[solved] Bumblebee with HDMI output via Nvidia card - hopeless?

ngoonee · 2016-05-10 04:03:27

So I've been messing around with this recently, and my conclusions:-

1. Using only the nvidia driver means I can get my HDMI output working (and use modesetting to activate my Intel card which controls both VGA and the laptop monitor). Problem here being that my mouse can cross the boundary between monitors, even though awesome is clearly running on both just fine. A no-go for this reason.

2. Using bumblebee is what I've been doing for the past 3 years with this laptop. Intel drives everything, and I can offload programs to nvidia when needed. Fairly seamless, but no HDMI!

3. Using PRIME (nouveau) means I can get HDMI and VGA and laptop screens working just fine. Beautiful... except performance with games is horrendous. Running the game on my intel card is faster.

The ideal for me would be using bumblebee but getting the HDMI output working in a PRIME-like manner. Unfortunately [1] seems to indicate the nvidia driver does not support render offloading.

Basically, is there ANY way to get my HDMI output working with bumblebee?

[1] - ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux … ndr14.html

EDIT: After another couple of hours messing around with it, here's my findings:-

1. I've repeatedly run intel-virtual-output before, but never gotten any change in xrandr.

2. Finally I came across [2] and tried the following modification to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
Commenting out Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"

On doing that, intel-virtual-output now give me a VIRTUAL1 display in xrandr which I can use for extending my desktop. Time to update the Bumblebee wiki accordingly....

EDIT2: Doing the above means that when trying to use primusrun without the monitor connected I get "Failed to assign any connected devices". At least its just a single line change for that to work.

Last edited by ngoonee (2016-05-12 01:58:53)

Utini · 2016-05-11 12:04:36

ngoonee wrote:

So I've been messing around with this recently, and my conclusions:-
1. Using only the nvidia driver means I can get my HDMI output working (and use modesetting to activate my Intel card which controls both VGA and the laptop monitor). Problem here being that my mouse can cross the boundary between monitors, even though awesome is clearly running on both just fine. A no-go for this reason.
2. Using bumblebee is what I've been doing for the past 3 years with this laptop. Intel drives everything, and I can offload programs to nvidia when needed. Fairly seamless, but no HDMI!
3. Using PRIME (nouveau) means I can get HDMI and VGA and laptop screens working just fine. Beautiful... except performance with games is horrendous. Running the game on my intel card is faster.
The ideal for me would be using bumblebee but getting the HDMI output working in a PRIME-like manner. Unfortunately [1] seems to indicate the nvidia driver does not support render offloading.
Basically, is there ANY way to get my HDMI output working with bumblebee?
[1] - ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux … ndr14.html
EDIT: After another couple of hours messing around with it, here's my findings:-
1. I've repeatedly run intel-virtual-output before, but never gotten any change in xrandr.
2. Finally I came across [2] and tried the following modification to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
Commenting out Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"
On doing that, intel-virtual-output now give me a VIRTUAL1 display in xrandr which I can use for extending my desktop. Time to update the Bumblebee wiki accordingly....

Hey there,
maybe you can help me with my problem too?

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=212442

Arch Linux

#1 2016-05-10 04:03:27

[solved] Bumblebee with HDMI output via Nvidia card - hopeless?

#2 2016-05-11 12:04:36

Re: [solved] Bumblebee with HDMI output via Nvidia card - hopeless?

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