Thanks Michael, this looks very nice ! Only drawback is that it wouldn't work with Nvidia's drivers yet, so CUDA acceleration would be out of the question, unless I'm mistaken...
On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 12:40 PM, Michael Zugelder < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > Dave Airlie is currently making some progress in the intel<->nvidia > switching > area (http://airlied.livejournal.com/74176.html). I haven't tested his > drm-nvidia-switch branch yet, but it looks very interesting. If the > "correct" > runtime switching works, there shouldn't be much issues in getting the > brightness control to work, regardless of which graphics card is currently > used > to output video. > > Michael > > On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Adam Hill <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> This is interesting, so that would mean that the "physical connection" > of > >> the Intel card to the backlight is in fact *not* physical at all, but > >> instead it's a software situation that results from the BIOS's way of > >> initializing things ? > > > > Ahh, no, I don't believe so. The reason that I say this is that we > use > > either a modified BIOS to enable static switching, or the old kernel boot > > trick, in order to get the Vaio to initialise the NVidia card and disable > the > > Intel card completely in order to get the NVidia drivers to work. If the > link > > to brightness was configurable, then it would seem strange that Sony > added > > these options in the BIOS, but then didn't link the brightness to the > NVidia > > card at the same time! > > > >> It would be really, really great to be able to fix the mapping, so that > the > >> NVIDIA card can then control everything. I'm pretty damn sure this is > just > >> a matter of getting more exposure (ie: more knowledgable kernel and/or > >> "Nouveau" developers) about this issue, what do you think ? > > > > Well, what it needs is someone who really knows how VGA cards work > in > > terms of initial set-up by the BIOS. We could then "undo" what was done > for > > the Intel card and re-do what the BIOS does in static mode for the > NVIdia. > > > > Moving on from that, if X has a way of saving a session ( well, > window > > posisions and screen content in a way that is independent of VRAM, ) then > we > > could even have dynamic switching working, i.e. > > > > Save session state and exit X. > > Unmap Intel card > > Remap NVidia > > Run X with restored session. > > > > Unfortunately I don't have this knowledge or the time to acquire > it :(. > > > > Adam. > > > > > >> On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Adam Hill <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > > Same here, I would be very happy if we could control brightness > while > >> > > running on the NVIDIA card. I don't know exactly what it takes, > maybe > >> > > >> > the > >> > > >> > > Intel card needs to be accessible from the PCI bus (since, as I > heard, > >> > > >> > the > >> > > >> > > physical brightless control is connected to the Intel card). As I > see > >> > > >> > it, > >> > > >> > > initializing the Intel card without allocating any of its buffers > (ie: > >> > > initialize it just enough so we can ask it to set the brightness) > might > >> > > >> > be > >> > > >> > > the way to do it. > >> > > > >> > I fear that it may be much more complicated than that because > as > >> > > >> > far as I > >> > know the BIOS initialises the Intel card at boot time regardless of > the > >> > position of the hybrid graphics switch. That means that by the time > the > >> > Linux > >> > kernel starts the Intel card already has its BIOS and VRAM mapped in > to > >> > where > >> > the NVidia drivers expect their stuff to be. > >> > > >> > The simplest solution overall would be if Sony modified the > BIOS > >> > to > >> > > >> > initialise the correct card at first boot, but that isn't going to > happen > >> > because Windows doesn't care. So, the two sensible options would seem > to > >> > be: > >> > > >> > 1) Unmap the Intel card's resources and map in the NVidia card before > the > >> > NVidia module is loaded. > >> > > >> > 2) Somehow map both cards in. I'm not sure if this is possible because > I > >> > don't > >> > really know much about how video BIOS is accessed - if it is expected > to > >> > be in > >> > a particular place in the memory map then this would be impossible. > >> > > >> > Adam. > >> > > >> > > Maybe we could set up a bounty that would go to the one who > publishes a > >> > > kernel patch and/or generic shell script and instructions to do it ? > >> > > >> > That > >> > > >> > > could be nice... > >> > > > >> > > On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Jordi Augé <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > > > Hi, > >> > > > > >> > > > I'm a new Vaio Z user, and I've successfully installed Linux as > Main > >> > > > OS on a VPCZ11X9/e, after some struggling I've gotten everything > >> > > > working, including hsdpa and graphics switching. My only gripe so > >> > > > far is the inability to control screen brightness when using > nvidia > >> > > > graphics. > >> > > > > >> > > > Any updates on this issue? what changes will be necessary to > >> > > > implement it? > >> > > > > >> > > > _______________________________________________ > >> > > > Mailing list: > >> > > > https://launchpad.net/~sony-vaio-z-series<https://launchpad.net/%7Esony-vaio-z-series> > <https://launchpad.net/%7Eso > >> > > > ny-vaio-z-series> > >> > > >> > <https://launchpad.net/%7Esony- > >> > > >> > > > vaio-z-series> Post to : > [email protected] > >> > > > Unsubscribe : > >> > > > https://launchpad.net/~sony-vaio-z-series<https://launchpad.net/%7Esony-vaio-z-series> > <https://launchpad.net/%7Eso > >> > > > ny-vaio-z-series> > >> > > >> > <https://launchpad.net/%7Esony- > >> > > >> > > > vaio-z-series> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list: > > https://launchpad.net/~sony-vaio-z-series<https://launchpad.net/%7Esony-vaio-z-series> > > Post to : [email protected] > > Unsubscribe : > > https://launchpad.net/~sony-vaio-z-series<https://launchpad.net/%7Esony-vaio-z-series> > > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > >
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