Running whole system via Bumblebee

[ArchangeGabriel]

This is a quite requested feature.

A lot of people that doesn't rely on power saving want to be able to run their whole system using their nVidia card.

We should work on this with a low priority.

[Lekensteyn]

Some information I would like to share:

• Sessions are available in /usr/share/xsessions/ (Ubuntu)
• If using optirun, it should be run with the --fallback=y option (iirc) in case the nvidia X server refuses to start (e.g. failed driver update)

[starks]

Running the system through classic Windump operation would accomplish this. It's not elegant, but it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI_f2mXe92I

If anyone has an idea of how to do this using a second X server instead of a dual-head, I'd be glad to learn.

[Samsagax]

I see this issue, real pointless... (just my humble opinion).

This can be easily done adding "optirun" to the x-session's start or to the window manager

[starks]

But then it must be asked if we really want to run an entire desktop and everything launched on it through VirtualGL and incur a significant performance hit.

[Samsagax]

@LLStarks: That's one of the reasons I see this to be pointless. The rendering capability of the intel card is really more than enough for any desktop environment, is getting even better on newer kernels (>=2.6.39). The card should be sued only for offloading "demanding" graphics applications. That's the whole purpose of Optimus in the first place, and remember: KDE and GNOME (the most demanding graphics desktops environments today) are not Aero(s**t) wich loads the hell out of the GPU just to render a frame

[starks]

On 10/03/2011 04:40 PM, Joaquín Ignacio Aramendía wrote:

Can this be supplied by windump? Seems more "hardwarely" to me than VGL.

Nouveau is constantly being improved for Fermi chips, but switchable
graphics isn't addressed since trunk development only considers the chip
itself, not how it's wired. We still stand to benefit though.

[starks]

After having a bit of fun today, I learned that the DSM switch for vga_switcheroo could fill a role for a systemwide switch.

echo "DDIS" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
restart x and login from blank screen
xpra/ssh/vnc from remote computer
eric@kingfisher ~ $ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: nouveau
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on NVC3
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.12-devel
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
OpenGL extensions:

The entire desktop is running through the Nvidia card (or the Gallium software rasterizer if I so wish). Of course, with the lack of a image transport, we cannot output to the LVDS of the host computer.