Current support and roadmap for discrete graphics card hot switching

[Stephane Marchesin]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 13:30, Colin Guthrie <gmane at colin.guthr.ie> wrote:
> 'Twas brillig, and Stephane Marchesin at 15/01/09 10:40 did gyre and gimble:
>> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 11:21, Albert Vilella <avilella at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> What is the current support and roadmap for discrete graphics card hot
>>> switching in Xorg?
>>
>> There is no support, and AFAIK no roadmap either. There are many
>> technical reasons why this is not possible today. In short, I wouldn't
>> suggest getting a dual GPU laptop with the purpose of using it under
>> linux, as one of the GPUs will probably stay unused.
>
> Erm, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought this was something that Adam
> Jackson's Shatter work would go part way to resolving?
>
> http://www.ziobudda.net/node/103982
>

Sure, however :
- it's not done yet
- even then, the rest of the points I raised are still not covered
- it relies on EXA, which is not implemented by the nvidia binary
driver. So even if it was done, you could switch between "intel" and
"nv" (or "intel" and "nouveau" but still there is no finished 3D).

Stephane