any changes on dual video support on laptops?

[jontis]

I don't know that much about it, but I figure that for switching OFF a card, there shouldn't be any drivers that you need. The off switch was working for me.

Just my guess.

I notice that you wrote

cat OFF > switche

I think for listing status, it is

cat switch

for issuing commans, it is

echo OFF > switch

Could that be the problem?

[LLaumgui]

I try the 2.6.34 kernel for F13 avalaible on Koji:
- modprob nouveau
- mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
- echo 'DIGD' > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
- logout
- X freeze

... any idea ?

[jontis]

as you use nouveau, I figure you are trying to switch from an onboard intel to a dedicated nvidia.

nvidia seems to be the card that is not fully solved yet in vga switcheroo but they're working on it.

Still new things going into kernel 2.6.35

http://www.mentby.com/dave-airlie/

As me, you are in the waiting game. I still use the bios for switching cards.

[LLaumgui]

@jontis > problem is switcheroo or nouveau ?
Is there a another solution for just disabled discrete card, not switch ?

[LLaumgui]

New test on 2.6.35 RC5 :

root@zhukov /home/llaumgui> modprobe nouveau                                                                                                                      16:41
root@zhukov /home/llaumgui> mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug                                                                                               16:41
root@zhukov /home/llaumgui> cd /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo                                                                                                    16:41
root@zhukov /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo> echo OFF > switch                                                                                                    16:41
root@zhukov /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo> cat switch                                                                                                           16:42
0:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
1: :Off:0000:01:00.0

But:

root@zhukov /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo> lspci | grep VGA                                                                                                     16:42
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT218 [GeForce G210M] (rev a2)

If my Nvidia card is disabled, why I can see it on lspci ?

[jontis]

Hi, I think the problem is in switcheroo. I am running nVidia's proprietary for the 3D, but nouveau worked fine with the computer bios in "compatibility" so only the nVidia card was used.

About your question why the card is shown in lspci while vgaswitcheroo says it is off, you are really beyond my technical knowledge with that question, but hazarding a guess, I suppose some part (BUS / BIOS / something) should still know it's there to be able to power it up again when requested. Not sure if lspci should be aware of it though.

Development still going on for the intel / nVidia hybrid gpu mix:

http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/7/16/103

---------- Post added at 07:42 AM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 AM CDT ----------

Also, to relate to your observation that lspci shows your dedicated graphics card when it should be "OFF" :

I made some tests myself with the card "OFF" and measured power consumption with "powertop".
I couldn't see any real difference with the card "ON" or "OFF". A plausible explanation can be that the card never switched off.