[ltp] Thinkpad W520, nouveau and external monitors

[Marco Vittorini Orgeas]

On 2/17/2012 2:34 PM, Micha wrote:
> I have the w520 with a Quadro 2000m. The nouvou driver is not even
> remotely an option for me though so I can't report on that (first thing
> I do with a new kernel is delete it so it doesn't get in the way). As
> for the hardware setup, the external connectors are indeed connected to
> the NVIDIA and can't be run from the intel processor. With the default
> optimus setup X won't start with the nvidia driver so you can't connect
> external monitors. You can however change the video settings in the bios
> from optimus to discrete (always run discrete graphics internal and
> external, intel disabled). In this case the external connectors work
> just fine with nvidia-settings. The propriatry nvidia driver doens't
> know xrandr I'm afraid.
Thanks for your report but in the past I've run in *huge* problems with 
proprietary nvidia blobs on thinkpad (t61) including xorg memory 
consumption issues ( up to 1-2 gigs of ram when viewing big pdfs )  and 
really weird firefox rendering problems.

Nouveau has been a life-saver for 2D daily  work, the system has been 
always faster and solid since I replaced the nvidia blobs.

Anyway did you (or someone else) ever tried nouveau(xrandr) + discrete + 
external VGA monitor ? This is the combination I would be interested in.

Thanks again.