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UPDATE: See my second post for the updated solution once again using bbswitch only this time not crashing. I still may need to find a decent way to automate it unless I can get it to auto load and not barf on X login.
Ok Ok hear me out here. I know this is not ideal and very hacky, but it is the only solution I have currently to disable my discrete GPU and greatly increase my battery life on my MSI GS40 hybrid graphics laptop.
So I found that I can load only the graphics drivers from the PRIME wiki page. In my case: xf86-video-nouveau AND xf86-video-intel. Then I also install mesa and mesa-libgl as per the Intel Graphics wiki.
I then need to blacklist nvidia and nouveau with an added modprob.conf file in /etc/modprobe.d/:
blacklist nvidia
blacklist nouveau
Run a "mkinitcpio -p linux" and profit.
Then when I log into X I can disable my discrete GPU by loading the nouveau module:
sudo modprobe nouveau
It takes a few seconds but my indicator light changes and my battery life greatly increases. I also no longer have the noisy fan every few seconds.
So my question is. What is the best way to automate the modprobe call above after X has already started? (if I do not blacklist nouveau it will hang on boot with no logs)
Note: I have already tried PRIME (as per the advice in the wiki linked previously), Bumblebee (bbswitch hangs X on boot), and every combination of not installing/not installing nvidia/intel graphics drivers. I have also tried numerous other workarounds people have posted with similar issues, short of raw APCI calls.
Thanks!
Last edited by matthew_TKA (2016-06-13 22:14:38)
MSI GS40 6QE PHANTOM
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UPDATE
Previously I was having issues with bbswitch with bumblebee as X would hang if bbswitch was even installed.
Apparently if I follow the installation in my previous post (install both drivers mesa, mesa-libgl and use blacklist) I can then install bbswitch without hanging X.
I then add one line to the same file I have blacklists:
options bbswitch load_state=0 unload_state=1
Now I have a handy way to switch my GPU on and off:
OFF:
sudo modprobe bbswitch
ON:
sudo rmmod bbswitch
I think it is probably best to keep it off during my normal usage and turn it back on before I shutdown.
There is some information on this in the wiki, although I think my situation is a bit different here. Notice I am not using Bumblebee just yet.
It would still be nice to know what would be the least intrusive way to automate this.
Last edited by matthew_TKA (2016-06-13 23:05:12)
MSI GS40 6QE PHANTOM
Website
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