Nvidia Optimus - HDMI Display

[anandrkris]

Hi All,

Sytem Specs - Dell Inspirion laptop with Nvidia GeForce 540M graphics card which runs on Linux Mint 13, KDE 4.10, Kernel 3.8.

Google searches show lack of HDMI display support in case of Nvidia Optimus Graphics where the HDMI output is tied to secondary graphics card. Came across a workaround which suggested cloning the session to get HDMI display working.

Am also scared of modifying xorg.conf and breaking the display. Would like to know , if anyone here has tasted success in getting HDMI display work in Optimus laptops. If this works, i can completely forget Windows.

I have bumblebee installed and am able to optirun games / apps fine.

[anandrkris]

[bump]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zkKan91i8 - Does this work? Would appreciate your help please.

[negatifo]

Hi mates

I found a really detailed article about nvidia/optimus/bumblebee maybe it will solve the problem with the HDMI otputh
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bumblebee#Usage
I don't have time to try it, but after i get time will post the results.

Cheers!

[AlbertP]

At the moment you can't just use two monitors at the same time, if those two are not connected to the same GPU (even if Bumblebee helps you to use both GPUs).

The VGA output is often wired to the Intel graphics, just like the laptop screen. Maybe you can use that port.

[anandrkris]

I think there are some developments in kernel space related to Optimus support. Does it support HDMI support yet?

[AlbertP]

@ anandrkris: The problem is not in the kernel but in X.org which has trouble driving monitors that are not connected to the same GPU.

[anandrkris]

@ anandrkris: The problem is not in the kernel but in X.org which has trouble driving monitors that are not connected to the same GPU.

Oh! Thanks for that detail....So Wayland has something in pipeline to address the issue?

[AlbertP]

Sure, but it will still take some time until Wayland is fully usable. For now X.org is being fixed to implement support for many multi-card configurations, and as of Mint 15 many multi-GPU computers are working somehow. But I don't know how long it will take until the HDMI monitor with Optimus works too.

By the way, there are some computers with Optimus that have the HDMI port wired to the Intel GPU, so don't be surprised if some people are telling you that it already works for them.

[anandrkris]

Sure, but it will still take some time until Wayland is fully usable. For now X.org is being fixed to implement support for many multi-card configurations, and as of Mint 15 many multi-GPU computers are working somehow. But I don't know how long it will take until the HDMI monitor with Optimus works too.

By the way, there are some computers with Optimus that have the HDMI port wired to the Intel GPU, so don't be surprised if some people are telling you that it already works for them.

Thanks. I suppose mine is wired to Nvidia....

Code: Select all

anand@AnandLaptop ~ $ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           Card-2: NVIDIA GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] bus-ID: 01:00.0 
           X.Org: 1.11.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 9.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
anand@AnandLaptop ~ $ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] (rev ff)