Open-Source FTW (Again)
So, I ran Windows for a while on my new DELL Inspiron N-series laptop. It features a funky new gizmo called Optimus (and no, again, it doesn’t transform into a truck). This tech gave me a lot of headache with the older Ubuntu release (10.10), and also Arch Linux. Finally found a solution today, and I’m back on Linux.
First of all, it’s a weird thing. Optimus is not advertised as available on the N-series, but it obviously is on mine. It’s a tech that allows the system to use a fake(?) GPU embedded into the CPU when it doesn’t need heavy graphics processing, and then switch to the powerful nVidia GPU when more processing power is needed. This is supposed to be automatic, but only if you run Windows and have appropriate drivers (d’oh!). This didn’t mesh well with Ubuntu 10.10, and I couldn’t set it up on Arch Linux either.
Before I finally gave up, I tried Ubuntu 11.04, but the standard installation media wouldn’t even start on the laptop, so I installed Windows.
Anyhow, two weeks later, I’ve downloaded the alternate install disc for Ubuntu 11.04, to install it in VirtualBox. Then I wondered if there was any breakthrough in the Linux world regarding the Optimus support, and I caught the new Bumblebee release from MrMEEE. I decided to give it a go, and installed the new Ubuntu off the alternate install disc.
First, I was amazed that pretty much everything just worked (except the nVidia GPU, right?). I installed the bumblebee (which is just unpacking the tarball and running sudo ./install.sh from the directory where you unpacked it). I ran into an install issue right away, but after copying two files from the install directory to /usr/local/bin, and giving those files execute permissions, the problem was solved.
So, yeah, I’m now running Linux on this laptop. The full power of Core i7 and 6GB RAM can now be unleashed along with the powerful nVidia GPU.
Incidentally, Windows still sucks. After all these years (XP was released in 2002, iirc, so it’s like 9 years now), they still don’t recognize USB sticks, they still don’t do spell-checking out of the box, they still don’t do pretty much anything out of the box. And the disc with drivers I’ve downloaded from the DELL support site weighed in at 650MB (yes, a full CD). So fuck that shit. I’m really happy I’m on Linux again.
