Using NVIDIA Quadro 10000M (Lenovo W520) with Kubuntu 11.10

Unfortunately, NVIDIA Quadro 10000M doesn't work on Lenovo W520 with Kubuntu 11.10 from the out of box. Here is how I set up.

We need to do three things:

1. pci=noacpi in the kernel option (see the my last blog section 5 boot set up.) If you have still problem try acpi=off, but in this case I have only one CPU core detected. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingACPI
2. Set graphics device to discrete graphics since Nvidia Linux driver seems have not yet Optimus support.
3. Update the Nvidia driver to 290.10. (280.13 seems not work on this machine. The error is:  udev-fallback-graphics main process ($PID) terminated with status 1)

I assume you are still in Optimus or Integrated chip mode. In this mode, you can have X running, so it is a good start.

• I first updated the Linux kernel to 3.0.0.15.

There are two ways: Ubuntu way and direct installation.  Ubuntu-way should be later better, but in my case, glxinfo does not work.  And the fowllowing error I got.

% glxinfoname of display: :0.0X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)  Major opcode of failed request:  137 (NV-GLX)  Minor opcode of failed request:  4 ()  ...

• Anyway, here is the Ubuntu way for the record. (Currently, this doesn't work, but I hope later this works.)

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

sudo apt-get install nvidia-setting

Now you have the driver version 290.10.

cd /etc/X11
sudo cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.mybackup
sudo nvidia-xconfig

Note: Section "Device"'s BusID should be "PCI:1:0:0" in my case. The old version of nvidia-xconfig say "PCI:0:2:0" and can not found the driver. Unfortunately, this doesn't work (2011-1-27). glxinfo casts an error.

• The following is not the Ubuntu way, but, this worked

1. Download NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run from http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/confirmation.php?url=/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/290.10/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run&lang=us&type=GeForce
2. Get the console!
3. sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
4. sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run (I don't install the 32bit compatible OpenGL libs. That might cause a problem. Others I answer yes.)

• Reboot and pray.

Set Discrete Graphics on. Nvidia Linux driver seems have not yet supported Optimus.

• Press F1 on boot time, Config -- Display -- Graphics Device to Discrete Grap. Save and boot.

At this point I can see the 1920x1080 resolution screen and NVIDIA X Server settings works (This is nvidia-settings-update 280.13 one.)

I hope you can also enjoy the Nvidia card on Lenovo W520.