[W520] VGA output not working (solved)

[felixzero]

Hello everybody,

I recently acquired a second hand W520 (I would still not be able to tell the difference with a new one actually) and installed Debian on it.

Everything works out of the box, except the graphic card, for which I had to install bumblebee (a simple "apt install bumblebee-nvidia primus" installed evething correctly for me). The switching works well, I tried various games with optirun and it works nicely.

However, there is one thing that is still not working : the VGA output. The digital video outputs probably don't work either but I have no way the test them. After looking up on the Web, I found this link for instance, proposing to use intel-virtual-output since apparently the VGA is wired to the nVidia card rather than the Intel one.

I followed the instructions, except the installation of newer drivers since the tutorial is rather old and these versions are already in the repositories. But I can't get the output to work:

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felixzero@ln2:~$ optirun true
felixzero@ln2:~$ intel-virtual-output 
felixzero@ln2:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
LVDS1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  59.93    50.00  
   1680x1050     59.95    59.88  
   1600x1024     60.17  
   1400x1050     59.98  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1360x768      59.80    59.96  
   1152x864      60.00  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32    56.25  
   640x480       59.94  
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Here are my configuration files:

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felixzero@ln2:~$ cat /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf | cut -d'#' -f1
[bumblebeed]
VirtualDisplay=:8
KeepUnusedXServer=true
ServerGroup=bumblebee
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
NoEcoModeOverride=false
Driver=nvidia
XorgConfDir=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d

[optirun]
Bridge=auto
VGLTransport=proxy
PrimusLibraryPath=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/primus:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/primus:/usr/lib/primus:/usr/lib32/primus
AllowFallbackToIGC=false

[driver-nvidia]
KernelDriver=nvidia-current
PMMethod=none
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/nvidia:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/nvidia:/usr/lib/nvidia
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

[driver-nouveau]
KernelDriver=nouveau
PMMethod=none
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nouveau

felixzero@ln2:~$ cat /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia | cut -d'#' -f1              
Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Layout0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "DiscreteNvidia"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    VendorName  "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option "ProbeAllGpus" "false"
    Option "NoLogo" "true"
    Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"
EndSection

I precise that the output works on Windows, so it's not hardware related.

If anyone has any idea, I would be grateful.
felixzero

[RealBlackStuff]

Check in BIOS (press F1 immediately after booting) under Config/Display.
There are 3 options there, which may need to be changed.

[felixzero]

Thank you for your answer. I forgot indeed to specify what I tried in the BIOS.

I am currently on the "Optimus" setting, which works the best.
"Integrated" works but I have no VGA output and I can't use the nVidia card, so it's definitely worse.
"Discrete" doesn't work: the system boots at first, but X doesn't start, the computer hang, get super hot and the fans go crazy. I get this result even if I uninstall bumblebee.

[felixzero]

Finally, it works, my Thinkpad is fully supported!

I needed to remove the following line in /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia:

Code: Select all

Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"

intel-virtual-output -f -b works and extend the display to the other screen. Yay!