alienware m11x - multi-gpu switch does not work

[fnord0]

The Alienware m11x has two GPUs, an Intel integrated graphic card and a Nvidia offboard graphic card. In Windows, it's possible to switch between the two cards using fn + f6 (something like that, I actually doesn't have this notebook) on the fly. Using the Intel card, the battery life is a way better. The Nvidia card is more powerfull.

When using Ubuntu, it's not possible to change it on the fly, it must be done in the BIOS. Besides that, when using Intel card on Linux, the Nvidia card remains active, drawing the battery very quickly.

The desired behavior would be:
- Be able to switch between the two graphic cards on the fly.
- When using one card, the other should remain deactivated, improving battery life (wich is the idea of having two cards).

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 3781 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf1a00000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ID 665'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0665,10280443,00100003'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 3
Date: Mon Mar 29 11:05:25 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
MachineType: Alienware M11x
Package: linux-image-generic 2.6.31.14.27
ProcCmdLine: initrd=/ubninit file=/cdrom/preseed/hostname.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- BOOT_IMAGE=/ubnkern
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.24
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux-meta
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
dmi.bios.date: 01/20/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Alienware
dmi.bios.version: A01
dmi.board.name: 0VWGCV
dmi.board.vendor: Alienware
dmi.board.version: A01
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Alienware
dmi.chassis.version: A01
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAlienware:bvrA01:bd01/20/2010:svnAlienware:pnM11x:pvrA01:rvnAlienware:rn0VWGCV:rvrA01:cvnAlienware:ct8:cvrA01:
dmi.product.name: M11x
dmi.product.version: A01
dmi.sys.vendor: Alienware

[madbiologist (me-again)]

G'day fnord0. Thankyou for your bug report. We will need more information to be able to assist you.

Please supply the following information:

1) What did you expect to happen?
2) What actually happened?
3) What steps do we need to take to reproduce this bug?

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately.]

This bug was reported against the linux-meta package when it likely should have been reported against the linux package instead. We are automatically transitioning this to the linux kernel package so that the appropriate teams are notified and made aware of this issue.

If this bug really is a bug in the linux-meta package you can move it back to linux-meta and tag it kj-linux-meta, or contact us on the #ubuntu-kernel channel on the FreeNode IRC server. Thanks.

[Leonardo Torok (leotorok)]

The problem is the following: The Alienware m11x has two GPUs, an Intel integrated graphic card and a Nvidia offboard graphic card. In Windows, it's possible to switch between the two cards using fn + f6 (something like that, I actually doesn't have this notebook) on the fly. Using the Intel card, the battery life is a way better. The Nvidia card is more powerfull.

When using Ubuntu, it's not possible to change it on the fly, it must be done in the BIOS. Besides that, when using Intel card on Linux, the Nvidia card remains active, drawing the battery very quickly.

The desired behavior would be:
- Be able to switch between the two graphic cards on the fly.
- When using one card, the other should remain deactivated, improving battery life (wich is the idea of having two cards).

[fnord0 (fnord-z3r0)]

I'm the one who submitted this bug report => I just want to mention that I submitted this bug report per the instructions @ https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux ... which gave these instructions ::

Please join the team by clicking on "Join" on the right, fill in this doodle:
http://www.doodle.com/63fyczzrxqaquhqx
and send an email to the mailing list specifying your laptop model with these commands:
sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name
sudo dmidecode -s system-version
lspci -vnnn | perl -lne 'print if /^\d+\:.+(\[\S+\:\S+\])/' | grep VGA

since I was unable this WHOLE output to the mailing list, I instead submitted a bug report (!thispage!), which allowed me to attach the output of all the commands requested above, hence my mentioning of "attaching all the following files into my 1 attachment", specifically http://launchpadlibrarian.net/42367181/all-files-in-one-txt-file.txt

I hope that clears things up.... my specific email to the mailing list -- HERE => https://lists.launchpad.net/hybrid-graphics-linux/msg00019.html

[fnord0 (fnord-z3r0)]

btw, thank you Leonardo Torok - that is EXACTLY my issue, and I must say a very good explaination to boot!

[madbiologist (me-again)]

There is experimental support for this in the 2.6.34 linux kernel. Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" is based on the 2.6.32 kernel. A PPA of 2.6.34-rc4 is available at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ however if you are not experienced you might want to wait until 2.6.34 final.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

I will try to find any upstream bug report. If I might be able to.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

so I did not find any upstream bug report. but also you could try the development release of kernel i.e. 2.6.35-RC4

[madbiologist (me-again)]

A 2.6.34 kernel should do the trick.

It might be easier to try the Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" alpha 2 live CD.

Instructions on how to use the GPU switching code can be found at the links in the first paragraph of the article at http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODAxOA

[madbiologist (me-again)]

There is also some info in steps 2 and 3 at http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/
You probably don't need to mount the /sys/kernel/debug anymore.

[Priyanka Mahale (mahalepri)]

Can anyone help me to spot the path in registry where it distinguishes whether the system is iGPU or dGPU?....if there is no registry path, is there any windows api that will help me getting that information?......i need to retrieve those information through code and put in text.....

Thanx in advance!!!!

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Priyanka - Linux does not have a registry. If you mean integrated GPU or discrete GPU, you can find that information by opening a terminal and typing lspci. If you need more detailed info type lspci -vn or lspci -vvnn

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.