Arch Linux

darkreaper476

Member

Registered: 2010-05-17

Posts: 102

Nvidia Optimus

I just got a shiny new laptop with a 3rd gen Ivy bridge i7 and the Nvidia Optimus setup = Intel GMA 4000 + Nvidia GT640m. Its got Window 8.... This is my first experience with Optimus and so far I like it in Windows. I was wondering if I can get some general input from people who have an Optimus setup and Arch Linux.

I've read up on bumblebee and some other things that make Arch work with this hardware.

Scale from 1-10, 1 being easiest 10 being most difficult. How hard is it to get Arch installed and working properly with this hardware?

Another thing I am worried about is that this laptop has an 8GB SSD used solely for cache with Windows 8. I don't want to mess up my 8 install because I don't have a disc to fix it.... I know Grub likes to do mean things and I'm not to familiar with Grub2 which I noticed replaced legacy Grub.

Its also got a Elan Smart-Pad touch pad which I read has issues with Linux Distros.

FYI I've installed Arch enough to some what know what I'm doing but I'm no Arch expert. User since 2010. lol

I really want to get Arch on this thing, I've had it for 3 days and I'm already sick of being stuck with Windows.

THANKS ALL! Arch FTW

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Nvidia Optimus

Try this.

About grub doing mean things, research UEFI.

coldsync

Member

Registered: 2012-12-17

Posts: 2

Re: Nvidia Optimus

Optimus:

bumblebee does the job quite well.
Honestly i'd rate the bumblebee installation 1 as it's pretty straightforward.
Just follow the instructions:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bumblebee

UEFI:
As for the UEFI, the bios will detect your gpt partition, and it does'nt have to be the first one on your disk. mine are on sda2 and sdb1 (i have two disks, swapped the optical bay for an sdd, i hate having windows 8 and GNU/Linux on the same disk).

here is the output of my gdisk -l for my windows ssd:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          616447   300.0 MiB   2700  Basic Disk /dev/sda: 1000215216 sectors, 476.9 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID):
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1000215182
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 4717 sectors (2.3 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          616447   300.0 MiB   2700  Basic data partition
   2          616448          821247   100.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   3          821248         1083391   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved part
   4         1083392       525078527   249.9 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   5       525078528      1000212479   226.6 GiB   0700  Basic data partition

and my Arch Linux disk:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdb: 250069680 sectors, 119.2 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID):
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 250069646
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2669 sectors (1.3 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          206847   100.0 MiB   0700 
   2          206848        82126847   39.1 GiB    0700 
   3        82126848        98904063   8.0 GiB     8200 
   4        98904064       250068991   72.1 GiB    0700 

Just search the wiki for the grub2 configuration.
These operations are not very difficult to perform, BUT be aware that you should BACKUP your windows data before aanything.
Good luck

Last edited by coldsync (2012-12-31 19:04:28)

darkreaper476

Member

Registered: 2010-05-17

Posts: 102

Re: Nvidia Optimus

Thanks for the info coldsync. I do not know much about UEFI and can't be certain if my model supports it. I also read that using GPT can reduce your boot time due to delayed POST, not sure of the truth behind this but I enjoy bootin to an OS within 10 seconds (its a first for me ). I don't mind using good ol MBR since the windows partition will be first and we all know how pissy windows gets if its not... I was just worried about grub2 messing up that SSD and even the win8 install. The Arch Install has changed, it took me a couple trys to get it working on my desktop and that has 2 HDD's.

sources: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html

EDIT:
ah, my laptop does use EFI http://imgur.com/OKepk but is there something else I'm missing or is "Unified"EFI the same thing...
This is a whole new world to me. O.O   

Last edited by darkreaper476 (2013-01-02 19:07:57)