New laptop with two VGA

[SteveRiley]

Sheesh, that is such sloppy language in the Lenovo readme. There is no such thing as a "UEFI BIOS." A computer can have one or the other, but not both. If a computer has a BIOS, that's all it has. If a computer has a UEFI, it will have either a BIOS compatibility mode (current versions) or a compatibility service module (older versions).

The lack of efibootmgr on your PC hints that your copy of Kubuntu installed in BIOS mode. But let's check a couple things. What's the output of

ll /boot
dpkg --list | grep -i grub

[jwebster8]

I'm going to chime in here because a) I don't think the problem was entirely solved. and b) I can help a bit I believe.

This may be specific to Lenovo laptops, I dunno...Since the problem is caused by two graphics cards, theres probably a similar process for other brands.

I have a lenovo w520 and it has the two graphics cards (it took me a while to realize this). An onboard intel and a nvidia quadro 2000m. I need the nvidia drivers for opengl and for cuda programming, but no matter what I tried I couldn't get the nvidia drivers to load at boot.

If you've tried everything and still can't get nvidia to work, try this...
At startup, go into the BIOS (for me, i press the ThinkVantage Button). Go to the Display settings. For the setting "Graphics Device:" choose "Discrete Grap". (Note that the option "NVidia Optimus" should be selected only if you're running Windows 7!)

Set the OS Detection to Disabled.

when you reboot, the intel card will be disabled and you should have a lot less problems installing nvidia drivers.

cheers

[Teunis]

jwebster8:
Yes that's how I access the various graphic modes at startup, it's what I called 'a few keystrokes away'.
I knew what I was getting in to when I bought this W520 :cool: and I don't regret it for a split second, what a lovely machine!

There are a few oddities, like I can run Stellarium in the Intel mode and get ~5 - 55 FPS, when I invoke it through Bumblebee with the optirun command in the nVidia mode it's actually a few FPS slower...
When I run it in full 'Discrete' nVidia mode it can achieve in excess of 200 FPS.

But Google Earth will only run in either optirun or Descrete mode, I get a missing lib error trying to run it on the Intel card.

SteveRily;

teunis@W520:~$ ll /boot
totaal 86124
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   789425 mrt 27 19:22 abi-3.2.0-20-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   789653 mrt 30 07:05 abi-3.2.0-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   791023 apr  3 21:13 abi-3.2.0-22-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   140211 mrt 27 19:22 config-3.2.0-20-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   140243 mrt 30 07:05 config-3.2.0-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   140279 apr  3 21:13 config-3.2.0-22-generic
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    12288 apr  5 21:36 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20478875 mrt 30 17:35 initrd.img-3.2.0-20-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20478852 mrt 31 10:33 initrd.img-3.2.0-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20483382 apr  6 12:28 initrd.img-3.2.0-22-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   176764 nov 27 11:00 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   178944 nov 27 11:00 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root  2884032 mrt 27 19:22 System.map-3.2.0-20-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  2884015 mrt 30 07:05 System.map-3.2.0-21-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  2884270 apr  3 21:13 System.map-3.2.0-22-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  4965584 mrt 27 19:22 vmlinuz-3.2.0-20-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  4965392 mrt 30 07:05 vmlinuz-3.2.0-21-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  4966000 apr  3 21:13 vmlinuz-3.2.0-22-generic

teunis@W520:~$ dpkg --list | grep -i grub
ii  grub-common                          1.99-21ubuntu2                          GRand Unified Bootloader (common files)
ii  grub-gfxpayload-lists                0.5                                     GRUB gfxpayload blacklist
ii  grub-pc                              1.99-21ubuntu2                           GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS version)
ii  grub-pc-bin                          1.99-21ubuntu2                           GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS binaries)
ii  grub2-common                         1.99-21ubuntu2                           GRand Unified Bootloader (common files for version 2)
ii  kde-config-grub2                     0.5.0-0ubuntu3                          Configuration module for the GRUB2 bootloader

As said, there is a two-stage process around the time I expect the BIOS menu, both can be accessed with their own keys, I haven't had the time yet to make the promised 'screenshot' pictures, work is rather chaotic right now...

[SteveRiley]

Since grub-pc is installed, you're running in BIOS compatibility mode. To work in UEFI mode, GRUB has to install grub-efi-amd64. You'd also have an efi subdirectory in /boot.

I'm curious...how did you install Kubuntu on your W520?

But Google Earth will only run in either optirun or Descrete mode, I get a missing lib error trying to run it on the Intel card.

Does the error message indicate which file?

[Teunis]

I've handed back the duty phone and have some more time 8)

The first screen after pressing F1 at boot:


The screen after pressing Ctrl + S:


When exiting the previous screen or after 2 sec. of the first screen I get what looks everything like a regular but well populated Bios.

The part of the 'Bios' where I select the graphics:


I installed 12.04 after first splitting the 500GB HD in about half using the Win7 partition utility, even after repeated defragging this very fresh setup I would not get it any smaller.
The install was done via a Live USB with the nightly build and worked without any problems.
Two days later I was fed up with having so much free space in the Win7 partition so I shrunk it further using Kparted from the 12.04 install.
Win7 complained during boot but because the restore partition is still there it was able to recover.

Next I did a second install of 12.04 in the 2 new partitions. (that's the one I used btrfs for / )

So I've never experienced anything like UEFI getting in the way.

As a PS, maybe this exchange of the thread deserves it's own thread?

[SteveRiley]

I'll illustrate the boot process of my T520. Apologies in advance for the blurry cell-phone images.

Initial boot. Notice the incorrect usage of the word "BIOS" in the prompt to press F1. It should say "UEFI," because that's what this computer has.



The first page of the setup. Again, note the incorrect term: "UEFI BIOS." But at least we know this is a UEFI system.



The startup page, with the boot compatibility menu shown. Controls which kind of operating system the UEFI will attempt to load.



Do you see the same options as I?

[Teunis]

Ah yes I do have the same UEFI options, I never bothered to look at these pages of the Bios/ Boot manager.
So mine has always been set to 'Both', the computer came with ver. 1.35, as it works I'm not going to upgrade to the now available ver1.36

The error when trying to run Google Earth on Intel is:

teunis@W520:~$ /opt/google/earth/free/google-earth %f
./googleearth-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
teunis@W520:~$

Running it through optirun is fine but when closing it I get the message Google Earth has crashed.

[SteveRiley]

Hm. Try

sudo updatedb && locate -i libgl.so

Mine's in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/. There are others, too.

[Teunis]

teunis@W520:~$ sudo updatedb && locate -i libgl.so
[sudo] password for teunis: 
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1.2
/usr/lib/nvidia-current/libGL.so
/usr/lib/nvidia-current/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/nvidia-current/libGL.so.295.33
/usr/lib/virtualgl/fakelib/libGL.so
/usr/lib/virtualgl/fakelib/64/libGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1.2
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current/libGL.so
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current/libGL.so.295.33
teunis@W520:~$ /opt/google/earth/free/google-earth %f
./googleearth-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
teunis@W520:~$

I wonder if it has anything to do with the system in use during install.

[SteveRiley]

Wow. I'm not sure what to think about this one. The libs obviously exist; why, then, that error?

I wonder if there's a Linux utility that monitors an executable as it loads, displaying each attempt to open a file...

[Teunis]

I decided to do the same in my second (~stable) install and found Google Earth is working fine without need for optirun!

teunis@W520:~$ sudo updatedb && locate -i libgl.so
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1.2
/usr/lib/nvidia-current/libGL.so
/usr/lib/nvidia-current/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/nvidia-current/libGL.so.295.33
/usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/libGL.so
/usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/libGL.so.295.33
/usr/lib/virtualgl/fakelib/64/libGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1.2
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current/libGL.so
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current/libGL.so.295.33
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current-updates/libGL.so
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current-updates/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib32/nvidia-current-updates/libGL.so.295.33
teunis@W520:~$

There are some differences between the incidences of libGL but I'm not sufficiently clued up to apreciate it.

There is one other oddity between the two installs, on the stable version Concy can display the fan speed, on the other it only shows the command {ibm_fan}.
Both installs have the full Kubuntu desktop, the stable one is 1 or 2 days behind on updates.

[SteveRiley]

You actually have a pair of W520s? Cool!

The only obvious difference in the outputs from the two laptops is that the working-fine-one contains an additional nvidia-current-updates subdirectory. If I were troubleshooting this, my next step would be to pipe the output of

dpkg --list

from each laptop into separate files and then run a diff.

I also took a quick look at the output of

apt-file list nvidia-current

and noticed that nvidia-current is only at 280.13 while nvidia-current-updates is at 295.20. Yet you're showing 295.33 on both. Are you using a PPA for drivers?

[Teunis]

Hehe, regretfully(?) it's two installs on the same machine

The only PPA's I use are Medibuntu and for Bumblebee.
But you get close to my suspicion, one had 'something like Google Earth' installed while running Discrete Graphics a.k. nVidia, on the other it was done while in the Optimus/Intel mode.