Hybrid graphics

[Nikita Mikhaylov]

As you know, modern notebooks often have switchable graphics.
For amd there are 2 major setups: MUXed(both gpus connected to multiplexer which can select which gpu will be connected to display port) and MUXless(only one gpu is connected to display port, and other offloads its data to first one).
MUXed setup isn't supported by catalyst, but works well with opensource driver(vgaswitcheroo).
AFAIK, MUXless setup is supported by catalyst, but unsupported by vgaswitcheroo.

The problem is that vgaswitcheroo and catalyst require X server restart to apply changes.
So my typical workflow, when i want discrete gpu: turn on computer -> login -> set gpu -> restart X
It will be much nicer if it can be done by login manager: select gpu in combobox - and sddm will automatically set gpu, restart X with greeter.
So I want some something like gpumanager with different backends(vgaswitcheroo, catalyst - shell scripts, etc.) which will manage gpu's for me.

Remarks:
This wouldn't be useful for alot of people, nvidia's optimus and open source dri_prime don't require X restart; MUXed setup isn't popular and modern notebooks are muxless - so vgaswitcheroo method wouldn't be useful much; I am not 100% sure about muxless catalyst, and can't test it.

[Abdurrahman AVCI]

I have never used hybrid graphics so I don't have much to say about it. But I prefer no to put a feature which will be useless for most people.

Again, if it can be turned off by a compile-time switch, doesn't complicate the design and the themes and fairly self-contained we can always think about it.

2013/7/14 Nikita Mikhaylov <nsl...@gmail.com>