[FFe] [needs-packaging] switcheroo-control

[Anton Sudak]

GNOME Shell 3.24 introduces a "Launch using Dedicated Graphics Card" feature (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=773117). However it needs the switcheroo-control package to work.

This is useful because several computers have both an integrated graphics card (which uses less power) and a dedicated graphics card (which may perform better for gaming or other intensive apps).

gnome-control-center also uses switcheroo-control (if present) to fill in more information about the graphics cards in the Info panel.

http://www.hadess.net/2016/10/dual-gpu-integration-in-gnome.html

https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2016/11/01/discrete-graphics-and-fedora-workstation-25/

https://github.com/hadess/switcheroo-control

License: GPL-3+

This package will probably be maintained by the Debian GNOME team once they package GNOME 3.24

This package is available for early testing in the GNOME3 Staging PPA for zesty along with other packages like Nautilus 3.24.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.23.91-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-9.11-generic 4.10.0
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-9-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Fri Mar 10 15:57:01 2017
DisplayManager: gdm3
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2017-02-28 (9 days ago)

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Thank you for reporting this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better.

I have just pushed a switcheroo-control package to the GNOME3 Staging PPA for zesty for you to try out. (Give it an hour or so to build and publish.) I don't have a dual-GPU computer so I'm dependent on people like you to let me know if things work.

Here's the package description I have. Could you help fill in the blank?

Description: D-Bus service to check the availability of dual-GPU
 For systems that have both an integrated GPU and a dedicated GPU, this
 package by default will force the integrated GPU to be used to save power.
 .
 You can launch individual apps using the dedicated GPU by ___________
 Or you can right-click on the app in GNOME Shell's Activities Overview
 and choose the "Launch using Dedicated Graphics Card" option.
 .
 If this default behavior is not appropriate, uninstall this package or
 set xdg.force_integrated=0 as a kernel command-line option in your
 bootloader.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

When this package is accepted into Ubuntu, I think I will gnome-shell recommend it. That way it's installed by default so this feature works out-of-the-box, but it can be easily uninstalled if somebody doesn't want it or if it doesn't work.

[Anton Sudak (anton-sudak)]

Thank you for quick response.
I tested package on my configuration (intel+r600) and it work flawlessly.

I'm not sure what could be placed in blank. If we talk about launching apps on dedicated in general it could be done by setting environment variable DRI_PRIME=1, but this way provided by mesa. AFIK switcheroo-control by itself doesn't provide any way to launch applications.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Yes, it looks like DRI_PRIME=1 was what I was looking for.

Thanks, I'll upload to the zesty new queue now, where it will need to be approved by a member of the Ubuntu Archive Administrators team before it will be available in Ubuntu.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I don't know why this didn't get marked Fix Released automatically, but this is in Ubuntu now:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/switcheroo-control/1.1-1