8/30/2014

Linux NVidia Optimus on ThinkPad W520/W530 with external monitor finally solved | scyth's blog

How NVidia Optimus works on Thinkpad W520/W530 laptops

Thinkpads (and probably some other laptops) with nvidia quadro 1000M or 2000M are wired so
that intel integrated graphics chip does all the rendering and display for built in LCD screen, while
all external output (VGA/DisplayPort) ports are wired through NVIDIA, which can also be fired
up on demand to render 3d stuff. So whats the problem?
Basically, in order to have external monitor connected to DisplayPort or VGA, we have two
options:
1. Go to BIOS -> Config -> Display, and set graphics to Discrete Only. This will make NVIDIA
your primary graphic card, which with proprietary nvidia drivers will make your external
monitor to work. However, this also means your battery life will suck. In my case, Ive got
60-70% decrease in battery life in such setup, so it was a no-go.
2. As of few weeks now, I have a complete working solution, which does not eat your battery
when youre unplugged, does not require you to reset X or computer when you want to
connect/disconnect or any of such inconveniences, gives you ability to connect one or two
external monitors to your laptop, and its relatively easy to setup.
Needless to say, this blog post focuses on #2.

How to get there?

Groundwork steps:
1. Go to BIOS -> Config -> Display, and select NVidia Optimus, and make sure to enable
Optimus OS Detection.
2. Boot into your linux and login
You will need latest NVIDIA drivers installed. At the time of writing, version is 331.20. On ubuntu
13.10, it looks like this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-331
Now we need to install bumblebee:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable

sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia bbswitch-dkms
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8/30/2014

Linux NVidia Optimus on ThinkPad W520/W530 with external monitor finally solved | scyth's blog

At this point, I recommend reboot.

Configure bumblebee
Few more things are needed in order to get this running, and Ill cover it now. First, youll need to
edit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf and find and change these params, so they look like:

KeepUnusedXServer=true
Driver=nvidia
KernelDriver=nvidia-331
PMMethod=none (find this one in two locations in the file)
Next, edit /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia and make it look like this:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier
"Layout0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier
Driver
VendorName
BusID
Option
Option
EndSection

"DiscreteNvidia"
"nvidia"
"NVIDIA Corporation"
"PCI:01:00:0"
"ProbeAllGpus" "false"
"NoLogo" "true"

Intel-virtual-output tool
First, you will need latest xf86-video-intel driver installed (2.99). Ubuntu 13.10 comes with it, so
you dont need to update driver in that case. However, what made all of this possible is the latest
release of intel-virtual-output tool, which comes bundled with xf86-video-intel driver source. But,
ubuntus package does not bundle it, and we need to compile it from source. One MAJOR thing to
note here is: DO NOT compile it from ubuntus deb-src package. That package is old, and current
release has some major fixes for the tool that we will actually need in order to have everything
working properly. So lets do it:

sudo apt-get install xorg-dev git autoconf automake libtool xorg-ut

ils-dev
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-inte
l cd xf86-video-intel
./autogen.sh

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8/30/2014

Linux NVidia Optimus on ThinkPad W520/W530 with external monitor finally solved | scyth's blog

./autogen.sh
cd tools
make
sudo cp intel-virtual-output /usr/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/intel-virtual-output

Oh, and now that precious moment weve all been waiting for
Now, connect your external monitor to VGA or DisplayPort, and run this:

modprobe bbswitch
optirun true
intel-virtual-output
And youre done! What the above two commands did is, they fired up nvidia card in the
background so that we can use its external ports or rendering, and started another X server in the
background which runs on nvidia card. However, all your apps are still rendered via Intel card, but
can be proxied to external monitor. Just open up KDE System Settings -> Display and Monitor,
and youll see 2 monitors as you normally would, and you can place them in any position you like.
Same goes for Unitys settings.
You might notice a small lag here and there (nothing of major importance), but thats been worked
on and future kernel and driver releases will improve that situation.

Wanna go mobile and turn off the nvidia card? No problem.

Now that youve enjoyed your static setup, its time to go mobile without draining the battery.
These are the simple steps to do so:
1. Disconnect your external monitor
2.

# kill the second X server.

# To find the process, run: ps ax | grep Xorg
# You should see something like this
$ ps ax | grep Xorg
3342 ?
Ss
68:08 Xorg :8 -config /etc/bumblebee/xorg.c
onf.nvidia -configdir /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d -sharevts -nol
isten tcp -noreset -verbose 3 -isolateDevice PCI:01:00:0 -modul
epath /usr/lib/nvidia-331/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
# now kill the process
$ sudo kill -15 3342

3.

# Now you need to turn off nvidia card completely.

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8/30/2014

Linux NVidia Optimus on ThinkPad W520/W530 with external monitor finally solved | scyth's blog

sudo rmmod nvidia

sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF
Thats it. I hope I made your day :)

www.unixreich.com

http://www.unixreich.com/blog/2013/linux-nvidia-o
ptimus-on-thinkpad-w520w530-with-external-monitor-fi
nally-solved/
http://goo.gl/ffgS

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