Friday, 2 July 2010

Using acpi_call module to switch on/off discrete graphics card in Linux


sudo apt-get install git
# type password

git clone http://github.com/mkottman/acpi_call.git
cd acpi_call
make
sudo insmod acpi_call.ko

# To check that the status of your VGA devices, run this command:

lspci -vnnn | grep VGA

# Unplug laptop, click on the battery indicator and take note of
# estimated remaining time.
# Now run this script:

./test_off.sh

# If you see a "works!" message, it's found a method.
To check that the status of your VGA devices has changed,
run this command again and check for the differences:

lspci -vnnn | grep VGA

Click on the battery indicator after running the test.sh script,
it should show a difference of about an extra 1-3 hours battery life.

Please join the hybrid graphics team if you are new by clicking on the
"Join Team" link at the right in this URL:

http://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux

If you have any comments/questions, the best way to get an answer is to
subscribe to the mailing list at the bottom of that page and send an email there.