[SOLVED] picture in picture with hybrid [optimus] graphics

[doktor5000]

I'm very new to Mageia and even newer to this forum, so I have no idea if this is the right place to ask this, but I'll try anyway.
I seem to have two screens, fit into each other: Usually, everything is normal. However, immediately after login, there is a copy of the default mageia background in the top left corner, slightly larger than a quarter of the screen. Similarly, when the screen saver is on, I have two of those. One covering the entire screen, one the top left quarter. I have to move the cursor to the second one separately to get rid of it. Does anyone know how to handle this?
Thanks a lot and sorry if I posted to the wrong board.

[doktor5000]

Hi there,

what desktop do you use, and could you upload a screenshot of your desktop please?

[Aardwolf]

Sorry, I wasn't able to make a screenshot of the screensaver or the initial screen, so I had to stick with a photo of the screensaver.
I'm using KDE.

[Aardwolf]

this is what happens, when I move the cursor on the primary, but not the secondary screen

[doktor5000]

Seems your screen setup is borked or you have cloned output stacked on one display.
Run kscreen, either from systemsettings => display and monitor or from a terminal via kcmshell4 kscreen
and please post a screenshot from the configuration here.

Please also post the output of

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xrandr -q

[Aardwolf]

It may be a bad moment to bring this up but I also noticed that every time I try to open gamma in systemsettings => display and monitor, I simply get logged off. But I'll figure that out later.

[doktor5000]

With output usually text output is expected but it was readable ...
So far only one monitor is seen, your laptop display which is running at 1920x1080.

Seems some more details are needed. Please show the output of

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lspcidrake -v | grep VGA

and attach your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.0.log here please. Also some more context information if you have some unusual multi-screen setup or something like that.

Also, you mentioned a second screen - did you refer to the "picture in picture" on your screenshots? Or do you actually have a second (external) monitor connected?

[doktor5000]

Sorry, about that, still learning.
Actual output this time:

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Card:NVIDIA GeForce 420 series and later: NVIDIA Corporation|GK208M [GeForce GT 730M] [DISPLAY_VGA] (vendor:10de device:1290 subv:17aa subd:221d) (rev: a1)
Card:Intel 810 and later: Intel Corporation|4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [DISPLAY_VGA] (vendor:8086 device:0416 subv:17aa subd:221d) (rev: 06)

I don't have any multi-screen setup, at least none that I know of. I was referring to the "screen in the screen". Sorry for the ambiguity.

[doktor5000]

No need to worry

Ok, so you have a hybrid graphics setup, usually referred to as optimus - one nvidia chip and one intel chip.
This is also visible in the xorg.conf, it configured two displays, one for each graphics chip - which is weird and I'd call that a bug.

To continue, I'd need to know some more details. Do you have a multi-boot setup, meaning do you have other operating systems on that box?
And are you interested more in powersaving or graphics performance? You basically have two choices:
- use bumblebee, which is a program to use one graphics chip by default (usually the intel one) and to be able to run graphics-intensive applications on the nvidia one if needed
- disable one of the graphics chips and only use the other one, this can be done in the BIOS

[Aardwolf]

Ok, Thanks.
I do have a second operating system. I'd rather not tell you which one for fear of drawing your hate, but it starts with a W and ends with an 8.

The second option sounds more appealing to me, how would I do that?

[doktor5000]

I got no problem with windows, also running dualboot here for the few games that require directx 11, even if I don't use it more often then once every few months or so.

Actually it's pretty easy, get into your BIOS and look for graphics or display config.
Change it to integrated graphics, or select the intel graphics if it offers that. Disable OS detection for hybrid graphics if possible.

Windows should be fine on next boot. For Mageia you have to try, but you may need to boot to failsafe,
run drakx11 to select the intel graphics chip and then save and reboot.

Can you elaborate what model/make your laptop is?

[Aardwolf]

I've got a Lenovo Thinkpad T440p.
I feel slightly stupid for having to say this, but I'm not sure if I know how to get into the BIOS...
I'll try again tomorrow.

[Aardwolf]

Ok, got it. It's just that this computer boots really fast and I only had very little time to press Enter. Anyway, I managed to get into BIOS and got to Config.
I had the following options:
-Network
-USB
-Keyboard/Mouse
-Display (!)
-Power
-Beep and Alarm
-CPU
-Intel (R) Smart Connect Tech

Now I tried Display (and the others as well but I guess Display's the right one). However, the only options there were
-Boot Display Device
-Total Graphics Memory
-Boot Time Extension

I guess the last two aren't really what I'm looking for... But Boot Display Device doesn't sound like the right thing either. Anyway. BDD has the following options:
-ThinkPad LCD
-Analog VGA
-Digital on ThinkPad
-Display on Dock

Did I miss something?

[doktor5000]

Yes, it should be under Display. This is what it should look like and looks like here on a T420: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/migr-76476
Seems for newer UEFI firmwares it doesn't always show up and I didn't find a BIOS simulator for the T440p here: http://service.lenovo.partner-managemen ... m?eid=1437

According to two german threads, lenovo doesn't offer that choice in UEFI anymore. You have to do that via the operating system software/drivers.
So you would have to install bumblebee: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Bumblebee
(Apart from what that page says, bumblebee is now part of the official repositories. )
See also viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6943

There also seems to be a UEFI issue regarding this optimus support: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Disc ... -p/1386683
What UEFI version do you have? Can be seen on the first page at the top as "UEFI BIOS version".

[Akien]

As for the display configuration in Mageia, regardless of whether you will be using bumblebee or not, the produce is as follows:
- Run "XFdrake" (or "drakx11" which is the same program, or go to the display configuration wizard via the Control Center).
- Click on the "Graphic Card" button
- Select the Intel chipset (it should be automatically preselected)
- Confirm, and on the next screen which should ask you what you want to do of your "multiple head configuration", choose to configure only the Intel card. Trying to configure the Nvidia card will end up in a broken system sadly, as this utility does not know yet how to handle Optimus laptops (I know that OpenMandriva's control center has this feature now, I have to check the patches).

After confirming and rebooting, your laptop should work fine, using only the Intel IGP. If you want to use the nvidia GPU on a per-application basis (typically for games), then have a look at bumblebee as pointed out by doktor5000.

Hope this helps

[Aardwolf]

Great, that worked perfectly, everything seems to be normal now.
I installed bumblebee anyway, doesn't seem to work though. But that doesn't really matter.
Thanks a lot everyone, especially doktor5000, for your neverending patience.

[isadora]

Please Aardwolf, don't forget to mark the topic [SOLVED].
You can do so, by editing the subject/title in the first message in this topic.
Write [SOLVED] to the left of subject/title, thanks ahead.

[doktor5000]

It would also be helpful if you would add a short explanation which steps fixed it for you?
Did you follow Akien's hints to use drakx11 to only configure the Intel chipset?