Bug 153050 - Compatibility with laptop with two graphic cards
Summary: Compatibility with laptop with two graphic cards
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: SUSE Linux 10.1
Classification: openSUSE
Component: SaX2 (show other bugs)
Version: Beta 4
Hardware: Other Other
: P4 - Low : Enhancement (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Joachim Gleissner
QA Contact: E-mail List
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2006-02-23 10:34 UTC by Perret Florian
Modified: 2006-09-22 14:22 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Found By: Other
Services Priority:
Business Priority:
Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: ---
IT Deployment: ---


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Description Perret Florian 2006-02-23 10:34:36 UTC
New laptop like Sony Vaio SZ series have two graphical cards (Nvidia 7400 and an Intel one). A button enables to switch beetwen this two card (to inceasery battery time).
This system needs to allow to install two different cards in X.org and change it without reboot. How this can be include ?
Comment 1 Stefan Dirsch 2006-02-23 10:40:14 UTC
Configuration issue?
Comment 2 Marcus Schaefer 2006-02-23 14:55:16 UTC
- switch to Nvidia card and create a configuration with sax2 -r, save it
- rename the file from /etc/X11/xorg.conf to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.nvidia
- switch to Intel card and create a configuration with sax2 -r, save it
- rename the file from etc/X11/xorg.conf to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.intel

use SuSE's tool to handle multiple config files to register the two configs
restarting of X-Server is still requires and cannot be solved.

Reassigned to laptop guys for details on how to handle multiple files
Comment 3 Perret Florian 2006-03-02 09:32:44 UTC
I make a mistake, there is two graphical cards but you need to restart the computer to switch (even with MS OS). So the question is "easier" : how can we save two configurations and auto-detect at start which one is selected, and then automatically load the good driver ?
Comment 4 Stefan Dirsch 2006-03-02 10:00:28 UTC
This sounds really like a corner case. Never heard of such a laptop/machine. Florian, I propose that you write an init script, which makes use of lspci/grep/<whatever> and copies/symlinks the appropriate X config file.
This assumes that only one of both graphics chipsets appears in lspci output
at the same time.
Comment 6 Perret Florian 2006-03-02 10:14:51 UTC
Here some explanations (from http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/Notebooks/SZSeries/Research1/SZFeatures#power ) :
"Hybrid Graphics System
Exclusive to VAIO® PCs, the revolutionary Hybrid Graphics System lets you set your graphics performance. A simple hardware switch enables you to toggle between an internal or external graphics chip for optimal power consumption, for unmatched control of your time and output."

The switch button is here (Stamina/speed) : http://japan.cnet.com/story_media/20095768/v009.jpg

Could you be more precise on what I should do ? I didn't understand...
Comment 7 Stefan Dirsch 2006-03-02 10:36:30 UTC
Thanks for the references. Create the different config files first (comment #2). Check the output of "lspci -n" when enabled the different gfx chipsets.
Write a shell script based on this information to copy/symlink the approriate config file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Add these lines to /etc/init.d/boot.local.
Hope this helps.
Comment 10 Stefan Dirsch 2006-03-20 17:28:56 UTC
Yes, maybe. Laptop profile?
Comment 11 Stefan Behlert 2006-03-21 09:18:32 UTC
Let's look at it before 10.2. It looks like something scpm can handle, yes, but I am not sure if that's the best way. Never heard of such a usecase :)
Comment 12 Marcus Schaefer 2006-03-21 10:28:38 UTC
Well I never have seen such a laptop :-)
If you don't mind check if scpm can do the job and if not lets
talk about another solution. Will assign this to Joachim
Comment 13 Stefan Behlert 2006-03-21 13:43:23 UTC
I assume we can simulate it with a Laptop and a dockingstation with PCI-slot. Yes, Joe can check this after CODE 10 is out.
Comment 14 Joachim Gleissner 2006-03-22 17:04:09 UTC
You can use scpm to manage different X configurations, no problem. Just create two profiles, configure X to use the first card in one profile, then switch to the other profile and recreate the X config for the second card. You can choose which profile to use in the grub menu. If the hardware supported it, you could even switch at runtime between the profiles, but restarting X is required afterwards, which is nearly the same as rebooting. ;)
I don't think we can provide much more integration with reasonable effort.
Comment 15 Perret Florian 2006-08-22 06:30:10 UTC
I patch is available, could it be include ? :

--------------------------------------------------------
"To use the Stamina/Speed switch, John Lathouwers has written a little script to switch from one xorg.conf to another depending on the video chipset used. He uses two xorg.conf files in /etc/X11: xorg.conf.stamina and xorg.conf.speed. You then have to create a small script in /etc/init.d (called xorg_conf) with the following content:
VIDEO=`/usr/bin/lspci |grep -c nVidia`

if [ "$VIDEO" = 1 ]; then
cp -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.speed /etc/X11/xorg.conf
else
cp -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.stamina /etc/X11/xorg.conf
fi

Soft linking the script into rc2.d as S12xorg_conf will copy the correct xorg.conf file into place before X starts.
Here are my two xorg.conf files: xorg.conf.speed xorg.conf.stamina"


Source : http://ariel.vardi.free.fr/ariel//vaiosz.html
Comment 16 Joachim Gleissner 2006-09-22 14:22:15 UTC
This is not a patch but a hack. I think there is no sane solution we could provide for that kind of hardware, at least not with reasonable effort. I can't imagine that there are lots of those devices out there, so I think we can live with it.