Development suggestion: Hybrid graphics support (including power management and tray icon)

[WarhawkCZ]

Hello everyone,
MX linux is still my go to distro when it comes to older hardware. I've recently purchased a new laptop (Thinkpad p1, gen2) with the NVIDIA hybrid graphics card. I knew that this is going to be a problem. I do not complain. I tried to get the hybrid card running on MX linux but I failed. The process of getting things done is tedious for a non-experienced user. I would like to see the functionality which includes the power management. I can get a limited functionality or operate with the dedicated card only but this is about it. For instance, the system does not detect external monitors, does not save energy when running on battery etc.
For this reason, I switched to PopOS and use MX linux only on my older Thinkpads.

I am wondering if there's something I can help to get MX linux supporting hybrid graphics cards out-of-the-box (like PopOS does) one day.

Have a great day everyone and thank you for the consideration.
Regards, Jiri

[JayM]

See section 3.2.13 of the MX User Manual.

[Stevo]

I tried to get the hybrid card running on MX linux but I failed.

This, without any more details of your hardware, the version of MX, or what you tried, is really not of any use to those that would like to help you.

The Nvidia installer does automatically set up Bumblebee for many, if not most most, Optimus laptops dating up to 2019 or even 2020, but we don't know what hardware is in your Lenovo.

[WarhawkCZ]

I tried to get the hybrid card running on MX linux but I failed.

This, without any more details of your hardware, the version of MX, or what you tried, is really not of any use to those that would like to help you.

The Nvidia installer does automatically set up Bumblebee for many, if not most most, Optimus laptops dating up to 2019 or even 2020, but we don't know what hardware is in your Lenovo.

See section 3.2.13 of the MX User Manual.

Thank you both. I know about the installer. Unfortunately, the installer failed due to missing dependencies. I made notes on a piece of paper which I can't find now I assume that the problem was the latest 5.4 kernel. I also tried the older kernel 4.19 but the laptop behaved strangely (e.g. biping during the startup etc.). ThinkPad enthusiasts generally recommend latest Kernels although there are known shortcomings.

I wrote my saga here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... ith_t1000/
(this was also crossposted on /r/mxlinux).

Even though I was able to get the nVidia running, I was still not able to detect external LCD screens through the USB-C dock. Many laptops, including this ThinkPad device, drive external screens through the dedicated graphics card. This is the reason why the system does not detect the external screen because the dedicated graphics card kicks in only when bumblbee instructs doing so.
Also, as far as I remember, the Bumblebee does not include the power management. This requires some additional scripts or packages.

I apologize for not sharing the specs.
For instance, Ubuntu, PopOS, Arch, they have even their small tray icons for controlling the dedicated graphics card. This solves the power management, applications as well as external screens management works without further configurations.

In any cases, my laptop is:
ThinkPad P1,Gen2
Nvidia T1000 + Intel UHD630
Intel i7-9750H, WiFi AX2000
32GB ram.

Thank you for the consideration. I like MX linux and would like to contribute. Unfortunately, I am more a hardware guy.

[JayM]

Instead of asking for a feature that already exists to be added to MX perhaps you can edit the subject of your original post to say what the actual problem is:
"Nvidia driver installer fails with missing dependencies"
then post your Quick System Info so someone can try to help you.

(By the way, it's been my experience that most of the time when a program that's working for most people fails due to dependency or version issues it's because someone has messed with their repositories, doing things like mixing Stretch and Buster repos, adding Sid repos, and/or adding Ubuntu PPAs or other foreign repositories.)

Once Nvidia drivers are working, start a new topic for any issues with your docking station, or with anything else: one topic per problem.

[SwampRabbit]

I apologize for not sharing the specs.
For instance, Ubuntu, PopOS, Arch, they have even their small tray icons for controlling the dedicated graphics card. This solves the power management, applications as well as external screens management works without further configurations.

A lot of work has been done with Ubuntu (Pop! OS is based on Ubuntu) and Arch to get this to work the way it does with those distros.

Some of the ground work has been started for MX, some of it still needs done, but even Debian (which MX is based on) still does not have this either.

This is on our radar and we know it is important for a lot of users, please be patient with us while we continue to work it.

That being said, hybrid graphics does work very well, despite being somewhat more manual.

[WarhawkCZ]

Instead of asking for a feature that already exists to be added to MX perhaps you can edit the subject of your original post to say what the actual problem is:
"Nvidia driver installer fails with missing dependencies"
then post your Quick System Info so someone can try to help you.

(By the way, it's been my experience that most of the time when a program that's working for most people fails due to dependency or version issues it's because someone has messed with their repositories, doing things like mixing Stretch and Buster repos, adding Sid repos, and/or adding Ubuntu PPAs or other foreign repositories.)

Once Nvidia drivers are working, start a new topic for any issues with your docking station, or with anything else: one topic per problem.

Jay, I will reinstall the laptop with the latest MX linux and share the list of problems in separate threads as you suggest. This is probably the only thing I can do to support the community. I am confident that at least two problems will be there again:

• nVidia installer fails due to missing dependencies

• the laptop won't recognize external LCD screens in the dock (because the internal screen runs on intel and the external runs only on nVidia

Please note few more things:

• Getting nVidia running was the first thing I did after installing the distro. I did not mess up with repositories. I never do.

• I invested +10 hours getting MX linux running on this system before posting the request here on the forum. See the post on reddit that I linked before. I am also not new to MX linux and I read the manual from cover to cover.

• I am not a distro hopper.

Regards, Jiri

[WarhawkCZ]

I apologize for not sharing the specs.
For instance, Ubuntu, PopOS, Arch, they have even their small tray icons for controlling the dedicated graphics card. This solves the power management, applications as well as external screens management works without further configurations.

A lot of work has been done with Ubuntu (Pop! OS is based on Ubuntu) and Arch to get this to work the way it does with those distros.

Some of the ground work has been started for MX, some of it still needs done, but even Debian (which MX is based on) still does not have this either.

This is on our radar and we know it is important for a lot of users, please be patient with us while we continue to work it.

That being said, hybrid graphics does work very well, despite being somewhat more manual.

Hi SwampRabbit.
thank you for your very professional answer. I feel that you understand my thoughts. As far as I know, only Arch and Ubuntu (Pop!) offer a simple tray icon that allows changing the graphics card. All other distros
require more manual process using the terminal. This switch consists of two steps; the first step is the switch itself and the second is the power management for the unused card. Unfortunately, this exceeds my experience.
Same as detection of external screens (e.g. optirun intel-virtual-output). This is why I disagree with Jay and his commentary above. The nVidia installer may
install the driver but the rest is manual and not well documented (for newbies like me).
Let me know if you need a tester. The laptop I've got has two drives and I am happy to help.

Regards, Jiri

[SwampRabbit]

Hi SwampRabbit.
thank you for your very professional answer. I feel that you understand my thoughts. As far as I know, only Arch and Ubuntu (Pop!) offer a simple tray icon that allows changing the graphics card. All other distros
require more manual process using the terminal. This switch consists of two steps; the first step is the switch itself and the second is the power management for the unused card. Unfortunately, this exceeds my experience.
Same as detection of external screens (e.g. optirun intel-virtual-output). This is why I disagree with Jay and his commentary above. The nVidia installer may
install the driver but the rest is manual and not well documented (for newbies like me).
Let me know if you need a tester. The laptop I've got has two drives and I am happy to help.

Regards, Jiri

Jiri,

yes, I believe that we understand the need and requirement.

there are multiple things that need done for it all to work, there are a lot of different "tray/panel" applications doing this.

but it isn't just a matter of packaging the tray application, there is also xorg which we already have a patched version ready.
many of these tray applications are made for Gnome and Mate, but some work across different DEs supposedly

the last thing I was working on was an updated version of nvidia-settings, but the patch for this was failing the re-build of nvidia-settings last time I messed with it