How to enable internal GPU, disable discrete GPU? / How to use vgaswitcheroo?

[Patrick Schleizer]

Hi!

I would like to enable internal GPU and disable discrete GPU. How do I
do this with Qubes?

How to use vgaswitcheroo with Qubes?

Is either one even supported? Anyone has any experiences with it?

My notebook's CPU:
i7-3840QM

The internet says, this CPU usually comes with a GPU:
Intel HD Graphics 4000

'lspci | grep -i VGA' only shows the discrete nvidia graphics card. Does
not show the intel GPU. A bad sign?

Folder /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo does not exist.

Even if my CPU [should] include an internal GPU, maybe this notebook
does not support using the integrated intel graphics card? Does this
sound possible, likely or usual? I hope not.

Cheers,
Patrick

Trivia:

Notebook:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/SMoRcw9UsIo

Why do I want to do this? I am having unresolved issues that make
working with my notebook using Qubes unusable related to nouveau. [1] [2]

Performance of the nouveau driver is not that good anyhow. So I was
wondering if I could just disable the discrete nvidia graphics card and
use the integrated intel one to fix these issues.

[1] 'monitor randomly goes off - two internal audio devices - sound
hdaudioC1D3: HDMI: audio coding type 0 not expected':
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/icwaSWjVG-M

[2] 'EQ overflowing':
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/hfZMS8vgbRI/9k1syj7y0QIJ

[Frank]

> On 22.07.2015, at 19:27, Patrick Schleizer patrick-mailinglists-at-whonix.org |qubes-mailing-list/Example Allow| <g5aqo...@sneakemail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> I would like to enable internal GPU and disable discrete GPU. How do I
> do this with Qubes?

This has nothing to do with Qubes! You should have some settings in your BIOS to select which graphics card is powered on!

>
> How to use vgaswitcheroo with Qubes?

No idea what this vgaswitcheroo is supposed to be. I have read on this mailing list, that someone managed to get bumblebee running on Qubes. That is a driver where you can switch between internal and discrete graphics cards on the fly. But it requires to have both cards powered up in the BIOS.

>
> Is either one even supported? Anyone has any experiences with it?
>
> My notebook's CPU:
> i7-3840QM
>
> The internet says, this CPU usually comes with a GPU:
> Intel HD Graphics 4000
>
> 'lspci | grep -i VGA' only shows the discrete nvidia graphics card. Does
> not show the intel GPU. A bad sign?
>
> Folder /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo does not exist.
>
> Even if my CPU [should] include an internal GPU, maybe this notebook
> does not support using the integrated intel graphics card?

As said before: check your BIOS settings. It might be, there is no setting to choose graphics cards... I guess in that case you are screwed...

> Does this
> sound possible, likely or usual? I hope not.
>
> Cheers,
> Patrick
>
> Trivia:
>
> Notebook:
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/SMoRcw9UsIo
>
> Why do I want to do this? I am having unresolved issues that make
> working with my notebook using Qubes unusable related to nouveau. [1] [2]
>
> Performance of the nouveau driver is not that good anyhow. So I was
> wondering if I could just disable the discrete nvidia graphics card and
> use the integrated intel one to fix these issues.
>
> [1] 'monitor randomly goes off - two internal audio devices - sound
> hdaudioC1D3: HDMI: audio coding type 0 not expected':
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/icwaSWjVG-M
>
> [2] 'EQ overflowing':
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/hfZMS8vgbRI/9k1syj7y0QIJ
>

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to qubes-users...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to qubes...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/55AFD299.4050007%40whonix.org.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[raf...@elitemail.org]

On 07/22/2015 10:27 AM, Patrick Schleizer wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I would like to enable internal GPU and disable discrete GPU. How do I
> do this with Qubes?
>
> How to use vgaswitcheroo with Qubes?
> Is either one even supported? Anyone has any experiences with it?
>
> My notebook's CPU:
> i7-3840QM
>
> The internet says, this CPU usually comes with a GPU:
> Intel HD Graphics 4000
>
> 'lspci | grep -i VGA' only shows the discrete nvidia graphics card. Does
> not show the intel GPU. A bad sign?

My setup is similar and the same command shows both GPUs... You might
check the BIOS for enable/disable GPU settings or possibly physically
remove the Nvidia card (at least to troubleshoot).

> Folder /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo does not exist.
>
> Even if my CPU [should] include an internal GPU, maybe this notebook
> does not support using the integrated intel graphics card? Does this
> sound possible, likely or usual? I hope not.

Sounds unlikely.

> Cheers,
> Patrick
> Trivia:
>
> Notebook:
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/SMoRcw9UsIo
>
> Why do I want to do this? I am having unresolved issues that make
> working with my notebook using Qubes unusable related to nouveau. [1] [2]
>
> Performance of the nouveau driver is not that good anyhow. So I was
> wondering if I could just disable the discrete nvidia graphics card and
> use the integrated intel one to fix these issues.

I disable nouveau by adding rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau and
nouveau.modeset=0 to the kernel boot options. That works for me, but my
integrated Intel GPU is recognized... ymmv.

[Patrick Schleizer]

raf...@elitemail.org:

> On 07/22/2015 10:27 AM, Patrick Schleizer wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> I would like to enable internal GPU and disable discrete GPU. How do I
>> do this with Qubes?
>>
>> How to use vgaswitcheroo with Qubes?
>> Is either one even supported? Anyone has any experiences with it?
>>
>> My notebook's CPU:
>> i7-3840QM
>>
>> The internet says, this CPU usually comes with a GPU:
>> Intel HD Graphics 4000
>>
>> 'lspci | grep -i VGA' only shows the discrete nvidia graphics card. Does
>> not show the intel GPU. A bad sign?
>
> My setup is similar and the same command shows both GPUs... You might
> check the BIOS for enable/disable GPU settings

Unfortunately, the BIOS has no such setting.

> or possibly physically
> remove the Nvidia card (at least to troubleshoot).

I would do this, but it seems very difficult.

The asus forums says [1] for a very similar notebook, that one has to
solder and be "experienced electrical engineer with access to a chip
development plant".

Even if that would succeed, I haven't found any success reports that it
would work. Maybe the BIOS wouldn't play nice with that or something
else? Not sure it's possible to find someone qualified to answer and
implement this?

>> Folder /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo does not exist.
>>
>> Even if my CPU [should] include an internal GPU, maybe this notebook
>> does not support using the integrated intel graphics card? Does this
>> sound possible, likely or usual? I hope not.
>
> Sounds unlikely.
>
>> Cheers,
>> Patrick
>> Trivia:
>>
>> Notebook:
>> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/SMoRcw9UsIo
>>
>> Why do I want to do this? I am having unresolved issues that make
>> working with my notebook using Qubes unusable related to nouveau. [1] [2]
>>
>> Performance of the nouveau driver is not that good anyhow. So I was
>> wondering if I could just disable the discrete nvidia graphics card and
>> use the integrated intel one to fix these issues.
>
> I disable nouveau by adding rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau and
> nouveau.modeset=0 to the kernel boot options. That works for me, but my
> integrated Intel GPU is recognized... ymmv.

Indeed. X doesn't start then. But I guess in my case it's not surprising.

Cheers,
Patrick

[1]
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?71142-how-to-ENABLE-INTEL-hd-4600-in-ASUS-g750JW&highlight=intel+hd

[cprise]

Suggest troubleshooting this with a regular distro like Ubuntu. In that
context you'll get better leads and search results.

Also, did you say your Asus has customized hardware?

[Patrick Schleizer]

cprise:

I never had any such issues using Debian. No graphic issues. No freezes.
So there is nothing I could troubleshoot. Once I switched to to Qubes, I
started getting multiple of such issues.

I had an idea how to maybe get wider input on the issues:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/QQDnzQzkP8w

> Also, did you say your Asus has customized hardware?

Minor stuff. Increased RAM + different vendor. Probably unrelated.

Cheers,
Patrick

[raf...@elitemail.org]

Sounds like the Nvidia card is soldered on, which is odd. I wouldn't
try to remove it in that case.

>>> Folder /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo does not exist.
>>>
>>> Even if my CPU [should] include an internal GPU, maybe this notebook
>>> does not support using the integrated intel graphics card? Does this
>>> sound possible, likely or usual? I hope not.
>> Sounds unlikely.
>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Patrick
>>> Trivia:
>>>
>>> Notebook:
>>> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/SMoRcw9UsIo
>>>
>>> Why do I want to do this? I am having unresolved issues that make
>>> working with my notebook using Qubes unusable related to nouveau. [1] [2]
>>>
>>> Performance of the nouveau driver is not that good anyhow. So I was
>>> wondering if I could just disable the discrete nvidia graphics card and
>>> use the integrated intel one to fix these issues.
>> I disable nouveau by adding rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau and
>> nouveau.modeset=0 to the kernel boot options. That works for me, but my
>> integrated Intel GPU is recognized... ymmv.
> Indeed. X doesn't start then. But I guess in my case it's not surprising.
>
> Cheers,
> Patrick
>
> [1]
> https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?71142-how-to-ENABLE-INTEL-hd-4600-in-ASUS-g750JW&highlight=intel+hd
>

> I never had any such issues using Debian. No graphic issues.
> No freezes. So there is nothing I could troubleshoot. Once I
> switched to to Qubes, I started getting multiple of such issues.

Ok, so, everything works in Debian. X won't start if nouveau is
disabled (in Qubes/Fedora). Why is your integrated Intel gpu recognized
in Debian but not in Fedora? That's where I would start. From what
I've seen, a lot of such issues are upstream (Fedora) and not
Qubes-specific. It's also possible that the integrated Intel gpu isn't
being recognized in Debian either, only that drivers for the Nvidia card
are included. I'm not familiar enough with Debian to know for certain.

One thing to note is that Qubes-specific kernels (pvops.qubes) are no
longer required in dom0, so any kernel, say the 3.19, could be installed
there and you could try the proprietary driver from rpmfusion.

[Patrick Schleizer]

raf...@elitemail.org:

I haven't said it is. It's not. It never came to me that my Intel CPU
might have an internal GPU, that I could make use of. Because in Debian,
both nouveau as well as the proprietary nvidia one has ever caused any
issues.

> That's where I would start. From what
> I've seen, a lot of such issues are upstream (Fedora) and not
> Qubes-specific.

> It's also possible that the integrated Intel gpu isn't
> being recognized in Debian either,

True.

> only that drivers for the Nvidia card
> are included. I'm not familiar enough with Debian to know for certain.

> One thing to note is that Qubes-specific kernels (pvops.qubes) are no
> longer required in dom0, so any kernel,

> say the 3.19, could be installed
> there

Already using 3.19 as a stopgap. Without the 3.19 kernel, X breaks down
real soon with gibberish grapics:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/lPr_kndwKtQ/NGG60gxcHDIJ

> and you could try the proprietary driver from rpmfusion.

Yes, but unfortunately installation of those is also broken on Qubes R3
RC1. Also recently somewhere discussed on the mailing list without solution.

Cheers,
Patrick