Ubuntu – bypass optimus for external display

nvidia-optimusxps

I have an XPS 14z with Intel and nVidia graphics. The Intel card is connected to the laptop display only. The nVidia card is connected to the display port and HDMI port.

I am running bumblebee for limited optimus support (i.e. power-saving only) and realise there is no seamless way to enable dual monitor output with extended desktop at this point.

That said, since I spend quite a portion of my time at my desk with my laptop connected to my charger, what is the easiest way to bypass bumblebee and just enable the nVidia card and utilise my external display (and not use the laptop display)?

I am kind of hoping to configure my laptop in such a way that I can simply specify an xorg.conf, restart lightdm and have the external display used. Then, if I remove the xorg.conf and restart lightdm, the laptop display is used. (Or a similarly quick switching method).

I am happy to log-out and back in during the transition from external to laptop display.

I did try this really-quickly by specifying a simply xorg.conf with the nvidia driver specified, but the xserver seemed to complain about not finding the nvidia module. Other questions similar to this seem to relate to enabling the external display alongside the laptop display.

Many thanks for any help,

Whytey

Best Answer

I believe what your trying to achieve is using the nvidia functionality on your DM DISPLAY MANAGER which is LightDM, I read it on the bublebee wiki an its possible but there a warning about running nvidia on your DISPLAY MANAGER.Just read the bumblebee official site and wiki im pretty sure there the intructions there.