NVIDIA Releases Optimus Linux Driver With New Features

An anonymous reader writes "Nearly one year after Linux creator Linux Torvalds publicly bashed NVIDIA and several years after their multi-GPU mobile technology premiered, the graphics vendor has finally delivered an Optimus-supported Linux driver. NVIDIA released the 319.12 Beta Linux driver that brings support for 'RandR 1.4 GPU provider objects' that basically allows for Optimus-like functionality when using the latest X Server, Linux kernel, and XRandR. The 319.12 beta also has many other features including better UEFI support, installer improvements, new pages on their settings panel, and new GPU support."

Comments

Nice!

[JGsmiles]

It's cool to see Linux gaming getting more attention.

Re:Nice!

[PouletFou]

Depending on the distro you use, you do not have to blacklist the HDMI audio module. Simply choose the appropriate audio output. Works well on kubuntu.

Will the bumblebee project still be necessary?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't get it working with the 3.8 kernel in the new ubuntu beta... wonder if this will make that project unnecessary..?

Re:Will the bumblebee project still be necessary?

[marcansoft]

As far as I can tell, this only adds support for using the nvidia card for everything (rendering the whole desktop) while sending its final framebuffer to the Intel for scanout. This is a strictly different use case from what bumblebee enables (rendering *specific apps* on the nvidia card while using the Intel for everything else).

Personally, since I only need the performance of the nvidia card one in a blue moon, the bumblebee approach is much more useful to me. Otherwise, I'd have to deal with tearing on everything (the current version of the nvidia RandR output provider does not support vsync) and increased power consumption.

I think what nvidia calls "render offload" in their README (which is currently not supported) is what would in fact replace bumblebee, if/when implemented. I'm curious as to how it would interact with power management, though. One of the very nice things about Bumblebee is that it doesn't even power up the nvidia card (via ACPI) until required, and that's easy because it starts up a background X server on demand to do the rendering. It's probably trickier to puil this off if you have to load the nvidia driver into your primary X server to take advantage of the direct integration.

Parity?

[steelfood]

So does this release bring the Linux drivers into parity with the Windows drivers? I'm sure this is a large step in the right direction, but if the Windows driver is still more capable or efficient, then Linux will still suffer on the gaming front.

Re:Parity?

[steelfood]

On the contrary. I want to know how the Linux driver compares with the Windows driver, feature-wise, and performance-wise. It's not a technical question. It's a user-oriented question, e.g. with this new driver, how could a game compiled or run under Wine in Linux compare to the same game for Windows quality-wise and framerate-wise, assuming OpenGL takes advantage of all of the features of each driver when available.

I don't need to propogate doubt. There's plenty of it out there. Answers are what there aren't. Your attitude seems like an excuse to propogate that.

Re:Parity?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Why ?Unless of course you think AutoCAD is almost all CAD software.

nVidia have been jerking Linux around

[Mister Liberty]

for as long as I can remember, and that is long
(Linuxer since 1991).

Never bought anything else for a display card though.
Explain that.

Re:nVidia have been jerking Linux around

[epyT-R]

Because, unlike ATI/AMD, their driver works by and large? If you only play AAA titles released around the time of the driver version you're using, amd cards work alright...usually. Try doing anything else with the card (autodesk/adobe/video playback accel/demoscene/older games/newer games) and prepare yourself for the glitch gremlin.

I'm not saying that nvidia drivers are perfect. They're not, but they're a lot better than AMD.

Re:nVidia have been jerking Linux around

[thesupraman]

Quite Agree.

Lets also not forget that the linux kernel (and other projects) have done their share of jerking NVidia around also, in the name of forcing them to work in the way the OSS people want, rather than in the way NVidia is willing to (they make/sell the cards after all).

It pretty much looks to me that NVidia have been waiting for X Server support for the features, and can now support it since that has arrived.

Re:nVidia have been jerking Linux around

[trevelyon]

That USED to be the case until optimus. I've been a pretty avid nvidia on linux until optimus and that even after having one of the dell geforce mobiles that delaminated (hardware issue). Now I get to live with crashing to login every few days (a common occurence for us optimus users even before we load the bumblebee stack) but hey, who doesn't want their linux machine reduced to win98 reliabiity levels. Needless to say nvidia gives ZERO support. From here on out it's only Intel or other open-source drivers for me. I have no more time to waste with nvidia and their problems. Nvidia is in the same category as ATI for me now.

Re:nVidia have been jerking Linux around

[TheRaven64]

I've been using nVidia Linux drivers since, 1992 (*gasp*)

Gasp indeed. I'd be very impressed by this, given that nVidia was only founded in 1993 and released its first graphics card in 1995.

Re:nVidia have been jerking Linux around

[drinkypoo]

Furthermore - a GPU driver crash should not take down the OS. It doesn't on Windows, it shouldn't on Linux.

Virtually all of my Windows crashes have occurred in the GPU driver, even while running nVidia. I have a hard time believing this never happens in Windows any more. It's not like they threw it away and rewrote it.

Fearless Leader

[Flammon]

I love this picture of our fearless leader. Doing what we've all wanted to do to companies that fuck with us.

http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=0x2012&image=linus_nvidia_finger_med

How Optimus affects gaming performance

[tepples]

it has nothing to do with gaming performance.

Of course it has to do with gaming performance. If you can't switch between the IGP and a discrete GPU without a reboot, then the launch and shutdown time for any high-performance 3D game includes a reboot to GPU mode, then a reboot to integrated graphics to save battery.

Re:How Optimus affects gaming performance

[Peristaltic]

You silly laptop gamers, *real* gamers use desktops :s

I thought they used d20's.

Re:How Optimus affects gaming performance

[atlasdropperofworlds]

Show me an ultrabook that runs Crysis - it's only a 5 year old (or so) game, so by now ultrabooks should be able to run it on max settings.

Re:Holy crap.

[Anonymous Coward]

To answer my own question-- looks like this was an issue with xorg not the kernel.

The solution:

lspci | grep NVIDIA

then add the right value to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia, such as

BusID "PCI:01:00.0"

Lenovo Notebook? Don't Celebrate Just Yet...

[Freshly Exhumed]

I'll be glad when this is actually able to run on Lenovo's notebooks, which require an ugly ACPI hack to enable the Nvidia GPU: https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/bbswitch/issues/2#issuecomment-3797568

It's time to get serious about bugs NVIDIA

[eddy_tn]

Please NVIDIA do something about reliability, compatibility, provide debug symbols, meaningful error messages, and a way to easily provide feedback and response and the understanding of how the collected data is used rather than the impression it goes to /dev/null.

You have subtly reassigned your user base to serve as your beta test annoyance discovery team, selling hardware with drivers that provide the air of functionality but each with its own nuances of failure and glitches.

I try not to be nasty, but Linus's response was correct. It's time to draw the line and make up for the last 4 or 5 years of failed promises.

Re:So how do true Scotsmen occupy their downtime?

[Rob the Bold]

So what do "real gamers" (as you define them) do instead of gaming while riding the bus, train, or carpool to and from work?

Angry Birds.

don't care: no sell

[Anonymous Coward]

haven't purchased anything (for myself or clients) with an nvidia chip in it for at least the last year. nvidia had time to design their way out of old third party impediments to open sourcing the driver code and they haven't even started. i don't care what their reasons are. I'm not installing their closed source (security and stability issues) code into a perfectly good linux machine and i don't appreciate their cavalier attitude towards me and mine as a market. The open source radeon driver (http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon) works really well these days on supported cards and i hope the rest of the community will vote with their wallet and send a message. AMD needs to double down while they have the chance. @nvidia: you think this whole linux thang is going away? You'll get yours...

I think people forget this

[Sycraft-fu]

nVidia has reasons for doing things the way they do. Yes, one of them is probably "because we don't want AMD grabbing our work," However there is some validity to that in that it is expensive to have a team of highly qualified people to do your development.

However that aside, there are licensing issues that keep their drivers closed, and there may be good reasons to want to use that code rather than try to re-implement it. Likewise there may be reasons to do their own thing and bypass some of the standard way of interfacing.

nVidia produces Linux drivers that work. They support the latest OpenGL features the hardware can handle, they are fast, and they are stable. That's pretty damn useful. So they are doing something right in their development. People should consider that, rather than just assuming that nVidia could easily deliver everything the same, but just in a format that makes OSS heads happy.

Also consider that maybe working with someone is an easier way to get at least some of what you want than fighting with them.

Re:I think people forget this

[Electricity Likes Me]

They're a hardware company. I have no problem with them running custom firmwares or whatever *on the hardware* but a closed-source software driver stack is just absurd. I'd much rather we move to a model where the drivers were always OSS, even if it meant we needed more firmware running on the GPU itself since it'd be a return to having standard interfaces and it would mean everyone would get the benefits of improvements in the driver stack, rather then just the favored operating system.

Who?

[minus9]

Who's this Linux Torvalds guy?

Somebody get Soulxkill his coffee.

Re:better late than never

[drinkypoo]

when shopping for a new laptop or desktop i always look for ATI video now, (i dont like having my PC half_broken because some snooty hardware MFG wont build decent Linux drivers

So uh, why are you still running AMD? Only intel is making a serious effort to deliver decent Linux drivers. fglrx is crap and AMD trickles out the information too slowly for ati to be worth a crap either.

Re:No Linux support

[Zero__Kelvin]

Since their cards are designed to be installed in x86 and x86_64 systems, why would one expect any different?