Recommended drivers don't work with Nvidia Optimus

[Geert Jan Alsem]

Nvidia's hybrid graphics technology "Optimus" (combines GeForce with an Intel graphics chip) is currently not supported in the Nvidia Linux drivers. When you install the drivers Ubuntu won't startup into graphics mode anymore. If you don't install the Nvidia drivers Ubuntu just uses the Intel graphics, and everything works fine.

The bug: when you install Ubuntu on a PC with Nvidia Optimus, jockey recommends you install the (non-working) Nvidia drivers.

Solution: detect Optimus and only recommend the Nvidia drivers when it's not present.

Tested on Ubuntu 10.10 final.

[paulpoco (pjb-telus)]

Have Asus 1215N with Optimus. Cannot load 3d programs like XBMC.

[Geert Jan Alsem (gj-alsem)]

paulpoco, what are you saying, that the Intel graphics chip isn't working right for you either? Because for me when I don't install the Nvidia drivers and stick with Intel graphics everything works fine, including 3D acceleration.

But even if there are problems with the Intel driver, it is kind of off topic for this bug, because jockey should still not recommend to install the non-working Nvidia drivers.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Can you please navigate to /sys/firmware/acpi/tables and run:

grep MXMS *

(note the space before the *) Please let us know whether there is any output or not, and if there is please post the output here.

[Geert Jan Alsem (gj-alsem)]

Sure, here's the output I get:

geertjan@geertjan-laptop:/sys/firmware/acpi/tables$ grep MXMS *
grep: APIC: Permission denied
grep: ASF!: Permission denied
grep: BOOT: Permission denied
grep: DMAR: Permission denied
grep: DSDT: Permission denied
grep: FACP: Permission denied
grep: FACS: Permission denied
grep: HPET: Permission denied
grep: MCFG: Permission denied
grep: SPCR: Permission denied
grep: SSDT1: Permission denied
grep: SSDT2: Permission denied

I guess I have to use "sudo grep MXMS *"? If I run that I get no output at all.

Note that I'm no longer on Ubuntu 10.10 as in my original post, I'm on 11.04 now (still no Nvidia driver installed, just using the Intel driver).

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Yeah, I had to use "sudo grep MXMS *" too. Thanks for testing.

[Ara Pulido (ara)]

This is still happening

[Peter Wu (lekensteyn)]

For those affected and do not use a solution like Bumblebee
(https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee), please run:

    update-alternatives --force --set i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf

If you're running a 64-bit system, run:

    update-alternatives --force --set x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf

This will set the default OpenGL library back to Mesa. Using a custom Xorg configuration file, you can still utilize the nvidia drivers. Note that Optimus is not supported for Linux so you've to use a solution like Bumblebee or hybrid-windump.

[Hendrik Schrieber (hennekn)]

This problem is still not solved. Workaround is to use ironhide (new name of Bumblebee) or hybrid-windump. One of these programs should be installed and used for 3d applications by default to make the use of 3d applications possible on Multi-GPU systems.

On my system with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M I do not have working 3d accelaration without ironhide or hybrid-windump. In addition, neither the recommended NVIDIA drivers nor the original proprietary NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIAs website work.

[Hendrik Schrieber (hennekn)]

A tutorial how to solve this problem can be found here: http://www.ivegotavirus.com/blog/2011/11/06/how-to-get-optimus-working-on-ubuntu-11-10-oneiric/

Maybe Jockey could show a similar step-by-step guide for people using Multi-GPU graphic cards?