Hybrid ATI/ATI - Intel/ATI solution: small switcheroo how to

[rmartinez]

Updated HowTo: Fedora 12 + kernel 2.6.33 + vga_switcheroo patch v13

See blog for details:

http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/

To summarise: v13 patch rocks!: Now you can switch between cards as many times as you like!

[rmartinez]

I have recently made a new update of the blog I made with the HowTo compile kernel + switcheroo. I learned a lot of Shell scripting and made better scripts to switch between graphic cards as fast as a click (and a password tiping...). Well, I hope you can profit from them:

http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/

[Kreastr]

Hello, I have got an Asus PRO57Tr laptop, which is build on M51Ta motherboard and has same hardware.
I'm using Debian squeeze.
Downloaded latest(2.6.33) linux source from git. Patched, compiled, installed. Configured KMS for radeon and radeonhd drivers. Installed Xorg 7.5, mesa-dri 7.7-4.
Managed to:
- switch and turn on/off video adaptors.
- Run Xorg without any 3D acceleration. Even though driver was radeonhd and glxinfo showed direct rendering: yes, there still were ~400 FPS and 50/100% of CPU load in glxgears and other 3D apps.

So the question is: what version of Xorg, mesa-dri and radeon/radeonhd/fglrx drivers are you using to get 3D acceleration on?

[agd5f]

It won't work properly with radeonhd since the switcheroo stuff requires kms. you need to use radeon (xf86-video-ati).

[Kreastr]

I knew about that. So I just tried everything. But it seems I found an answer. After update xserver-xorg-video-radeon package to version 6.12.99+git20100201 (debian sid or experimental distribution version) glxgears began to work ~5 times faster without overloading CPU at HD3650.

[rmartinez]

Hi everyone, I made a newer script with gui (gxmessage) that allows to switch between graphic cards "switch_between_cards.sh". I made it so that it works with no matter what configuration cards you have. If you have any doubts please write to me. The only thing I would like to mention is that although the vga_switcheroo v13 works in perfect functionality for my ASUS M51Ta, the only thing is that when you turn off the computer with one of the cards turned off; then, when you turn on the computer again the fan runs at full speed. So, to avoid this I also made a script "switch_before_shutdown.sh". These scripts are on my new post:

http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/2010/03/updated-02032010-newer-switch-script.html

Please tell me if you find any errors!
Thanks,
rm

[Kano]

First of all it is not really good when you allow sudo for every command without passwd. Also a better way would be:

EDITOR=gedit visudo

to use gedit. It works even like this:

EDITOR=kwrite kdesu visudo

[Kano]

In order to avoid the use of sudo at all you can compile small c or whatever apps and use suid (4755). That does not work with shell scripts.

[rmartinez]

First of all it is not really good when you allow sudo for every command without passwd. Also a better way would be:

EDITOR=gedit visudo

to use gedit. It works even like this:

EDITOR=kwrite kdesu visudo

Thanks, I now is not a good idea to allow sudo to a user without password, but I didn't know how to allow only this script to be used without password... I now you can do it with just one single password entry, but I wanted to be more easy and fast than that. I understand this "eassyliness" comes attached with less security.
If you know how to allow a script to use sudo without asking for a password at all it would be of great use.

[rmartinez]

In order to avoid the use of sudo at all you can compile small c or whatever apps and use suid (4755). That does not work with shell scripts.

Ok, that would be for the next chapter... I was just starting with shell scripting and just know a few thing of C++ and Perl (literally). But when I have more time I will read more about C and make something better.
Or may be someone else can give as a hand a write a C gui for switching between graphic cards!