NVIDIA Has Major New Linux Driver: Optimus, RandR 1.4

[Scali]

While optimus is a feature advertised by nvidia hardware (and therefore should be available to all customers), it's more of a privilege than anything.

Optimus has been advertised as a feature for Windows 7 specifically: http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html
"* Optimus requires Windows 7 or later"
XP/Vista users don't get that feature either (because the OS lacks support), so I'm not sure why linux users felt they were entitled to the functionality in the first place. nVidia tried to offer some kernel patches to enable Optimus in the past, but these were not accepted. Now they are using an alternative approach using a feature in RandR 1.4 (which wasn't available at the time Optimus was introduced).

[Tiger_Coder]

Anybody notice how much smaller this thing is?

From here

Switched .run package compression from gzip to xz.This provides a higher level of compression.

This seems to be the reason.

[Gusar]

Anybody notice how much smaller this thing is?

Well, this answers my question. Nobody read the changelog

Among other cool bits listed in it (you can finally add new resolutions with the xrandr CLI, nvidia-settings lists non-native resolutions, ...), there's an item saying they've switched from gzip to xz for compressing the installer.

[ArchLinux]

Anybody notice how much smaller this thing is?:

Index of /XFree86/Linux-x86_64/313.30/

Name	Size	Date Modified
[parent directory]
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-313.30-no-compat32.run	37.9 MB	3/28/13 11:35:00 PM
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-313.30.run	65.2 MB	3/28/13 11:35:00 PM

Index of /XFree86/Linux-x86_64/319.12/

Name	Size	Date Modified
[parent directory]
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.12-no-compat32.run	26.0 MB	4/4/13 10:31:00 PM
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.12.run	46.3 MB	4/4/13 10:31:00 PM

[leonmaxx]

Will nVidia enable overclocking on Linux? Any news on this?

[jasen]

So I've got it mostly working with my Optimus card. I can get output through HDMI (wired into the nvidia card) but I'm getting this error when running "xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0".

X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  140 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  35 ()
  Value in failed request:  0x2c3
  Serial number of failed request:  16
  Current serial number in output stream:  17

So I cant use the laptop screen or the VGA port.
My "xrandr --listproviders" looks like

Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x2c3 cap: 0x0 crtcs: 2 outputs: 1 associated providers: 0 name:NVIDIA-0
Provider 1: id: 0x45 cap: 0x2, Sink Output crtcs: 2 outputs: 4 associated providers: 0 name:modesetting

Any ideas?

[Sonadow]

The intel GPU will still be active (it has to be because of the nature of Optimus), so I would expect slightly less battery life. However, this is definitely a great option when you're hooked to AC.

It's not 'slightly less', it's 'a lot lesser'.

In some notebooks bumblebee can successfully turn off the Nvidia chip while the Intel core does all the graphics rendering, so the discreet core never actually starts up until explicitly told to do so with optirun.

With Nvidia's driver both are running at the same time, and I think you underestimate the power drain of the Nvidia chip.

[deanjo]

What problem are you having?

Green screen on vdpau decoded material. Got to investigate a bit more but I have a feeling it's a HQ scaler issue.

[johnc]

FYI, looks like there maybe a vdpau bug with XBMC with these drivers BTW (at least with a GT-520 card).

What problem are you having?

[deanjo]

FYI, looks like there maybe a vdpau bug with XBMC with these drivers BTW (at least with a GT-520 card).