Arch Linux

subraizada3

Member

Registered: 2013-06-02

Posts: 90

Optimus Multihead

I have a MSI GT70 Dominator Dragon (GTX 870M + HD 4600). I installed bumblebee (with nvidia drivers) and use primusrun to run applications. On the laptop itself, it works perfectly.
However, I can't get external monitors to work. The only port that my monitor and laptop both have is HDMI, and that is wired to the Nvidia card. I have looked at various other websites but none of their solutions get it working for me.

Right now, I am using these procedures:

echo ON >/proc/acpi/bbswitch     # so Nvidia card won't turn off after optirun true
optirun true                     # start X server on Nvidia chip
intel-virtual-display            # copy Intel's output to Nvidia chip

After that, the monitor is supposed to be configurable with a GUI (the XFCE settings manager in my case). However, the GUI doesn't show any displays other than the laptop's one.
xrandr also doesn't show any new displays.

Last edited by subraizada3 (2014-10-30 16:10:21)

subraizada3

Member

Registered: 2013-06-02

Posts: 90

Re: Optimus Multihead

Bump?

riX2000

Member

Registered: 2013-09-11

Posts: 11

Re: Optimus Multihead

Did you manage to get it working?

I have an MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K.
HDMI works, but on the other hand I'm not sure if I'm using the GTX 870M or just the intel, I'm not sure how to check which GPU is used and I get very high CPU usage when playing videos.
Are you using nvidia-beta?

tirithen

Member

Registered: 2014-02-18

Posts: 22

Re: Optimus Multihead

Any progess? I think I have the same problem with a ThinkPad W530 (see thread https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=192298) running Gnome 3, optirun works fine and fast for 3D graphics. Until about 3 months ago it worked fine using:

$ optirun true
$ intel-virtual-output

My two graphics cards are:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK107GLM [Quadro K2000M] (rev a1)

But since some update after that only the internal monitor is detected. It would be great to hear if you have made any progress on this or if you have any idea on how to debug this problem.

Last edited by tirithen (2015-01-23 12:14:25)

subraizada3

Member

Registered: 2013-06-02

Posts: 90

Re: Optimus Multihead

I haven't made any progress on this myself, I now use VGA to connect my external monitor (it works fine at 1080p).

From my experience, if the display shows up when you run the xrandr command (without optirun true or intel-virtual-output), it's connected to the Intel chip, and if not, that output is wired to the Nvidia GPU. And no, I am not using nvidia-beta.

I never got intel-virtual-output to work, I have the external monitor connected to an Intel output and I can optirun programs on the external display.

Last edited by subraizada3 (2015-01-27 19:30:41)

tirithen

Member

Registered: 2014-02-18

Posts: 22

Re: Optimus Multihead

Ah, ok. On the ThinkPad W530 both VGA and Mini DisplayPort seem wired to the NVIDIA card so I need optirun in order to use external monitor. I wish the W530 also had the VGA wired to the intel card.