Tag: Optimus

[Win7] Asus EEEPC 1015PN: Getting Optimus working (again) on Windows 7 Pro

Optimus is a really nice concept: Having installed an low-power Intel GMA3150 next to an "high-end" (compared to the Intel ;)) NVIDIA ION2 with 512 MB RAM (and CUDA!) is very nice - switching between both cards on the fly depending on the application - awesome. But getting it to work can be quite painful. I had to reinstall the drivers on my EEE PC and got it wrong. And now that it is working, I just want to write it down. Just in case, you never know ;)!

1.) Get Windows 7 Pro or better installed
2.) Get all the Updates on your system
3.) Install and start the GraphicsSwitch for Windows 7 from Asus for your EEEPC 1015PN
4.) Choose Optimus Mode and reboot your system.
5.) Install the Intel Driver. Latest and working version is the GMA3150 15.12.75.50.7.2230
You can download that here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19494&lang=eng&wapkw=gma+3150 After that, reboot!
6.) Install the Nvidia Driver. Latest and working version (for me) is the Verde 301.42 driver. You get that here: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/44972/en-us - Could be that a newer version does work to, but thats what I came up with after trying a lot of different versions. After installing, reboot.
7.) You should be done. Right-click on your Desktop, choose NVIDIA Systemsettings. In these settings you can enable two cool options from the "Desktop" menu:
a.) "Start with graphics processor to context menu" - with right click on an Application you can choose to start that program with your highend gpu
b.) "Show Actitivy Symbol in Infobar" - that does show you whenever the GPU is working on something. And if that symbol does not show up some boots later - well, that mostly says that some update broke your Optimus Setup.

But by now, I think you know how to get that up and running again! 🙂

[Ubuntu 12.04] EEE PC 1015 PN with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

I could not help myself but felt the need to have at least one real "Dual Boot" system (not VMWare Stuff) - so I setup my Asus EEE PC 1015 PN with the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS according to mtrons excellent Tutorial ( https://sites.google.com/site/mtrons/howtos/eeepc-1015pn ) which worked out right out of the box.

But - as I haid some trouble with the old Broadcom Wifi/BT Card in Windows 7, I went for an Intel 6250 AGN/WiMax Card. I do not use WiMax and would love an BT option - but the price point of that card on ebay finally got me to press the "Buy now" button. I thought "Well, it is an Intel Card - that should work quite well and stop throwing me out of the University Wifi with no chance but doing an hard reboot of the Laptop to solve the problem" - yeah - it really did. BUT - somehow, after some time and updates to the Ubuntu System, I lost connectivity: Network Manager was nagging for the password all the time - without a reason. Finally I found the solution on this website: http://askubuntu.com/questions/104651/how-do-i-get-wireless-working-on-an-asus-notebook-u56e - with some changes.

From Kernel > 3.1 on, the wifi driver is not called iwlagn but iwlwifi, so your changes would go in that way:

sudo /etc/modprobe.d/iwl.conf

and add these options to the file. First does deactivate the not existing BT Module on the card, second does disable N networks, which could avoid other problems:

options iwlagn bt_coex_active=0
options iwlagn 11n_disable=1

Reboot and you are done

 

Another problem was the Optimus system: The Dual GPU Option of the system, packing an Intel GMA as well as an Nvidia ION Graphics on the board, with the choice of changing between both on the fly. That *did* work according to mtrons guide, BUT after an kernel upgrade - the acpi_call module did not work anymore - and with that the optimus tool. Help to that problem could be found here: http://hybrid-graphics-linux.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Acpi_call with the following changes:

cd /usr/src/acpi_call-1.1.1/
# got an newer version of acpi_call
sudo dkms add -m acpi_call -v 1.1.1
# did throw an error as the module already existed
sudo dkms build -m acpi_call -v 1.1.1
# rebuild the module
sudo dkms install -m acpi_call -v 1.1.1
# reinstalled it to the kernel
sudo modprobe acpi_call
# reload module
modinfo acpi_call
# show some infos

And thats it!

I am quite happy with the performance of Ubuntu on the system and I will keep it a while. I also tried the latest Debian, but was not that satisfied with it :/! So long!