you'd be getting the battery life of the discrete GPU with the performance of the onboard, and that's backwards of what you want. Make absolutely sure to get the official Nvidia drivers.

[TheSagetEffect]

Alright, thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can get Bumblebee up and running.

My battery life on Linux is about 60% of my battery life in Windows 7. I'm starting to think the dedicated graphics are in some way to blame.

[Dоgs]

Originally Posted by TheSagetEffect

My battery life on Linux is about 60% of my battery life in Windows 7. I'm starting to think the dedicated graphics are in some way to blame.

If you're not using Bumblebee, that is certainly the expected result. If you just install Linux and go, your GPU will be sitting there drawing power but not doing anything. If you want decent battery life, you have to either disable the GPU (there's stuff on the internet about how to do this) or get bumblebee up and working.

[TheSagetEffect]

Originally Posted by Dоgs

If you're not using Bumblebee, that is certainly the expected result. If you just install Linux and go, your GPU will be sitting there drawing power but not doing anything. If you want decent battery life, you have to either disable the GPU (there's stuff on the internet about how to do this) or get bumblebee up and working.

I followed some online tips and added a couple lines to some sort of startup script that was supposed to automatically disable the external card on boot. I can't tell if it is powered, so I don't know for sure.