Laptop with two GPUs

M

mefizto

Greetings all,

I have acquired a W540 laptop with two GPUs, Intel HD Graphics 4600 and NVIDIA Quadro K1100M. I found on vermaden's web-site article about installing FreeBSD on a predecessor -W520, https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/04/14/freebsd-13-1-on-thinkpad-w520/.

Unfortunately, the W540 does not have any UEFI/BIOS settings for disabling one of the GPUs. Will I have a problem with having the two cards when installing FreeBSD?

Kindes regards,

M
 
What I can tell you is that I once had Lenovo Thinkpad P2000 mobile workstation for a few years. It had a Xeon processor, 32 GB ECC RAM and Quadro P2000 GPU. FreeBSD did run on it.
Initially I did have to enable/disable either of the GPUs in the UEFI. However, later I did get Nvidia Optimus working (that is their marketing term for Intel integrated GPU + Nvidia dedicated). There is x11/nvidia-hybrid-graphics and a wiki article somewhere.

 
mefizto said:
Greetings all,

I have acquired a W540 laptop with two GPUs, Intel HD Graphics 4600 and NVIDIA Quadro K1100M. I found on vermaden's web-site article about installing FreeBSD on a predecessor -W520, https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/04/14/freebsd-13-1-on-thinkpad-w520/.

Unfortunately, the W540 does not have any UEFI/BIOS settings for disabling one of the GPUs. Will I have a problem with having the two cards when installing FreeBSD?

Kindes regards,

M
Click to expand...
The *40 line of ThinkPads was one of the worst. Besides the fact that the now legendary 7-row keyboard was abandoned in W530 (and I have used FreeBSD on W530 for more then 3 years) - the @lenovo went one more level up and on *40 also touchpads were fucked up ... seems what BIOS setting were also hit.

I learned hard that it is a real PITA to use FreeBSD (or any operating system that is not welcomed) on unsupported hardware.

IMHO - put that W540 laptop on a GTFO stage (just sell it on EBAY/AMAZON or any other platform you know You can sell it on) - and get one that You know is supported - or You can try to use one of the Nvidia Optimus on FreeBSD guides - https://github.com/pouya-eghbali/freebsd-nvidia-optimus - with one available here.

My comment is not here to scare You away from FreeBSD.

My comment here is like a red pill in The Matrix movie - its better to get hardware that is known to more or less work with FreeBSD - then to try to fix the humanity and run FreeBSD on a laptop that is known to NOT work.

The choice is yours :)

Regards,
vermaden
 
Sorry to disappoint - but that is just a harsh reality.

Better to swallow that hard pill earlier then later ...

Regards,
vermaden
 
mefizto said:
Hi vermaden,

you must love Matrix (the movie). ;)

Kindest regards,

M
Click to expand...

Its a really good movie - one of the best actually - but it also has some interesting connection with FreeBSD.

Here: https://www.freebsd.org/press/press-rel-1/

The Matrix movie was rendered on 32 FreeBSD servers because it was faster to run the rendering software on FreeBSD in Linux Binary Compatibility mode (its not emulation) then to run the same workload natively on Linux in that time (1998-1999).

Regards,
vermaden
 
"Dual GPU" - I think that's a misunderstanding. The Intel graphics are integrated (The specs as listed on vermaden 's blog will tell you as much) with the Intel CPU. The NVidia GPU is the discrete one.

I can't remember exactly where, but I do recall seeing info that using a discrete GPU inside a laptop is only possible if you're using an external monitor. So, in the BIOS, you really have to enable/disable your HDMI input. That's what connects the dots to using or not using the internal discrete card. Yeah, not exactly intuitive.
 
Hi astyle,

thank you for the clarification, you are, of course, correct in that the Intel graphics is integrated; I just did not know what terminology to use to describe the configuration.

Kindest regards,

M
 
astyle said:
I can't remember exactly where, but I do recall seeing info that using a discrete GPU inside a laptop is only possible if you're using an external monitor. So, in the BIOS, you really have to enable/disable your HDMI input. That's what connects the dots to using or not using the internal discrete card. Yeah, not exactly intuitive.
Click to expand...
I cannot confirm that at least for the Lenovo Thinkpads I had with both integrated and dedicated GPUs. Both GPUs were able to be used with either an internal or an external monitor (or even internal and external monitors at the same time). That is where that "Nvidia Optimus" magic comes in so you can not only switch from one to the other but actually use both at the same time (i.e. the integrated GPU for "light" applications and the dedicated one for your CAD applications.

I do however not know what the current state of FreeBSD's support for that is. I certainly was able to use both by switching from one to the other, not sure anymore about "both at the same time". I think VirtualGL supports that.
 
Which desktop environment?

mefizto said:
NVIDIA Quadro K1100M
Click to expand...

I have the same in an HP ZBook 17 G2, which I normally use with x11/nvidia-driver-470 and hybrid graphics disabled.

Not long ago, I experimented with inferior x11/nvidia-driver-390 to tell whether fewer bugs would be encountered. Not so; 470 is better in my case (FreeBSD-CURRENT), YMMV.

For hybrid graphics, the FreeBSD Handbook makes no mention of essentials such as the secondary drivers. I was aware of x11/nvidia-secondary-driver.

In Discord, I learnt of x11/nvidia-secondary-driver-390. x11/nvidia-secondary-driver-470 is non-existent.

A couple of years ago I used Intel graphics alone, with limited success.

A few days ago I enabled hybrid graphics and tried graphics/drm-61-kmod. I couldn't get an X11 session. This was before firmware updates were packaged.
 
Interesting...

I've been struggling to get a configuration that works in my W530.
I created a small script that loads correct modules and custom xorg.conf files based on which GPU I have activated in BIOS.

However, I would be very keen into using Optimus, because I need to encrypt my Windows disk with bitlocker and when I change GPUs in BIOS, bitlocker stops working and I need to enter a recovery key manually.

So I created an xorg.conf that assigns the monitor to the modesetting driver via BusID and also loads the nvidia driver. It works fine, but during start, the nvidia driver gets unloaded.

I also tried the nvidia-optimus-driver but I don't think it works with FreeBSD 14.

Also, after upgrading to FreeBSD 14, adjusting brightness stopped working on Intel driver (I think it works with modesetting). Using the backlight command works, though. And it freezes the machine on the nvidia 470 driver.

My questions would be:
1. I think I am wasting my time and Optimus doesn't work in FreeBSD on a ThinkPad W530. Anyone to confirm? I sometimes use the NVIDIA GPU, but not often, so I tend just to set Intel and forget about it. But the bitlocker issue annoys me.
2. Anyone else having issues setting brightness after upgrading to FreeBSD 14?
 
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