Ubuntu MATE both Onboard Graphics + Discrete Card ? Optimus, tearing, all that jazz

Support & Help Requests
#1

Hey, I've been trying to get rid of tearing on U-M 15.10 and was going to try out my Intel integrated graphics card, with hope that I can get a stable rendering that way. Only problem is it isn't recognized in "additionnal drivers" (well actually, "something" is there but U-M doesn't know what it is).

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When plugging HDMI cable there's no signal coming out. I've tried going in the Bios and looking if it was maybe deactivated, with no luck.

Ubuntu-MATE is up-to-date.
Motherboard is a P8H-77-V. Processor is an Intel I5.
I have 8 gigs of ram. Graphics card is a NVIDIA GTX 660.

#2

This is a hardware limitation, not something Ubuntu MATE (the OS) can do. Many BIOS will only support one at a time - unless it has a dual graphics feature or Crossfire/SLI support (which is only if they’re both the same brand).

Check the BIOS options for something along the lines of "Initialize video card" with options along "Integrated" or "PCI Express" as an option to use one or the other.

Edit: Missed the fact it’s an Optimus with dual graphics support. :confounded:

I had tearing on my NVIDIA graphics card(s) too, which I solved by switching to Compiz. Compton apparently also helps eliminates the tearing too. I would guess that the Intel card has no tearing.

#3

Okay, thanks for the answer, after some more looking around the bios I found the option to activate my onboard graphics card. It was under advanced / "System Agent Configuration" :anguished:

Now there's an icon in the taskbar with "Active Graphics Card : Nvidia"
In NVidia X server settings there is a "PRIME" option :

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That being said, Optimus crashes every once in a while with "lambda() takes 2 positional arguments but 4 were given".
And Plymouth just crashed at startup when I switched to onboard graphics card. :frowning:

The http://bumblebee-project.org/ looks interesting, being able to switch between integrated and discrete graphics card on-the-fly is appealing.

So I guess discrete + integrated kind of works.

#4

For issues with screen tearing, please see here:

#5

Oh god, I was looking for that setting to activate compiz since @lah7 mentionned it, didn’t know it was under Mate Tweak. Thanks @stevecook172001 ! I’ll have to try with my discrete NVidia card, maybe tearing is gone for that one as well :smile:

#6

See also:

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