[Nix-dev] Experiences with Nvidia Optimus?

[Arie Middelkoop]

On 16-01-12 13:35, Mathijs Kwik wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 11:01 AM, Arie Middelkoop<amiddelk at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Does any of you have experience with getting hardware acceleration for
>> nvidia optimus laptop videocards (e.g. GT555M) to work? My fresh new laptop
>> with Nixos is getting into a workable state, but this videocard issue seems
>> quite a pain.
>
> I have a similar laptop and checked some 6 months ago (bumblebee then).

To come back to this issue:
I just committed the package to nixpkgs (rev. 32036). Apparently the 
project started again, but this time as open source project.

Nixos provides an advantage here over other distributions, because it 
can use the original nvidia module, whereas other distributions need 
some bypass because the nvidia module overwrites the GLX library.

> My intel card gives a decent performance for what I do (composited
> desktop, 1080p video, light 3d stuff like blender) under linux, so no
> need for nvidia there.

The main advantage of the package actually arises when you don't use the 
card: it uses ACPI to shutdown the card, which - depending on what card 
you have - saves quite a bit of energy / heat.
(also available as separate kernel module)

Arie