Not possible to utilise dual graphics card on Uniwill 259en3 (Alienware m5500) without manual scripting

[Jason Spashett]

I install ubuntu on the Uniwill 259en3 (Alienware m5500)

This laptop has an internal Intel graphics card as well as a geforce 6600 go. Enabling the geforce is done by flicking a switch on the front chasis and then rebooting the system.

The cards do have seperate pci slots.

I did construct a combined xorg.conf file with two device sections and two screen sections, which did work.

The restricted drivers manager does not correcly understand this setup and will always change the first device section to add nvidia options.

Perhaps nothing can be done with this bug report, but I mention is as I think a more robust system around xorg.conf would be most helpful as this aspect of configuration remains tricky even on more standard systems with a single graphics card.

I plan to look into a method of configuration that doesn't soley rely on the xorg.conf if such a thing is feasable.

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

Since the cause of your issue seems to be the Restricted Drivers Manager, I am assigning this bug to that package.

To help diagnose the problem please attach your xorg.conf that you created and the xorg.conf that Restricted Drivers Manager changes to something incorrect.

Also, please attach the output of lspci -vvnn ("lspci -vvnn > lspci.log" attach lspci.log).

Thanks!

[Jason Spashett (jspashett)]

Sorry about the waffle earlier.

I have included the xorg.conf I crafted "xorg.conf.orig"

And one the restricted driver manager generates after doing either:

a) enabling nvidia restricted driver
b) via "preferences -> appearance -> visual effects" which then launches the restricted driver manager because it thinks, wrongly, that the "nvidia" driver is not set.

This generates and xorg.conf as seen in:- "xorg.conf.after_enabling_though_restricted_manager"

I have included TWO lspci outputs. One with the nvidia card enabled, the other with the intel card enabled. Only one can be active at once and changing over requires using the front switch, and rebooting. In other words only one card can be mapped in at any one time at power on.

WORKAROUND: I've found a workaround, which is to move the nvidia driver section to be the first in xorg.conf. The restricted driver manager / visual effects then works as expected and does not make any changes to xorg.conf

It appears therefore that only the first "Device" section is examined / modified. Which if I put "Intel" first, is the wrong one.
With the workaround Xorg works. (Except I think the wrong libGL is loaded, but that is something else not directly related to this bug report I guess)

My setup is a bit unusual, but on the other hand it's probably not that outlandish.

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

Adding files individually for easier readability for developers.

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

Jason, also, what release of Ubuntu are you experiencing this in? Gutsy?

If you could possibly test this on Hardy that would be great.

Thanks

[Jason Spashett (jspashett)]

It is Gutsy yes (7.10)

I might be able to test this on hardy. I'll have to fetch it an so on, when I get a chance I will try it.

[Jason Spashett (jspashett)]

I have tried hardy heron alpha 4, and applied the latest updates.

The behavior has improved slightly.

Turning the desktop effects on with the sample xorg.conf I gave no longer brings up the restricted driver manager and enables compiz and all is well.

Using the restricted driver manager itself still acts the same in that it will always examine only the first "Device" section and update it if it doesn't contain "nvidia" as the driver.

Like so:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller"
 Driver "nvidia" # Should leave this section alone "nvidia" is configured below
 Busid "PCI:0:2:0"
 Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce Go 6600]"
 Driver "nvidia"
 Busid "PCI:3:0:0"
 Option "AddARGBVisuals" "True"
 Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
 Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

This isn't such a big deal since I won't be doing that. The apparent improvement in enabling the desktop effects is good.
It would be better if the restricted drivers manager was a bit cleverer about how it updates the xorg.conf though I guess.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

restricted-manager is no longer supported.