Setting up Optimus on an ASUS NV56VJ with Linux

• This laptop has an NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M card installed alongside the built-in Intel graphics controller.  This configuration is referred to by NVIDIA as an Optimus configuration

[root@localhost ~]# lspci |grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108M [GeForce GT 635M] (rev a1)

• We can see here that the Intel controller is installed at PCI:0:2:0 and the NVIDIA controller at PCI:1:0:0.
• Following the ArchWiki instructions, I came up with the following /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (which includes a later update to fix a font rendering issue (i.e. the DPI setting)):

  Section "ServerLayout"
      Identifier "layout"
      Screen "nvidia" 0 0 
      Inactive "intel"
  EndSection
  
  Section "Device"
      Identifier "nvidia"
      Driver "nvidia"
      Option "DPI" "96 x 96"
      BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
  EndSection
  
  Section "Screen"
      Identifier "nvidia"
      Device "nvidia"
      Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
  EndSection
   
  Section "Device"
      Identifier "intel"
      Driver "modesetting"
      BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
  EndSection
   
  Section "Screen"
      Identifier "intel"
      Device "intel"
  EndSection
  

• And since I am using KDE, I followed the additional instructions to append the following lines to the end of my /etc/kde/kdm/Xsetup file (which is hard linked to /usr/share/config/kdm/Xsetup):

  xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
  xrandr --auto
  

• If you're using Gnome instead of KDE, you would add those lines to the bottom of the /etc/gdm/Init/Default file, just before the "exit 0" line (at least on Fedora that's how it is).
• If this is a brand new install of Fedora, the packages you'd want to install are at least:

  kernel-devel akmod-nvidia vdpauinfo.
  

Some strangeness that I noticed with the new configuration (on Fedora 19 w/KDE, but not on Fedora 21 w/Gnome):

• The font rendering is smaller (or the fonts are just different) than my previous Intel setup
• The KDM login screen is now tiled instead of stretched and centered.

Other than that strangeness, everything seems fine. The glxinfo and vdpauinfo commands return what you want to see:

    [martin@localhost ~]$ glxinfo |head -5
    name of display: :0
    display: :0  screen: 0
    direct rendering: Yes
    server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
    server glx version string: 1.4

    [martin@localhost ~]$ vdpauinfo |head -3
    display: :0   screen: 0
    API version: 1
    Information string: NVIDIA VDPAU Driver Shared Library  340.29  Thu Jul 31 19:59:48 PDT 2014

For reference, here are the NVIDIA packages I have installed:

    [martin@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa|grep -i nvidia|sort
    akmod-nvidia-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    kmod-nvidia-3.14.27-100.fc19.x86_64-340.29-2.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-340.29-2.fc20.i686
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-devel-340.29-2.fc20.i686
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-devel-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-340.29-2.fc20.i686
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64

And here are all the xorg-x11-drv packages I have installed:

    [martin@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa|grep -i xorg-x11-drv |sort
    xorg-x11-drv-ati-7.1.0-5.20130408git6e74aacc5.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-evdev-2.8.1-2.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.4.3-9.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.21.12-2.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-mga-1.6.2-7.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-modesetting-0.8.0-3.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nouveau-1.0.9-1.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-340.29-2.fc20.i686
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-devel-340.29-2.fc20.i686
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-devel-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-340.29-2.fc20.i686
    xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-340.29-2.fc20.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-0.3.3-1.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-qxl-0.1.1-3.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-1.7.1-6.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-vesa-2.3.2-9.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-13.0.0-5.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-vmware-13.0.1-1.fc19.x86_64
    xorg-x11-drv-wacom-0.23.0-5.fc19.x86_64