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I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T530 with Optimus video, which is not supported on 12.04.1.

I don't normally need the discrete (nVidia) graphics, so I turn it off in the BIOS settings to achieve longer battery life (and so that the screen dimmer will work), but when placed in the docking station, the integrated (Intel) graphics don't power the HDMI ports. (The VGA port does work, but I want to focus on the HDMI.)

This means I have to change the BIOS settings constantly.

Is there any way to have the system detect the docking station and power up/enable the discrete graphics accordingly? I don't need to do it on the fly. Just at startup.

This post suggests that bumblebee can turn the discrete graphics on and off for specific applications, but I just want to turn it on or off. [2 suggests that vga_switcheroo will not work with nVidia Optimus.

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  • I have the same problem with my Lenovo T520 (except with DVI/DP ports). Any help would be appreciated.
    – Hakkar
    Jun 25, 2014 at 1:23
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    Ubuntu 14.04 works a bit better. Under nVidia settings, you can choose Optimus or Integrated only, and all you have to do is log out and back in. Go under system settings | software & updates | additional drivers, and choose the stable proprietary nVidia driver.
    – Vic Boudolf
    Jun 25, 2014 at 15:37
  • Thanks Vic. I'll give it a try with Kubuntu later today.
    – Hakkar
    Jun 25, 2014 at 18:23

1 Answer 1

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Install 14.04.3 and install nvidia-prime for an optimus card so you can switch graphics to performance mode or not in nvidia-settings.

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