X Server 1.7.7 does not recognise BusID

[Kevin Oberman]

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Unga <unga888 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> From: Mel Flynn <rflynn at acsalaska.net>
>> To: Unga <unga888 at yahoo.com>
>> Cc: Luca Pizzamiglio <l.pizzamiglio at bally-wulff.de>; "freebsd-x11 at freebsd.org" <freebsd-x11 at freebsd.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 3:04 PM
>> Subject: Re: X Server 1.7.7 does not recognise BusID
>>
>> On 3/21/2012 15:58, Unga wrote:
>>
>>>>>   vgapci0 at pci0:1:0:0:     class=0x030200 card=0xc0a5144d
>> chip=0x0df410de
>>>>  rev=0xa1 hdr=0x00
>>>>>        vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
>>>>>        device     = 'GF106 [GeForce GT 555M SDDR3]'
>>>>>        class      = display
>>>>>        subclass   = 3D
>>
>>>  Yep, its a Nvidia card with the Optimus technology (GeForce GT 555M).
>>>
>>>  But the Nvidia driver documentation say the card is supported on FreeBSD
>> (http://www.nvidia.com/object/freebsd-x86-295.20-driver.html). That's the
>> very reason bought this laptop.
>>>
>>>  Any ideas?
>>
>> Quoting from "Additional Information":
>> Note that the list of supported GPU products is provided to indicate
>> which GPUs are supported by a particular driver version. Some designs
>> incorporating supported GPUs may not be compatible with the NVIDIA Linux
>> driver: in particular, notebook and all-in-one desktop designs with
>> switchable (hybrid) or *Optimus graphics* will not work if means to
>> *disable the integrated graphics in hardware* are not available.
>> Hardware designs will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so please
>> consult with a system's manufacturer to determine whether that
>> particular system is compatible.
>>
>> In other words, check if the bios can disable the integrated intel. Once
>> that is done, pciconf -lv should show nvidia0 rather than vgapci0.
>> --
>> Mel
>> ----- Original Message -----
>
> Unfortunately it is not possible to disable the Intel controller in BIOS. The laptop is Samsung RF511.
>
> I have already written to the Nvidia, lets see what they could do. After all its a software issue. It works well on Windows 7 without any BIOS change.

I'm afraid that nVidia has publicly stated that they will not be
providing support for "Optimus" in their open-source drivers. There is
an effort underway to reverse-engineer the "Optimus" hybrid stuff and
write a driver for X, but I would not hold my breath.

The big issue is that, while Optimus uses the GPUs that are supported
in their binary blobs, the "Optimus" implementation uses the frame
buffers in the Intel graphics, so is quite different to actually use
or program for.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
E-mail: kob6558 at gmail.com