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#1 2011-08-08 13:08:54

rzepaczyk
Member
Registered: 2010-12-23
Posts: 74

Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

Hi!

Im ruuning 64bit Arch on my Lenovo G560 with discrete nVidia graphics and i3 processor. I was thinking about disabling my nvidia card so I can run linux only on intel graphics so I can run my notebook on battery a bit longer. But before that I want ask(especially same notebook users) if its possible because lspci and BIOS shows only discrete graphics card. I thought every i3 processor has an integrated graphics. Is it possible for me to turn off nvidia graphics?

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#2 2011-08-08 13:15:31

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

I think it's optimus hybrid graphics but it should show both cards https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NV … ia_Optimus
Maybe acpi_call will help http://hybrid-graphics-linux.tuxfamily. … =Acpi_call https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bu … _Acpi-call

Last edited by karol (2011-08-08 13:17:22)

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#3 2011-08-08 13:39:32

mrstegeman
Member
Registered: 2011-05-09
Posts: 21

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

If you want to completely disable the nvidia card, you should be able to just blacklist the relevant modules in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf, i.e.

blacklist nouveau
blacklist nvidia

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#4 2011-08-08 13:42:23

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

AFAIK, blacklisting the nvidia and nouveau driver doesn't help much because the card still keeps draining power.

Didn't you have to disable optimus in the BIOS ?? and if your BIOS didn't have that option, you were just plain out of luck?

bumblebee, iirc, was an option -- although I do not know whether it works or not.


Forum Rules

There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

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#5 2011-08-08 13:50:50

rzepaczyk
Member
Registered: 2010-12-23
Posts: 74

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

I'm afraid that my notebook is not supporting optimus technology
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/lenovo+g560

Last edited by rzepaczyk (2011-08-08 13:51:33)

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#6 2011-08-08 14:46:13

Gusar
Member
Registered: 2009-08-25
Posts: 3,605

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

While every Core i3 processor has integrated graphics, I'm very sure it's not active on this machine and not wired up to any outputs. So even if you would find some acpi magic to activate it, it'd be useless without outputs.

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#7 2011-08-08 15:57:40

ri
Member
Registered: 2008-10-09
Posts: 73

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

Only blacklisting will not work.

Try:

lspci | grep VGA

If you get somethin like:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0df4 (rev a1)

you can disable the nVidia card with acpi_call.

You can find it in the AUR as acpi_call-git but please notice that the PKGBUILD will not work with kernel 3.0. Read the comments and you'll see what change is needed.

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#8 2011-08-08 20:04:01

rzepaczyk
Member
Registered: 2010-12-23
Posts: 74

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

as I said: lspci shows only nvidia card

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#9 2011-08-11 19:14:32

akephalos
Member
From: Romania
Registered: 2009-04-22
Posts: 114

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

On my laptop, I had to pick the graphics card from the BIOS setup. Maybe it doesn't show up because it's not enabled in BIOS.

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#10 2011-08-11 21:32:18

rzepaczyk
Member
Registered: 2010-12-23
Posts: 74

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

As I also said: BIOS shows only discrete graphics

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#11 2011-08-11 22:54:49

tlmiller
Member
Registered: 2009-06-10
Posts: 93

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

If BIOS only shows discrete graphics, then the embedded graphics are disabled by the manufacturer.  There is no way to enable it.  You're stuck with the discrete.

Last edited by tlmiller (2011-08-11 22:55:14)

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#12 2011-08-12 10:07:25

akephalos
Member
From: Romania
Registered: 2009-04-22
Posts: 114

Re: Is there an option to disable discrete graphic card?

rzepaczyk wrote:

As I also said: BIOS shows only discrete graphics

Damn, sorry. Hmm this gets weird, I looked up the laptop model and I can't find anywhere it has a discrete graphic card inside, along with an integrated one. For instance: http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/con … 20G560.pdf. It is true that here it states two variants, though two graphic cards doesn't appear to be the case, and it says "up to Geforce 310M" in the description.

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