laptops with dual graphics

Albin Michlmayr

I know that laptops with dual graphics are not (yet?) supported by redsdk / bricscad. But there are several projects seeming to deal with the problems of dual graphics on laptops (http://bumblebee-project.org/, http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE3MzY)

Therefore I tried to install bricscad 12.2.16 on a laptop with NVIDIA GTX675M graphics. I can run bricscad with the onboard graphics in 2D mode without any problems so far. When I try to start a 3D project bricscad crashes with an error:

[code]The program 'bricscad' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 53081 error_code 3 request_code 4 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Speicherzugriffsfehler (Speicherabzug geschrieben)[/code]

When I try to run it with bumblebee ([code]optirun bricscadv12[/code] I can not even access 2D drawings. Bricscad opens the window where I can choose to open a drawing, use the wizard or use a template but crashes when this dialog is finished. In the syslog I get an error like this: [code]kernel: [ 2045.732865] bricscad[2396]: segfault at 118 ip 012c705b sp bfd633c0 error 4 in libwx_gtk2u_core-2.8.so[1193000+391000][/code]
The driver used by bumblebee ist the nvidia 304.51

What I would like to know ist, will it be possible to run bricscad on this type of machines (with bumblebee or the proprietary nvidia driver - see link above) in the near future or do I have to switch to windows to use bricscad on these machines?

Patrick Harris

Excellent question.

I have a brand new laptop with the latest Intel I7 processor and Nvidia GT 640M with 2GB of video memory. More than enough grunt to run Bricscad, a Linux-compatible commercial software application, or so the company claims. Once again, the sad little people at Nvidia have stuck it to the Linux community--I really must remember to avoid their products in the future--and although this is not Bricsys' fault it is the market that they are in. Nvidia accounts for more than thirty percent of the graphics market and a much higher share in the area of 3D graphics authoring software. This is unfortunate. I wish that company a terrible and humiliating collapse, followed by a cynical asset-stripping takeover by some third-rate, third-world, two-minute billionaire. In the meantime, why is Bricsys doing nothing to (i) help or (ii) warn people?

I forked out US$740 for this piece of software. I was shocked when I saw that the advertised Ubuntu packages did not work on 64-bit (or on multiarch) installations. Graphics authoring software with no 64-bit installers? How could this be? After mucking about with ia32libs for a while, I added a new partition and installed a 32-bit Ubuntu there. Bricsys opened, then crashed when I tried to create a 3D file. After searching, I found a tiny line on the Bricsys website stating that its software doesn't work with Optimus. What the heck is Optimus? I didn't ask for it and didn't know I'd bought it! Okay. A huge percentage of the latest laptops are running this ridiculous thing so there must be a solution...but it seems there is not one. I can't believe there has been no effort at Bricsys to engage with the community on this. Bumblebee installs beautifully and works with everything else 3D I've tried, but not Bricscad. Commercial software. US$740. Linux and Ubuntu compatible...well, provided you're not half the market running 64-bit Linux or the other half with Nvidia Optimus. Bricsys is in a tough spot here, but not an impossible one. All it needs to do is to start thinking commercially.

Knut Hohenberg

start thinking commercially? ...well, I think that's what they do.

Sadly, it looks to me as if BricsCAD for linux was in a downwards spiral - I bet Bricsys never made a profit on it and is increasingly unwilling to pour more resources in, while linux users are increasingly unwilling to accept the same price as for the windows version, with the products really not on par.
 
There is no simple solution for this, but I agree a bit more openness from their side is needed.

sitian xiang

 I have lenovo w530 laptop which has dual graphic card tool, I have the same problem with optirun. Bricscad 12 2d works well when use intel card, but nvidia driver can't. Hope v13 can make this better. 

Spyros Moschopoulos

Optimus support on Linux simply doesn't exist.
So it's impossible for any CAD vendor and any other software developer to support this technology on Linux.
The only one who can fix this problem is Nvidia and nobody else.
Bumblebee is just an ugly hack and nothing more. Also it's in very early stage of development.
Personally, if I was a CAD vendor, I wouldn't spend even a minute of development in order to support Bumblebee because it isn't a reliable solution for professional use.
The only way to make Bricscad, or any other application, work properly on Linux laptops with dual graphics is to disable the Intel GPU in BIOS settings.
Many (but not all) of these Laptops have this option in BIOS.

Albin Michlmayr

Even if bumblebee is not supported by bricscad I would like to warm up
this thread with the latest error messages because bumblebee is a
possibility to make optimus work somehow under linux. As every other
program I tested works fine with bumblebee I want to at least document
here on the net that bricscad doesn't.

Well I tried to install all the latest software (ubuntu 12.10, bumblebee
with nvidia driver 304.64, bricscad v13), I even tried the new
experimental nvidia driver 310.14 but it's allways the same picture.

When I run
[code]LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose optirun bricscadv13[/code]
the bricscad window opens with the dialogbox on top to choose wether to
open an existing drawing, start from scratch or some other options. When
this dialog is finished and the drawing plane should be rendered
bricscad crashes. On the console I then get the following output:
[code]libGL: screen 0 does not appear to be DRI2 capable
libGL: OpenDriver: trying /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/dri/tls/swrast_dri.so
libGL: OpenDriver: trying /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/dri/swrast_dri.so
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast[/code]
The syslog error message is still similar to the one I posted in the first post of
this thread:
[code]bricscad[2616]: segfault at 118 ip b315238b sp bfb225e0 error 4 in libwx_gtk2u_core-2.8.so[b301e000+391000][/code]

I also looked into the /var/log/Xorg.8.log file, but this doesn't show
any difference if I run e.g. glxspheres successfully or the crashing
bricscad.

Albin Michlmayr

I just tested the new beta release version 13.1.14. At least in 2D mode
it does not crash anymore when stated with bumblebee on the nvidia
hardware. But it's not ready for use yet. When you draw a line, you
enter the first point and then move the cursor to the second point.
While doing this the moving line leaves a black trace on the screen,
which only vanishes when you finished editing.

On the command line I get the following warning:
[code]$ optirun bricscadv13
[VGL] NOTICE: Pixel format of 2D X server does not match pixel format of
[VGL]    Pbuffer.  Disabling PBO readback.[/code]

In 3D mode bricscad continues crashing when started with bumblebee while
rendering the 3D drawing area, but with new error messages.
On the command line it looks like this:
[code]$ optirun bricscadv13
The program 'bricscad' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'GLXUnsupportedPrivateRequest'.
  (Details: serial 45 error_code 180 request_code 154 minor_code 16)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)[/code]

When I try to open an existing 3D drawing this is the only error message
I could find. There is no hint on any error in the syslog. On the
contrary, when I want to start a new project, there is a segfault
message in the syslog, but with every crash it lookes different. Here
are 3 examples:
syslog / 3D
[code]bricscad[2650]: segfault at 39 ip 00000039 sp bfbec4bc error 14 in bricscad[8048000+48000]

bricscad[3103]: segfault at 0 ip   (null) sp aa10d80c error 14 in bricscad[8048000+48000]

bricscad[3149]: segfault at b3e0cc0 ip 0b3e0cc0 sp bfb06ffc error 15[/code]

I tested it with nvidia driver 304.64 and 310.14. The other software as well as the hardware didn't change since the last post.

Just in case it is helpful for anybody, I attached a file with the output of glxinfo.

glxinfo-2012-12-22.txt

Albin Michlmayr

This is hopefully my last post in this thread as the optimus-card seems to work with the latest beta of the new Xubuntu version 13.10. I have not heavily tested the setup yet but, I can open 3D drawings without anything crashing so I am optimistic that it works.