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I have an older Sony VAIO Z 590 laptop with switchable graphics between Intel and Nvidia GeForce 9300M. It is NOT Optimus. I did a clean install of Ubuntu 12.04. Everything works, but it's using Unity 2D with the Intel drivers. I've tried loading the Nvidia drivers from "Additional Drivers", but it says "this driver is activated but not currently in use".

When I run "nvidia-settings", an error window pops up to say "You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X drivers." "lspci" shows both graphics cards. Let me know if I should add more info.

How do I get the Nvidia graphics and Unity 3D working?

More info:

$ lshw -short -class display

H/W path       Device  Class       Description
============================================== 
/0/100/1/0             display     G98 [GeForce 9300M GS] 
/0/100/2             display     Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics C

$ glxinfo
name of display: :0
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".

Excerpts from Xorg.0.log:

[    16.373] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[    16.373] (II) Loading /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xorg/extra-modules/libglx.so
[    16.386] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[    16.386]    compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[    16.386]    Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[    16.386] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module  295.49  Tue May  1 00:09:10 PDT 2012

[    16.608] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  295.49  Mon Apr 30 23:48:24 PDT 2012
[    16.608] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs

[    17.693] (EE) Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X driver not found)
projectshave
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  • Try to install the driver through a terminal with sudo apt-get install nvidia-current and reboot after that if it works without errors. – jplatte May 13 '12 at 08:39
  • Tried that but it fails to load. In the X.org log it says it can't load GLX for Nvidia, then it unloads that driver and loads VESA for Intel. – projectshave May 15 '12 at 03:18
  • Does it get installed correctly? – jplatte May 15 '12 at 06:42
  • The nvidia drivers? Yes, I believe so. No errors, libglx is linked to the nvidia version, AFAIK. The docs say my GPU is covered. If I completely remove nvidia, it loads the Intel drivers and run Unity 3D. – projectshave May 15 '12 at 12:10
  • You could try a newer version by executing sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates and then sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade – jplatte May 16 '12 at 06:42
  • That's the repo I'm currently using. It's the very latest from Nvidia. – projectshave May 16 '12 at 13:27
  • And you had this issue with both, the nvidia-current from the official and from the x-swat repostiory? – jplatte May 17 '12 at 09:36
  • Yes. I tried w/ and w/o x-swat. I tried nvidia-current and nvidia-current-updates. I did not try xorg-edgers. I did not try older drivers. I found this comment on a sony-vaio-z-series mailing list: "Installing the nvidia driver from your distribution (nvidia-current) will work until Kernel 3.1 Since Kernel 3.2 no nvidia driver at all works but that is a general problem where the nvidia engineers need to find a solution." – projectshave May 17 '12 at 18:52
  • Then that's probably a bug and doesn't belong here. And I'm also affected but (lucky me) I get 3D-acceleration with nouveau. – jplatte May 18 '12 at 08:27

1 Answers1

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Download the latest drivers from nvidia.com and then use this tutorial to install them: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=96260&f=42

liquid
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  • Unfortunately, Nvidia says "Some designs incorporating supported GPUs may not be compatible with the NVIDIA Linux driver: in particular, notebook and all-in-one desktop designs with switchable (hybrid) or Optimus graphics will not work if means to disable the integrated graphics in hardware are not available." AFAIK, Sony doesn't have a way to switch off Intel in the BIOS. I'll check again, though. – projectshave May 16 '12 at 13:28
  • you said your card is non optimus in question...which one is correct? – Web-E Mar 24 '13 at 04:59