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Nvidia Graphics Cards

  • 12-06-2011 3:45am
    #1
    Hal Emmerich
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭


    Can you run Linux with an Optimus enabled Nvidia Card?

    NVIDIA GT540M <---> this Card in particular.

    This Forum says NO/Not really, if I mess with drivers will it work? Does anyone have this Card?


Comments

  • #2
    Mycroft H
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,313 ✭✭✭Mycroft H


    Did you try the 275 Beta?

    http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-ia32-275.09-driver.html


  • #3
    Hal Emmerich
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭Hal Emmerich


    landyman wrote: »
    Did you try the 275 Beta?

    http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-ia32-275.09-driver.html
    The Card is in a Laptop I was thinking of getting so I can't try anything on it. I don't want to get it though and run in to problems that take hours/days to sort out or not at all.


  • #4
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,336 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    nVidia Optimus is not supported by any linux... mostly because nVidia's drivers do not support it and they did announce they have no plans to support it either which is a pity because historically you could always rely that an nvidia card would work.

    But there is some hope... I have a optimus notebook and can work in linux by disabling "Optimus" in the BIOS to select either the intel board graphics (for long battery life) or the nvidia card (for graphic performance). But under linux we can, sadly, not avail of the "best of both worlds" that optimus provides to windows users.

    Also, while I can select the 1000M nvidia card directly in the BIOS there is a bug in the nvidia drivers that make it very unstable unless acpi is disabled.

    Mostly I just use the integrated graphics on the CPU.

    From what I read many optimus notebooks do NOT have a BIOS switch to disable optimus so then it cannot be used by linux so do check very carefully before buying!


  • #5
    Hal Emmerich
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭Hal Emmerich


    croo wrote: »
    (1)nVidia Optimus is not supported by any linux... mostly because nVidia's drivers do not support it and they did announce they have no plans to support it either which is a pity because historically you could always rely that an nvidia card would work.

    But there is some hope... I have a optimus notebook and can work in linux (2)by disabling "Optimus" in the BIOS to select either the intel board graphics (for long battery life) or the nvidia card (for graphic performance). But under linux we can, sadly, not avail of the "best of both worlds" that optimus provides to windows users.

    Also, while I can select the 1000M nvidia card directly in the BIOS there is a bug in the nvidia drivers that make it very unstable unless acpi is disabled.

    Mostly I just use the integrated graphics on the CPU.

    From what I read many optimus notebooks do NOT have a BIOS switch to disable optimus so then it cannot be used by linux so do check very carefully before buying!
    1--->Thanks, I've read so many sites trying to find a definite answer to this.

    2-->I'd come across this and you're right the switch is rare, you have to ask sellers/manufacturers if it's available on certain models or go mad wading through sites...and responses aren't easy to come by.:mad:

    Silly Nvidia.


  • #6
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,336 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    Hal Emmerich wrote: »
    Silly Nvidia.
    Indeed! They had the market to themselves as AMD/ATI just hadn't seemed to get it together. Now AMD is making a big effort and I think nVidia has taken its linux customers for granted.

    While nVidia said they have no planned support, there is some hope in the efforts of a couple of community projects to find a workaround. One is bumblebee and the other is switcheroo (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTM3MQ).

    I think they're still in "development" but at least it is some hope. I use my machine for work so I cannot experiment as I need a working system.

    I guess it events like this that brings home the importance of open source (i.e. having the code) and I must admit I have been guilty of using the proprietary nvidia drivers in the past instead of supporting the FOSS editions.


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  • #7
    Stuxnet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭Stuxnet


    saw this just now and remembered this thread, might be of some help to OP ! didnt say if he was running ubuntu tho ?
    Open-source “Nvidia Optimus” graphics switching tool ‘Bumblebee has a PPA for easy installation in Ubuntu.

    ‘Bumblebee‘ provides users of laptops housing NVidia’s “Optimus” technology the ability to ‘shut down’ the NVIDIA graphics card when not required and use the less power-hungry integrated graphics instead. This ideal for word processing and basic web-browsing where longer battery life is required.

    It can switch back to dedicated graphics when GPU grunt is needed and – rather impressively – it can use both cards at the same time, with each GPU handling a different task.

    Interested users should note that Bumblebee lacks automatic graphics switching.

    PPA
    The following PPA provides Bumblebee packages for Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10.

    PPA | launchpad.net/~mj-casalogic/+archive/bumblebee

    This PPA should only be added by those whose laptops have NVidia Optimus technology. A list of Optimus-enabled laptops can be found at nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology
    http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/06/bumblebee-gets-a-ppa-brings-nvidia-optimus-graphics-switching-to-ubuntu/


  • #8
    Naikon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭Naikon


    No other software driver comes close to the closed nvidia drivers for Linux performance wise. These drivers don't even use the typical Mesa libraries. For Open Source 3D, you want to avoid nvidia like the plague though:)


  • #9
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,336 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    iPwnage wrote:
    saw this just now and remembered this thread, might be of some help to OP ! didnt say if he was running ubuntu tho ?
    yeah, I think I did point that out! ;)
    croo wrote: »
    ...there is some hope in the efforts of a couple of community projects to find a workaround. One is bumblebee and the other is switcheroo (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTM3MQ).
    But it's the thought that counts! :)

    What I wonder is is anybody testing this. I use my optimus machine for work so cannot risk messing it up. So at the moment I just use the on chip (i.e. CPU) integrated graphics and that's seems offer more than enough bang to run compiz and the little bit whistles & bells that offers. In particular I use the "scale" function a whole lot.

    So to my great surprise I can get by without nvidia and I wonder will nvidia end up shooting themselves in the foot with this as many people realise that unless they are hard gamers they actually don't need an nvidia card anymore!

    Regardless, I have the card so would like to get some use of it so I'll be watching bumblebee closely until such time I can risk installing it fecks up my system!

    I the mean time I would love to hear others' experiences.


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