nVidia GT 330M and Ubuntu 10.10 Help

[ryankask]

Hi everyone and happy new year!

My laptop has two graphics cards. According to the relevant lspci output:

$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2)

I want to use the nVidia card instead of the Intel i915 driver for the Intel graphics card so I can use Compiz.

I've installed nvidia-current. Here are the steps I've so far taken:

1. sudo apt-get install nvidia-current - went fine

2. sudo nvidia-xconfig

if I rebooted at this point I get the following errors in my X.org log file:

[    24.613] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[    24.613] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/nvidia_drv.so
[    24.614] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[    24.614] 	compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[    24.614] 	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    24.614] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  260.19.06  Mon Sep 13 04:31:43 PDT 2010
[    24.614] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
[    24.614] (--) using VT number 8

[    24.620] (EE) No devices detected.
[    24.620] 
Fatal server error:
[    24.620] no screens found
[    24.620] 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
	 at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
[    24.620] Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.1.log" for additional information.
[    24.620]

3. I then added the following line to my X.org configuration's "Device" section:

BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"

At this point I've gotten the closest I've ever gotten to successfully setting up the nVidia card. If I boot up, I can hear the GDM "Coconut shaking" sound that plays on startup but the cursor "_" just stays there and the screen stays black (not blank) -- it still shows the "Loading this program.... OK" lines. I'm not sure if the the nVidia card is loading but the nvidia-xconfig generated xorg.conf is in /etc/X11.

If I kill X and use

startx

I again hear the loading sounds but X doesn't seem to be starting on my screen.

If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated!

Below are some links that might be helpful:

• My modified nvidia-xconfig xorg.conf file
• The X.org log file I think is successfully loading nvidia
• The "No screens found" X.org log

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Best,
Ryan

[cascade9]

nVidia doesnt support switchable graphics/'optimus' with linux.

If you dont have a BIOS setting to force the GT330M, or disable the Intel graphics, AFAIK you cant install the nvidia drivers.

[ryankask]

Okay thank you for your quick reply. A few points:

• I only want to use the nVidia card and NOT the Intel one
• Is there not a way to prevent the Intel card from being read by the kernel?
• Is it possible to use compiz/glx/3d with the Intel i915 driver

Thanks very much.

Ryan

[realzippy]

http://linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.com/

[ryankask]

Thanks for the link!

The thing is -- I don't want to use both cards.

My goal is to get glx on my machine... so I need to do either of the following:

1. Blacklist the Intel card and use the nvidia card - (note: I've seen some links to blacklisting the Intel card from the Linux Hybrid Graphics page but they 404)
2. Use the i915 driver with glx -- Is glx possible with the i915 driver?

Thanks,
Ryan

[realzippy]

Thanks for the link!

The thing is -- I don't want to use both cards.

My goal is to get glx on my machine... so I need to do either of the following:

1. Blacklist the Intel card and use the nvidia card - (note: I've seen some links to blacklisting the Intel card from the Linux Hybrid Graphics page but they 404)
2. Use the i915 driver with glx -- Is glx possible with the i915 driver?

Thanks,
Ryan

The problem is:
You cannot use both cards,
but both cards are running (and power sucking,especially the nvidia)
The nvidia card cannot address the display (this is occupied by intel)
Fatal server error:
[ 24.620] no screens found

So the nvidia-current driver does not work.
There is no way "blacklisting" the intel card and get the nvidia driver working,unless you have a BIOS switch.Sony/Alienware laptop/ kernel hacks seem to work sometimes disabling the nvidia-card.

GLX should run out of the box with the intel card;

glxinfo | grep direct

...have to admit being impressed about compiz running "smoothly" here.

[ryankask]

Realzippy:

Thanks so much for addressing my issue. Okay -- so question one is how can I stop the nVidia card from running (or is that not possible without a BIOS switch which I don't seem to have -- Phoenix SecureCore). I would prefer not to disconnect anything since I occasionally use Windows.

The next question is addressing why glx isn't working out of the box for the Intel card:

$ glxinfo | grep direct
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

This is the output of lsmod:

$ lsmod | grep 915
i915                  334267  3 
drm_kms_helper         32836  1 i915
drm                   206230  3 i915,drm_kms_helper
intel_agp              32462  2 i915
i2c_algo_bit            6208  1 i915
video                  22176  1 i915

Any help in fixing this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

[ryankask]

Okay I've found the error from the log but I'm not sure what it means. I'll do some research in the meantime but again ... any help would be appreciated!!!

[  2531.214] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[  2531.214] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[  2531.214] dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so: undefined symbol: miEmptyData
[  2531.216] (EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[  2531.218] (II) UnloadModule: "glx"
[  2531.218] (EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)

Thanks,
Ryan

[ryankask]

I've been able to fix the glx issues with the i915 card by installing the X.org edgers PPA so obviously the issue has been addressed upstream.

I will mark this as solved even though the original issue isn't as compiz is working beautifully. As realzippy mentioned, the underlying issue of having the nVidia and on-board graphics cards is being addressed.

Thanks.

[iammeagain]

How did you go about installing the X.org edgers PPA? I wanted to see if that would fix my problem, I can't get opengl working after disabling my Nvidia on my xps 15.
Nevermind, sold my issue through this:
sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-video-intel libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg