Ubuntu on Sager NP9150 / Clevo P150EM

Hi everyone!

Ive searched just about everywhere on the internet to try and find out if there is anything that would stop me from installing ubuntu (12.04) on the P150EM/NP9150. It would be great if someone has already installed it can tell me how it went for them. The only thing that comes to mind for me are the graphics switching between the integrated and the GTX 670m as well as the backlit keyboard.

 

the nVidia Optimus graphics don't really play well with Linux. The Bumblebee project is supposed to help with that but so far, from my understanding, it only works in a Virtual machine environment.

Bumblebee - NVIDIA Optimus support for Linux!

Bumblebee - NVIDIA Optimus support for Linux!

You can certainly give it a try and let us all know how it works out.

I also heard that AMD Enduro could actually work with Linux, but we have not tested it for ourselves so we can not confirm nor deny this statement.

 

Yeah looks like I'm going to have to just give it a try. Ill go with the 7970M, but that's a $1,900 experiment lol. Just out of curiosity do you know if the backlit keyboards work in ubuntu from clevo's?

 

I have a Malibal Lotus P150EM-SE same thing as Clevo P150EM and Sager NP9150 which I run Ubuntu 12.04 on I haven't installed bumble bee or messed with it yet but plan to this week. The backlit keyboard on my computer works fine it defaults to blue and lights up when you turn it on. I can't change the color but having just blue is fine with me. The only thing if you put the computer to sleep and then when you wake it the keyboard is no longer lit. You have to reboot the computer to get it to relight

 

I take it the keyboard backlight should conventionally *work* outside of the Windows environment, but not controlled as such.

 

I'll be putting either Ubuntu or Mint on mine when it comes and will let everyone know how it works.

 

That's good to know. Does it run on the dedicated GPU or the integrated one?

 

Sweet thanks man

 

I've put Ubuntu 12.04 on mine. I just use the HD4000 iGPU - Unity 3D works fine and OpenGL works great through Mesa. I'm not gonna bother with the GTX - I only want to use the GTX in Windows anyway.

The only real problem I had was locating a driver for the Realtek 8723 WLAN mine came with. There's a beta driver floating around in source form, but it compiled fine and worked on the first try.

 

Yea i had to do the same for my Realtek wlan as well way easy to do i completely agree

 

Has anyone tested an Nvidia card, or the Radeon HD 7970M to see if the external video outputs work?

I'm pretty sure those outputs won't work if they are connected directly to the Nvidia graphics card. In the case of the AMD card, I'm simply not sure how it works - sounds like the card has to be decided on at the time when X is started.

If someone could test the external video outputs and post the results here, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

any updates or reviews on the gpu linux w. ubuntu on a 9150 machine?

 

The Intel HD 4000 graphics works fairly well (up to two external monitors), but both the AMD and Nvidia options are still not working.

 

would you recommend using adobe products (illustrator, photoshop, ae) through ubuntu? i've heard there is also something called wine?

i'm looking for the best use of cpu/gpu and i've had ppl telling me to make the switch from win to linux based os.

any info for a noob?

 

I don't know about Nvidia, but my AMD 7970M works perfectly in Ubuntu 12.04. Even supports switchable graphics.

 

Are you using the proprietary or the open source drivers? Do you have to restart your computer every time you switch? I'm hoping to get a P150EM with a 7970M and run 12.04 but I've been worried about how well the graphics card would work.

 

how did yo get to run ubuntu with amd 7970m . amd 7970m + graphics switching is supported by amd driver however , in order for these driver to work you need Xorg server v 1.13 but ubuntu has not yet have these version because they are slow . As result , you can only use open source drivers which automatically used by ubuntu when you installed it

 

Proprietary, and while I don't have to restart the computer, I do have to restart the X server. There's a guy in this thread:

[all variants] AMD/Intel Hybrid Graphics works - Ubuntu Forums

who wrote a small indicator applet that lets you manually quick switch.

I'm running the version of Xorg that comes by default with 12.04 LTS and it works fine with the fglrx driver.

 

I haven't bought my Sager 9150 yet but I'm curious if I can force Ubuntu 12.04 to use the dGPU instead of the iGPU on an Nvidia 670m? I can't afford the $200 upgrade for the 7970m & prefer Nvidia over ATI in the long run.

I want to be able to run Ubuntu 12.04 Cinnamon Remix natively & hope to run games in Wine. I'm going to start to buy games on Steam for Linux once they have games I'm interested in. I would like to avoid dual booting with Windows & just use Windows 7 or 8 in a VM when needed. Do you guys think the Sager 9150 would be fit for my situation or did I make a mistake by selling my Early 2011 MBP that I was running Ubuntu very nicely on due to wanting a more powerful laptop,

 

I just installed Mint 14 on my NP9150.

It's defaulting to the dGPU (7970M) and isn't using my integrated. The fan noise is getting rather annoying. How do I fix that?

 

Can i ask, why don't you want to dual boot?

 

I'm forcing myself to learn Ubuntu by sticking to it full time & I believe this will help me learn faster. I have a tendency to go to the OS I'm most comfortable with when dual booting. Call me silly like that but i have a feeling I'll just end up dual booting in the end.

 

I run arch on my Clevo p150hm very merrily you shouldn't expect any non-graphics issues coming from 2011 mbp.

However, the p*hm series did not support graphics switching, so I am full time on my 6990m. This leads to no problems for me, minus low battery life (1.5 hours). The optimus/enduro are potential pitfalls for nix systems. Nvidia and AMD both need to be more supportive of the open source/free as in freedom community.

There are several guides out there for dealing with optimus under linux. If you run ubuntu you'll find many forums via a google search. Arch linux has its almighty wiki.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Graphics switching is possible. I installed the latest Catalyst linux drivers and it gave me the option to switch between dGPU and iGPU. On the stock drivers I am stuck on the dGPU though, which kills my battery life.

The only problem is that after upgrading to the drivers, my DE stops working. I believe that Linux isn't detecting that my iGPU (or dGPU) has 3D acceleration, and so isn't displaying the interface properly. But unfortunately, it does not appear that the 7970M is fully supported by the drivers and there is no way for me to do any configurations to geit it working. Aticonfig does not detect the 7970M, and lspci recognizes it as a 6xxx series I believe. I am also unable to open CCC as the 7970M is not detected.

 

The new 13.1 Catalyst drivers support graphics switching

 

Wow that is awesome. I might have to rethink getting a 680m then.

Do u do it manually?

-Sent from my ATT SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 2 LTE using Tapatalk 2

 

Actually, I might have spoke too soon.

I switched it over to the iGPU and now the X server is crashing and I can't access any of the aticonfig commands to switch back to the dGPU.

 

That sucks to hear & keep us posted & GL. If graphic switching works I might consider the 7970m to save me $.

-Sent from my ATT SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 2 LTE using Tapatalk 2

 

Hi guys!

I have good news!

Sorry for any necromancy but this is the first hit you get on google right now and it gives a downright pessimistic look an the capabilites of this computer with linux on it.

check out my reply at this thread which explains my so far successfull installation of this computer using this method.

I have not tried to WINE starcraft yet and if I do I might forget to post here. But switching between the cards works! It only needs an X server restart (which takes seconds) and is totally worthwhile if you want to save battery life and not have the fans blowing when you stop gaming.